Archives : 2010 : June

New Client Meeting Space – The Next Frontier

We’re very excited to announce our new client meeting space in conjunction with wedding florist, Singing Sparrow.  Coffee shops no more, we’re delving to the next frontier by dipping a toe into the water of formal client space.  Singing Sparrow has a beautiful space in front of their workshop where we’ll be holding our client meetings and showings from now on.  We’re excited to make the switch and share such a cute space.

Oh, the best part is we’re across the street from Strictly Organic (so a coffee fix is 10 paces) and our friends at Audette Media (An Internet Marketing Boutique) are above us.  For those of you that would like more specific directions, here’s a direct map to our new showing location across from the Old Mill area.

And because a post is not as fun without a pic, here’s a few of the new fun space!

All the best,

B + W

Nicole from Singing Sparrow has impeccable taste for decorating, no?

The outside is a big, red barn

And the neighbors, a new cool women’s clothing shop, was named after this little princess, Kariella.

Planning Ahead With Social Media – Web Marketing for Wedding Photographers

Usually ‘planning ahead’ and ‘social media’ don’t really make it into the same sentence very often.  The pull of social media is that it is real live journalism happening right NOW!  So as marketers that poses a great challenge because it’s so easy to be consumed by social media (ahemm, Facebook for me).  Ya feeling me?

Because nobody really likes to see tweets in Facebook (FB) or FB posts in Twitter (with the ever obvious link at the end), it makes it difficult to not only get your relevant content out there for marketing but also easily repurpose it whether you’re writing in 140 characters or not.

One tool, that has been a life-saver and magnificent for pre-planning social media releases is Hootsuite.  It brings all your social networking to one, web-based platform and allows you to schedule tweets, FB posts, WordPress blog posts, LinkedIn status updates,  and more.

It also brings in keyword monitoring for Twitter, multi-account management and even a robust feature for user permissions.  So, monitoring and posting to multiple personal accounts, our business accounts and local AdFed accounts gets a little easier to manage.

Recent HootSuite5 features also include a handy thumbnail for FB images and Google Analytics integration which is just plain HOT.

Hope you like it as much as I do:  http://www.hootsuite.com

PS:  WAY better than Tweetdeck in my opinion.

{Emily + David} Wedding – McMenamins Bend, Oregon

This awesome San Francisco couple were such a joy to photograph.  Their wedding, hosted by McMenamins Old St. Francis, got the brunt of the weird weather Bend has been having lately but thankfully, when you’re surrounded by your best friends and family, even the weather can’t get you down.

Everything from the getting ready toasts, the ‘first sighting’ under the arbor, the umbrella shots to the ceremonial flowers and kiss had a sparkle to them.  Even when the rain was a damper, it helped the colors become more vibrant – isn’t it good luck anyway?

The absolute highlight came at the very end of the evening right as we were ready to go.  We said briefly, gosh it’d be great to get some shots in the soaking pool area and Emily replied, ‘Yeah!  Let’s do it’ – grabbed David and that was it.  She casually dipped her feet in for relief when we briefly mentioned that we’d always wanted to shoot a bride in her dress in the pool.  Inch by inch, she said “what about this?”  Then…she went for it   She looked like a goddess and I can’t imagine how that must have felt after the energy of the day.  We weren’t expecting such fearlessness (it was a like a trash the dress session on the wedding day!) but were like, yeah GO FOR IT!

Thank you, Emily + David for such a FUN day and choosing to share your shining moment with us.

All the best,

B + W

First frame of the day out the camera and it’s a keeper.

Here are the bridesmaids picking out wedding jewelry and completely oblivious to how adorable they all look in their rollers.

The ladies toast with cosmos…

…the men toast with PBRs

<teary> The father-in-law hugs the bride in a moment of bliss at first sighting of her in her dress.</teary>

Love the macro for ring shots!

Bride and Matron of Honor right before the ‘first sighting.’

Groomsmen crash the ‘first sighting’ moment

5 minutes before the rain but man does it make for great exposure!

…and rain cometh.  Sadly it decided to gush right at the family photos, which put a temporary damper on things.

When the rain past, the smiles came again!

Bride and Father of the Bride headed toward the aisle…

With a ceremonial offering, friends and family placed flowers around the Bride + Groom.

The ring exchange.

75% frosting, 25% cake…and all of it DELICIOUS!

…he thought it was delicious too!  Too bad we didn’t get frosting on the nose – that would have been cute

Mini-cake and cupcakes by Kellie’s Cakes

For details, they had custom printed matches, dated M & Ms and custom wine classes for guest gifts – beautiful.

Love this casual, classic shot.  Camera unaware, playing with the dress.

The first dance out back at O’Kanes.  DJ by Star Productions

Father, daughter dance under the light globes

As one of the highlights of the evening and one of our all-time favorite shots, Emily decided to take a dip in the soaking pool with her dress

Stuff We Love – Champagne

Oh, bubbly how I dream of the.  Maybe it’s because we like celebrations, maybe it’s because every time we open a bottle we make it a celebration – no matter the day.  If you ask us to choose beer, wine or champagne, it’s a no brainer.  Even though we live in a town that has more microbreweries in a 5 mile radius than any other city I know of, when it comes to pure indulgence, we choose champagne.

I know wine tastings are popular but champagne tastings are more fun!  One trait that Byron’s parents passed along is what they call ‘Friday Night Date Night,’ where they have wine, cheese and appetizers for dinner.  Simple, creative and keeps them connected – and I’ve never seen two people more in love at 75.  We’ve adopted that tradition and modified it to our taste by adding bubbly instead.

Is there something that means romance to you (a place, a thing, a food)?  If so, we encourage you to do that regularly and revel in each other.  Champagne reminds us to celebrate each other and our lives – and it always creates a fun moment for the both of us.

Our favorite bubbly from us to you!

B + W

You Want Me To Go WHERE? – Web Marketing For Wedding Photographers

There was a day and time (like 2005) where the trend in website design was to have the prospective customer ‘pick’ where they go next.  A plethora of menu options would be available and the client would go straight to the menu and bop around.  Sound like your website?

Stop! This is a trend that is slowing dying (thankfully) and it’s your turn to stand up and kick your sales into action.  Like any good sales person, you guide the conversation with your prospective client in your meeting based off of what you hear your client’s needs and goals are.  The web is no different.

One of the of the biggest assets your website can have is a pro-active strategy to guide your prospective clients through your site.  You do that by creating what I call a ‘Calls To Action’ for each page.

Each page needs to have a Call To Action to guide the customer to the next click.  Hopefully, like most wedding photogs, we want the customer to be guided to the contact page and phone number!

By making it big, bold, inviting and clickable, your inquiry contacts will grow.  Don’t rely on the slideshow imagery and a menu to make the sale for you.  Jump in there and guide the customer through what you want them to see and land.

Is the ultimate goal of your website big, bold, inviting and clickable?

Here’s an example:

Be Brave, Focus – and conquer all: Web Marketing For Wedding Photographers

Most photog websites highlight recent shoots and show variety because everyone loves variety, right?  WRONG.  Customers are looking for experts – niche dialed, experienced and focused.

Why you ask?
This is a cultural shift that has happened where with the onset of highly specific information available on the web, people tend to rely on and go to areas where information surrounding their interests reside.  If you want information on social media, you go to Mashable – not the USA Today.  You want info on photography, you go to WPPI, or PPA or [b]ecker. More and more, your customers are segmenting their information to align with their interests (which is why the newspapers of the world are suffering).

So, how do you do this?  The first thing you need to do is be fearless and know that by targeting your specific niche, you’re not pigeon-holing yourself for less work.  It actually works out the opposite.  The second thing is to identify your target market.

Who do you want to work with?

1)   Personality type

2)   Age

3)   Locations

4)   Travel or No Travel

5)   Traditional or Non-traditional

6)   ….

The last thing to do is to align your website/brand/marketing around your target market.

Please don’t fall into the crack of “I do weddings, portraits, pet, commercial, architectural, product, nature and landscape photography. What do you need?”

Be BRAVE, FOCUS in the direction you want to go – and conquer all.

And because a post is not as fun without a photo….