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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| 
 In
a collaboration with David Jay I have created an absolutely amazing
album preview tool to show your brides the custom designs that you can
create with my Album Design Software.
You will absolutely love it.
Just pick the image folder from your custom design and pick a royalty
free song (or one of your own choosing), and within literally seconds
it creates this amazing virtual album viewer.
Using this tool you can present
your work completely in finished presentation format. I will be
explaining a complete merchandising workflow in my "One Step Ahead" tour that begins in just over a week!
Keeping consistent with my
promise to keep my seminar attendees one step ahead of the competition
(actually with what I'm going to spring on you about ninety steps) this
software program will only be available on CD at the tour stops. Then
it will go on general release to the world on the e-store at the
conclusion of the tour.
I have a seminar coming that you
won't want to miss. I want my seminar attendees to completely blow
away any other photographer in their market.
The album you see presented here
was created using my new custom-design service... I can't wait to tell
you about it - IN PERSON at the tour :) These are images I did at
Jenny H**d's wedding - Jessica Strickland's sister.
****FREAKING CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ALBUM GALLERY!!!!!
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| I WAS THE CHEAPEST PHOTOGRAPHER AROUND WHEN I WAS 24...
BUT READ THIS NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
I'm
in the middle of collecting my show and tell examples for my upcoming
National Tour, and on this tour my dead set goal is to help wedding
photographers be successful in the BUSINESS of wedding photography.
Until now, my lectures have generally been about photographic
techniques, how to shoot better digital, etc. For the first time I'm
doing a program about the biz. Merchandising, pricing, contracts,
booking, etc.
I came across
this very interesting article in my warehouse from the Los Angeles
Herald Examiner. I was 24 years old, fifteen months out of college,
living out of my parent's little apartment and operating out of a
bedroom. Three months after this I went on my first 26 city national
lecture tour for Art Leather on how to be successful in wedding
photography. I was so impatient then to get things done. In my first
year I booked 49 weddings for a $150 fee (no time limit! No required minimum purchase! Insane!), and did over $64,000 in revenue and put $16,000 in savings. Double that roughly for the equal in today's dollars.
How
I did it was due to merchandising. I spent my senior year in college
with a notebook in my hand sketching notes and a concept to accomplish
two things in wedding photography - 1) book a LOT of weddings and 2)
earn a lot with each wedding I booked. That planning worked!
I
charged lower than anybody anywhere in my fee. Even in the 1986 when I
did $177,190 on 63 weddings, I was only charging $275 to shoot a
wedding. Some of my long-time followers will remember these lectures
and the anger it stirred among some - how I was so inexpensive in my
fees, but wound up with average sales higher than anybody else. I
believe I was still charging a $275 fee the year I bought my first home
for $400 grand at age 26. Looking back - that was the power of
merchandising.
The reason I'm
doing this tour is to help photographers see clearly how effective
clever merchandising can work, and how very very basic rules can have
wicked success. The most bizarre thing is in today's market, I see
literally NOBODY doing the merchandising techniques that I used in
those days. So for those who can make my seminar, I'm going to reveal
the strategy to freaking nail down a merchandising workflow that will
produce multiples.
To see the full-sized article (don't laugh at the photo, ok?) CLICK HERE (you may have to click to zoom once your browser opens it)
If
you want to come and hear me personally tell my story and how these
merchandising techniques can help you increase your business in the new
year, CLICK HERE. | | |
| IT'S HERE IN REALITY! THE SOFTLIGHT DIFFUSER!
 Thanks
David Hessemer for helping me re-name the "delta" diffuser. By
the time we got to the final product, it completely lost the "wedge"
shape, because we wanted to have it be the same size as the camera for
fast storage.
We tested three different
formulations before we got the final prototype... just in time for it
to be reviewed for the Christmas issue of "WIRED" Magazine!
It was a real beeyotch getting
this prototype done rapidly, but when Wired Magazine contacts you and
says they would like to review your product, you get it done!
I'll post some comparisons
tomorrow - it is an absolutely amazing addition to your point-and-shoot
camera. It creates soft, portrait-like lighting. | | |
| TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED! I'M COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU!
 We've
finalized the schedule for the upcoming seminar tour. I'm going
to come to a city near you and give you an exciting game-plan for
pricing/merchandising and promoting your business for a
super-successful 2006.
I can't wait to give this presentation. But there's a more important reason I'm doing this announcement now:
The Ellen DeGeneres show is
matching our contributions for Katrina survivors to the Red Cross fund
up to $500,000. They haven't hit it yet so I'm going to take
1/10th of the ticket purchases and donate it to the Red Cross - thereby
doubling the power of your contribution. So for every seminar
ticket you buy, you'll help the survivors with nearly $16 in aid, per
$79 ticket. Plus, you'll save $50 over the $129 price at the door
by early registration.
I'm hitting most of the major
U.S. Cities. Spend an evening with me from 6-10:30pm this
Jan/Feb. And please, register now so I can donate proceeds from
your ticket purchase to the Ellen fund! CLICK HERE!
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DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS! AND LINKS!
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Please visit my e-commerce website!
click here!
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Lifetime
Today
we did the tutorial for the new LS2PJ / Floating Dome as well as the
pocket softlite diffuser. We had Mike, from Custom Video, Becker,
Keats Elliott and Nicole helping with the shoot. Our model Jamie
braved some pretty cool weather at sunset to do a bathing suit shot for
us. It came out great!
