The path to becoming a professional in anything is daunting. I have heard some say that it takes a lifetime and other say that to be a professional it just means doing your job when you don’t feel like it. Regardless of what you believe a professional consists of I thought it would be interesting to write out my journey. My goal is to suggest that becoming a professional has more to do with a mental attitude then it has to do with “putting in the time.” How I started in photography is the one question that I am asked by 99.9% of the Brides I meet with.

I am a Website Designer
I have been programming and designing for profit since I was 18 (1998). It took me until I was 25 to realize that I needed to start taking photos for my clients. My web design clients would give me these horrible photos to work into the design of their website. I would do my best to talk them into using some stock photography. Like any good business person I saw the money that I was spending on stock photography on my clients behalf and decided that if I had a decent camera, I could take their photos and of course charge a premium for that.

So a guy walks into a store…
I finally got the money saved up to get a Nikon D40 (if my memory serves me correct). It just so happened to be that Good Guys was going out of business and they had a display model left. I had done some reading up online and the Nikon D40 was the most bang for my buck. It was better than a Canon Digital Rebel but not as good as a Canon 20D, which is what my heart really desired. To make a long story short, it just so happened that they had a Canon 20D in the back and it was 40% off. Oh Snap!

Learning to shoot
I took the camera everywhere. I acquired a Sigma lens from a friend of mine who I think took me as a sucker because it was a crap lens. When the lens would auto focus it sounded like the servo in a cheap RC Car when you make it turn. It was so loud that I could not stand it. However I used it to it’s best ability and it was better than the kid lens that came with my 20D.

I had always been a kind of behind the scenes guy so most of my shooting was more of what a real photographer would call “photojournalistic” or “documentary” style photography. I was capturing story, attempting to make the photo I was taking do the talking. Little did I know that this would benefit me as a wedding photographer.

One of my biggest inspirations had always been skateboard photography. I used to own a skateboard shop in my early 20s. During that time I was more into video.

Will you shoot my wedding?
A friend of mine approached me and asked if I would shoot his wedding. At the time I had been shooting with my simple 20D setup for about 6 months mostly consisting of event photos and shots of my friends. I had nothing to show him, but I was confident that I could pull it off. I had never really been to a wedding and watched the photographer before so I really did have no idea what I was getting myself into.

The first thing I always do when I decide to look into a career option is to learn as much as I can about it. Months before the Collins wedding I started reading blogs and looking at wedding photos that photographers had posted online. I signed up for Photoshop World which I had to leave a day early from in order to make it back in time for their wedding (On a separate note: It’s funny because as I write this I am at Photoshop World and have to leave early in order to make it to a wedding this Saturday.). I consumed as much information as I could so I had a solid understanding of the process and what goes on. With the available equipment that I had, I shot Mike and Brenda’s wedding and had a blast doing it. I actually had someone shadow me at that wedding which was kind of funny being how it was my first wedding.

Believe it or not, I pulled these from my Flickr account. That’s right! I have photos going back to day 1 on my Flickr and I don’t plan on deleting them. I do however wish I could change my Flickr account name… View my Flickr.

I gained so much insight now having completed one wedding. This was the end of 2006 which began my new slash career as a wedding photographer.

Not yet a Professional
Being a website designer helped tremendously in my marketing efforts to promote myself as a wedding photographer. Myspace was huge and I took advantage of it’s power to connect my message with people who were getting engaged. I used tools that allowed me to target people who were engaged and lived in areas that I wanted to shoot weddings in. During 2007, my first full year as a photographer, I shot 32 weddings. Two of those weddings were even shot on the same day (something I will never do again). By this point I had upgraded my gear. I had purchased a few prime lenses. I was told that I should invest in good glass before spending money on camera bodies. This is advice I have passed on more times then I can count over the years.

Here are a few photos from early 2007.

Photos from the End of 2007.

Perception vs. Introspection
After having shot 32 weddings, countless engagements, family portraits and commercial assignments in 2007, many would consider me as a professional. In my mind I was no where near professional. There were many times that I would come home from shooting a wedding, go online to see what some of the pros had shot that weekend and want to sell my gear and forget about photography. It can be very poisoning to compare yourself to others. I never took into account the difference between my situation and that of the pros I was admiring.

One thing I never have done as a photographer is seek out self esteem boosts by showing my images to others. The only time I show the Bride or Groom the back of my camera is to give them a confidence boost and I usually only have to do this once. I want to make sure that my subject sees them as I see them, not as how they see themselves. Most of us have a slightly more negative view of ourselves than many others do of us. I also used to spend a lot of time post processing my images and for some reason had a fear of showing my clients untouched images before I got to see them on a larger screen. I don’t show my images at galleries or enter them in contests. I don’t like that kind of spotlight, I prefer it to be on my client.

At this point as a photographer I had been doing online tutorials teaching technique, had been interviewed a few times and had a few of my photos published. It was my mind that was getting my my way of going where I wanted to go as a photographer and truly living up to the title of a professional.

In all actuality
In all actuality, when your clients are happy with your work because you delivered above and beyond their expectations, you are a professional. I take what I do very seriously. There are photographers out there that can shoot better than me just as there are programmers and designers who can put together a better website than I can. Though when it comes to professionalism, my goal is perfection. I know what my job is and I plan to achieve that for my client. Anything less then that is unprofessional. When you have reached that understanding and intent to set out with that mindset each and every time regardless of the client, you are a professional.

The Realization
I actually realized that I was a professional in the field of wedding photography and website design at the same time. I realized that it was not a lack of vision or understanding that I lacked which was keeping me from considering myself as a professional, it was my own mind. It was the beginning of 2009 before I realized this and decided put a stop to the internal mindset that I had not reached professionalism. I believe that a mindset is something we can create. It takes work just like anything else. Having a positive mental attitude takes as much work as it takes for an athlete to stay in shape. If you believe otherwise I suggest you read this book. I believe it will help you overcome any factors in life that may have led you to believe that you can not change the way you think about things.

Moving Forward
When I set out to start freelancing as a website designer I had no thoughts that I would become a busy wedding photographer. I really can not say if I will do either of these careers for the rest of my life. I go with what interests and inspires me. I love business and I love people, so I think I am in a pretty good place right now. However I keep myself ready for the next learning experience (aka challenge) every day, just incase something new inspires me. Since I have started both of these careers I have had many life changes.

In Conclusion
I want you to keep two things in mind. The first is that your mindset is the only thing keeping you from achieving your goals and desires. The second thing is that you need to give 100%. If you come at work or life with anything less then you are not a professional.

Email I received 2 1/2 years after a wedding from my first full year as a photographer (click to make it big).

My son

Recent Engagement Portrait in Half Moon Bay

Recent Engagement Portrait in Knights Ferry

Recent Wedding Portrait in Knights Ferry

I am a huge advocate of shopping locally. I believe that we are becoming less and less of a small business friendly nation. The United States was built on Small Business, but due to convenience and the must have it now mentality, it is hard for small business to compete. Because many small businesses have been driven out of business by the arrival of larger corporations it offers many of us no choice. My household by no means spends all of it’s money locally, but there are many business types in which I believe we must spend locally in order to keep our community thriving.

I live in a community that was arguably the most effected area in the United States by the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis. Business was already difficult in the Modesto area, now with many people either losing everything or deciding to let everything go, we are left with a handful of businesses that made the right decisions during this economic downturn while the rest perished.

When it comes to options, we are limited to big box stores such as Target, Walmart, Bestbuy, etc.

Buying Commodities
I have no allegiance when purchasing commoditized products such as laundry detergent, deodorant, tooth paste, diapers, and everything else that we are overwhelmed with when it comes to options. We have so many options for these products that all promise and perform essentially the same. If I need these items right away, I will buy locally. However, if I have time to wait a few days I will gladly order them from Amazon.Com taking advantage of their free shipping. It is quite often that when I order from Amazon.Com I also do not incur any sales tax charges due to the items shipping from across state line.

Some will argue that I am hurting my own community by not paying local sales tax for these items. I would recant by saying that my community has hurt themselves by not stepping up to protect local business. I would rather purchase these items at a locally owned store for at or around the same price, pay sales tax and go on my mary way, but since we do not have that option, I order online. These are commoditized items, meaning that I can get them anywhere and they are not specific to any store. I could get these items from Target or Walmart but the money leaves our area regardless. I also believe more in Amazon as a company than I do Target or Walmart. I would not lose any sleep over those companies leaving our community altogether. The less business I can do with them, the better.

These large corporate companies do provide many jobs to our communities but beyond that they are showing our community that it does not pay to be ambitious. They will stop you. If there were no large big box stores around, people would see a need and open a business. That is the way it has been since the start of time. Because the big box stores exist, small business can not.

The fine details of my statements here can be argued up and down depending on circumstances. I have stated my reasons and I believe I have a good reason for doing things the way I do, please read on…

Buying Services
When it comes to service based products I always choose local service as opposed to looking outside of my area. 90% of the time there is a local service provider that can fulfill my needs. Here are some examples of locally owned service providers I do business with rather than using a corporately owned alternative.

• Auto-Repair
• Dry Cleaners
• Computer Service and Repair
• Hair Salon
• Pest Control Service
• Yard Maintenance
• Gym Membership

Even when it comes to service providers there is a difference between doing business with a locally owned and operated company as opposed to a nationally based service. I am not saying that nationally owned service providers can not provide a good service, there are some highly respected companies out there providing great service and a great price. However, I myself am a service provider providing wedding photography and website design services to my community. I understand the importance in supporting local business. I have always and will continue to support businesses that provide excellent service at a local level. This is where things are different from commoditized products. Services can become commoditized as well. There are some services which I seek out online. These are services such as website hosting, bookkeeping, email marketing, etc. All of those items are commoditized services, some of which are actually available locally but someone else outside of our area is doing a much better job at it.

When it comes to choosing a service in which I want a personal touch and connection, I opt for local. I would not trust a national service to send out some random person to work on my car or repair my computer. I want to know the guy who is doing my yard and spraying my house with chemicals. Even though my insurance is through a nationally branded carrier, I get it through a local representative who is well established and respected in our community.

Shopping for Groceries
I only shop at grocery stores based from our community. If you are from my area you are probably familiar with Savemart and Raley’s (also known as Knob Hill). When I am feeling moderately smug I will even go much more local and shop at O’Brien’s Supermarket (you can tell how small they are by looking at their website). I say smug because it’s the cool place to shop for groceries and you often pay for it. However I do love O’Brien’s and would shop their consistently if the prices were not so much higher. All three of the mentioned markets provide products from local farmers. I am sure there are some mild exceptions but I know that my fruites and vegetables are coming from somewhere with in a few 100 miles. It is important to me to support local because we are a farming community. Modesto is surrounded by farms. I can promise you that you have consumed a farmed product from this area one way or another. Farming is for the most part what is holding the Central Valley up. I know that many of the products that I purchase from these stores are coming from other locations outside of our community but I do know that the money earned from those sales is staying local.

Why do I try to keep most of my money local by spending with local providers?
Small, locally-owned businesses are more likely to keep the money they earn in the community. They don’t send off most of their profits to the corporate office on the other side of the nation. Local businesses are more likely to use local suppliers.

Where do you draw the line?
You can not possibly know everything about where your products of services are coming from. I know that many items I consume are shipped to be sold locally. The main goal for me is to make sure that the profits from the sales of those items go to a locally owned and operated business. I can not possibly know everything about each transaction, but I try to at least be mindful of it.

Conclusion
Let me make one thing clear: I don’t condemn anyone who does not or cannot buy local. I am a complete supporter of small businesses, and I hope that you will be too, but I’m not going to say you’re wrong if you have good reasons for shopping elsewhere or if you feel I am wrong for shopping the way I do.

All things being equal, I suspect most people would choose to buy local. But each of us has a different price at which local is no longer an option. For some, this point is immediate: they’ll always buy the cheapest option, regardless of other factors. Others — and I know a few like this — will buy local no matter the cost.

The decision is ultimately yours to make. You decide how to spend the money that you make. Do not think that I am trying to control that at all or condem you in any way. I am just stating my thoughts and ideas on the matter.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long process of organizing content, building links, and researching. Because most people have no idea what SEO really is, companies have found ways to charge for it with out really providing much end result. The best option is for you to do it yourself or work with someone local who can do it for you. I would like to give you 5 tips that will help you build better content for your website to help it rank better in the search engines.

Though SEO can get very technical, the point of this article is to keep it simple to empower those of you who can handle some of the work yourself. Some of the tips may be harder than others. I suggest that you start off with what you believe you can handle and get help for the rest. For most small business, these tips should drastically improve your rankings if you are currently buried under your competition.

1. Optimize the Page Titles

The page title is the text that you see at the top of your browser when you a viewing a page. This is also the text that is automatically entered as the title of your bookmark when you bookmark a webpage. Search engines work in a linear fashion. The read down the page through the code as if it was a sheet of paper with text on it. Search engines rely less on Meta-Tag keywords these days and more on the content of your website. For some of you, this may require actually getting into the code of your website. If you are using a content management system (CMS), this will be easier for you to accomplish as many CMS platforms allow you to create your own page titles.

Your goal for creating optimized page titles is to use keywords that people would use to search for your content. Use the title of this blog for example: “5 Small Business SEO Tips for Higher Search Engine Ranking” My goal is to reach searching for keywords such as “small business seo” or “small business seo tips.” As a matter of fact, why don’t you do me a favor and let me know how you found this blog post in the comments section below. Your title should be 60 characters or less. You want as much of that title to show up in the search engines. As you can see in the image below, when a title is to long, the search engines will truncate it. Looks like I need to revise my own page titles. Remember to make sure that your page titles are inviting. It is easy to cram to many keywords into a page title. Your page title will end up sounding confusing and non-inviting.

You may even want to go back and rethink the titles of the current pages your website consists of. What is the main reason people would be landing on that page. You would be surprised how many websites have a page title of “Home” for their homepage. Your homepage title is your most important title and you should spend the most time working on that one.

2. Optimize the META-tags

The META-tags are hard of the HTML header that is unseen when you are viewing a website. These tags hand feed the search engines content to display about your website when people search for it. The importance of META-tags has changed over the years as search engines have became much smarter.

Your META-Description is the most important of these META-tags. This instructs the search engines what to display when someone comes across your website in a search as you can see in the image above. Your description should be no more than 160 characters and should contain keywords as well. Your description should have some of the same keywords as your page title. This sounds counterintuitive, but its the way the search engines like it.

Your description should be inviting, just as your page title. This is your chance in the search engines to draw the viewer into your website. It is a challenge to do this while using keywords, but it’s important.

META-keywords are helpful but not as important nowadays. In the past, you could list any keyword and the search engines would pick it up. This made it easy to spoof the search engines and draw traffic to your website even if the content did not match up. It is good to list some keywords in the META-tags of your website, but make sure they match the content of that page.

Link: Learn more about META elements in HTML.

3. Create More Internal Links

A website’s menu is a great way to direct traffic to specific locations of your website but it’s even better when you link to other pages in your content as well. When you reference something that is located elsewhere on your website, link to it. For example: Last week I wrote a blog to help Brides make better decisions when booking their wedding photographer. The best way to link to other content is to link to it directly in your content. Many websites will post a link URL, but that does not instruct the search engines as to why that URL link is relevant to the rest of the text.

If I was to say, “Check out the article I wrote to help Brides make better decisions when booking their wedding photographer: http://jeradhill.com/wedding-photographers-a-brides-guide-to-booking-one,” I would miss out on the chance to match the text mentioned in this article with the page title of the article I want to link to. I don’t use exactly the same words as the title of the other article, but I use as many of the same keywords as possible. In this article’s title, my main keyword phrase is: “booking a wedding photographer.” When I link to that page, I want to use some variation of that keyword phrase.

Example: Last week I wrote an article to help Brides with booking a wedding photographer. Notice which part of that sentence is the link, “help Brides with booking a wedding photographer.” That covers all of my keyword phrase.

I understand that it is much easier to do this on a blog or informational style website. If your website is for your business and does not contain any blogs or articles you can still do this. On the front page of your website where you list your main services and/or products you can link to the pages that contain more information on those topics.

4. Use Keywords in Everything!

I have already instructed you on the importance of using keywords in your page titles and META-tags, now I would like to talk about your website’s content. Search engines spend more time matching then they used to. If a keyword is in your page title it will check your META-tags and the content of that page. This means that the product page, blog entry, about page and even your contact page needs to be carefully thought out when adding content to them. There are several ways to make sure that the search engines are paying attention to the keywords in your content.

Notice that each of the five tips are bold and larger in size. There are a few ways to accomplish this but the best way is to use Header Tags. If you simply use a larger font size just as you would in a Word Document then you are cheating yourself. Search engines will look for Header Tags to see if they contain keywords. In most cases you would not put something in header tags that was not important. Header Tags can also be links to other web pages.

Link: Learn more about using header tags in your website.

When you are getting ready to write content to put into a web page there are a few things you should do first.

• Figure out what the main keywords are for your page. These are the keywords you want people to use to find your website.
• Research those keywords to make sure that they are not to difficult to achieve front page ranking.
• If they are difficult to achieve front page ranking, use longer keywords (sometimes called: Keyword Phrases).

Once you have decided on these keywords you can start writing the content for your page. You should use the keywords in your page’s content often, but not so often that it starts to sound weird. There is a lot of speculation as to how often you should use your keywords. This is called “keyword density.” I would suggest using a tool to help you with this. If your website is powered by a CMS then I suggest using Scribe to help with this. Scribe makes it easy to analyze your page to make sure you are accomplishing what I have listed above. It also gives you suggestions on how to incorporate more keywords into your content. Check out Scribe. If your website is not working on a CMS, Google Webmaster Tools is a good start.

5. Making it all Work, and Follow Up.

Good SEO practice takes time just as anything else in life that has worth. If your website is rather small then it will be easy for you to get your SEO in order and it will require much less follow up. If your website has a lot of content and is continuously evolving, this will be a more difficult job.

Before coming across tools to help me with the process I used to visit the higher ranked websites and read their content. I would analyze it myself to see what terms they were using and how they were writing their content. Today there are tools that do this for you but you can still look at what your competition is doing to find out what works. If you are only managing one website, you should be able to do this with out any fancy tools.

It is important to follow up on what you have done. Check back and see how things have changed. Did you move up in ranking or down? Continue to make changes until you have reached the best ranking possible. There will be a point when your website will reach it’s best possible ranking on it’s own and this is why I decided to toss in a bonus tip.

Bonus Tip: Inbound Linking

So what happens when you are 50 others all have your page titles, meta and content optimized? There has to be another way to gauge relevance of a website? That way is inbound linking. When another website links to your website that is called an inbound link. There are ways to find out who is linking to you using Google Webmaster Tools. Here are a few ideas on how you can increase inbound links:

• Blog: Write content that others would want to link to.
• Business: Have your suppliers link to your website.
• Find a website that writes/blogs about your industry and ask them if they would be interested in interviewing you and/or including your business in a blog article. (Ask for a link to your website.)
• Get mentioned in online trade publications and newspapers.
• Write and submit press releases when you launch new products or services.

These are just a few ideas, there are many more. In the future I will write a blog entry about creating inbound links. At the time of writing this blog entry, JeradHill.Com has over 65,000 inbound links. Google Webmaster Tools can help you figure out who is linking to you. As you continue to gain more inbound links you can see which pages are getting those links as in the image below from my Google Webmaster Tools account.

If you have a tip you would like to share we would love to hear it. Post it in my comments section or contact me directly.

If you find this article helpful, please share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter using the Link and Retweet buttons.

It finally came in. My glorious flat little magical device. I thought I would share some of my thoughts on how this little device works and how it will help me as a website designer and photographer. The Magic Trackpad is a desktop version of what the newer Macbook and Macbook Pro model Apple laptops come standard with. Gone is the trackball or the little nub that used to come standard on laptops. I am the first in line to welcome new technologies on how we interface with devices. I hated those stupid eraser head looking things on the older laptops.

Ok, back to the Magic Trackpad. Here are things that I like and dislike about it. With the dislikes, I will do my best to share how I have been dealing with them and/or fixed them.

1. Zooming.
It is pretty awesome that you can two finger zoom into things. This is great in Photoshop when zooming into photos or rotating them. However zoom even works on the desktop and if you accidentally two finger zoom your desktop, your icons go crazy. I searched all over the web for a missing setting I thought I could not find just to learn that there is no way in the System Preferences to turn them off. I did find a small free piece of software you can install called BetterTouchTool that you can install to remove this issue. Watch this video I just created on how I fixed the issue. Other then that, zooming is pretty cool.

2. Touchiness and Responsiveness.
Like all other bluetooth devices, sometimes you have to wake them up. To save battery life, they go into a sleep mode. Typically they wake up pretty quickly. I have dual computer monitors and in the past I have had my mouse set up so that when I move my mouse from one side of my mouse pad to the other I can go from the left side of the first monitor across to the right side of the right monitor. With the trackpad I found that if I had it set the same way, the device was to touchy for me to make smaller movements. Once I spent a little time in System Preferences fine tuning how I wanted the Trackpad to respond to my touch it was much easier to use.

3. Ergonomics or lack there of.
We are all used to the mouse. You can rest your hand on it and most are generally comfortable. I use the Wireless Magic Mouse from Apple. I have been using a mouse to interface with my computer since they went mainstream in the late 80s. The Magic Trackpad does recognize when you are resting your thumb on the device, so you can rest your hand, just not like you would on a mouse. By default, five fingers on the Trackpad does not do anything, but four fingers does. The device is low enough that you can rest part of your hand on your desk, but it is not as easy as resting your hand on a laptop next to the position of the track pad.

4. Placement
I LOVE being able to place the trackpad to the right of my keyboard. This makes it much easier and less of a strain to use then it’s position on the laptop. I recognize that it’s position on the laptop is to be accessible for both left and right handed people. With the centered position on the laptop and continuous use, I get sore in my wrist from holding my hand at that angle. With the Magic Trackpad I have found a happy medium as to my placement as you can see in the photo. Depending on how I am sitting at my desk I may move it around from time to time, but for the most part I set it up this way.

5. Confusing Myself
I still find myself going to grab a mouse, my hand already in that position as I lower it. Only to quickly remember that a pad is there. I am sure that with time this will happen less resulting in less “derf!” moments.

6. More gestures than you can shake a stick at.
The Trackpad already gives you many gestures you can do to perform specific functions on your computer but using it with BetterTouchTool as noted above allows you to use this device to its max. I used to have a really nice Logitec Mouse that had several buttons that could be customized on it. However the charger burned out and smoked up my office so I decided to go with the Magic Mouse, which of course needs to charger or dock. I am all about simple and less clutter these days. Of course with more customization comes having to remember it all. I am sure there are some gestures I customized to perform functions that I won’t even remember. I will probably have to make a note on my desk to refer to until they have been committed to memory.

Overall I love this device. I think it’s a great addition to my workflow and the way I use my computer. The cost is work it though I think it will take a bit more getting used to.

If you have one, I would love to hear how you are using it and how it has changed the way you are doing things. If you like this post or it has helped you in any way, please click the Facebook Like button or share it on Retweet Twitter button.

Update: I may even get a second Trackpad for when I am using my laptop for long periods of time. As I noted above, when using my laptops trackpad for long periods of time, my wrist gets sore.

Since I began my (slash) Photography career I have heard many stories from others about their experience with Photographers. Depending on who I am talking to, some of those stories are funny, some creepy and others outright sad. My wife and I have acquired many married friends since our own wedding who have shared their photographer horror stories. Meeting with Brides to be each week, I hear stories from them about their friends. It seems like everybody has a story or has heard one and wants to avoid earning a bad one of their own. In this blog post I am going to give a bit of background before I get into my opinions and thoughts on the Photography Industry.

The first Photography seminar I went to was in Las Vegas and it was led by Wedding Photographer David Ziser. He starts most of his talks by stating how the industry is changing and how easy it is to get into Photography these days. It is pretty easy. You can go down to your local Bestbuy store and get everything you need to have the “look” of a professional photographer. I actually bought my first digital SLR camera from Good Guys when they were going out of business. I did not intend on becoming a professional photographer at that time, but that is where my story started. I ended up shooting my first wedding to help a friend of mine who did not have a large photography budget. They knew that they were my first wedding but they also knew that I would do everything that I could to learn as much as possible before attempting to take photos on the most special day of their life.

In business, whenever somebody observes somebody else doing their job while making it look easy there is temptation for that person to want to try it for themselves. Some photographers don’t look like they are doing a lot, yet happen to capture pretty decent images. With the quality of cameras these days it is not like it used to be in film days. The expectations that the client has is even much higher. A photographer used to have to bust their butt to deliver 60 finished images to a wedding client from an 8 hour day of shooting. Now, clients expect hundreds, some even thousands or images. With the cost of entry into this profession being as low as it is now, there are more and more people entering it. If I had started in photography ten years ago I would be considered a veteran in the industry.

The camera is the tool in which a photographer uses to grab moments in time. Just like anybody who uses tools in their job, there are masters and there are ametuers. A master knows how to use their tools to do the job well. The tool does not make the person a master, the ability to use that tool to its potential is what makes that person a master.

Wedding Photography is a much more touchy subject to me then photography of any other kind. Weddings are one time events. They can not be repeated, it’s just not the same. However photographers keep bursting into the industry putting up websites with a small amount of their work up and leading clients to believe that they have it all together. To me, that is misleading and should be illegal. I did not consider myself a professional photographer until I was told by another photographer whom I respected that I was in fact a professional. Some people say that being a professional just means that you do your work even when you don’t want to. With photography, being a professional means that you get the shot no matter what. On a wedding day that is even more important.

My intention here is to help people make better decisions when finding a photographer. I always tell my clients when I meet with them for the first time that my goal is to help them find what they need. If I am not what they need, then I will tell them so. Through out all of what I mention below remember that when you are hiring a photographer for your wedding it is just as much of an interview process as it is an opportunity for the photographer to show you what they have to offer.

Tips for Finding a “Great” Wedding Photographer

Do your homework!

1. Do they have a nice website?
Photographers are creatives, or at least they should be. The photographer may not have website design background like I do but I think that having a nice website says something about your intention to do good work. It is much more likely that someone with a horrible website is going to do bad work then a good website. Of course anybody can have a nice website made, but most are not going to put up the cash for a nice website unless they are making money from their photography.

2. Can you find them in Google?
People who are producing good work are bound to get talked about by someone. At the very least, they are posting their work on different websites to gain exposure. Most of these websites allow for comments to be posted about their work or themselves as photographers.

3. Can you find any online reviews?
Websites such as Google, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, and others will allow you to search for a business for their location and often find reviews. These reviews are a pain to get rid of if they are bad, so you should be able to see if they frustrated anyone enough to write a bad review about them. Hopefully you will find good reviews about the business.

Questions to ask when you meet your photographer

1. Pricing, Packages and all that is included.
Make sure to nail down your photographer in regards to what he/she is offering in the package. If your photographer offers a disk of the images then gladly except. Some photographers offer this and others do not. Figure out why you really need them. Do you want to print your own photos or do you just want them for backup purposes? Make sure you write down everything that is offered in the package so when it comes time for them to deliver on those promises you have something to go by.

2. Are you comfortable in all lighting situations?
Ask the photographer if they are comfortable shooting in all lighting situations. Chances are that you will not have total control over the lighting at your wedding. Some reception DJs are crazy and assume that their two rotating DJ lights will be enough. This is because they should be DJing high school formals and not weddings. However, when the lights go off, the photographer needs to be able to step up and continue taking photos. You will find that most photographers will complain or argue during tough situations like this because they have no idea how to use their camera let alone a speedlight flash.

Ask the photographer to show you some photos that they took in low light situations and explain to you how they were able to get good lighting despite the poor lighting conditions.

3. What is the most difficult photo you have every taken and how was it difficult?
Ask the photographer to explain a difficult photo situation that they were able to capture and how they managed to pull it off. They may end up using terms that you won’t understand but that is ok. If they use terms you don’t understand then the chances are better that they actually know what they are talking about. If they say something like, “I turned up the flux capacitor to generate the 1.21 gigawatts needed to power the continuum transfuctioner,” RUN!

4. How do you get most of your business?
There are many ways to get business. I will list how I get most of my business. The majority of my referrals come from my online presence. This includes my website, Google, Facebook, Twitter and in the past, Myspace. The second source is previous clients. The important thing here is that the photographer should enjoy explaining to you how new business is referred. I take such pride in the fact that my past clients refer to me.

Touchy and Feely

1. A good photographer will show you printed work.
Even though we are in a digital age and a photographer could just as easily show up with an iPad to display their work to you, nothing quite feels as good as a printed photo. The photographer should have at least a small variety of stuff to show you. You could help the process by asking them to bring some to the meeting. If you are meeting the photographer at their studio then they should have plenty to show you.

2. A good business person will not try to force you into anything.
You are in control here, not the photographer. You get to decide who will shoot your wedding. You do not have to decide right on the spot. I personally ask the bride and groom to think about it and get back to me. I don’t want them deciding and then being unsure about their decision. I want them to have all of the facts. I understand that most business people do not think this way and in the current economy it can get cut throat. You need to stand your ground as a consumer. If you feel 100% comfortable and know in your heart that this is the person you want to shoot your wedding then by all means book them. If they are good at what they do, they may book someone else during the time you spend thinking about it.

My golden rule when making large decisions is to get the facts late in the day. This way the chances are that what I want will not be gone the next morning after I have had a chance to sleep on it and revisit my thoughts in the morning.

I have had Brides book me on the spot and when that happens I go the extra mile to make sure that they are comfortable with their decision. I know how much additional trust that person is extending when they say “where do I sign,” with out going home and thinking about it.

3. Deposites and Pricing:
Any good photographer is going to require a deposit. This deposit could be anything from a couple of hundred dollars to 1/3 of the total package cost. Never would I give the full amount up front unless there are specific arrangements made. If the photographer asks for this then I would question their reasoning. During the first full year of my photographer career I asked 2 of my clients to pay in full early. My reason for this was so that I could purchase better lenses for their wedding. I only asked 30 days in advance so I could assure the lenses made it there in time and that I would have time to get a feel for using them. My clients were happy to help me out as they knew that I was relatively new to wedding photography. I explained to them in detail how much more awesome their photos would be due to the new lenses I wanted to purchase. I feel that was a justified reason for asking for payment up a head of time. However, if someone asks you for full payment months in advance I would ask why.

When deciding how much to spend on a photographer and determine if that photographer is worth the cost there are a few ways you can go about gathering your information. The first and best way to determine the value of the photographers services is to think about how you feel when you look at the photographers work. Good photos should draw out emotion. Put yourself in the shoes of the people in the photo and think to yourself, “if this was my photo, would the $$ be worth it?” I always justify purchases by the experience I believe I will get out of it. Nobody wants to pay for a bad experience regardless of the outcome. However, for a good experience we will pay more for and should because the end result is often just as good, if not better then the experience.

Other Thoughts

1. Young Photographers vs. Older Photographers: It all comes down to the style of their work and what you like. Most older photographers are more traditional and focus more on portraits however this is changing. I would suggest that you choose a photographer whom you are comfortable with. Some younger photographers may not have enough experience do keep the smaller details in mind while the craziness of a wedding is under way, but that is really hard to say. If there are any, you will be able to tell if there are any shortcomings in the photos if you look hard enough.

2. Canon vs. Nikon and Mac vs. PC: I always get asked the question and to be honest it does not really matter. However, I have notices that Canon and Mac photographers seem to be able to do more with less. For example, I do almost everything on a laptop and I can carry everything I need at a wedding in a small case. In all reality, the quality of the gear is equal. Nikon and Canon produce amazing equipment. I can’t really say that about Mac vs PC though. Mac is just better and more reliable, hands down.

Closing thoughts
With all of that said, use your heart when making decisions. Don’t let anybody talk you into anything unless you truly feel like it is a good idea. Remember that you can Google search anything, so if you are unsure about something, write it down and research it. I would say that you could use some of these ideas when it comes to hiring anybody to complete a job. And if I didn’t say it enough. Use your heart!

If you enjoyed this post I would appreciate it if you would click the Facebook Like button or the Retweet button to share this with your friends.

I want to write more about this later… I am often asked what I do and I usually refer to myself as a Wedding Photographer and Website Designer. That answer is followed up by the question, which do you enjoy more? Which is a much more difficult question to answer. Many of us are wearing more hats then we used to, especially entrepreneurs. My online social network profiles list my job title or career as: Wedding Photographer/Website Designer. So in the near future I plan to write a blog about the idea of slash careers, which now that I Google it, is not a new term (Nothing is new under the sun). But I did come up with it on my own. Thanks Google for ruining another revelation.

My little guy is 2 months old today.

I was given the opportunity to help a Realtor friend of mine out with some promotion for a nice home in Del Rio Country Club’s River Nine Community (I also built the website for DiscoverRiverNine.Com). I had just purchased a Glidecam HD-4000 and decided to learn how to use it on the fly. I feel that the video does a good job of showing the home however there are a few things I will make changes for next time.

In the future I will not weigh down the Glidecam as much as I did. The video kind of has a nostalgic drunken feeling to it because the camera is slowly bobbing up and down as if I was on a slow motion boat ride. Exposure is hard to gauge on the Canon 5D MKII because as you move through out the house you can not make changes to it. This is why in some scenes the windows are blown out and you can not see outside. I had to decide to expose for indoor or outdoor. If I had a huge budget for this video, I would have brought lights for inside the home so I could light the inside of the home to match the exposure needed to get outside detail.

All in all, it’s much better than the typical virtual tour that most realtors use to display homes.

I get emails pretty often that start out like this: HALP! I deleted my music on accident, can you help me get it back? Music, Photos, or any precious file(s) can be restored (maybe) if you take action quickly. The following will (should, maybe) work on all media devices such as iPhones, iPods, External Hard Drives, Laptops and other devices that allow you to store media on some sort of a drive. Let me first tell you what not to do.

• Ignore the many suggested backups that your computer gives you.
• Continue to use your device after realizing you have lost a file you really want.

What you need to do at the very second that you lose the data is turn the device off. The longer you leave the device on the more data is written over the old data that you wish to recover. When you delete something from a device by throwing it in the trash and emptying it, or clicking delete, it is not actually deleting it. Your device is actually just making those storage sectors available to be written to again. This means there is hope (maybe). I keep saying maybe because it is very hit or miss. It is much easier to recover lost files from larger devices such as Desktop or Laptop computers, or External Storage Devices. It is much harder to recover files from mobile devices such as cell phones and digital media such as memory cards.

iPhone
Lets talk iPhone first, since this is the device that garners most of the emails I receive. This is also one of the harder devices to get media back from once it is deleted. That said, you should back up often. By often, I mean daily. Plug your iPhone into your computer and let it back up. It does not take long when you do it often (many things are that way, LULZ). If you do not have a backup, there are many options suggested online, such as this one, and this one, oh and this one… All of these methods require you to use some software on your computer to recover the data. Here is what I suggest you use:

• PC Users: http://www.recover4all.com/
• Mac Users: http://www.binarybiz.com/vlab/mac.php

Again, I can not stress more that you do nothing with your device until you have a game plan. Don’t even attempt to restore your device unless you know for sure that you have a backup containing the files you want. Restoring or installing other software onto your device will surely write over the data you want back. Use the software as they suggest. You may be able to get your data back, but don’t get your hopes up to high.

Other Mobile Devices
Most other mobile devices store your media on a removable storage card. This is good news because you can jump down to the External Storage Devices section below. If your mobile device does not have removable media or does not mount show up as a mounted device when you plug it in, then you will be in the same boat as the iPhone.

External Storage Devices
Hard Drives, Thumb Drives, Memory Cards and any other media that you would typically plug in to your computer to store media on is much easier to recover data from. You can use the above suggested software to see what is on these storage devices. As I mentioned above, when you delete an item from one of these devices, it is not actually deleting it. The memory sectors are simply made available to be written over again. Here is how you go about recovering your files:

• Remove or shut down the media device or card as soon as possible to prevent additional data being written to it.
• Install and start one of the above suggested software programs.
• When that software is ready, connect the media device or card to your computer.
• Run the process the software suggests on the device or card to attempt the recovery of files.

Desktop Computers or Laptops
The moment you believe that you have deleted something you absolutely with out a doubt need, turn off your computer. Don’t even shut it down properly, just turn it off. Shutting it down the normal way you would shut it down will write data to preserve your computers state for when you start it back up. Don’t give it that opportunity. You will then need to find a way to connect your computer to another computer so you can access the hard drive in the computer with data loss.

On a Mac, this is simple to do with out taking your computer apart. You simply hold down the “T” key on your keyboard while turning your mac back on. This boots it into FireWire target disk mode. If you have a mac that does not have FireWire, then you are out of luck, but most Macs running OS X of any version do. Follow the instructions on the Apple website on how to do this safely. Once you are booted into target disk mode, you can connect your Mac via FireWire to another computer and access it as if it was an external hard drive. You can then run a data recovery software program on the FireWire connected Mac to recover lost data.

On a PC… I used to know a lot about this but here is how I would do it. Because there are so many different PC computers that operate in different ways my suggestion is going to require a bit of work. You will need to remove the hard drive from your computer. I know this is scary and possibly beyond something you wish to tackle on your own. If this is the case, take it to a professional (not me) and have them help you. If you are brave (and won’t blame me if you mess up), remove your hard drive, place it in an external hard drive enclosure (search for hard drive enclosure over at Amazon.Com) or use this cable adapter to connect it to another computer. Once you have your hard drive connected to another computer, use the above listed software for PC computers to recover data from that drive. Again, I suggest having someone help you with this. Call your local IT Services Provider or if all else fails, the GeekSquad at Bestbuy.

CD-R, DVD, Disks and more
Disks are easy to mess up. One scratch and they are doomed. If your only copy of important files are on a disk, back that disk up to an external device, thumb drive or at least make a copy of that disk and have your Mom store it in her safe. Do something to assure that your disk is not the only copy you have. A damaged disk is the end of the road. You may be able to use software to recover some of the data, but if there is enough damage you will be out of luck completely. You may be able to use the software suggested above to make this happen. If not, Google search it.

Gaming Devices such as PlayStation or XBox
Step #1: Get a life (jk, don’t flame me). I don’t play video games very often at all, so I have little to no sympathy.
On a serious note, if your device has an internal hard drive that your media is stored on, you can probably get at that hard drive some how. You may have to remove it from your device like I suggested in the section on PC computers. However, I would do some Google searching or post the question in a popular form specializing in your gaming platform. Sorry I can’t be more help here. I have no experience with data recovery on gaming devices.

Suggestions to prevent having this issue in the future:

• Backup!!!!! Often!!!!
• iPhone Users: Connect your iPhone to your computer and allow iTunes to back it up as often as you can. I suggest daily or right after you acquire new files, images or music.
• Android Users: Use the software Sprite Backup on your Android device. I use Sprite Backup with my Android phone and have it back up to my Dropbox account every night at 2am automatically. You can set the app to remotely backup on its own at any time of the day or night you wish. Get a free Dropbox account here.
• Other Mobile Devices: Head over to Sprite Software to see if they have an app for your device.
• External Hard Drives: If your hard drive is getting old, making noise or the fan went out in it, get a new hard drive and move your data over to it before the current hard drive fails. Don’t wait until its to late. If the drive is unable to spin then it will become near impossible to recover the data from it.
• Desktop or Laptop Computers: Backup your data. If you are on a Mac, use Time Machine. Get an external hard drive like this one, and set Time Machine to backup to it. If you are on a PC, use a service like Mozy, get 2GB Free Online Backup!
• Flash Cards and Removable Media: Always copy the contents to your computer when you are done. As a Photographer, I make sure that I copy and backup all media before erasing a card to reuse. I use my Dropbox account as described here to keep an offsite backup of my files in case I need them. I never delete anything off of a flash card before copying it all to my computer. If I run out of space on a flash card, I don’t go and delete the files I do not need through my camera, I put in a new flash card. I don’t want to risk deleting the wrong file by accident. Flash cards for your camera or bigger thumb drives are super cheap these days, get an extra.

*Everything I have spoke of here are suggestions based on what I have done to recover data myself or protect myself from data loss. My data recovery suggestions do not replace a professional’s help. If you have any doubt at all about your ability to do this on your own, go to a professional before attempting it on your own. I can not provide you any warranty or anything at all for that matter if you mess things up while attempting to recover your data. You may also void a warranty by attempting the data recovery suggestions above. ALWAYS contact the MFG before attempting these suggestions to prevent voiding your warranty. My prevention suggestions will not void any warranty or put your devices at risk.

Lastly… Always back up silly!

If you have a Square card reader from squareup.com and an iPhone 4 then you have probably been a bit frustrated with it not working out to well. The problem is the metal to metal contact of the Square reader and the iPhone 4 metal antenna. Yes the antenna curse effects more then just your precious calls.

I ran into this issue in a real life instance of using my Square reader. I was trying to take a deposit from a wedding client today while sitting in Starbucks. I am pretty sure the whole store stood and watched as I swiped the card at least 30 times before deciding to slightly pull up on the attachment and try that. In the past with headphones on other devices I have had connections wear out and then work when I did this, so it was just a logical thing to try in my opinion. It worked! I was able to take my payment. Square is a much better option for me then Google Checkout or Paypal because of the lower rate Square offers when the card is swiped.

When I got home I decided to go online to see if anyone else had this issue, I found this post confirming my suspicions. I, like the commenter BikeHugger, did not like the suggested paper fix. I did not want to carry around a piece of paper or have to perform that fix in front of a client about to hand me their credit card for a large purchase. Knowing for sure that it was the metal to metal contact I went around my house looking for some sort of epoxy or clear resin I could apply to the base of the post on the Square card reader attachment. What you see in the video is what I came up with.

In this video I explain the process of applying a fix to this issue.

Items Needed:
*Finger Nail Polish Top Coat or Clear Epoxy (see below)
*Q-Tip (Not the rapper from A Tribe Called Quest silly)

Hope this helps you with your credit card processing-ness.

Update: After inserting the Square card reader into the iPhone 4 about 10 times the finger nail polish top coat wore off. I decided to take a trip to Orchard Supply to get something a little more durable. Elmers Epoxy is what I ended up using.

Link: Elmer’s E1009 1-Ounce Superfast Epoxy Cement