I “attended” an online workshop over the weekend about Building your Wedding Photography business with Jasmine Star, hosted over at Creative Live. First off, I love Jasmine. Her energy and inspiration is contagious! And she’s very open about what she does and how she got there. Awesome!
Am I a wedding photographer? No. Do I plan to be a wedding photographer? No. So why did I take the class? To learn. From Jasmine. Because she rocks. Let’s step back, it was a business workshop, focusing on photography, by someone who has a good handle on what’s going on in the photography world online.
What’s that? A business workshop? Sign me up. Photography based, even better.
So what were my take-aways?
- practice my craft. every day.
- connect with like-minded photographers. starting with Open Source Photo. they’re primarily wedding and portrait based, so if you know of a forum that’s primarily landscape photographers please tell me about it.
- create a better daily schedule. something that works FOR ME.
- write more interesting blog postings. the ongoing saga. i’d love to start doing faq posts, so if you have any questions, then send them over.
- outsource to be happy.
- be a client on a regular basis.
- start a plan to redesign our website.
- create a distinct client profile.
- find a way to empower people to talk about us.
Are you a photographer? Did you watch the workshop? What were your favourite concepts? If you missed it Creative Live is selling downloadable copies of it for a very reasonable price. Totally worth it.
Are you a fan of our work? Tell us more about what you’d like to see here.
Thanks for tuning in! 😉
I managed to catch most of Jasmine’s workshop this time around. I’ve long been recommending to my friends to either tune in to the workshops delivered by CreativeLive, or buy them outright. You catch so much more on the second or third watching!
Hopefully I’ll be able to stop by Bloomin’ Earth on Saturday. I’ll be in KW delivering wedding photos for a wedding I shot at KW City Hall. Coincidence? I think not.
What were some of your favourite concepts Sylvia?
Thanks for this post. I meant to tune in because to catch some business wisdom (also not a wedding photographer), but something came up. Very good points.
Daria
there’s definitely some overlap with your key points, but the ones that really hit home for me were:
– you’re always growing, which is really important to remember especially on the worst days.
– make better use of the blog – and the idea of blogging all clients. Right now, I don’t blog any of them, so starting might be a good idea.
– client wanting to share their images on facebook, instead of wanting prints, which makes perfect sense.
– taking the time to practice, read the forums, watch these workshops – it’s time you’re investing in yourself. That being said, I need to invest more time into your first point – practice.
Last year, they did one with David duChemin which I absolutely loved. Check it out, Jennifer, you might like it. It was more about the “art” of photography and creativity and things like that. He’s an awesome photographer and his blog is a great resource as well.
That is what I love about Jasmine’s workshops (and stories, personal experiences, and marketing in general). It’s not JUST about the photography business but principles that you can apply to almost any business, career, or situation. Love that girl. Thanks for such a rockin’ post, it’s awesome to know that people that aren’t even focusing on weddings specifically got so much out of the class! & Creative Live ROCKS! BRILLIANT!
Sylvia – That’s a great point about forums and workshops. It’s necessary that we stay abreast of what’s going on in the industry but it’s imperative that we find a balance between research and practice.
Preeti – Thanks for the tip about David duChemin. I’ll have to go check him out.
Ashley – I second that – Creative Live rocks! I can’t imagine how you must be feeling now, hopefully not overwhelmed but definitely inspired to make change. They always say that the most important / inspiring / educational / creative bits of workshops and conventions happen outside the actual event. You were a part of a fantastic group of photographers, I can only dream about what happened when the cameras weren’t rolling. So what next for you? What’s the first change you’re going to make with your business? The first thing you’re going to do when you get to Hawaii?
Jasmine – Thank you so much for everything you’ve given us. Thank you for sharing your experiences, dreams, and inspiration. And thank you for taking the time to stop by and say hi.