This eBook normally sells for $9.95. Receive it free by joining our mailing list to the right. Once you join our mailing list, you will also receive two additional gifts.

1. A free download of a past teleseminar entitled “Working On Location” This lecture educates beginning wedding and portrait photographers on how to run their business without a brick and mortar studio. It’s packed with great information.
2. A generous 50% discount code to join the Pro Photo Business Forum.

Thank you for visiting the Pro Photo Business Forum. We hope you enjoy your stay.

“I‘ve been a professional wedding photographer for 14 years, and I can honestly say we have generated thousands upon thousands of dollars for my studio by using just one of the calls to action described in this eBook, and we continue to use this business technique today. The information is worth so much more than the price of the eBook!”
David Jones, CPP

“Aric quickly takes you to the next level in your profession as he shares his secrets of success.”
Alvin Gee
Master of Photography PPA
Photographic Craftsman PPA
Camera Craftsmen of America

“If you are even considering entering the Wedding Photography World, this is a must “hands on primer”. Read the book, study the book, then DO the book.
Aric has such great practical ideas to save you such headaches and heartaches, and well as the all important Money matters…..You should know this book like you know your camera manual!
Best wishes and blessings to all who strive to create such precious memories and stories for others.”
Carol Andrews
Master Photographic Craftsman,
Approved Business Instructor
SMS photographic Consultant and Instructor
PPA Board Of Directors

“These no nonsense tips aren’t just for beginning wedding photographers. Everyone can benefit from Aric’s insight. I wish someone had told me some of these when I was first starting out – it would have saved me a lot of trial and error.”
Brad Barton
A major contributor of The Texas Photo Forum with over 10,000 posts.

Do you feel like you are a business owner standing in a 50′ hole?

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
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Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek

Are you folks familiar with Garry Winogrand?  If so, then great – this will make perfect sense.  If not, click on the link at the end to a short story written by a gentleman who took a workshop with Garry.   So, how does vague and seemingly unconnected start have anything to do with Wedding Photography?   Good question…

While I was sitting in a workshop with a mentor of mine, Don Giannatti from Phoenix, AZ, he was telling us a story about a photographer named Garry Winogrand. What set Garry apart (among other things once you read some biographies) was that he never looked at images right away.  Most of the time, he waited a year, sometimes two, before processing the film.  His thought was that he should have no recollection of taking the image because it would cloud his vision on whether or not it was a “good” photograph.

Of course, there were always exceptions.  So, it was noted that if Garry felt particularly excited about a photograph – or just wanted to see it right away – he would develop it immediately.  However, as I understand it, the norm was that the film sat in their canisters for quite some time before ever being developed.

So, as a Wedding Photographer – you certainly cannot allow your images to sit there for a year before you look at them.  You wouldn’t have any clients.  But, what you can do is go back after that year and look through the wedding to see if anything jumps out at you.  I discovered this by accident.

We are working on creating a few new sample albums for our studio – and one in particular was from a Wedding in June 2009.  We had, for some reason, never made a sample album from it.  We had a few favorites from that wedding that we had used in marketing and such, but I realized that I was looking at the images in an entirely different way because it had been a year since I had seen them.

What I realized was that as my tastes changed, and I had another year of education, photography, and experience behind me – I was able to see things in the photos that I hadn’t seen before.  So, I encourage you to go back through your weddings – with a more experienced eye than you had before.  Find some new photos – you can potentially enhance your portfolio without having to do too much work.

Stay tuned to the Pro Photo Business Forum – next week I’ll be posting a workflow article on keeping track of your favorite images that way they’re easily at hand for promotional purposes.

Thanks everyone for reading – below are some links referenced in the article.

A story about Garry Winogrand
Lighting Essentials by Don Giannatti

Atlanta Wedding Photographer, Matthew Lovell

I’ve been using ShootQ now for about two months, and I am absolutely hooked.

ShootQ is a tool made especially for photographers to manage their studio. It was created by photographers that know the difficulty of managing a studio while trying to concentrate on their core business of photography. It’s a web based system that works like a software program on a business computer. This system organizes work flow from the first client interest phone call all the way through until the customer receives the ordered photography and completes payment. It’s a great tool to have for any professional photographer and works very well for wedding events.

This studio management tool will be able to follow a client from their first phone call through their whole process of working with a particular photography studio. It allows the photographer to enter in information in one area instead of having interest books, appointment books, billing lists, and calendars to keep up with. ShootQ even sends reminders of when a customer needs to be billed which is an advantage from trying to remember or keep organized records on paper. A professional photographer can spend more of their time on what they do best, taking portraits of people.

The system gives reminders of what a photographer needs to do next, which is very helpful when trying to keep up with the wedding production and to keep the important client, the bride, content and feeling secure and informed.

With ShootQ, less time is spent on the administrative side.  Foe me, the studio management system acts as an extra employe. Furthermore, some photographers lose money by not billing on time or following up to receive earned payments. Cash flow is the name of the game, and ShootQ keeps me on track and allows me to see  a projected cash flow for the entire year.  My photography studio runs so smoothly using this tool that the photographer’s life will have more quality and their clients will feel as though they are working with a well managed business. Many photographers get work by way of word of mouth and having clients happy will prompt them to distribute a studio’s name.

Multiple members of The Pro Photo Business Forum are now using ShootQ, and we have begun a forum which will allow the sharing of custom workflows.  Come and join us!

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
Subscribe to the PPBF Podcast!
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Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek

Welcome to the first of an ongoing series of articles about albums for the professional photographer. In this article we will examine the album as a professional value added product. Not just being a material object, the album is another way for your client to have an emotional re-connection to his or her event or moment. Sure, photos will be framed and hung on the wall and there may be a DVD; but unlike these, the album is a treasure to be viewed at one’s own pace. The experience will be an amazing and visceral time. The reason for this impact is that an album is an emotional, artistic and unique platform for photo presentation. It will become a family treasure, a keepsake allowing your client the ability to relive the moment in a stylish and personal way. Most importantly, your client has the ability to bring it anywhere he or she goes. This is what we call mobile marketing.

These are your images that your client will be showing off to everyone she or he knows. With your studio logo and contact info placed strategically into the design on the last page, your work will receive attention and be known as yours by your client’s family, friends and acquaintances. This is a key feature and benefit of adding an album to any package or making it a hot item that your client cannot ignore. An album also allows all kinds of different marketing purposes by getting it to your vendors and by displaying it in the studio so it will highlight and showcase your business and your best images. Beyond marketing purposes, an album is another avenue for studio branding. With an album, you get another chance to show off your style to your potential and current clients. So by adding an album to your current package you are increasing the importance to your package and increasing your earning potential. By offering an album, in a package or a la carte, you are offering another product that helps you, as a professional photographer, stand above all the amateurs and prosumers trying to undercut your business. This is especially true when you offer an album product from a professional album company like Forbeyon.

Through product differentiation, an album is an exciting and unique value added product that allows your client another way to view his or her pictures and reconnect with his or her event or moment. The album is also a professional product that increases your earning potential, differentiates you from the prosumer market, heightens your studio branding, lets you stand out from the other photographers and can be your strongest marketing tool. See your studio take off in this changing economy by adding this wonderful product into your product and service lineup. Next time we will be talking about image selection and how it relates back to the album as a professional value added product.

Jay Michael Stevens
Forbeyon's Customer Care Manager
Forbeyon is the photographer's sole album destination
Find us at:
website: www.forbeyon.com
twitter: http://twitter.com/Forbeyon
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Forbeyon-Inc/92723162750

If this is your first ime here, then welcome! I’m so proud of this site and its members!

My name is Aric Hoek, and I have been a professional photographer all my life. 100% of my income has been, and always will be from photography. I’m the host of The Pro Photo Business Forum.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love talking about the business of wedding photography to just about anyone that will listen, so the creation of the Pro Photo Business Forum was a very natural progression for me.

You’re either the type of person that likes to hang out in forums, or you aren’t. There isn’t much in between. If you like forums, then you are going to notice one fundamental difference when you visit the home page of the Pro Photo Business Forum. The difference you see is in what’s NOT there. You don’t see a listing of recent posts. You don’t see forum statistics. You don’t see a listing of members. You don’t see calendars.

What you do see is information that can help photographers, which is what this community is all about. What you do see is a blog, created by the members of the forum. And we’re not just talking about how to take great photographs, but we are talking about the things that really matter to professional photographers. We’re talking about the business of photography.  We’re talking about the bottom line.

Would you like to join us? Would you like to contribute to our blog as a PPBF Contributing Writer?

We’re looking for experienced photographers to help contribute to our new experiment. In return for two scheduled blog entries a month, PPBF Contributing Writers receive the following:

1. Free access to the Pro Photo Business Forum.
2. Recognition on the PPBF homepage.
3. A link to your homepage from the PPBF homepage.
4. A link to your homepage in the signature of your articles.
5. Access to a privte staff forum on the PPBF.
6. Profile page with a listing of all your articles.

Contact us today if you are interested in filling the a position. Currently we have five contributing writers. My goal is an ambitious fifteen. With fifteen Contributing Writers, each writing two articles, the blog will have fresh information for it’s readers every day of the month!

Come and join the ride! Contact us today!

You’ll never be the same. You’ll be better!

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
Subscribe to the PPBF Podcast!
Join The Pro Photo Business Forum
Educational eBooks by Aric
Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek

As you look around your production room, you may find yourself all alone.  You may think of yourself as a one man show.

Believe it or not, you are not alone.   You are not a one man show.  You have a team.  You have a lab to print your portraits for you, and your lab is a member of your team.

If you are just starting out in the field of professional wedding photography, you want to take great care in picking your lab.  You need to consider a few other things than just price.  First and foremost is quality.

What is quality when it comes to portraiture?  Everyone’s answer to this question will be slightly different, but most photographers have a few things in common when it comes to the definition of quality.  These commonalities are based mostly on photographer complaints when receiving prints back from the lab.

• Bumps between the print and mounting material.
• Bad mounting
• Long turnaround times.
• Damaged corners.
• Bad color

This list has something in common.  These are real mistakes that your lab can make.  These mistakes can cause the delay of your product, which can make for an unhappy customer, which can delay your cash flow.

As a beginning photographer, cash flow is a real issue for some.  You may photograph a couple for their engagement portraits, but not have the money to immediately produce the portraits, which naturally causes delay in your production.  But be careful to not let it cause to much of a delay.  Your wedding clientele is on a strict time line.  You need to make sure that you have the portraits produced in time to have on display at the reception.

This is where your lab can really shine!  Make sure the lab you chose has the capability of having images delivered to you in 24 hours!  You need the ability to upload your artwork to your lab for printing, and your lab needs to have the ability to take a rush order and overnight the final product to your studio, or directly to your clients home.

Having a lab/team that can get a finished print to you extremely fast can get you out any number of different situations.  I talked earlier about someone just starting their career as a photographer and not having the cash flow needed to produce their product in a timely manner, but I know many can put themselves in the exact opposite situation.  Can you imagine being so busy that you forget to place an order to the lab, only to receive a phone call from a Bride To Be asking if her portrait is going to be ready for her wedding this weekend? Or, it may be the holiday season, and you must have your completed product to deliver to your client on time.

You may be sitting there by yourself producing your work, but you do have a team.  Your photo lab.

Chose wisely.

Don’t even get me started on framers!

Aric C. Hoek BFA, CPP, Author
PPBF Administrator
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Join The Pro Photo Business Forum
Educational eBooks by Aric
Houston Wedding Photographer, Aric Hoek