We are offering a one day, 10.00am – 4.00pm Business workshop here at Claremont (EH47 0JY) to 5 delegates on Monday the 23rd of May 2011. The day will be very intense and cover all aspects of a modern social studio/business, wedding and/or portrait. Marketing, Branding, Sales, Promotions and Product range will all be covered.  This unique day is aimed at any photographer who wishes to expand their business and marketing knowledge in today’s economic climate and get an edge for their business. Refreshments and lunch are included in the inclusive fee of £275.00.

For reasons that many of you may be aware we have been otherwise occupied for the past few days so our apologies for the lack of posts. Our workshop schedule has had to be rearranged and we thank the understanding and patience of all (sorry that should read nearly all!) the delegates involved and their generous emails and cards. This image was taken on a recent Two2Two workshop that involved studio lighting, posing, business and finished with an hour and a half with Faye on how we finish our images in PS. As part of the lighting session each of the 2 delegates had to photograph each other and this shot I set up to demonstrate a certain style of portrait lighting.

The latest addition to our NAKED RUINS PORTFOLIO with our new model.  Faye has a couple of images from the session and we will post them over the weekend.

Our Boudoir Academy workshop on the 1st of November at Hollin Hall – Cheshire now has only 1 place left. The LIGHT TO INSPIRE @ Loxley’s on the 20th of September is now oversubscribed so I am afraid we cannot accept any more delegates. THE ART OF WEDDINGS seminar, part 2 of a 4 part series at Loxley’s, will be on Monday the 25th of October and again is very likely to be oversubscribed so don’t leave it too late to apply for a place. Loxley’s will be emailing all the details next week to their database. We are now open to adding more Mentoring students so if interested drop me an email; trevor@yerburystudio.com

Today Faye has been updating my image portfolio. Its always good to remember how a client feels sitting in front of a camera! I will post the finished image tomorrow. Faye also shot the session on the Blad with the 150mm lens as a comparison.

We had a wonderful day with delegates from the MPA Wessex Region with some travelling down from other regions. When we were asked to speak to the region I said that while taking photographers of pretty girls in white frocks was a wonderful way to fill the day photographers have to look, and work at, getting these clients into their studios in the first place because without the clients there is not business. So we spent the morning with my Power Point presentation looking at areas of the wedding photography business that should be addressed and I hope that the delegates all found something from that part of the day that will be helpful in moving their business to the next level. It is unfortunate that there is so much training about to do with taking images but very few that are structured around an inclusive business and marketing platform for wedding photographers. One of the most important areas of any wedding photography business is relationship marketing. Building relationships with all your local and regular wedding suppliers, the florist, the designer boutique, the car hire company, the cake designer and of course the venues you prefer to work in. Building a close and ongoing relationship is not just about asking them to hand out your leaflets or leave an album as an example its about calling them up, introducing yourself, inviting them for a coffee one day on neutral ground so avoiding any distractions and not only telling them about your business but also learning about their business. Show them that you are interested in them it will make a difference I can assure you. This will take time to build but you can help it progress in many ways, keep in regular contact, if they have supplied for a wedding you have been asked to photograph tell them how wonderful they were on the day, mention them in your blog post and also link to their website. Send them some images and what ever you do DO NOT CHARGE THEM! I have heard some photographers expect to be paid for these images, WHY? Each associated wedding business can help your own through personal recommendation so take advantage of these invaluable contacts because if you don’t then somebody else will! Keep abreast of what these business’s are doing, check out their blog sites regularly and if they have won an award, had some local PR exposure or done something out of the ordinary then congratulate them, send them a card or much, much better send them some flowers or my favourite gift, a small box of cupcakes and those of you who were present on Monday’s workshop will know exactly what I mean!

I know that this all requires work but building any business always requires dedication and hard work in order to succeed. So next time you are browsing some other photographers website just remember that what you are doing will not put money into your bank account, stop what you are doing and concentrate on your own business, pick up the phone, introduce yourself and become motivated and inspired for your own business.

Here are a few of our images taken during the afternoon demonstration session with our delightful models for the day Michelle and Cheryl. Tomorrow I want to discuss pre and post wedding shoots and how they can add value to your studio and to your client. If you have any questions please feel free to post.

The first image is one of Trevor’s of Michelle taken at the very beginning of the demonstration. Shot on a D700 85mm prime lens @ 200 iso 2000th @ f2.4

Now one of Faye’s with Cheryl our other beautiful model for the day, again at the start of the day against the wooden wall of the engine shed. D300 with 24-70. I should perhaps mention that Faye did all of the hair work on both models.

Another of mine this time of Cheryl taken under the wisteria drenched gazebo. You will notice that all, apart from one,  my images have been processed to a warm black and white with some texture

Now Faye’s again with this image of Michelle was made at the Gazebo again with her D300

My image of Michelle walking through the beautiful woods at Exbury House. Brides love this style of image.

Another image of Michelle by Faye, under that stunning gazebo.

My image of Cheryl in a thoughtful pose, again on the D700 with the 85mm prime.

Faye’s stunning image of Michelle while in the boat shed.

This bridge must be every photographers delight but I just loved the hidden corner. Thanks to Anthony for the light control.

Faye used that gorgeous seat and space with Michelle to give a different look.

I just loved this bridge and this image I shot of Cheryl. I love both interpretations of how I have post processed the image.

Version 1

Version 2

A beautiful image by Faye,of Cheryl under a stunning and magical tree. Notice the wonderful natural light.

After most delegates had left we remembered Faye had made a ‘bridal veil/hat’ that we had not used, so we asked both Michelle and Cheryl if we could create a couple of images of them both wearing Faye’s creation. This is my take with Cheryl on the D700

Faye shot Michelle and has done 2 versions of the image.

And now a few of the day and the delegates.

Just a reminder that we will be hosting a workshop at Exbury House and Gardens on the 21st of this month for the MPA Wessex Region. The exciting news is that we will have 2 new products with us which we have been developing with Loxley Colour one of our major sponsors so if you want to see some new ideas that will be attractive to your clients and provide additional income then speak to Keith Curtis your regional Chairman about booking a place. More news on our Studio Mentoring tomorrow and also dates for our talk for The London Portrait Group next month.

Yesterday we spent the day with our one to one delegate demonstrating our studio lighting set up along with some posing ideas. We had excellent models for the day and here are a couple of my images of mum Ashleigh and her daughter Alysha.  Simple, classic portrait lighting which, to me, is far superior to the current ‘white’ trend!

We have spent the past 3 days working in the garden. The only sounds being the birds, waterfall, Classic FM and the occasional aircraft, sheer bliss though very hard work. Filling 18 hanging baskets was only the start but we can now settle back and look forward to a wonderful and colourful  summer although we do have a couple of large trees to remove but’s that all for another weekend! What these past few days has allowed is some quiet thinking time which was very welcome. Time to consider all the requests for workshops here in the UK, Europe and  America and the increasing number of photographers looking for mentoring in a wide variety of area but all relating to becoming and maintaining a successful wedding and portrait business in difficult times. As you may have noticed we have posted some business ideas in previous posts but mostly the site has been about our general work, Art Nude, Boudoir and seminars. We already have a new website in design that will host all of our Art Nude work, our seminars and Limited Edition images for sale and that will launch some time in the next couple of months. So it was while I was planting a bed of ‘snow in summer’ I came up with the idea of a site that would just be devoted to our musings on the business and practical side of modern social photography. Not just how to take pretty pictures, not just how to use a reflector or how to pose a child but the mechanics behind a successful business. The Marketing and Promotions, the PR and Presentation, the Sales and Products all contribute, along with quality portraiture, to running a successful business whether it’s home or high street based. So for all of you who have been emailing us about mentoring you have been listened to and our ideas are being formulated, however it will come with a cost, a reasonable cost but then knowledge and experience do count for something. It may take a couple of months to see the best way to offer this service but it will happen some time this summer. Please be patient but we will be offering group mentoring, one to one mentoring, tele mentoring and email mentoring so no matter where you live in the UK we can offer you help and our advice. We are also looking to host mentoring clinics around the UK for a small groups of selected studios where we can have face to face meetings and brain storming sessions with studio owners. If you would like to receive advance notice of this new project please drop me an email to trevor@yerburystudio.com

Today’s image is from a recent studio session. Simple, classic lighting.

We had a wonderful day yesterday with 4 very enthusiastic delegates and Rebecca our fabulous model who endured the train journey from hell to get to us but she made it. We are off to host another Boudoir workshop down in Somerset and so will post images from Sunday’s workshop when we get back. They are well worth waiting for I can assure you. In the menatime here is an image from a previous workshop.

Well we have had a busy few days so apologies for the lack of posts. We have just finished a 1-2-1 mentoring studio portrait session with Chris who brought Katrina who had kindly agreed to be his model for the session. We went through all of the basic lighting set-up for traditional studio portraiture as well as some more contemporary techniques. Faye post processed this image before they left to demonstrate how we present our work to clients.

Of interest we have been asked by BOWENS to do a couple of lighting demonstrations at FOCUS and in addition supply 28 of our images for display in the Bowens Gallery at Focus so we are delighted and honoured to have been asked. Also delighted to have be invited back to speak at the London Portrait Group Tuesday the 6th of July and down to the MPA in Southampton for an all day wedding workshop on Monday the 21st of June. Email me if you need details of how to book a place and I will put you in touch with the relevant person.

We spent last Friday with one of our one to one Studio Mentor delegates and it made me realise that while many photographers spend large amounts of time and money on practical training, in general, they spend little time on looking at and addressing the business and financial side. This is not a side swipe at anybody simply an observation that many of our delegates seem to place such great importance on the ‘how to’ of photography and ‘what kit’ can I buy next rather than looking at how to set up and run a successful marketing or promotional campaign. Faye and I believe that any photographer needs a thorough grounding in both the technical and creative aspects of social photography as well as how to implement that into running a promotion that will produced clients for their studios where they can then put into use what they have learnt in all the creative workshops they have attended. I know many, many excellent photographers who have superb talent and yet struggle to survive while I also know several mediocre photographers who have made a great success in their business through carefully targeted marketing and promotional activities. So the question I ask is what camp do you fall into, creatively talented but always looking to where the next penny is coming from or the not so talented photographer who places as much importance on what the next business promotion as they do on the creative side of their photography?

We will soon be offering a limited number of places on our 6-month Studio Mentor course, which places as much emphasis on the marketing and promotion of the business as we do on developing the creativity and studio skills of our students. Only 4 places available on each series.