Man, oh man, do I need to get my pixels moving this morning - three days, almost 24 hours of shooting these last three days - and too much debate coverage viewing last night has me in Super-Slow-Motion today. No problem though - once I get my two hot typing fingers moving I'll be excited, happy, and rejuvenated and ready to embrace the day! So let's get to it...
Saving The Date - YouTube StyleI have to say, maybe I've been living in a cave or something. I mean, I think I'm pretty up on most of the latest and greatest trends available on the market, but this one really caught me by surprise. While we were at the park yesterday, we bumped into another photog who was there too with his clients photographing an engagement session. His name was Ron Wood and you can check out his site right here if you would like.
Our team was on a short break and Ron and I began talking. I ask him why he had a videographer on the shoot with him. It seems he and his friend Mark collaborate on jobs and put together short videos containing video footage and still coverage for weddings, engagement assignments, and senior shoots. He went on to tell me that these videos, particularly the engagement assignments, are then uploaded to YouTube as "Save The Date" videos that the clients can share with their friends in announcing their wedding date.
I thought, "Wow! What a great idea!" I think this is a pretty cool idea, one that let's you promote your photography and videography to all the bride and groom's friends and family. It's the couple who point all that potential business to your work - genius if you ask me. I had to see just how big of a cave I have been living in so I headed over to YouTube and did a quick search on "Save the date" videos and found only forty. I breathed a sigh of relief - not too many, but some very cool ones nevertheless.
Here are three of my favorites;
Nick and Kate [link] - Good use of composition in a great series of images of the couple.
Ryan and Chantal [link] - Hip way to get the message out.
Will and Beth [link] - About the most clever way I've seen to announce the day.
Folks, I think this is a "no-brainer" super effective way to build buzz for your business - two thumbs way up! Thanks for the heads up idea, Ron.
How Much Does A Wedding Cost Where You Live?
I'm a subscriber to the "The Wedding Report" which supplies Wedding Statistics and Market Research for the Wedding Industry. It is a fascinating compilation of data. Look for a podcast coming up real soon with the author, Shane McMurray - it will be a "must listen to" episode. Anyway, in a recent newsletter, I see a public link to CostofWedding.com. Here is the link right here. All you have to do is type in your zip code and the site will return the average costs for all types of services associated with planning a wedding. Yep, it includes photographers too. Hit the link - it's definitely worth the peek. Let me know your feelings on the accuracy of this report.
How To Quote Prices For Stock Image UsageI found this web application a few weeks ago while cruising the Net via the Canon Blogger. It's called the Stock Photo Price Indicator - here is the link - it will give you an estimate on what to charge for Advertising, Corporate, and Editorial image placement. It's not the most sophisticated web page but the way it's put together works just fine and may give you a starting point for that next quote you need to give Microsoft for one of your images.
Hey gang, that's it for me today. I'll see everybody tomorrow for another Gear Bag Friday episode. See ya' then. -David
p.s. Thanks all for the very nice comments on my image of the day yesterday - "Somewhere In Time".
I've drawn a blank Googling for "Stock Photo Price Indicator" and can't find the reference on Canon Blogger. Could you please post the URL to this site (I bet you really meant to in the first posting).
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Dave Wilson
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteSorry about that - link is posted - still waking up;~)
-David
On the Cost of Wedding site, I find it curious that photography is always 7.09% of the total, for every zip code. In fact, every category is always the same percentage of the total for every zip code.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't you expect some variation between zip codes?
Hi Jeff,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the quick audit of the numbers. I'll contact Shane McMurray and see what gives.
-David
Hi David, I've recently started doing the same thing with my engagement shoots. I get animoto.com to put the slideshow together and I'm also letting people download them for their Ipods so they can show their friends :)
ReplyDeleteYou can see one here
http://www.viddler.com/explore/sphoto/videos/4/
Jeff thanks for pointing that out. I looked in to it and it is a strange anomaly due to always including the same products and services in the average. The average is a calculation of the sum of products that couples purchase 50% or more of the time. So, for every area, even though the average pricing of the product changes, the sum of the 50%+ products makes the percent the same. What should happen is the demand for items change for each area and the top 50% of items should not be the same. That would then show a different % to average for the item. So, for example, the average for an area is $25,000, but some item is exclude because demand in that area causes this product to fall below the 50% threshold. The average for photography is $1,750 and the percent to the $25,000 is 7%, but if you exclude the item dropping out of the top 50%, say -$2,500, then the photography percent is now 7.8% vs. 7%.
ReplyDelete