Thursday, February 07, 2008

And Speaking of School, How About Heading Back To Photography School - Part 1

One of he best ways to grow your business and deliver a better product - in this case, I'm talking about the product of Wedding Photography. We all want to be able to make better images - right? When we see a great image, it inspires us, we want to be able to create the same kind of image. How can we do that? Here is a great way to “kick start” you brain juices – how about going back to school – for free!

It’s easy, just head over to Google and Flickr and do a search on “Wedding pictures”. Here are the number of matches that popped for Google – over 19,000,000 and for Flickr - over 200,000. Hey folks, that’s a lot of inspiration and many great ideas here. Sites like Flickr even let you group your favorites so you can easily revisit them for future reference. Find someone whose work you really admire and check out their photo-stream - lots of little gems there. As you add to you favorites, you are continually creating a “go-to” source of ideas for your own weddings.
When I did my Google search, the first few pages had some great images on them - so save the images that "speak to you" for future reference. It’s easy; just do a quick “right mouse click" grab - rename the image to your "Image reference" folder that's always handy for later review. I remember, years ago, that as a student of the craft, I would purchase legendary Monte Zucker's proof set, study it thoroughly, and try to get a few of images to look anything like his. Slowly but surely the concepts and ideas start to take hold. When mixed with your own creative juices, you start to develop your own creative style - that's a cool feeling.

But remember, these are just for your personal review and cannot be used in any promotional way. The point is this, as you “Go Back to School”, save your favorite photographers site links, and your favorite images from your image searches into your very own reference library of any number of categories. For example; Wedding Portraits, Wedding Photos, Reception Photos, Details, Bridal Portraits, Fun Candids, etc. It's a great way to ramp up your skills and the learning possibilities are endless.

We can also go to seminars, and workshops - there are a several seminars coming around the states this year. Be sure to check out my good friend, Ed Pierce's series entitled, "Captivated By The Light" right here. Ed always puts on a good program. I'll keep you posted as I hear of more such seminars - if you know of any, please let me know too.

And wait, there's more, my Digital Master Class - info right here - held in the greater Cincinnati area is nearly full for the April 28 - May 2, 2008 session. We have about 6 six seats left, so if you are interested, give Jennifer a call at 800.292.2994 to reserve your seat.

1 comment:

  1. Great tip, David. I sort keep a notebook of inspired work already, but never thought about doing with it online photos that I come across.

    I also signed up for the local Captivated By the Light seminar. It seems like it's going to be a very good workshop at a really affordable price.

    As for your workshop, I won't be able to attend the next one, but it is part of my near future plans.

    Your site continues be very resourceful. Thanks for your work.

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