This tutorial will show you how to create a photoshop action that will resize and watermark your images to make them blog ready.

Jen Shannon Photography

For future reference…. One of the things about the e-learning sessions that make it harder to blog is that a lot of the questions are similar to ones I’ve posted to my blog before. So I may not post 3 questions from each session a week.

1. How do you handle pricing for family, friends, or people that you know? Do you give them a discount?

I’m going to answer this question from a blogging standpoint instead of just saying what I said to her, because I think there is more to it that the outside world may not understand is implied if I only type what I said to Lindsay.

For family, friends, and people I know pricing… I DO NOT DISCOUNT MY SERVICES! Here’s why. I have found that they will not take you seriously or respect you as a professional photographer if you’re always discounting yourself. So instead I will do one of three things. If I am very close to someone and feel compelled I will gift my photography services. I never gift wedding photography services because no one else (except maybe the parents of the bride or groom) is giving a gift worth as much as my wedding packages so why should I? If you are someone I know but I am not close to I will negotiate a deal so I am getting just as much out of it as the other person. For example: A friend of mine has a boyfriend who needs head shots done. Instead of charging her my portrait rate of $250 I negotiated a deal with her so I get something out of the deal that is close to my portrait rate. This is not something I do for everyone I know. Lastly if it is someone I know, if I feel compelled I might add a value added service to their package but I will not discount my prices. For example: I might add an extra hour of coverage or throw in a trash the dress session, but I do not discount my prices.

One thing I’ve said over and over again (feel free to use this) is I AM NOT WORTH ANY LESS JUST BECAUSE I KNOW YOU! If someone I know asks me for a discount or expects it I will not do any work for them. That’s a classic sign of someone that doesn’t respect what you do. Ultimately I will not do any work for people I know unless I am gifting it or getting something that has just as much value as my charges out of it. It’s not right or fair to expect someone who has built something from the ground up to work for free or cheap just because they know you. There is so much work that goes into each session/wedding. It’s not just a “show up at this location and shoot for an hour then send me a disc with the images” kind of thing. I went into detail about this in an earlier blog post that you can read about here.

2. It’s sad that so many photographers charge so little and include the disc of images with it.

While this wasn’t a question, I thought it was a statement worth talking about. So we spoke about it. Any regular consumer has access to a digital camera, a cd burner, and a printer. Because of this they think a disc of images shouldn’t cost them anything. Here’s the problem. We spend hours upon hours and days upon days editing your photos and creating artwork. If you bought a canvas and some paint and created a painting that took hours/days to create would you turn around and sell it for the cost of the canvas and paint? No. Photography isn’t any different. Photography is an art form. Even though we are taking pictures of your family, we are still creating art so you are purchasing the art from us, not just point and shoot pictures printed on your quick printing HP printer at home. You’re paying for skill, quality, experience, and artwork. This is a very hot debate in the photography industry among photographers and the photographers who give the discs or images away are hurting the industry.

3. Do you shoot in RAW or JPEG? Why?

I shoot RAW. RAW files are more forgiving on over and under exposed images (even professionals have a few of those). It also makes color balancing easy. I’m not the type of photographer that likes to worry about white balance issues on the front end. If something ends up not being color balanced properly I can take care of that very quickly on the back end and apply it to all of the images affected. It’s easier for me to worry about controlling the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed on the front end and color correct on the back end.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

1) Do you use Lightroom or Photoshop?

I use both. For bulk editing I use Lightroom because I can apply my presets to all of the photos. Then I select my favorites and do some further editing in Photoshop and post those to my blog.

2) I’m new to using Lightroom. How do you create a preset?

To create a Lightroom preset, edit the photo the way you want it to look. I suggest NOT playing with the brightness or exposure because that will vary from shot to shot. You want to apply the preset first then adjust the exposure. To create a preset in Lightroom, once you’ve edited the photo to the effect you’re trying to achieve, go to “Develop” and then “New Preset.” A new window will appear. I suggest creating a folder for all of the presets your create. For example I have one labeled “Jen’s Presets” and another labeled “Jen’s Mix.” Once you’ve created the new folder, name your preset, choose your folder from the drop down menu and save. A helpful hint for those who don’t know, to apply the same effect to multiple photos, select the photo you already have the preset applied to then hold the shift key and select the last photo you want to apply the preset to and under the “develop” mode, select “sync” and press ok.

3) What is your lighting set up for receptions?

I use one of my backdrop stands and attach a flash to it and use Pocket Wizards to trigger them. I also use another flash for my camera to get more even directional lighting. Because equipment is really expensive and I don’t believe in going into debt for more equipment when you have what you need to start with I rent extra flashes for the events. Until I have the extra money to spend on really expensive equipment I’ll continue to rent.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

Because cameras are accessible to everyone people have the misconception that they can be professional photographers. Sometimes I just want to say, “Here, you take my camera and let’s see what my end result it compared to yours. I guarantee it’s going to be better.” Why? Why would it be better? I’ve been doing photography for 6 years. I’ve been in business for two years. I have an education in graphic design and photography as well as various certifications and a degree in business. Not only do I have the technical education to run a business and understand photography but I’ve studied under two amazing photographers and have learned to develop into my own photographer. Not only that but I’ve developed the “eye” for it. Sure, anyone can take a photo, but it takes skill behind the camera to make an amazing photo. It’s not how good the camera is, it’s the skill behind the camera that makes a good photographer.

Ok, now that my little rant is over I want to post something that many many many people came across yesterday that has become a bit of a viral thing in the photography community. I’ll share my thoughts below. You can read it directly on the link by clicking here. I might add she must not value photography very much. If you look at her site, she rants about the below yet her and her fiance’s photo is out of focus…

I feel like my second post SHOULD be on something still more broad-scale about my wedding – our venue or color combos or something – but there’s a topic I need to discuss first: photographers. Because I have a lot to say!

For background: I was at a bridal fair this weekend – the Davenport Jaycees Bridal Expo, which I believe is the largest annual bridal show in the QC area – and it was really great, overall. My mom and sister went with me and we gorged ourselves on cake samples and cream puffs dipped in the chocolate fountain and even a mini wine tasting so obviously it was fun! I got to wear a sticker that proudly proclaimed me as “The Bride!” and 100 vendor booths later, I left weighed down with a large bag of pamphlets, price lists, DVD samples, and even a candy ring (score!). Now that I have a date and venue secured, I found it very helpful to ask some of my specific questions about that site to some potential vendors (like “Hey, DJ, would you also be able to hook me up with sound for the ceremony if it’s taking place in that courtyard area at Black Hawk State Park?”) Good stuff, invaluable really.

So I came home and started sorting through all my newly acquired information, dutifully separating everything into its appropriate category in the wedding planning binder that my cousin Susan very thoughtfully made for me. But the binder wasn’t shutting well and I realized the biggest culprit was the bulging photography section. I realized I’d received many more photography brochures than any other type of vendor so I decided I should sort through them briefly and weed out the ones that were obviously not going to be a good fit for Mike and I.

And I learned this: I should have become a photographer.

Wedding packages that START at $2,500 – and go up to $7,500 or more? Are you serious? Now, let my be clear: I’m not trying to undervalue the skills that a very good photographer must have and the extreme importance of having a very good photographer (as, after all, there are no ‘do-overs’ on the moments they are capturing!). I also understand that their equipment is expensive, they are sacrificing their Saturday night, and it is a job that requires a high level of mental focus and intensity. So I could understand paying them a couple hundred dollars an hour for this job.

But something like $500 an hour, or more? Hey guys, my job requires a lot of mental work and precision and sometimes I work on Saturday nights too. So I’m just saying.

On the other hand, I don’t really blame them for their high costs because, clearly, they wouldn’t have those prices if brides weren’t paying them. And with the average cost of a wedding at something like $22,000, I guess it actually totally makes sense since all my wedding planning guides suggest putting between 10-15% of your wedding budget toward your photographer. But I think every part of that is just entirely insane.

Anyway, once I’d weeded out the insanely expensive photographers (about half), then I started actually looking at what packages the rest offered. And sweet Jesus, here’s the second point of insanity with photographers: I don’t need your fancy leather bound books and $300 print credit and three 8 x 10s and eight wallets. No thank you. Photographers, listen: I want you to come to my wedding, take a lot of really good pictures, and then give them to me on a CD with a personal use copyright release. It’s that simple. Hell, I don’t even care that much if you color correct them and crop them and fancy them up for me – I’m a 21st century girl who is pretty computer-savvy, so I know my way around editing a photo. And I know of about 700 places where I can get them printed on my own, almost always with the aid of an online coupon code. Yes, it would be nice if you offer an online gallery so my family and future in-laws can check them out and order the ones that they would like to have prints of. And I’ll order some from you, too, in all likelihood – like the big ones that I want to frame for my future house. But I definitely don’t want your coffee table leather-bound book that costs $400. I want to print my own 4×6s and go to town with my scissors and my stickers and my massive collection of scrapbooking materials. Many aspects of my wedding will be Do-It-Yourself projects, which I like, so why would I not have a DIY picture album? I like scrapbooking and I like personalization and I want a hand-made book of love to be what’s on my coffee table, even if it’s not quite as fancy-looking as the one you’d “give” me as part of my $7 million photography package.

In conclusion: Now that I’ve weeded out the Wedding-Packages-For-Billionaires and the Wedding-Packages-For-Uncreative-People (no offense intended to billionaires or uncreative people!), I am left with about three potential options that all seem pretty solid. So I’m actually very happy with that process of elimination! I feel less overwhelmed and now am able to more deeply investigate what these three can offer me and what would fit best. And, as a bonus, my planning binder now closes as it’s supposed to and my trash can is instead a bit more bulging

Next up: Caterers. I’m putting it off because it’s so overwhelmingly beyond me… but I gotta suck it up soon and take care of it. I’ll keep you posted, Engagement Diary!

This is a common thought and frustration among brides. They don’t understand what goes into doing their wedding photography. Let me give you a little glimpse of end-to-end processes that justify why we charge so much.

1. First we get the phone call or email of interest which of course takes time to responsd to (this is more of a minute detail but is important).

2. We drive really far to meet with the bride and groom (or whoever she brings) on the chance that they might book us. There’s the gas cost of a gas guzzling SUV that get’s 14mpg city and 17 mpg highway.

3. At this meeting we lug all of our studio samples to them. These studio samples are not free. Sample albums still run several hundred dollars. Folio samples also run several hundred dollars. Gallery wraps run several hundred dollars. We usually buy our clients coffee which is only a few dollars but that is still an expense we incur on the chance they might book us. We also have print samples that can run us around $50, business cards that cost several hundred dollars (I like quality cards, you can get them cheaper but in my opinion a cheap quality card is an indicator of someone who doesn’t pay attention to detail or care to show quality in their business).

4. After the meeting the bride books you. Yay! That’s fabulous. To book we drive way out yonder to meet our clients again (more gas), we print off two copies of the contracts (paper costs), we print off our pricing sheets for their references (more paper costs), and we give them a nice shiny black folder to keep all of the info they need in (we keep the other signed contract but again, cost of the envelopes). Then I come home, scan everything, and back it up to an external hard drive and an online server. Then I enter the info into Quickbooks (a software expense and time).

5. Then we correspond back and forth with the bride on anything she has questions about. We also reach out to her other vendors to introduce ourselves and understand the order of events for the day (that way we don’t have to stress out the bride with these kind of questions). That involves a lot of time. Let me make a statement here. Time is money. Heaven forbid we should get paid for our time. Well, we need to get paid for our time just like everyone else who works any other job gets paid for their time. Moving on… We also scout out the location (which involves more gas for driving) and do research on great shooting locations.

6. Then there is the complementary engagement session. It’s free for the bride and groom and the package doesn’t cost less if they don’t want it because it’s complementary for them but for me it’s another cost that I eat out of pocket. I do this because I like to get to know my couples before their wedding and it builds my engagement portfolio. I drive out to where they want to do their engagement photos (again, more gas) and spend an hour or two taking engagement photos of the couple. I drive back (more time and gas) and I spend hours on the back end culling the best photos and editing them. That takes about 4 hours of work. Then I spend another hour posting them to my blog, facebook, an online gallery (which is paid for monthly), etc and then send an email to the bride and groom letting them know the photos are ready to be viewed. Then we back up all of the images to DVD’s, an external hard drive and an online server so we don’t lose any photos should something happen (so there’s the cost of our online back up service which is a monthly fee, the external hard drive expenses, and buying DVD’s to back up to).

7. The week before the wedding we finalize all of the details of the wedding with the bride. Again, time is money and it can take quite a bit of time to finish all of the last minute details.

8. The night before the wedding we spend an hour or so cleaning all of our gear, charging our batteries, and getting all of our equipment ready to be loaded into the car.

9. The day of the wedding we wake up super early, pack up the car and head out to the location I need to be dropped off at to catch the girls getting ready. That’s more in gas. Then my husband, who second shoots for me, drives to where the guys are getting ready and starts getting photos of them. Again, more gas. Oh, and don’t forget the fact that I have a second shooter that typically comes with all of my packages that I have to pay for his time. Just because he’s my husband doesn’t mean he doesn’t get paid for his work. Not to mention the gas we use going all over the place to get pictures.

10. We spend all day at the wedding working hard to get the great shots our brides expect of us. Whether that’s 8 hours or 10 hours they still get the day. We get a 30 minute break to sit and eat and that’s it. Yes, we need to be fed. We can’t spend 12+ hours prepping for your wedding, traveling, shooting, and traveling back home without getting fed. We also use this time to create a small slideshow of a few of the best images from the day to play on a screen at the reception, so we are still working despite it being a break.

11. After the wedding we pack up all of our gear and head home to relax after a long day. That’s only the half of it though. Every other vendor (except videographers) get to render their services at your wedding and that’s that for them. After the wedding, for us, begins the other half of the work we do for your wedding. First, we back up all of the images to DVD’s, an external hard drive and an online server so we don’t lose any photos should something happen (so there’s the cost of our online back up service which is a monthly fee, the external hard drive expenses, and buying DVD’s to back up to). This takes a day or so. Then we cull all of the best images from your wedding. This can take a few days in an of itself to do because we take thousands of photos (literally 3-4k) at the wedding between the two of us. We cull them down to under 500 which is challenging and takes a long time. Then we find the ones we like the most, edit them and post them on the blog which can take a half a day or so. Then we go through and edit every single photo to reflect our style of photography which can take a week or two. After that we export the full set of color images into a folder, then reload them into a new Lightroom folder and turn them all to black and white, again this takes about a half a day. Then we export those and burn them to discs. Again cost of time, discs, programs, etc. Then we upload them to an online gallery (which we pay for monthly) for you to view the images. If your package includes a disc of images we then order the DVD folio (the DVD folio itself costs quite a bit because they are hand made) and burn your images to a disc. Then we print the image on the top of the disc. We also include a set of watermarked images for online use. Then we mail it to you. That’s a cost for shipping materials and shipping costs.

12. If your package includes an album then we start the album design. Because I have a background in graphic design I custom design all of my own albums so you’re getting a unique album. Not only does the album cost us hundreds of dollars but the time to design an album takes about a week. So right now you’re looking at around 3-4 weeks of work already, averaging 40 hours per week. You might ask why we say the photos will be ready in 8 weeks. You have to remember your wedding isn’t the only wedding we’re doing all of this for so it may take some time to get to yours.

13. Here are some things I’d also like to mention that are a cost to us but a benefit to you. We must carry liability and equipment insurance. This costs around $350 per year. We also must maintain a proper business license. This costs about $100 every year. We must have good equipment. Just for the basics with an “alright” camera costs $5,000 and some equipment only lasts a couple of years. We also maintain several professional memberships such as Pictage, the [b] school, etc for continuing education in order to provide you with the best products, experience, and photos you can get. We also have monthly fees for our websites so you can see our portfolio and read about us so you can get a good feel of what you’re getting before you even meet with us. We also have to pay to advertise which is thousands of dollars a year. We also pay entrance fees at bridal shows. That doesn’t even include our overhead costs for office supplies such as batteries, ink, paper, folders, staples, etc.

Many times we don’t get to spend time with our families because we are busy editing photos and processing images. We spend more time in front of a computer than an average 40 hour a week IT support person, we spend less time behind the camera than we thought we would, etc. But these are all things we do because we love what we do and we want to succeed. Oh! Don’t forget taxes! Those are a killer!

And please feel free to leave a comment if I missed something here! You can also read a similar article from another photographer, Kathryn Lymburner, here called, “You want me to pay you how much?”

Basically what I’m trying to say is even though many of these costs are smaller costs, they still add up. Sure there are people who will eat these costs to build their portfolio and there is always someone out there who will do it for less but just like any profession, you should get paid what you’re worth. When all is said and done we profit very little. If it were enough for us to live off of I would have quit my day job a long time ago, but I’m not at that point just yet.

Going to what the bride said, she’s right. I understand not every bride has the money to spend a couple of thousand to $7,000 on a wedding photographer, but before you go telling us we are crazy for charging what we charge, I think you should have a little more insight to how things have to be done and what our costs are in order to run a successful photography business. Not everyone can do it. Most people who think it’s easy and jump into it right away are out of business in a year. In photography you get what you pay for.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

Colby and I were heading home from dinner at Williamson’s the other night and he whips out his phone and says, “I want to read something to you and get your opinion.” He proceeds to read me some blog article from a blog talking about customer service. I call it Client service because I like Client better than customer. Anywho… The article talks about this guy who goes into Starbucks and was waiting in line to get his coffee. The lady in front of him who has already purchased her tea explains to the cashier that she over sugared her tea and wants to know if they’ll give her another one at no charge. The cashier says she needs to get a manager and let the manager decide. Basically the blog article criticizes the cashier for not being able to make a decision to eat the 10 cents and give her another tea bag, cup, and water. Instead she had to get a manger. He claims it should have been a no brainer decision to just do what it takes to make the customer happy. It is a minimal cost to Starbucks and keeps the client happy. While I agree that the best thing to do would just be to give her another tea bag, cup, and water at no charge I don’t think the guy criticizing her for getting a manager realizes that many people who are not on a management level that work in retail do not have the authority to give away a product.

Beside my criticism of his observation this brings up something I wanted to talk about for our industry. How do you decipher when you should just eat a small cost to make a Client happy or when you should say no? It’s a tough question. On one hand if you do eat the cost you could have a Client for life, referrals from that Client, etc, but on the other hand you might just make that person happy and not get any additional benefits of it. Is it enough to just put an extra skip in our Client’s step without getting something in return? I’d have to say it is. Sometimes it’s just about putting a smile on the Client’s face. If that lady ultimately got another tea for free from Starbucks would it generate referrals from her to Starbucks? Probably not. If they wouldn’t do it for free, would she never go to Starbucks again? Probably would go to Starbucks again.

That brings me to another question. How do you decipher if a Client is just complaining because they’ve learned that if they complain about things they get what they want? That’s also a tough question. Last Friday night my husband and I went to Chili’s for dinner. I have an intolerance for corn kernels. I don’t know why corn in things like corn syrup and such don’t bother me, but corn kernels tear me up. I ordered their BBQ chicken salad with no corn. They bring the salad out and it has corn all over in it. I send it back. They bring me another salad that does not appear to have corn in it. I start eating it and look down to find corn hiding throughout the salad. I just picked the corn out of the salad, brought the waitress over and instead of complaining told her that she needed to just let the chef know that he could cause serious harm to people if he isn’t careful. The manager came over, apologized, and took my meal off of our bill. I had every intention of paying for it but it was good customer service that the waitress, instead of just relaying my message to the chef, relayed it to the manager who then came over to “make things right.” It made me happy and I still love Chili’s. In this instance you see that the fault rested on the restaurant for not providing me with what I ordered. With photography it’s more complicated because art is subjective. If you deliver what the Client ordered and they still aren’t happy, do you try to place blame somewhere? Many times a Client will complain just to get something for free and place all of the blame on you. Yes, you might be hurt by it, you might not like what they have to say, and what they’re saying may not even be true, but ultimately the Client is who needs to be happy. That doesn’t mean you need to give anything away for free but I do think we need to get past the blame game. Sometimes it doesn’t matter who’s fault it is. We should want to leave a positive lasting impression on our Client’s. As a society we’ve turned Client services into something where the Client almost feels like they have to apologize when they ask an associate to get something or do something for them. Why is that?

I think the key is to be able to suck up your pride, set aside who’s fault it is, and service your Client the best way you can. If you feel a Client is just trying to complain to get something for free, then consult a photography community and get their opinion. If generally they agree that your work and products represent what you sold to your Client, chances are they might just be complaining to get more out of it. The question then becomes do you give in? I don’t like to look at it as giving in. I like to look at it as an investment in my Client’s long term satisfaction with the job they hired me to do. Unfortunately there is no one answer to how you should deal with your Client’s but ultimately I think it comes down to one principle. Put yourself in your Client’s shoes. Try to understand, from their perspective, what they are telling you. Set aside pointing fingers or placing blame, and do what is in the best interest of both your Client and your company. Sometimes it’s doing nothing. Sometimes it’s giving something. Ultimately, even if it is the Client’s fault, sometimes sucking up the cost of the tea bag, cup, and water will put that extra skip in your Client’s step.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

By the way, don’t you just love the weirdo look on my face that’s in the video player before you play the video? Go me…

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

Video Blog 2 from Jen Shannon on Vimeo.

#1) Can you specifically name some of the things you wish you knew starting out?

This is such a great question because I feel like people say this all of the time and never specifically answer. So I’m going to give you specifics. First, I wish I had solid branding down before I tried making a name for myself. I wish I would have sat down, made a list of adjectives that I wanted my logo/business to portray to the world and designed my logo off of that. Now, I have a graphic and web design background as well as a business management and operations background. Because of this I can do most of my stuff myself, but if I could, I would have spent the time and good money on a fabulous designer to get my branding solid from the get go. Second, I wish I would have started using Photobiz from day 1. I spent a horrible amount of time trying to do a website for myself where if I would have just knew about Photobiz I would have shaved about 4-5 months off of my design time and focused on business. Third, I wish I would have read Dane Sanders’ book Fast Track Photographers awhile ago. Now, I don’t know when it was written, but if it was around two years ago when I started the business, I wish I would have read it. I did a blog post on this book that you can read here if you are interested. This book really helps you to clearly and easily define your goals as a photographer and business owner. I can’t rave enough about it, so definitely go buy it. Fourth, I wish I would have signed up for Pictage and The [b] School earlier. Pictage has the best photography forum/community ever. I can’t speak highly enough of what an amazing community of photographers they have. The Pictage community has helped me for a year and has been a huge help in getting me where I am. The [b] School I’ve only been a part of for a couple of months and while I don’t think the community is quite as strong there (I don’t know that it’s been established for long enough to be a really strong community like Pictage) the videos are top notch. There’s a great video on branding that I would recommend everyone watch because it changed my entire outlook on it.

#2) Do you need Photoshop and Lightroom?

Technically speaking you don’t “need” them, but I don’t work without them. I use Lightroom for mass editing and put my final touches on my photos in Photoshop. I will warn you to NOT define your style based on premade or prepurchased actions or presets. Instead define your style and either purchase or create actions to complement your style or make your editing life easier. I CAN’T STRESS THAT ENOUGH!!! There is nothing worse than a photographer that buys Kubota or Totally Rad Actions, slaps it on their photos and then calls that their style. Their photos end up looking just like everyone else’s photos that does that and it doesn’t help you to be unique. It doesn’t do you any favors. That’s not to say those aren’t useful tools. They are useful tools if you know how to manipulate them to complement your style.

#3) At what point do you start charging?

This was an awesome question. It’s not going to be the same for everyone but we had a good, long discussion about this very thing. The problem is that many times (I went through this too) your friends and family don’t take you seriously as a professional photographer because you’re always doing work for them for free. They are never going to take your seriously or see you as a professional until you start showing what you’re worth. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do free work to build your portfolio, but at some point your friends will start talking to their friends and their friends will talk to their friends and before you know it you’re known as the “cheap photographer” because you cut everyone a deal since they “know” you through someone else. My advise was if you’re going to give discounts then give them to everyone. If someone approaches you asking for a discount, then the answer is no. I heard this on the [b] school on the branding 101 video and I’ll never forget it. There is nothing worse than a photographer who hands a client a price sheet and starts apologizing. You need to be confident in your pricing. So if you’re going to give discounts, then give them to everyone. Run a special so that when your prices go up it looks like the “special” is over. Make sense? That way they know the cheaper price is the special price and isn’t going to last for forever. If someone approaches you for a discount because you know them, then add value to their package but make them pay the full price for the package they want. I’m not worth any less because I know you so why should I get paid less just because I know you? Instead I’ll throw in a print credit, an extra session, or an album upgrade.

Anyway, I hope if you’re reading this you got some helpful tips out of it. I love these e-learning sessions because I love helping people, especially newer photographers who don’t quite know where to start. I’m certainly not an industry expert and what works for me may not work for you and what’s worked for other people doesn’t always work for me, but I hope my what advice I can offer is of value. Also my thoughts and opinions are just that. They are subjective. I know people will disagree which is ok. Again these are just my opinions.

If you want to schedule a learning session with me, remember they are FREE as long as you use Skype, you can contact me through the “Contact Us” link on my blog or send an email to jen@jen-shannon.com. I’m available most week days after 7pm central standard time (that’s one hour behind eastern time, one hour ahead of mountain time, and two hours ahead of pacific time). If you need a weekend day let me know when you’re wanting to do it and I’ll see if my schedule accommodates it. Since the wedding season is going to start ramping up soon I will have less time on the weekends.

Moving on… Today I bring you a fresh look at the wedding industry.

Agnes Lopez

My little disclaimer: This photo was NOT taken by me. I have no clue who took this photo. I took it from her “about me” page.

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It must have been by chance that I stumbled across Agnes. To be honest, I have no clue how I found her, but I did and I’m glad. I’ve been following her blog for about 6 months or so and I can’t rave enough about her work.

1. What inspires me about her work?

The three F’s. Fashion, fashion, and FASHION! I love seeing what she does to combine her background and love for fashion into her wedding photography. Not only does it involve my love for my three C’s tendency but the work she produces from every shoot looks like something you see in a magazine. I love those kind of photos!

2. What inspires me about her?

This is another one where I have to be honest and say I don’t really know much about her. I know she has a background in fashion and journalism and she’s been in a lot of magazines but I don’t know much about her personally. I just found her on Twitter and Facebook (I usually just follow blogs) so hopefully I’ll get to see more about her as an artist.

3. What is your favorite blog article?

My favorite article would have to be one she did recently about the inspiration to shoot reality. It was a fashion shoot where several vendors got together to create this beautiful master piece. It was an idea that Style Me Pretty approached them about doing and I think it turned out amazing.

Click here to read the article.

4. How did you find Agnes?

I have no clue. I probably was looking for higher end shooters in Jacksonville to assure myself that I could make the same money down there as I could here in Chicago. I’m still not so sure if I’ll be able to, but that might have been where I found her. I don’t know though…

5. If you could ever meet Agnes, what would you want to learn from her?

I think I’d love to learn to see fashion from her perspective, see how she works with her models, her brides, etc. It would be awesome.

So to Agnes, thank you for being one of my fashion inspirations! I hope to some day meet you when my husband and I move back to FL! I’m not sure if you’re part of Pictage or if you go to the PUG meetings, but if so, I hope to see you there! Happy 2010! Rock on!

Sarah Rhoads

My little disclaimer: This photo was NOT taken by me. Jeff Newsom took it. It came directly from her blog’s “about me” page.

Sarah’s Blog

Sarah’s Website

Follow Sarah on Twitter

Fan Sarah on Facebook

This rock on photographer installation is a little different. I’ve not been following Sarah for very long. I heard about her a few months ago from Monica Starr Brown (my installment 3 ROP). The first thing I thought when I saw her work was “this chick is different!” So many times you see a lot of very successful photographers who have signature styles but they contain a lot of the same elements. If you’ve been following my ROP installations since week 1 then you’ve probably heard of my 3 C’s. Crisp, clean, and clear. Sarah’s fall under a completely different category. Keep reading for more.

1. What inspires me about her work?

I love Sarah’s work because it’s a different approach to photography than a lot of the blogs that I follow. She also has that “signature style” that I am such a big fan of. I love the way she’s able to create clean images without a lot of the same elements that many other photographers have. Her style is desaturated, clean, and crisp. She has an awesome way of making an image feel really warm or really cold. Her work takes me back to my days at Columbia College Chicago. So many times I was super frustrated in my photo classes with people just taking pictures of crap and the instructor calling it a master piece. There were a few great photographers that would create work similar to Sarah’s that I admired. You know, the photos of an emo kid just standing there awkwardly, run down places, etc. She would have fit in so great at Columbia! hahaha!

2. What inspires me about her?

Honestly since I haven’t been following her for very long I don’t really know much about her personally. One thing that we have in common that I can relate to is that our husband’s are part of our business. Sarah’s husband, Chris, is her second shooter. They seem to have a photographic chemistry and they just know how to work well with each other. I love couples who can work together and who do it well.  I also like to think she stole my dream a little for living in Seattle and getting to live out her dreams! I had this goal when I was 11 that I wanted to move to Seattle and be in a grunge band. That was it. That was all I wanted to do! hahahaha!

3. What is your favorite blog article?

My favorite blog article was from November 19, 2009 which was a self portrait. One of the things she points out that I learned in my early art history classes was that many of the best artists in history created self portraits. This has inspired me to start thinking of how I can do self portraits so in 20 years I remember what I looked like when I was 25. I NEVER have my picture taken. That’s something I’ll be working on in 2010.

Click here to read the article.

4. How did you find Jasmine?

Monica Starr Brown told me about Sarah. Monica was my Rock On Photographer for Week 3. You can check out that entry here.

5. If you could ever meet Sarah, what would you want to learn from her?

I’d love to learn what inspires her, where she finds inspiration, and how she found her style.

So to Sarah, thank you for being one of my newer inspirations! I can’t wait to see where the future takes you! Happy 2010! Rock on!