April 20, 2021
In today’s podcast episode we are answering some of your biggest photography questions. Everything from upgrading gear, how to prepare to shoot a wedding day, how to charge for travel if you’re traveling for photography, how to find a trustworthy second shooter, how to location scout, building a converting photography website, and more. It’s a LOADED episode.
BUT ALSO… we want to be fully transparent here. We can guarantee that any photography question you’ve ever asked is answered in our Photo Major course.
We’re not trying to be sleazy saleswomen in ANY way… we just genuinely want to let you know that we’ve poured HOURS, DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS learning (failing) outlining, creating, and perfecting a comprehensive course for photographers that will help you, from beginning to end, build, scale, market, and sustain a successful photography business.
If you don’t want to invest in The Photo Major and would rather just nibble on the free crumbs from this podcast, BY ALL MEANS, DO THAT!!! (They’re yummy crumbs!!!) But we just wanted to make sure you at least knew that we have an ENTIRE course IN-DEPTH on all things photography business, and it’s a game-changer. We have over 700 students in that course, with hundreds of raving reviews. (So yeah, it works.)
ANYWAY. We’re gonna go through and answer a bunch of your photography-specific questions but just know: there’s way more where this comes from. 😉
Lindsey: Starting I used a Canon Rebel t3 with a 50 mm 1.8 lens – nifty 50 cause it was $100. Then I transitioned to a Canon 6D and upgraded lenses to a Sigma 35mm. Now I use Canon 5D Mark 4’s with Canon 35mm, and a 50mm. I have other lenses I use on wedding days but that’s the main setup for the most part!
Evie: I started with my parent’s Canon PowerShot (like a glorified point and shoot) then a Canon 60D and a 50mm 1.8 then a sigma 35mm 1.4. Then I upgraded to a Canon 5D Mark 3 and now I shoot with Canon 5d Mark 4 as well and my main go-to lenses are Canon 35mm 1.4 and Canon 24-70mm 2.8.
We do have PDFs in the course on our fave gear and software we use in our photography businesses. Those are both in season 1 in the Photo Major.
We recommend upgrading your gear when you notice it’s no longer serving you to its fullest capabilities, if it’s malfunctioning, or you’re noticing that you are being severely limited on the gear you are shooting on. We also recommend replacing your SD cards every year to year and a half (you NEVER want an sd card to crap out on you and the older they are the more likely that is to happen).
Getting your camera and lenses professionally serviced every year at least or six months if you are shooting a lot.
If you wanna know what sd cards or gear we use and recommend we do cover that in The Photo Major in season 1.
Lay your gear and outfit out the night before and before the day of your gear is fully charged.
Have your family shot list and couple’s questionnaire either printed or screenshotted on your phone along with the timeline and any other information you may need? Everything looks good and you’ve mapped out everything. Pack yourself snacks and water for nourishment. You’re on your feet all day.
Entire episode filled with SOOOO much more in S2E4 – Weddings 101 and PDF: Template – Wedding Questionnaire in S2
There are two different main ways to charge and it’s dependent on what works best for you, your business, your ideal client, your city, etc.
Option 1: Have your normal prices, and then separate travel prices that include your travel fees for anywhere outside of your local city. It makes it easier for your couples cause they don’t have to worry about travel prices, it’s all-inclusive. The price that they see then it’s all-inclusive.
Option 2: You have your normal prices and you charge exactly what it would be to travel to said location – airfare, lodging, transportation, etc. That is more a custom quote. The pro to that, your customer or client knows that you are charging what is necessary. We recommend this option the majority of the time, but we go more in-depth in the course as well.
We go over this in-depth in S4E5 – “So You Wanna Be A Destination Photographer?
Scout!! Get there early and drive around looking for places you would want to shoot! What’s your style? Is it more urban or outdoorsy? Look for public places that you won’t be trespassing but are maybe off the beaten path and not just a public park with manicured grass. Google Earth is like a satellite where you can look at them from a birds-eye view and drop down and look at them from the ground as well. We highly recommend that if you are not able to look at the area beforehand.
Ask friends or social media who live in the area (take this one lightly and only ask genuine friends). Don’t reach out to another photographer in the area if you don’t know them and ask for their best shooting locations. That’s you expecting them to give you their hard-earned scouting for free.
In our course we teach you about scouting, creating a cohesive portfolio that represents YOU, and curating an entire image together by helping your clients with location/wardrobe/light, etc.
S2E5 – Creating Cohesive Work
S2E8 – Styling Your Clients
S4E5 – So You Wanna Be A Destination Photographer?
PDF: Outfit Guide Template
We have an entire posing season in the course and you can buy the posing season separately. We have an entire 45-minute in-the-field shoot of a senior or single portrait session that is super in-depth. We’ll give you some little nuggets but there are 45 minutes of training.
Make them comfortable, that’s the biggest thing! Encourage them, praise them, know good angles, and ask them that question. Play music, have them spin, play with hair, play with outfit, a lot of movement! So that it creates a natural environment so they feel comfortable. You can still give them prompts and directions.
S5E4 – Senior Portraits
Find them: Facebook, Instagram, photography groups, networking in your city, searching hashtags, OR pick someone who wants to be a photographer and wants to learn and train them under you to be a second shooter.
Know their trustworthy/reliable: Don’t just trust them to second shoot off the bat, get their portfolio, ask for their experience, have them shadow you on a shoot if they’re super new and want the opportunity. Train them like we said and build a relationship with fellow photogs in your area to build rapport and trust before you ask them to second shoot.
As far as diving more into second shooting etiquette, we cover LOTS in S1E4 – Second Shooting
AND LOTS MORE!
For photographers we recommend these pages on your website:
Website specific episodes/pdfs in our course:
BUT we will say, having a BOMB website goes SO much beyond just saying and having the right things on your website. Your website is your home that should showcase and highlight your BRAND. It should attract and repel your ideal clients and speak DIRECTLY to who you wanna book!
Episodes in the course that cover those things include:
S1E3 – Finding Your Brand: Turning Your Personality into Profit
S2E2 – Marketing: The Power of Storytelling
S2E6 – Fake It Til You Make It
S4E1 – Niche Marketing: PICK YO THANG
S4E2 – Client Communication & Experience
It’s our biggest mission in the world to pour into you and give you the knowledge to kick BUTT in your business. And if you’re a photographer who has gotten SOOOO much out of this podcast (thank you for listening first off haha) we genuinely aren’t trying to be salesy but if you want more education that is literally going to give you a blueprint on EVERYTHING you need to run your photography business – The Photo Major was literally made for you. If it’s not your thing, that’s A-OKAY and we LOVE LOVE LOVE having you as a listener on this show! Genuinely.
But if you’re looking for more and you’re ready to run a successful and thriving photography business, we’d be hurting you more than helping if we didn’t tell you about The Photo Major. We’re not kidding when we say it covers everything we know about running a successful photography business – from Instagram marketing to client communication, to authentic and candid posing, to getting RAVE reviews from your clients, to how to set up a website that actually converts, to creating a brand that ATTRACTS your ideal client, to knowing how to edit your photos like an expert, to pricing strategy, to blogging, SEO, taxes, and legalities, your backend workflow, and we could go on but this list is ALREADY exhausting. 43:21 Lindsey We’re NOT kidding when we say it’s a PACKED course that if you implement what we teach you WILL thrive as a photographer. If you’re even a little bit interested you can read student reviews and a LOT more about the course here.
Lightroom Challenge: www.theheartuniversity.com/challenge
Pricing Guide Freebie: www.theheartuniversity.com/guide-freebie
Student Reviews on the Photo Major: www.theheartuniversity.com/the-photo-major
If you want to connect with us and other listeners in the Heart and Hustle community join our Facebook group here.
The Photo Major: www.theheartuniversity.com/the-photo-major
The Posing Minor: www.theheartuniversity.com/posing-minor
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WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
Whether you’re coming to an in-person workshop, joining our online course, or soaking up all the strategies via this blog or our podcast, we’re STOKED you’re here + can’t wait to see you out there kicking butt.
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