https://www.facebook.com/WildTreePhotography

Please do keep me posted on your progress! You have a great attitude, and I have no doubts, great successes ahead of you. Enjoy!

Thank you, Vianna

Keep in mind for senior portraits, it’s the parents who buy, not the students – so don’t worry too much about approaching students directly. What you want is face time with parents, and as I always say, be where your clients are – where are these senior parents?

Here are a few ideas off the top of my head:

* High school sports is a great venue for a photographer – talk to your local athletic booster club and ask about shooting for them and posting the results to their web site (or yours on their behalf, perhaps selling the files and donating 100% of profits to them).

* Join groups that benefit seniors: scholarship fundraisers, National Honor Society, FFA, FCCLA, music boosters, athletic boosters, prom committee, graduation, Project Graduation committees, so on and so forth. There are so many groups that exist to serve high school seniors, and there are many ways to become active with them as a volunteer – bringing both your ideas and photography skills to offer.

* Where do seniors hang out around your community? Work out a project with those venues to photograph some of their HS senior clientele, and donate the results as wall hangings for the venue to feature as wall art. For example, the Fuddruckers restaurant in Kerrville, Texas, has a huge mural on its walls composed of a bunch of sports photos from the Kerrville Tivy Antlers athletics program. For a time, another nearby high school was hanging massive professional photos on its gym walls of its players during volleyball and basketball seasons. There are just as many opportunities to highlight local athletes, musicians, and academic achievers – and no doubt, the venues you approach which already serve that clientele will only love the idea of highlighting some of their best customers.

Again, just consider where seniors and their parents are, and be there – camera in hand, or via your art and marketing materials. Start small, and as I say, Own Your Zip Code – start with one school, one set of seniors, and figure out how to most effectively and efficiently become THE senior photographer for that school, where there is no question which local photographer is doing the most to both serve and benefit that set of kids. Just one small school could provide you enough part time work for a year.

Please do keep me posted and let me know what you try, and what works best for you! Seniors are my favorite subject to shoot, full of life and excitement and personality – you’ll have nothing but fun once you get the ball rolling!

I could write a book on the preparations a photographer should go through before shooting a wedding, the art and experience of shooting the wedding itself, and what to expect afterward.

Thankfully, I don’t have to – many others have written more and better resources on the subject than I could! Weddings are a beast unlike any other in professional photography, and my only advice is to study, practice, assist, and second-shoot as much as you can between now and July.

There are plenty of good articles on this subject over at CurrentPhotographer.com. I’d suggest starting with Angelo Stavrow’s piece, and then spreading out into the archives. I disagree with a lot of what is posted on Trevor’s blog (especially anything that includes the words “never” or “always,” as are favorites of the grognards of the industry), but when it comes to professional wedding photography, you don’t need your hand held – you need your ass kicked.

Try to glean advice that you can act on, and ignore all the bubbling hatred established wedding photographers show for the start-up end of the market. They, like many folks ‘established’ in their field, forget that they were once in your shoes – that they had to start with their own first wedding, and work up from there.

Also invest in at least a few different books on the art of wedding photography – there are plenty of them out there. Start reading, practicing, and learning right away.

In the course of preparing for your first wedding, be an artist of solutions, not of problems. I shot my first weddings (plural) with nothing but an original Canon Digital Rebel and a cheap kit lens.

Which brings me to my P.S. advice: Whatever you do, have backups for your gear. A backup camera body, a backup lens, backup batteries, backup memory cards, a backup flash. If this is financially impossible, rent it, or borrow backup gear from a friend. If nobody can or will loan you their gear, if you have to choose between shooting with no backup kit and turning down the wedding, this is one of the only circumstances I will ever suggest that you turn down the work for lack of proper gear. You can reschedule blown portrait shoots – if you have an equipment failure at a wedding with no safety net, you’re set up dead center in the crosshairs for a lawsuit.

And to add another P.S.S., have a contract. I don’t care how simple it has to be, although you can find plenty of free examples online to download and customize, but have a contract that says explicitly what the client is getting and not getting for their money. There should be no room for interpretation on times, dates, responsibilities, expectations, etc.

Wedding photography, again, is a whole ‘nother beast from portrait photography, and not one I recommend new-to-the-fold professional photogs to take on. Unless you flat out love doing it, and many photogs do, the financial return on your stress/equipment/responsibility/complexity investment just isn’t worth it until you are in a position as an artist and business to be unquestionably over-prepared.

Personally, I tell people, “I don’t shoot weddings, but I can be bought.” I charge an exorbitant amount (compared to my portraiture work), I have bold and selfish policies that are not customer friendly, my contract is obviously written in my own best interest, and I am completely transparent in explaining this to anyone who inquires about my wedding photography services. I always recommend other local photographers whom I know and trust. But if someone really wants me, they can have me, and I do book about one wedding a month, even with all these barriers in place. But when I shoot those weddings, I am perfectly happy to do so and can do my best work because I know I am being paid very well by clients whose trust in me is unquestionable – and I work my butt off to ensure that trust is well-placed.

Thank you for your comment and readership!

That’s why Twitter is so powerful – a fraction of Internet users are active on Twitter, but those that are are often some of the most connected and influential folks in their networking circles.

Facebook will give you your best return on investment of time and attention, but a straggler like MySpace or a more select user group like Twitter can land business here and there. A model booked with me via MySpace just last month to do headshots, and I hadn’t even logged in for a couple months. If you’re chasing gigs like band promo and concert photography, MySpace is a target rich environment.

Every tool has its best use. If your Facebook is already rockin’, and you’ve got an extra hour or two total each month, expanding into less popular social media circles can at least give you a presence. You’re never really trying to book everyone, or the majority – you’re trying to book solid for next week, which can be just one or two shoots as a part time photographer. You’re trying to book solid for the next month – or next couple of months. It’s all about making a great impression on a select few, a target group of potential clients, then thrilling them with your art and experience so that they return year after year, bringing their friends and family along with them.

However, what I do have are loads of email addresses! I’m itching to hear your technique on newsletters: what software, database, and email system that allows sending to more than 50 people, etc. So consider this a request for that article ASAP! Thanks