Take It Easy!!

Well vacation so far has been absolute bliss. We’ve actually been kinda busy until recently traveling to Ireland and keeping ourselves busy in London, but it’s been positively delightful. I’ve been able to lounge around not doing a whole lot, and it’s totally fine. I could definitely get used to not working.

Niamh and I took a 6 day trip to Ireland to visit her many family members over there. Most of her mom’s side of the family lives in Ireland so there were plenty of people to meet. We also toured around the city (Dublin) and had a grand time. We went to Newgrange, an extremely old Stone Age Passage Tomb. It’s actually older than the Pyramids. We also made a stop in Kilmainham Gaol, an old prison in Dublin. They wanted to keep Niamh there but I was able to bribe them into letting her go. (joke). It’s actually not an operating prison now, it’s just a museum. Very interesting tour.

Now we’re back in London and we have nothing to do for the next 10 days or so. It’s nice to just sit around and not do much unless the desire strikes us for something. Actually, last night was a big party to welcome home Niamh from her contract on the ship. It was a lot of fun to meet many of her friends that I hadn’t met yet. I went bowling with her brothers and sister the day before when she was busy with some other friends.

We had wanted to go to Scotland during this vacation but the time is running down a little bit. We have a few other things planned that may require a trip up north to be postponed to another vacation. We’re still gonna try and fit it in but no promises at this point.

As you might have noticed I have done a major overhaul of this website. The wonders of free time! So this site is no longer going to be focused solely on my travels. I’m branching out and focusing the site on other types of photography. I’ll be writing articles on different aspects of running and creating photography businesses. I feel like I’ve had a lot of experience with both photography itself as well as the business side, seeing as I’m a photo manager working on cruise ships. That said, I will definitely still write posts on what I’ve been up to in my manic traveling around the world. The photo gallery itself is also new and upgraded so all my photos are still here and I’ll continue posting photos. So no fear! This is merely an addition to the site not a drastic change.

Well that’s about all for now. Please check out this space as I’m planning to continue to update the site more often and hopefully keep up to date a little better during my next contract back on the Ryndam.

Posted on February 19, 2012 in Cruise Life 1 Comment

Ideas To Make Good, Creative and Catchy Photography Business Names

“A rose by any other name is still a rose.”

A name is extremely important and choosing a name for your photography business is something that you should do before you even open for business. The name that you choose is going to stay with you for the duration of the life of your company.

There are thousands of photographers out in the world trying to make their mark, many of which have set up a businesses, but don’t have a suitable name that really sets them apart. This is your chance to shine and really make a difference.

So what will set you apart? What is going to make your name something really special?

Brainstorming for Photography Business Name Ideas

Brainstorming. Lots of brainstorming. What comes to mind? Just start writing it down.

Use a real pen and paper. Those two ancient tools still exist and they work phenomenally well. Really!

It really is all about getting those brain juices flowing. Don’t worry if you think of a bunch of silly names that you’d never actually use. The process of getting the right name involves a lot of really bad names. If you limit yourself to thinking of only good things, you’ll miss the entire process and you’ll never even get out of the driveway, so to speak.

Once you’ve written down a hundred or more names that might work, start narrowing it down to the ones that jump out at you as stellar. You can do even more brainstorming with the names that you find attractive. You’ll surprise yourself what you can think of once you’ve gotten into the thinking zone.

Making Your Name Good, Creative and Catchy

If you want your business to catch the attention of prospective clients it will help a lot to have a name that sets you apart from the plethora of other photography businesses out there.

What do you want your name to convey? What do you want to be? Think of something that both relates to your selected field but also something that interests you. If the name is interesting to you it’s going to feel a whole lot more meaningful. That’s one of the most important things anyways because if you feel passion about something you’re going to pour your whole being into making sure that it succeeds.

Personalizing Your Photography Business

Most of the time photography businesses are small businesses and you as the owner are the most important member of the business. For this reason it’s usually a good idea to incorporate your own name into the business name. Here’s a few examples on how that might look:

Bob Jones Photography
Mary Jane Portraits
Lenses of Sara
Shutterbug Frank

Another thing to keep in mind is the particular type of photography business that you are engaged in. You should choose a name that speaks directly to your audience. A name that encourages trust and reliability is super important.

If at first you don’t succeed, brainstorm again. Eventually you’re going to come up with something that you both enjoy and will shine above the rest of the industry. As a last resort you can always hire a marketing agent to do some business name research for you. Just make sure that the name that you finally decide on doesn’t sound like it’s come out of a photography business name generator.

Posted on February 19, 2012 in Photography Business, Photography Business Names 1 Comment

How To Start A Photography Business From Home On Your Own

So you love photography.
You know something about how to use a camera.
You think it would be great to actually make some money off of the fancy equipment that you have which is currently just being used to make family photos and nice scenery shots from your family vacations.

Well how about starting a photography business?

Having your own business of any kind is very rewarding but of course there are many things to think about before you dive in. If you go about creating your photography business in a way that makes sense and takes advantage of your situation, you’re going to be extremely happy with a job that not only do you love, but also makes a handsome living for yourself.

Choosing a Target Audience For Your Startup Photography Business

One of the first things that you’ll want to do when you start your own photography business is to choose who you want your audience to be. You can’t just start taking pictures of anything and everything and hope that people will buy them. You need to actually try and target the people that you want to sell to. In other words, you need to decide what type of photographer you’re going to be and what you’ll take photos of.

You can be a “jack of all trades” or you can be an expert at a few select trades. It’s much better to do a few things and do them well, than it is to do everything halfway. Someone who knows how to specialize is not only going to really know what they’re doing, but is also going to have a much happier customer base because they will see that they are getting the best that is available to them.

Insurance, Hiring Employees, Buying the Right Photography Equipment Etc.

A big part of the opening process of any business are things like insurance, hiring employees and making sure that you are properly equipped to do the job.

If you aren’t properly insured you’re going to run into trouble somewhere down the road and this can be disastrous to both your business and your reputation. If you only have a small amount of equipment and don’t think that insurance is a big deal, you’d be dead wrong. Insuring your equipment is probably the least of your worries. You need to have a full business insurance policy to insure yourself against complaints from customers and any number of things that might go wrong.

You might one day have an accident where someone gets hurt and sues you, and you need to make sure that you’re going to be covered in situations like this. It only takes one mistake to completely end your career as a photographer if you aren’t insured.

When you’re first starting you may not need to really hire that many employees, if any. You should definitely think about how you might expand your business in the future though because you never know what might happen. If you are good at your job and people start talking about you, you could have a lot of business. This might mean you’ll need to hire a second photographer to help you cover events, or you may need an accountant to help you keep your books.

The right equipment is really important for a photographer. If you’re going to be taking photos of weddings you’re going to need some really nice lighting to help with the indoors shots. If you’re taking photos of wildlife you’ll probably need some really long telephoto lenses. If you’re taking sports photos you’ll need a professional level camera body that takes many frames per second. The best thing you can do is to do some research about the specific type of photography that you are targeting and find out what the best equipment is.

Understanding the “Business” in “Photography Business”

A good photographer does not a successful photography business make. In other words, just because you know how to take a good photo and maybe even how to market yourself, doesn’t mean that you will be a successful photographer. It is imperative that you also have a mastery over the business side of things.

This is going to range from keeping a tight record of your spendings and earnings to networking so that your business continues to grow.

My simple advice on this topic is to go out and buy a few books about starting a small home based business. You could even sign up for a few business classes at your nearest community college. When you think about it the price of a few books or even of a few classes is going to be very small when you compare it to the amount of income that you will make on your own business. Think of it as investing in yourself to make your business more profitable.

You’ll make your life so much easier if you can avoid as many mistakes as possible at the beginning so you don’t have to learn the right way the hard way.

Working From Home: Pros and Cons

There are a lot of things to think about when you’re starting a business from home. Yes you are probably going to have more flexibility than you would at an office simply because you’re at home, but you need to make sure that you are not distracted from work by your home.

The first pro that I’ve already mentioned is that you’ll have a lot more flexibility. You’re going to set your own hours. You’ll be able to do the laundry in between editing photos. If there’s an emergency that you need to address with a family member you’ll have a lot better chance of getting time off since you’re the boss. The flexibility of working from home is undeniable.

Another pro is that you get to decide how successful your business will be. Your paycheck isn’t going to be limited to what your boss gives you. You are totally in control of what you make. It’s up to you to get more clients and you can charge whatever you like.

The cons of the business go pretty much hand in hand with the pros. You’re going to have to be extremely self motivated to succeed in your own business. Starting a photography business or any business for that matter doesn’t just run itself. You’ll need to make sure that you are involved 100% of the time or it’s going to be a flop, guaranteed.

Because your business is going to be new, you won’t have an already built up clientele. You’re going to have to do all the hard work of building up trust and respect within the community before you can expect giant leaps and bounds to be made. This is different than just working for another company where you can rely on a paycheck every other week. Now you MUST work or you don’t eat.

Doing it All On Your Own, Or Do You?

You don’t actually have to be on your own. Yes you might be in a business that doesn’t rely on an employer for yourself because you are the employer, but you can still have other people involved in your business. Friends and family for example can be some of the best help you could ever want.

You have many things to do and you can use all these friends and family members to help you out. They can help you make fliers, they can spread the word, or best of all they could even be your first customers! This could be great because as a starting company you will need good references. If you have no references people will be hesitant to try you out. It’s easy to get your family to let you take photos of them and then you can let them rave about how good you are.

A rope made of three strings is so much stronger than a rope made of one string. The same goes with starting a business. If you go it all on your own, you’re going to have a much harder time than if you bring a lot of help on board with you. Can you succeed all by yourself? Yes. Will it be easier if you bring help? YES!

Posted on February 18, 2012 in Photography Business, Starting A Photography Business Leave a comment

« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 22 23 Next »