September 25, 2012
Who do you think are life's greatest teachers? In a way it's pretty obvious to think of all the things we can learn from the more experienced people in our industry, but today I'd like to encourage you to think about what you can learn from your peers... or even people will much less experience than you.Read more...
September 21, 2012
Blogging. If you're in the wedding industry you'll be hard pushed to avoid it. Still a relatively new medium, the first blogs (called web-logs back then) were launched in the late 90s. The wedding industry quickly adopted this format as their own with many wedding suppliers now using a personal blog to promote their work and to connect with others in the industry as well as potential clients. There are even people (like me!) who make a full time career out of blogging. There are currently a reported 164 million blogs in existence, so how do you make yours stand out? Is blogging even right for you and your business? Two UK wedding photographers battle it out...Read more...
September 18, 2012
I was twelve when it started. We were in Dublin visiting family when my Mum spotted that Boyzone were playing at The Point Theatre. I'd never been particularly interested in music, and although I'd heard of the band and seen them perform on SMTV Live (with Ant & Dec - remember that!?), I wouldn't say I was a fan. But for some reason my Mum asked if we wanted to go and so she went to see if she could get tickets for the show that night.Read more...
September 12, 2012
In 2001, and with no real experience, Alastair Humphreys decided he would cycle around the world. He set off from his Yorkshire home on an epic journey that took him four years to complete. He cycled 46,000 miles, through 60 countries and 5 continents. Now, whilst reading that you might think "jeez that's no small adventure!", and you'd be right, the idea behind this article and the video below is an explanation of the importance of adventure, any adventure, no matter how big or how small. In this TEDx talk he speaks about his experiences, and why he feels starting small is much more important when trying to make changes.Read more...
September 11, 2012
Today I want to tackle the tricky issue of managing client expectation in the wedding industry. Sooner or later no matter who you are or what level you are at, the chances are that you will encounter some sort of complaint or confrontation in your business. We work with people who are often planning the biggest experience of their lives and there can be a lot of pressure all round. A wedding can be a bit like all your Christmases at once - if your family all get on then brilliant, but a wedding can often highlight any issues too. Then there are all the money concerns connected with weddings. Good for you if you have a bottomless pit of cash to splash, but for many couples a wedding can be a huge financial strain on them or their immediate families. Add to that some of the other pressure that couples can put on themselves... Like making their day the stand out amongst their circle of friends, getting super carried away with how their wedding is going to look, or being obsessed with making their wedding 'blogworthy'.Read more...
September 5, 2012
I was asked recently by a new blogger how I went about making my industry connections and friends. Like, how did I approach people and ask if they'd like to work together or collaborate on various projects and shoots without coming across as a bit of a weirdo? So I'm telling you what I told her... If it would be weird in real life...Read more...
September 4, 2012
Oh Dita you are so wise. There will always be someone, somewhere who doesn't agree with you or like what you do. But you know what? Screw 'em! The best lesson I've learnt through running my business is that I can't please everybody so I'm not going to waste my time trying.Read more...
August 29, 2012
I'm not sure why, but I'm feeling very reflective this week. Maybe it's because in prepping for The Blogcademy (which sold out within a week by the way - wooo!) I've been thinking about what I knew and, more importantly, didn't know when I started blogging. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. On one hand I'm sure every decision, journey and mistake I made got me to exactly where I am today, but on the other hand muddling along and hoping I was doing things right was a tough way to learn!Read more...
August 28, 2012
When I first moved to London, my flatmate at the time had a book called Feel the Fear but do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers. Not really being one for self help books, I never got round to reading it but as it hung around the lounge, the title really spoke to me and it's kinda hung around in my mind ever since. At the time I had pulled out of doing a degree in fashion and textiles after it had dawned on me that I wasn't anywhere near as obsessed with fashion as my fellow foundation students who had got onto the same degree. They were going to college in Victorian Underwear and thick black tights while I was still channelling Neneh Cherry in a purple satin bomber jacket with a spiral perm (hey, it was twenty years ago!)Read more...
August 22, 2012
Some of you may already be aware of my story. I've written about it many times before. Gareth has even shared his side of my journey from full time shopping TV producer to full time wedding blogger. While, looking back it may all seem very idealistic and easy, it was far from it. Trying to kick start a business whilst holding down a full time job is hard. There were times when I didn't sleep. There were times when I cried. There were times when I was constantly sick.Read more...
August 21, 2012
Everyone reading this knows this don't they? You all understand that the best way to get the clients you really connect with is to showcase yourself and what you, and no one else, can do. Then why, for the love of god, are we all still shooting/designing/editing the same way?Read more...
August 17, 2012
Yesterday's School of Rock was magical. We were a room full of girls (and er... Gareth - although I don't think he minded at all!) chatting about business, blogging and everything in between. I left on a total high, feeling proud of the little space I was able to create and excited to have made a gaggle of new friends.Read more...
August 15, 2012
Personally, and particularly in the wedding industry, I think there are times when 'working for free' is worthwhile. Mainly when it comes to collaborations with other suppliers for mutual gain or publicity (styled shoots etc), when it comes to building your portfolio (everyone has to start from somewhere) or when it comes to networking and building industry connections and allies. However I don't believe in discounting for customers or clients who just want to try their luck. I am a strong believer in thinking "what's in this for me?" if there is no money exchanging hands. That may make me sound hard-nosed and selfish but if I said yes to every project I'd have no money to eat (and erm... shop!) and no time for any paid work.Read more...
August 14, 2012
Did you ever wish you could go back in time and experience things they way they used to be? The genius thing about living online is that you can - all your favourite blogs are there, archived forever. And they don't just hang around for future humiliation ("OMG I can't believe I wore/thought/said/wrote that?!") Oh no, I really do think there's a lot to be learnt from looking backwards at how other people have improved - particularly if you are struggling with how to to take your own blog to the next level.Read more...
August 8, 2012
Over the past 7 months I've interviewed some of the most amazing and incredible people. It's been one hell of a trip! I've loved delving deeper into what makes these critters tick and sharing their wonderousness with you. I hope you've enjoyed the ride too. But from now on, I'm going to morph the Inspirations feature into sharing some of the most inspiring business/life realated titbits that I find on my travels around the interwebz. I hope you enjoy them. I'd personally like to print every single one of these things out and stick them up around my office. Who's with me?Read more...
August 7, 2012
AARRRGRAAASSSTTTEEEERRRRRPHUUUDDGEEEEEE... ...is the noise my brain makes when it feels like it's literally 2 seconds away from exploding with information overload. And yours? We've all been there. There's too much to do and there's too little time to do it in. There's someone calling you and there's a zillion people emailing you. Your mental 'to do' list is longer than your arm and you don't know where to start. So save from allowing your brain to explode all over your computer screen, how do you deal with stress? If you Google 'dealing with stress' there are a million and one websites with lists of things you can do to combat those dreaded stressful episodes, however these are the things that work for me...Read more...
August 3, 2012
I often get asked how can someone take their wedding photography business to the next level? Today I am going to give you some examples of things I did that worked for me, and offer some pointers for the direction you could go in. These are from my perspective on the industry. Sadly I'm not going to give you a magic formula to success but can start by saying that sheer hard graft plays a large part. What makes me qualified to talk about this? Well a few years ago I was maybe a lot like you. I was trundling along nicely and year on year the bookings came in. Yes, I was probably getting a little complacent.... If things were looking quiet I would take out an ad somewhere or submit to a magazine and boom, the phone was ringing again. But then things really slooooooowed down. My home life had been super busy... Hello two small blondes who are the best thing I have ever done but also the most demanding. Looking back I have no idea how I juggled things or got myself to any weddings at all but I did keep working. Then when the Winter kicked in and I had time to review the business, I was a little bit concerned that the next year's diary wasn't very booked up and being completely honest I wasn't that excited about many of the weddings.Read more...
August 1, 2012
Someone once said "Your dream job does not exist, you must create it" and never is this more prevalant than in the blogging game. There are few rules, there are limited guides and the most sucessful players are those that forge their own paths and do something unique. So how then, can you know where to turn when you start to feel sluggish? When the dreaded plateau hits? Or when you feel fresh out of ideas? I read an interesting article by Penelope Trunk, entitled, "Reality check: You're not going to make money from your blog" last week. In it she said, "Almost everyone should forget about making money directly from blogging. It’s so unlikely that it’s a total waste of your time trying. I am actually shocked at how ubiquitous the idea is that blogging is a get-rich-quick scheme. Or even a get-rich-slowly scheme. It’s not. Blogging is a great career tool for creating opportunities for yourself."Read more...
July 31, 2012
Beautiful photographs are our bread and butter. They're eye-catching, enticing and transcend language barriers. But they are often the heaviest elements on a web page and so they're the focus of today's article on speeding up your site.Read more...
July 27, 2012
Work friends are a strange concept. You're thrown together 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and expected to not only get on but to combine your differences to work together. And then you're expected to want to hang out in your own time, go to office parties... oh and add each other on facebook too. If not you're bring rude right? I guess that's why, no matter how much we say it won't happen, when you leave a place of work you rarely end up keeping much contact with these people. There are exceptions of course, but as harsh as it sounds, when the inevitable does happen it usually becomes pretty obvious that the friendships were never really that genuine in the first place.Read more...