It seems that the Nashville photography industry is getting quite the reputation! Everywhere we go lately, we keep hearing from photographers in other areas about how envious they are of the community we have here among photographers. It is absolutely true that we have a great community of which we are very proud. We are extremely fortunate to be able to call so many of our fellow Nashville photographers our best friends and being a part of this community has enriched our lives in so many ways. The reason I bring it up though, is not to brag on our group (even though we really do have a great group!). I bring it up to encourage all of the rest of you that you can have a great sense of community in your town too and we would like to help you figure out how.

We hear so many objections. The consensus seems to be that Nashville contains only the kindest photographers who naturally came together and this has always been the case. There isn’t that kind of comradery in other areas and so it’s assumed that there simply can’t be. The truth of the matter is that when Sean and I got started in this industry 5 or 6 years ago, we heard all the same things about Nashville that you hear about your town. We heard that it’s a cut-throat industry, that no one talks to each other, and that everyone sees other photographers as competition only. Below are the steps we took as a group to change that thinking and build community here in Nashville:

1. Seek out like-minded individuals. We knew we didn’t feel the way as outlined above, so we knew there had to be others who felt the same. I’m sure there is at least one other photographer where you live who shares your desire to have photographer friends.
2. Even if it’s just a few of you, start getting together. Arrange to do a shoot together just for fun or go see a movie. The content of your time together doesn’t really matter – it’s all just about building genuine relationships. We started with just a small group of us. We found those like-minded individuals and set a date for dinner. We all enjoyed ourselves so much that we kept setting monthly dates which brings me to my next point,
3. Be consistent. Be the one who takes charge and sends the evite every month. Waiting for someone to plan something sometime in the future doesn’t make it happen. Take the initiative and put it on the calendar!
4. Spread the word! We left it as an open invitation to whomever would like to join us and used the “tell your friends” strategy. So it happened that our group grew and grew until restaurants really weren’t practical anymore because the group was just so big! We moved to people’s homes and Sean and I love having our photographer friends frequent our house regularly.
5. Look for and/or start meetup groups through organizations as a way to easily bring everyone together. We still have fairly regular get togethers outside of organizations, but somewhere along the way, the Pictage User Group sprung up, and now the Smug Meetup Group which make it convenient for us all to gather.
6. Genuinely look to invest in personal relationships, not networking affiliations. This is so key guys. The photographers in Nashville are our friends first – not our business associates. We started getting together to hang out and then later to share with each other more and more, both about our businesses and our lives, because we truly care about each other and have come to trust each other on a personal level. We attend each other’s birthday parties, these are the people who came to see us as soon as our son was born. We attend monthly meetings like PUG and SMUG more so to spend time with our friends than even to learn. There is no “networking” here! As you seek out others, set the precedent that your group is formed around caring about others, not seeing what you can get from each other.
7. Lastly, don’t be discouraged! You might start small, people might be hesitant at first, and along the way there will definitely be those who try to come in and take advantage, but know that you’re building something worth working for! Nashville’s reputation for it’s amazing community of photographers didn’t just happen one day. It happened over time because we all made the effort to get to know each other and become friends. You can have that where you live too.

We hope this has been helpful and that you’ll find the kind of friendships among other photographers that we have found. And to our Nashville photographer community – we love you guys! Thank you for opening up to us and allowing us to call you friends. :0)

As I went through everyone’s facebook pages last night (thanks in advance for letting me snag images from your pages guys!), I realized that we really only take photos at Christmas parties and conventions.  Sooo, here’s a few fun photos of just some of the wonderful people we’ve come to know here in Nashville!

Because I pulled these off Facebook, I’m not sure who took what so here’s a list of credits for who I think took some of these images.  Sorry if I missed you!  Shoot me an email and I’ll add your credit! :0)

Gregory Byerline

Peter Carlson

Joan Evans

You may have seen the leaked information on the new iPhone that should be coming out in a couple of months–exciting stuff!  That got me to thinking: we have had iPhones since the first generation, and we use them ALL THE TIME.  They are fantastic on their own, but there are some apps out there that really make the iPhone shine.  What might some of those apps be, you ask?  Well, let’s take a look:

For Business:

Milebug ($1.99)

We use Milebug every time we get in our car.  Your mileage is only tax deductible if you keep a detailed log; I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but if you are, paper and pencil isn’t going to work for this.

Milebug saves your commonly used locations, can track both personal and business mileage, and can track mileage for multiple cars.  It will also generate PDF forms that you can email to yourself and print off for written proof of mileage for THE MAN.  It also calculates and shows you how much of a tax deduction you get for each trip you enter.  This is motivating to continue making sure you update the log every time you get in the car.  In January, we drove to East Tennessee for our first wedding of 2010.  $251.35 tax deduction.

Awesome.

Mint (Free)

Before we switched to Mac last year, I used to spend every morning downloading/typing in/updating all of our financial records in Quicken.  In addition to being Lameosaurus Rex, I would always miss one or two things here or there, and then I’d have to dig through all the transactions and figured out HOW my totals were off by $0.57 or some other ridiculously small amount.

At the time, Quicken wasn’t available for Mac, so I looked for new solutions.  Enter: Mint.com.  Wow.  Why didn’t someone think of this before?  You can access almost all of your financial records online; why do you need to type them in manually, then download them manually, and then match the downloaded transactions to your manually entered transactions?  Mint.com just automatically connects to your accounts, and automatically updates them all.  You can categorize them to the proper tax categories, you can create budgets, and best of all everything syncs to the iPhone automatically.  Not only has this saved me over an hour every week, but putting together my 2008 taxes was the easiest and fastest year, yet.

Shazam (Free)

If you’re not using Shazam, you should be.  Ever since I first downloaded this program, I was amazed by the fact that it actually works.  You just open it up, hit the ‘tag’ button, and it will listen to 30 seconds of any song that is playing… Then it searches a music database, and returns the details of the song.  Artist, song title, album, and a link to purchase via iTunes.  How do we use this?  At wedding receptions, of course.  I’ll tag music that the crowd is really into, and then make note of it so I can play those songs and similar songs when our clients come in to see their wedding images.  It turns out that for whatever weird reason that everybody doesn’t like exactly the same music that I do.  So, hooray for Shazam, and hooray for the fact that it is FREE.

Things ($9.99)

Are you using the GTD (Getting Things Done) method for task management/to-do/goals?  We don’t utilize the full GTD system, but we do try and use the task management portion in addition to setting and achieving our goals.  I’ve tried many to-do iPhone apps, and Things has been the best, so far.  It is simple, intuitive, and it syncs with the desktop version.

Having said that, no matter which program you use, even if it’s a pencil and paper, you should be using something.  Justin & Mary Marantz reminded me a few months ago that 80% of Americans have no goals at all.  That’s right.  It’s not that 80% don’t keep track of their goals—80% don’t have any goals AT ALL.  16% of Americans do have goals, but they don’t write them down, leaving only 4% that do write them down!  And only 1% review their goals regularly.  I don’t have a fancy chart in front of me, but I’m sure if you made a chart showing various income distributions in this country, that you could overlay a chart of goal tracking, and there would be a HUGE correlation.  If $9.99 helps put you in the write down/keep track category, then you should get this app yesterday!

For Fun:

I Am T-Pain ($2.99)

Wow.  Wow. Wow.

For a mere $2.99, you can sing into your iPhone mic, flip the on switch, and you too can be T-Pain.  Seriously.  Five minutes ago, I was T-Pain.  Five minutes from now, I could be T-Pain again.  The best part is that after I’m finished being T-Pain, I can go back to being Sean.  No big deal.  Just like that.

I really enjoy writing impromptu songs about whatever I happen to be doing at any given time.  Here, let me share. If I was writing/singing out loud right now, my song might go something like this:

“I’m writing a bloooog post… about iPhone apppppps…  I’m not sure yet…. How many apps Imma recommend…  But when I figure it oooooout….. I’ll update the blog post tiiiiitle….  With the number of appppps….  That I recommmmmmended!”

Yes.  Now imagine THAT…   but in T-PAIN voice!

THAT. JUST. HAPPENED.

And so I repeat: Wow. Wow. Wow.

Honorable Mention: Trapster (Free)

Nobody who is reading this ever speeds, right?  You know, because that would be wrong and against the law and stuff.  Well now that we’ve determined that this app wouldn’t have any use for me, or anyone else who is reading right now…  Let’s just veer off into Hypotheticaland and say that someone was interested in knowing where speed traps are set up.  Why would someone want that information?  I have NO idea—that would be crazy to be interested in that information!  But if someone did, enter: Trapster.

Trapster has push notifications, so you don’t have to have the program open and running; however, it is dependent upon other Trapster users flagging speed traps and submitting them to Trapster in order to notify other users…  So, it doesn’t always have everything listed.  In addition to this,  with push notifications, you might not hear/see the notification by the time you are being pulled over.  Also, if you pass a speed trap, I’m not really seeing how realistic it would be to submit a report to Trapster as you’re passing by…  Because as you’re clicking the flag button, you’ll probably get pulled over for texting even if you weren’t speeding.

So…  I’m not going to count this one as a recommendation.  “A” for effort; but maybe this one will improve with time.

Five. Five iPhone apps.  T-Pain: “Fiiiiiiiive iPhone aaaaaaaapps… that are aweeeeesome!”

Bonus Feature: It’s a Phone!

Yeah.  You read that correctly. Did you know that on top of all this other stuff that you can make calls with these things?  I know.  Incredible!  It does so many awesome things that sometimes you forget its a phone.  Well, forget no more–now you know.

What is your favorite/most useful iPhone app?  Leave your comments, below!

5. Never stop learning.

The moment you think you’ve come far enough and become stagnant, you WILL be left behind. Make sure that no matter how busy you get, you always make time to stay ahead of the curve. Amazing advances are happening in our industry right now, and there are new people getting into it all the time. One advantage new photographers have is plenty of time to be looking at the latest and greatest. Why? Because they don’t have a big backlog of work built up.

Set aside time to always continue educating yourself. Put it on your to-do list and calendar. Once that time is on the calendar, don’t push it back because other things come up. Innovating may not seem important at the time, but it will seem really important if you don’t do it. You’ll come to realize that things have advanced so far so fast that you don’t even know where to begin and will feel like giving up before you even start. Don’t let this happen to you!

What are some ways you can keep learning today? Assess your strengths and weaknesses and determine the areas you’d like to focus on. Then, take a look around to see what avenues you can use to improve. Workshops, conventions, forums, webinars, and educational blogs are a great place to start. Give yourself an allotted time every week whether it be 30 minutes or a few hours. Some tools are free and some you pay for; but something that is always free is practice! So you’re not good at shooting in harsh lighting conditions – grab a friend and practice in the harshest light you can find. Find a technique you’d like to implement on an educational blog and try it out. Search out threads on forums where people are talking about topics that are of interest to you. Engage, take initiative, and make things happen! There are many ways to stretch yourself and learn at your own pace, with the time you have at hand. The main thing is this: Get out there and do it.

So—what are you waiting for?

4. Consistency is key

Make sure you are striving to deliver a complete high quality body of work for each and every one of your clients; not just shooting for one or two “money shots.” Think about it from the bride’s perspective; chances are that your clients have looked through featured galleries on your website of your favorite work; maybe they’ve met you in person and seen a couple of albums that are the best ones you’ve put together. This is how they view you and your work and this is what they hired you for. They probably aren’t thinking about the 99% of your work that they haven’t seen, and how maybe that might not measure up to what you’ve featured.

What happens when you share the images with your clients from their wedding day, and there are one or two shots that match the quality of what you presented before they booked you, but everything else is lackluster by comparison; when it’s all just “the rest”? It’s like buying an album with one good song on it. You usually leave that transaction feeling like it was a waste of money, right? It’s disappointing.

Take a look at iTunes and how $0.99 for picking and choosing just your favorite songs has completely turned the industry on its head. What if every song was the quality of the singles? What if every photograph was meaningful? What if every photograph was great quality?

Delivering a huge variety of fantastic images is really going to set you apart and your clients will love you for it. Is this tip make-or-break? Probably not if you’re at a lower to mid range price point—assuming that you are delivering a body of work that’s technically sound, of course. So no, this isn’t a must—but just remember: These are tips on “How to be a Successful Wedding Photographer” not tips on “How to Be a Decent Wedding Photographer”

3. Network with other vendors

The truth is that ads no longer work like they used to. We’re inundated with them. For real success, you need to be building relationships. And the best part is, the more you help other people, the more they will help you.

I realize that everyone is saying “network” right now, and I feel like the word “networking” has got somewhat of a bad feeling attached to it. I think that one of the reasons for this is people are just going through the motions because someone told them to. Often times they don’t really care about making real connections or really helping someone, it’s just about passing out as many business cards as you possibly can. Have you been to a corporate sponsored “networking event” where someone rushes up to you and says “Hi, my name is John, here’s my card, will you refer me?Thanks!” and then they immediately move on to the next person without another word? I intentionally left no space between the question and “Thanks!” because they didn’t even leave a second for you to even respond to them.

When I say “networking,” I’m not referring to the cold, lifeless cousin of speed dating that I just mentioned. I’m talking about real relationships. Have you had success in your business? Can you help another vendor who is struggling? Can you make some time to get together with other vendors and just go do something non work related? How many of you have essentially become your business? It might be a huge help to you to just go out and have some fun, and at the same time it could be a big gift to another vendor in your same situation who just needs someone to show up and make it happen for them.

What do you do with all of those extra leads that come in for days that you’re booked? Leads that are outside of your travel area? Leads that are outside of your beginning pricing? Make a strong recommendation that they check out your friends. It’s one thing to just send an email that says “we’re booked, good luck calling XYZ photography.” What if you actually talked to the potential clients to find out what drew them to your style? What if you found out some more details about their wedding—where is it? What sort of budget are they working with? Tell them you’ll make some calls and find someone who’s available for them, rather than sending them on the never-ending vendor search.

We’ve had people we’ve gone the extra mile in making personal recommendations for, and they were so thankful for the extra time we spent with them, that they referred their friends to us later, even though they didn’t hire us. This does take some extra time, but it’s more than worth it. We’ve also been developing the world’s first intelligent networking tool for wedding professionals that is designed to do exactly this, but it removes the legwork. I’m not going to go into details on that right now, but we’ve been beta testing for a few months now, and it’s been nothing short of fantastic!

I have ridiculous amounts of ideas on the specifics of how to go about networking with people, and I will be sharing those—this topic could go on forever. In the meantime, to get you started, just keep in mind the foundation: that it’s about real relationships, and really helping people out. “Go out to lunch” with other vendors is a great start that I hear all the time; but don’t expect that because you ate a sandwich with a wedding planner that they are going to magically start sending you a mountain of referrals.  Invest time and effort into people, and they will invest time and effort into you.