Gabby

A few weeks ago I read this beautifully written article about why couples should invest in a wedding album as part of their photography package. It describes my feelings exactly and I highly recommend you read it and consider it when making your decision. “of all the things you spend money on for your wedding, your wedding photographs are the ONLY thing that will increase in value over time. As the years pass, you’ll be more and more glad that you have them. Especially, if you can experience looking through them by flipping through a gorgeous custom-designed album instead of sitting in front of your computer and clicking “next” with your mouse.” I encourage all my clients to make this investment and I’m very happy to be able to offer gorgeous custom designed fine art albums for them with a matching presentation box, the kind that I’d love to have if I was a bride.(it goes without saying that you can order yours in different colors and sizes )

I just received Adam & Monika’s engagement album in the mail so I decided to share a few imaged with you so you can see this amazingness for yourselves. I hope you like it!

A few weeks ago I published a blog post asking you to post any questions you might have for me. I am an open book when it comes to my business and photography and if I can help anyone out there just starting their journey I´d be delighted to! I remember very clearly how clueless, lost and hungry for information I was when I first started so as promised, I´m very happy to answer any questions you may have for me.

I´ve received quite a few questions to which I´ll be responding in this FAQ series. First of all I wanted to answer the number one question I get ALL THE TIME! How did I start? Did I have any formal training? How did I manage to get bookings all over the world?

It´s a biggie so bear with me while I try to explain what I did and how I did it and believe me… if I can do it, ANYONE CAN!!!! So let´s get started!

1. Learn your craft

2. Set up a strong brand and online presence

3. Network & be kind

4. Go above and beyond for your clients

In my very first blog post I have talked about my story a little bit. Basically I had a big corporate job I didn´t enjoy and was desperatly looking for myself and for my calling in life. One day I decided I wanted to be a photographer (never have I owned anything more than a cheap point and shoot before, with zero photography training). It was a very far fetched dream, but one I decided to put as much effort into as I possibly could. After I bought my first DSLR (It was the cheapest Nikon DSLR on the market) I signed up to photo school, but left after 6 months as I wanted to learn the practical ins and outs of photography and Photoshop, while the school was more focused on developing my artistic sense and knowledge… which is great if you have time, but I wanted knowledge and I wanted it FAST!!!! I started shooting everyone I knew… for free….. there are no shortcuts when it comes to getting experience. You have to put yourself out there and you have to hustle…! I hired a Photoshop teacher and took private classes twice a week until I was confident enough in my craft. I think it´s very important you get to know your camera in and out and learn to edit before you even think about starting a business. It takes time and practice (a LOOOOT of practice) but you wouldn´t want to use other people´s precious weddings as your learning field would you? I also started second shooting for other photographers, to get some experience in weddings before I ever thought of shooting a wedding on my own. What I learned is that there is soooooo much information out there! These days you can pretty much learn everything online in your own time! I follow photography blogs, I watched a gazillion Creative Live classes I got obsessed with the Framed Network and read every photography and business books anyone has ever recommended to me (I still do!). The System is also a fantastic well of information for anyone just starting out!

Once I was confident enough that photography is my dream and what I wanted to do in life, I went part time with my job and then eventually quit when I could make just enough money to survive (this was about a year after my photography journey has started).

I wrote a proper business plan and got started… I think it´s crucially important to know who you are and what kind of photographer you want to be! One of the best decisions I made for my business was to work very hard on my online presence before things kicked off, instead of just throwing something temporary up online. It´s a long and tiring process, but one that´s worth its weight in gold. Getting a blog, website, a logo and all social media outlets set up takes time, but not necessarily as much money as one would think. I designed my own logo and blog (based on a cheap template) and built my own Showit website (based on a Sitehouse Design template). Don´t get me wrong, if you have the means to hire a professional please do it, but I didn´t so I decided to do it the hard way, wth trial and error, endless googling and many many long and frustrating nights…..

Here is where things got really hard. You think you´re good enough to get started doing what you love, you spent months on working hard on your branding and marketing… why is noone calling???Well… because how would they know about you??? One of the most important lessons I´ve learned… you cannot be a wallflower! If you never ask the answer will always be no… if you never try you´ll never succeed!!! So I started asking…. first my friends to see if they knew anyone who was getting married or just wanted some shots taken (I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to specialize in weddings and love sessions so I focused on these), then I wrote to other photographers I liked to see if I could second shoot for them (for free….. or rather for the right to use some of those images for my portfolio), then I wrote to wedding planners….

At this point I was getting frustrated… I did get a few sessions and weddings through friends, but very few photographers were interested in me second shooting for them and the response from wedding planners was close to zero. I knew I had to change something. My big dilemma was that I didnt have a proper wedding portfolio to show, but I wasnt getting enough weddings and second shooting opportunities to set up a good portfolio. A real pickle isn´t it? The answer: fake it till you make it!!! I decided to set up my own wedding shoots! I was very confident in my photography, I knew everything anyone could possible learn online or from books, watched dozens of workshops, I was ready to go….

I asked some friends to model for me, ocassionally I asked modeling agencies for girls who needed portfolio pieces, I contacted wedding vendors to see if they wanted to lend me some pieces for shoots and that´s when things started moving… I finally was able to show that I have a vision, that I can take beautiful, emotional pictures and these vendors were more than happy te let me use their venues, clothes, flowers…etc in exchange for some pretty pictures they could use for their own promotion as well. My portfolio started to build, I kept trying with other photographers whose work I adored and a few more let me tag along to their weddings. In fact some of them liked my work so much they started recommending me to their clients when they were booked for a date. Some of these clients started inquiring for dates I was booked already! Holy moly! I realized something very important…. if you do good work and other photographers know about you, they will start recommending you! JACKPOT!

I set up meetings with local photographers I really liked to get to know each other, share our experiences and with some of them we started sending clients to each other. (you know…. what goes around comes around) It was by far the most fun marketing elements of my business… taking people out for coffee and chatting about geeky photography stuff… some of them even became my best friends.

Then I started getting recommendations from THOSE vendors I liked so much, who did me a favor before and were gracious enough to help me set up my shoots. They liked my photos so they started sending clients to me! Brilliant, I started inviting them out for coffee too…. are you starting to see a pattern here! NETWORKING NETWORKING NETWORKING!!!!!!

Do good things and good things will happen to you, and most importantly make sure that everyone that hires you gets the best possible experience with you and your photography. I go above and beyond to make my clients happy as ultimately I want them to love their experience and their photographs and recommend me to their friends. But as the question was about getting started….. you need to shoot a lot of weddings to get a lot of recommendations and noone seems to talk about how to get those first 15 – 20 weddings so again, my advise is: NETWORK like there´s no tomorrow! What do you have to lose? Sure not everyone I contacted wanted to have coffee with me, but some of those who did became great advisors, business alliances and some of them real friends.

Ok, that´s all great for local business but how did you start shooting weddings all over Europe and even in the states you might ask? Well I was always very clear on what I wanted…. travel and photograph people in love. I´m lucky to have friends all over the world, so what do you think I did when I visited them? I set up shoots with them or with some of their friends…. for example, one of my best friends Agi lives in Paris, so when I visited her in Paris just after she got engaged it was a no brainer I would take some photos of her with her then fiance. I published the photos on my blog (learned a bit about SEO) and bammmm…. write in engagement session in Paris in google and I´ll come up in the first page. You want to work more in a specific market? Go out there, set up some shoots (remember its to market you in that specific location, so don´t worry too much about getting paid, rather find people who are happy to help you execute your vision), contact some local photographers and vendors and it WILL happen!

I must add though I havent yet found the absolute one and only secret recipe for booking clients abroad. Some of them find me online, some of them get recommended by friends, by other photographers, some of them see my work published in wedding blogs (Also very important) and some of them I book at random places like Instagram! (true story!

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In a not so little nutshell this is how I´ve started and this is what I´m still doing… put yourself out there, do good work, be kind and see what happens. It´s NOT easy but oh so worth it! If you have read all this congratulations, you´re a hero! Now go and rock n roll!

P.S: Big thanks to my friend Jessica for shooting these fun photos of me…..