NoBs Digital Dogbowl
The NoBs Digital Dogbowl Newsletter:
Keeping you up to date and informed on the latest, coolest, and outrageous happenings inside the world of NoBS Photo Success.
Loaded with Free photography tips, Photoshop tutorials, photo reviews,
and other totally relevant essentials. Be sure to check out the whole thing!
Hungry for more? Visit our digital photography forum.
February 2008 Digital Dogbowl
SELL, SELL, SELL by Rob Provencher
Selling. It's a huge universe. As we struggle to try and get a handle on the art of selling, and try to incorporate selling tactics into our photography business, we soon realize that selling ain't as easy as a simple three step plan. Or, we think selling is some evil act that only a few low-lifes and lesser than humans lower themselves to. 'God forbid, me, the 'arteeeeest', would have to 'sell' anything...yeesshhhhhh!! puuuuleeaaazeeeee.'
The truth is, selling is essential. Some of the best 'arteeessstss' throughout history were not afraid to sell, and sell hard. There is no shame in selling. As Zig Ziglar, the guru of selling, would say: "Shy salespeople have skinny kids."
A True Story by James Hodgins
Last week, I got an email from a woman stating that she almost booked a wedding photographer because of MY photography. What? I don't understand. Well, it seems that another photographer (in a nearby city) had been using my images in their portfolio to book weddings. After much searching and puzzle piecing, I managed to figure out exactly what was going on. It seems that this "photographer" managed to save the images onto her computer from facebook and then proceeded to print off 4x6 prints. She would also send prospective brides an email with all the files attached, and even the filenames were not changed. This prospective bride sent me the email that came directly from the photographer, and low and behold, all my images were in there. I checked this photographer's website (blog) and noticed that none of my images were on there. Well, good, but I still couldn't prove that my images were being used in violation of copyright.
Using Photoshop As Your Idea Sketchpad by Bill Guy
I am a doodler as I think most artists are. In fact, this was one of the first things my wife noticed on my college notes as to how interested I was in a subject was the ratio of cartoons to words on the page. Well, I still doodle whenever I have a blank piece of paper and any kind of writing implement, but now I will often use Photoshop as my sketch pad.
Photoshop is more or less the world’s best sketch pad. After all, you have a pencil tool for freehand drawing and a paint brush with million of colors. (You can even color both inside and outside lines) If you have a tablet, then it is just like a piece of paper.
Buyer Beware: NoBS Member Scammed
Many of us have had reasonably good luck buying used photographic items on eBay. Photography equipment is not exactly a specialty area where one would expect to be scammed. Unfortunately, NoBS member Kristi found out the hard way that this is not necessarily the case. She was recently duped by a dishonest seller out of $800 for lighting equipment she never received.
Fortunately, Kristi's story ended well with NoBS members pitching in to help her recuperate some of the money and embark on a new marketing campaign to bring in some much-needed cash for equipment. To read that thread click here.
When using eBay, it is extremely important to pay attention to a user's ratings/feedback and payment methods accepted (Western Union being a big red flag as we have just discovered). An interesting way one scammer was recently smoked out was when they were to sent an e-mail about the item they purported to be selling. The response received was that they were not selling such an item. Sounds fishy, right? It turns out their eBay user id had been phished by a thief. Another good thing to look at is if the seller normally sells the type of equipment you are interested in buying. If this item seems very out of place with what they have typically sold, then another red flag should be going up. For some more tips on how to avoid being scammed, read this ezine article.
The point here is not to avoid eBay all together, but to be better informed and careful before making any large purchases. You can actually get some fantastic deals through honest sellers; you just have to circumnavigate the sharks first.
Monthly Marketing Strategies
If you are relatively new to photography or are just in need of a creative and financial shot in the arm, a monthly marketing calendar giving you some ideas and projects to work on throughout the year may be just the ticket. We are calling on all members to please submit their ideas, visions, plans on the forum in the 2008 NoBS Monthly Marketing Thread.
There is also a wonderful link in this thread, which was supplied by Riff for Marathon Press' Monthly Marketing guide for studios.
Silverlake Group Buy Returns!
After about a month or so off, NoBS member and vendor, Travis Gadsby announced the latest dates to vote for the group buy discount on Silverlake Backgrounds. Voting took place February 12 through 19th. To see the results of the vote, click
here. There's also a new twist to the voting that you'll want to read about at the beginning of the thread.
Team Steve Workshop Announced!
The undeniable masters of senior photography on NoBS, Steve and Shelley Harrington, recently announced that they will be putting on a workshop geared towards senior photography.
NoBS members are hopping on board to grab a spot because Steve and Shelley's work is consistently dynamic, unique, and exciting. Not to mention, it's an opportunity to learn from an award-winning team that's been honored by WPPI on numerous occasions.
The workshop is tentatively scheduled for June 2008 in Salt Lake City, Utah. For more details, read here.
Next NoBS Monthly Chat Guest Announcement
My guest for the next Chat Room meeting is none other than the person with the most posts on our forum....you guessed it, Kris G.
As most of you know, Kris is a full time teacher but is also in the process of setting up her own photography studio. Kris will be talking about her journey into photography and how she was able to improve so much in a couple of years.
The meeting will take place on Sunday night March 9th at 9pm (New York time).
Let's have a big crowd for my guest who also happens to be one of the most helpful member on the forum.
Looking forward to a fun meeting!
Dan aka The NoBS Stalker
Chat Room Moderator
Member of the Month: Peppypea
My name is Amy Coe and I am a happily married mother of three. I never anticipated that I would become a business woman. Never. When I started a family I thought I would be the mommy who volunteered at school, cleaned house and baked cookies. Lots of them. I guess I didn't know myself very well. By the time my youngest was 6-months-old I realized something was missing in my life. I started photographing my children- a lot. My husband bought me my first digital camera- a Sony Mavica. It was a nifty camera that used floppy disks for memory. I was blown away with what that little-less-than-a-megapixel camera could do! Shortly after John gave me my camera my Mom got me "How to Photograph Your Baby" by Nick Kelsh. My world changed that day. I learned about using ambient light, not using my on camera flash and just looking for natural moments, not big cheesy Wal-Mart grins.
Using Wordpress For Your Blog
If you are trying to get into blogging, Wordpress may be just the blog for you. Many NoBS members are currently using and singing its praises because of its ease of use and customizability. If you are interested in learning some of the features, check out this link for WordPress. This is not to say that NoBS is making an official endorsement, because there are other well known blog services available, but it does seem to provide the best bang for your dollar (yes, we know it's free, which is why it's even more impressive that it is the blog of choice among many successful photographers).
If you happen to use GoDaddy.com as your webserver, our resident website optimization guru, NoBS member Rob O. has graciously added a tutorial on setting up your WordPress blog through GoDaddy.com . To see this thread, click here.
Still not sold on blogging? We came across this article which discusses five reasons you need to have a blog for your business.
NoBS February Photo of the Month
Congrats to Steve & Shelley for creating this month's photo. "Pretty simple shot - we didn't really do much ourselves. We just had a storm come through a day before this shoot, so fresh powder on top. The snow was pretty deep and we weren't sure how Daisy, the horse, would react to the deep snow - she's not a trail horse, she an arena horse. We had really bright conditions with all the snow - just one giant reflector. Almost to bright. We decided on the even lighting vs having Sarah and Daisy in their own shade. We just had her ride across the front of us 3 or 4 times and just fired a bunch of shots, and would sort them out in post. It wasn't very cold at all actually and this outdoor session took us about 1 1/5 hours total. This was something Sarah had always dreamed of she told us and was thrilled to be able to do it. Mom - on the other hand, wasn't so happy having her wedding gown draped over the back end of a horse. Wedding dress + horse poo = stressed out mom!"
This month Rob brings us an exciting interview with Sarah Murphy (aka SarahM). Sarah talks to Rob about how she became involved in photography and about how her business has grown since she joined NoBS a couple of years ago. To hear the interview, click here.
Robert Provencher is doing some research to see if there is enough interest in a monthly marketing and success newsletter combined with coaching. Check out the details here.
Have you jumped on the NoBS Link Swap bandwagon yet? Many members are taking advantage and seeing a positive difference in their website rankings. If you have not yet done this, please go to this thread. It's not too late and members who are participating are encouraged to update on a weekly basis as more NoBS members join in the fun. Thanks to NoBS member Rob O. for diligently updating the master list and helping out fellow NoBS members who may not have experience with html.
This month's video features Hodgy showing you how he creates his wall panels in Photoshop. Use this tutorial to help increase your sales.
New Family Portraiture Tutorial Thread
Many members have asked for more information on doing family portraiture and NoBS cofounder Rob Provencher has once again come through for NoBS members. Rob has created a new thread dedicated to condensing all of the family portraiture tutorials as well as adding new ones. To see this new thread click here.
NoBS member/vendor TimesTwoStudios, takes the burden of doing workflow off the very busy hands of photographers here on the forum and elsewhere. Check out their website, www.greatretouching.com to see what they have to offer. If you find yourself become busier than ever thanks to NoBS, then you owe it to yourself to delegate some of the work.
If you have reached the 1,000-post mark, you need to PM James (hodgy) for a new title. Otherwise, you will heretofore be known as "PM hodgy with a title". Congrats and thanks for being an actively participating NoBS member!
Here's a wonderful tutorial on using your lightmeter with studio flash. Hodgy graciously takes you through the steps of successful metering in this awesome download. To see it go here.
Photographing and Marketing For Babies and Children Update
In case you missed it, Rob has updated the thread on marketing and photography for babies and children. Check in on this thread as Rob will be updating this regularly with up-to-the minute techniques to put your babies and children photography business into overdrive.
This one is straight from NoBS member and SEO expert Rob O. Read this thread to find out what you can do in addition to the reciprocal links to get your rankings to shoot through the roof. He's also offering a limited-time special only to NoBS members. Click here.
NoBS member geoff recently found a diy site which demonstrates how to make a homemade flash grid. He successfully built one for himself and showed his test shots on this thread.
Did you know that Photocreative rents equipment? Here's a pdf from Photocreative, they now Rent DSLR's and lenses so if you want to test run them before you buy, this is the place. Download PDF