Bridezilla: How To Tame The Beast

If you've been doing weddings for some time now, you've had your fair share of bridezillas. It's inevitable. They exist and wait in hiding for the most inexperienced and innocent amongst us to mercilessly devour.

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Why Blog?

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the term blog is short for weblog. The term blog is often used as a verb meaning to "to write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog." Ok, now that we have that out of the way, what's the story behind the creation of the blog? Well, that's another kettle of fish we'd rather not dig through. It seems there is no clear answer as to what the first blog was or who created it. But that's not the point.

Blogging in its simplest and most innocent form is another means of communication which we have created for ourselves in order to stay connected with each other and the world. It gives our hopes, dreams, and experiences a stage to perform. It gives people an opportunity to empathize, sympathize, or disagree. The internet has allowed us to become more of a global community, but blogging has given us the opportunity to interact with each other on a much deeper level in cyberspace.

Because blogs are free for the most part, millions of people have them. In turn, because millions of people have blogs, businesses have developed their own blogs to humanize themselves and be a "regular joe" in order to connect with their consumers. It is a subversive way to get into the hearts and minds of the consumer without them even knowing they are being sucked in. Photographers are no different and are no less innocent in their intentions (evil grin).

As photographers, we now know the importance of having and maintaining a blog. It's a great way to show our latest work without having to spend hours upon hours rewriting html code in order to upload a new image. It's easy and it's fast. It's also a way to make the customer feel as if they are part of a special inner circle or family. You can't get any more personal than that. Another added benefit is that there's no obvious sales pressure. You are connecting with the customer on a personal level. Once that connection is made, they won't want to look elsewhere for another photographer because they feel they know the real you. You have invited them into your "home".

If you have not already started a blog, consider doing so. You can obtain a free account through blogger.com. If you want something very polished and high end, check out Typepad.

Good luck and happy blogging!

Marketing Ideas for Photographers: 10 Low Cost Ideas

Marketing your photography studio does not have to be expensive. I've used hundreds of low cost marketing strategies over the last twenty-five years and managed to build my photography studio to the point where I am one of the busiest and most successful studios in my city. Here are a few tips for you.

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NoBS News

More good news for NoBS member Brian, who specializes in Senior portraits:

Hello all,
I just got a call yesterday and was told I will be interviewed in two weeks for a spot in the August edition of Studio Photographer Magazine. The August issue is a Senior Edition Special and they are going to talk to a few Photogs & feature their work and I am one of them. I'm pretty stoked! I just wanted to share that with all of you! Thanks to everyone for helping me thru the years, I look forward to continuing my education here at NOBS!
Thanks again for listening...
-B

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NoBS Babies

In other lovely news, NoBS members are in the family way these days: Soup and his family are expecting a baby boy and gloryshots and his wife recently welcomed a baby boy.

Congrats!

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Some other news from the Top Dog, Rob:

• Cozumel videos are up and available in the Dangerous Downloads section.
• Interviews are up to date with most now available in PDF form.
• The Inferno is good to go. The Inferno Alumni have already been notified of an early bird offer for the 2007 three-day event, Nov 5-7, and registrations are flooding in. The regular signup link will be announced after July 1, 2007. Here's the preliminary info.

Blogging With A Twist

It is true that each and every NoBS member has something special to contribute to NoBS, but it's not often you will find a NoBS member making a such palpable impact on so many professional photographers. New member Mai Cheri is such a person who, within a short period of time, has managed to garner an incredible amount of attention for her novel blog, Pay It Forward Photography Resources And It's Free. Here is her story about her blog and how it came about.

"It started out when I recieved something from a fellow photographer, and I offered money for it, and they wouldnt accept it, they said to "pay it forward". I racked my brain for a month to figure out what i could do to "pay it forward". What I had recieved was a pretty big deal to me, so I wanted something that could have the potential to help others, like a domino effect.

One day my husband and I were chatting on the backporch, and in the midst of him talking about work, it dawned on me. I needed to start a blog. A blog that would touch many many photographers that I could pay it forward too. I basically was going to do templates and share those, but it kind of blew up from there. Many showed interest in contributing as well. And now, wow, its become huge, real huge, more then i ever expected or had the intentions of being. The interviews are my favorite part of the whole paying it forward concept. Not only will everyone be able to enjoy the generous donated PIF (pay it forward) gifts, but they get that awesome advice too. That advice could help someone as well. Paying it forward advice is what i love to call it.

The blog keeps me busy and I'm real proud of it. In just a little over a month we hit over 17,000 visits to the blog. Thats unreal, lol. But very very exciting. We look forward to interviewing more fascinating people in the photography business along with the random PIF gifts given by these awesome photographers/companies feeling the pay it forward vibe.

Along with all of that, our hope is that when one takes, we hope that person will give too : "Paying it Forward refers to repaying the good deeds that one has received by doing good things for other unrelated people"

Why I Learned Classic Portraiture: An Interview With Riff

Last month, Rob discussed classic portraiture and its place in modern photography. This month we focus on a well-known member, Riff, who discusses why he studied classic portraiture.

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