Where it will be featured – The ShootStyle Facebook page
Dimensions – 850px x 315px at 72 dpi with your copyright info/logo/watermark in the lower right.
Deadline – End of the day on Friday April 6th 2012.
Submissions go to – assignment@shootstyle.com
How often can you submit – Once a day.
Prize – Fame! Fortune! Your name in lights!

No, this isn’t a post for the Jacks. This is a post for those who really do have a specific focus, with most of us it being weddings and portraits. But that’s still too broad, isn’t it?

Take weddings – you might specialize in available light or shooting for shadows, making brides look like princesses or making couples look like themselves. You might like to skip the getting ready portion and stay through the entire reception, dancing to Stevie Wonder til the wee morn. Or you might love the nerves and raw emotion of the earlier part of the day and peace out right after the first dances. Whatever it is, to be consistent, you are told to have a formula – to have a label. To be a photojournalist, to be a glamorous portrait photographer, to look for emotions, to concentrate on details, to be master of off-camera light and use it all day.

Chances are, you have that formula, that label, because you think it’s pleasing someone. You think it’s what your couples want and that’s why they hired you. You think it’s what the magazines look for, and you want to be published. You think it’s what makes you cool amongst your peers, and you want acclaim. All justifiable reasons, don’t get me wrong. I do think consistency is important to establish a brand and I also think you’ll never grow if you pigeon hole yourself.

So, if you’re really truly specializing in one thing, (be it portrait photography of women in wings with a ring flash, or simply glued to your zoom lenses), I challenge you to take on a little project going into this season and break your mold. Face the fear. Shoot one thing that scares you. You’ll never grow if you don’t try.

With that, I am going to make my own goal. This season – at each wedding (which are all within a 8 miles of each other), I am going to find some place new to shoot. I will not photograph a portrait in the same location, the same way, twice. I’ll report back and I hope you do too!

Since no post should be without a photo – check out this image of me in about 1980. It’s the only one I have of me at this age, laughing. Imagine if the person behind the camera waited until the light was perfect to capture this? No photo for me.

This post was inspired by the Wedrockers talk at Mystic Seminars, or as I like to call them – The Mexican Contingent. They are a small group of wedding photographers in Mexico who talked about never shooting the same thing twice, growing and shooting for yourself at each wedding. I thank them for pushing me to grow.

~Zofia

And if you’re like me, you’ve had friends, loved ones, family, or (the worst) your own child say “Can’t you just shut it down for the night? Can you just put your phone down? Are you still on the computer?”. And it sucks because you don’t really realize what you’re doing. You think you’re being productive. You think that if you don’t work every waking part of the day, that you will fall behind, that clients will get mad, that inquiries will go elsewhere, or that you’ll miss out on something major.

You check your work emails on your phone, in your bed. Really??

The fact that my husband leaves me little love notes on the computer, because he knows that’s where I’m sure to look? Cute, but really – a little sad.

There is no such thing as a photo emergency. This is what I have to remind myself every time I feel guilty for putting an away message on my email when I (very rarely) get away for a weekend or vaca. But more importantly, this is what I need to remember when my work day is over. Once the baker closes it’s doors, no more cupcakes for you!

Since most of us shoot weddings on weekends and portraits in the evenings, we need to make a different schedule for ourselves than the average 9-5 M-F. For me, this past season, I would mark off one day a week as my day off. This didn’t mean a day off from everything, to be fair. I simply wouldn’t shoot that day, or I wouldn’t edit, or I wouldn’t go to the office. It was a day off from one or all parts of work. I may still check email, but I wouldn’t respond until the next day. It took a LOT of restraint, trust me.

I recently posted my own, self proclaimed, office hours on my home office door. My studio office downtown is by appointment only, and I often work from home. No clients come to my home office, but this sign is a reminder to me, no – a guideline that I must follow. You know, unless I want to end up a big nerd with no family, no friends, no life, no hobbies, no fresh air, no sun on my skin, a bad back, carpal tunnel, thick glasses, and unwashed hair…

Since wedding season is almost over, and portrait season is drawing to a close all in about a month, I am busting my hump to have evenings and weekends free again. My daughter deserves my full attention. Forcing myself to take a day off in peak season allowed me to manage my workflow a lot better. I would work on one project at a time, finish it, and then start a new one. I pride myself in multi-tasking, but I now see that it wasn’t helping me; it was actually diluting the work that I did do since it wasn’t getting my full attention. A cool little app for Mac OSX that my intern Caroline told me about is SelfControl. Look into it if you have a really hard time closing Facebook, emails, etc while you’re editing.

Now that I’ve caught up on work by managing my time a lot better and writing this article without designing an album at the same time, I’m going to turn over the sign to CLOSED and go enjoy this beautiful Indian Summer day with a bike ride to the beach. The album will wait and no one will die because of it.

Enjoy!
~Zofia

First place goes to Audra Medunitza-Welton. Her image of a person crossing an intersection, through a rainy window was made perfect by the 2 red lights.

Our the second place winner is Karen Soltero’s image of a cyclist speeding down the street. Nearly gave us vertigo!

Third place is Benjamin Corey’s colorful image of a night scene in front of the Colosseum, bonus points for action and light flare.

A great big thank-you to our participants, winner and most of all our generous sponsor, Ultra Color Lab for hooking us up with a fantastic Grand Prize of a 20×30 photographic print, and a 16×20 print for 2nd and 3rd place.

Keep your eyes peeled for our next assignment series coming soon!

Our newest assignment for you is “Street Style!”!

Your assignment is to show us your best images interpreting Street Style, whatever that means to you! This might be a photojournalistic exercise or an artistic construction. We leave it up to you to define the phrase and how you will interpret it.

You are more than welcome to comb through your files for a photo that illustrates the term, but we would absolutely love it if you shot something for the assignment, special!!

We have our amazing sponsor Ultra Color Lab back along hooking us up with a fantastic Grand Prize of a 20×30 photographic print, and a 16×20 print for 2nd and 3rd place.

Our assignment series is open to everyone. We’re hoping you’ll wanna play along! The most creative entry wins!

We will post all of the entries on our Facebook page, and post a few of our favorites on our blog, complete with a link back to your blog or website.

How to enter :

Images should be sized to 590 pixels on the long side. (If you need help figuring that out, ask your favorite Shootstyler.) And by all means, slap that logo on there if you have one! You can enter up to one photo a day for the duration of the assignment. Email your entry to:

assignment@shootstyle.com

We have an album on our Facebook fan page. When the entries start coming in, we’ll post them there first. Check in with us at Facebook if you are looking for some inspiration.

www.facebook.com/ShootStyle

The deadline is October 11th! Let’s have fun doing this together!! Assignment series: “Street Style!”

“How tight are you with your wedding clients and vendors?” This is the BIG question that I’ve been asking myself when hearing about struggling businesses.

The not so surprising answer has been a resounding – “Not so tight. I don’t like to mix business with pleasure. Once the contract is up, I’m on to the next one. It takes too much time. They live too far away to matter for referrals. They were difficult, why would I keep contact? They don’t scratch MY back, why should I do them any favors? I can’t waste the money.” Etc…. etc…. Not one of those sound valid enough to excuse the loss of referrals that these businesses are losing out on.

My #1, hands down, absolute favorite way to get new clients is through people I have already worked for, whether they are current clients or vendors. They know what to expect! *Note how I don’t call them PAST clients, because that finalizes our relationship. They’re not “past” if they come back for portraits, or if I photograph the bride again as the bridesmaid in another wedding. Many of my wedding clients come return with their little ones on vacation, and book a session every summer. I WANT them to come back.

These are all of the guests at a wedding of a friend that I photographed 2 years ago -

In this group, I can see a couple other brides/grooms of mine and a handful of portrait clients. I didn’t know them all upon getting there, but I maintain friendships with many of them via Facebook and in person. So what if they live faraway or I may never see them again? You simply never know. This particular bride I knew from VT years ago, lived in CA at the time, but flew me to Costa Rica for her wedding. From this one group of friends, I have gained dozens of clients and NONE of them are local.

One particular couple has booked me 4 other weddings, sent me countless portrait clients and I’ve now been photographing their growing family for 4 years. They started out as simply another wedding client and are now my most frequently photographed family, and my close friends.

So, how can you build and maintain a good relationship with clients and vendors to assure that they will hug you back by sending business your way? Treat them as you’d like to be treated. Chances are, this is their first wedding. They don’t know that you’re not a miracle worker, so if they ask for something above and beyond, don’t grind your teeth and belittle them – educate them. Help them. Gift them. Get to know their family. Call mom by her name, help her order her album. Don’t assume she knows how to use a computer. Walk your clients through the process by establishing professional boundaries, (get paid, stick to the contract), but help them make the most of their time with you.

I live and photograph in an area with mostly destination weddings. I may not get clients whose friends or family ever come back here again, but they’ll talk me up to the local vendors which will keep that cycle of referrals spinning. Don’t work with many of the same vendors often? One bad experience and they’ll sure to bad mouth you to the next inquiring bride, but treat them well and you’ve got potential clients.

I’m not going to tell you to send your clients chocolate, or to treat them to dinner, or give them free sessions. I won’t tell you to send your vendors albums and buy them martinis. There is no formula, it’s just a hug. It’s giving and receiving. Do what you feel would work if the shoe was on the other foot. If it’s too daunting to do so with every client and vendor, pick and choose, but do so with the right motives.

If you’re not receiving referrals from clients and vendors, ask yourself if you’re doing anything other than your job, to make them remember you, recommend you and friend you…. in real life. And go read Jack Mitchell’s Hug Your Customers, just the first couple chapters alone will change your business.

To want, and to be ambitious, and to want to be successful, is not enough. That’s just desire. To know what you want, to understand why you’re doing it, to dedicate every breath in your body, to achieve… If you feel you have something to give, if you feel that your particular talent is worth developing, is worth caring for, then there’s nothing you can’t achieve. – Kevin Spacey

~Zofia

She photographed me in angles I’ve never seen of myself, that are so similar to old images of my grandmother. She made special care to capture every detail that we spent so much time and energy on, collecting in antique shops and having custom made. She forever froze moments of my daughter and I that I know she will absolutely cherish and pass down to her own children. She photographed my handsome husband in the way I want to remember him when we’re old and gray.

The most important thing that she did was capture the day the way that I truly remember it, and beautifully. She took her time with us during the portraits and made us feel at ease. We would have held our breath and stood on our heads, had she asked.

What was reinforced to me as photographer, by being the bride on my wedding day, was that we really need to remember to photograph what’s important. Don’t skimp the details just because you’re a photojournalist, they are part of the story. Your couples have worked very hard to get everything in place, sometimes shopping and DIYing for a year or more. (Ask them what’s important – in my pre-wedding questionnaire, I ask my couples to tell me if any jewelry, etc has been passed down and anything out of the ordinary that I may not know about.) And if you’re an editorial photographer, don’t go nuts on details and portraits alone, you’re not shooting for the inspiration blogs, you’re shooting for the couple, for their family and for historical posterity.

Your goals as a photographer should to make the couple cry when they see the photos, out of happiness. To allow them to relive their day over and over. To see themselves just as beautiful as they were.

Here we are, the ShootStylers and our friend Kristin, taken by New York photographer Angelica Glass at my wedding. I love them. To see many many more amazing photos from my wedding day, go to Angelica’s blog here : Zofia and Mark’s Wedding

Enjoy!
Zofia

While wedding days are filled with exciting candid moments that are fun to capture, sometimes the portraits can be more of a challenge.

In this workshop, ShootStyle members will take you through their favorite methods for creating great portraits. With a strong emphasis on composition and posing, workshop attendees will benefit from clear classroom instruction with specific examples and techniques that are proven in the real world. After the classroom portion, participants will have the chance to work with ShootStyle instructors and models (both “brides” and couples), in an interesting urban environment putting the new techniques into practice.

Participants will then have an opportunity to review the day with the instructors and other attendees. Don’t miss this opportunity to improve your portraits as the wedding and portrait season shifts into high gear!

Portraits with Panache, a workshop on composition and posing, will be held June 14, 2011 from 12-7pm at the Manchester Radisson (700 Elm Street, Manchester NH).

Click here to sign up!

Sponsored by Ultra Color Lab

A few years ago, I dropped off the big forums and stopped reading other wedding photographer’s blogs. Shocking, I know! I decided to draw my inspiration from the sources I’ve loved all along; fashion magazines like W, Interview and Vanity Fair – movies by Pedro Almodovar, Michel Gondry and Sofia Coppola – music and videos by Radiohead, Modest Mouse and Jenny Lewis – books by Augusten Burroughs, Chuck Palahniuk and David Sedaris – and traveling absolutely anywhere.

While asking around, I found that most of my fellow photographers also get inspired by these things, and here are some interesting answers : personalities, self growth and learning, architecture and love.

I’m naturally influenced by my peers here on ShootStyle, and fellow wedding photographers Fer Juaristi and Angelica Glass. Other photographic influences include Avedon, Sally Mann and Newton. Their photography encompasses all these things that inspire me. The moody, colorful, quirky and loud. I may not easily carry over these loves into my work directly, but it’s what my eyes and my heart are drawn to. It’s where my personal work would go, if I had the time. (one day…..)

Emotion, light, composition – my 3 must haves for a perfect photograph. Probably the biggest inspirations that I do use and carry over into my work everyday are nature and relationships.

Right now, with spring teasing to show it’s face any day, I’m inspired by color.

I prefer to shoot environmental portraits, that show the subject among the landscape or surroundings. Out here on Nantucket it’s usually the beach, but with spring comes flowers and color. And that creates an emotion – happiness and peace. My portrait work is mainly a combination of drawing inspiration from the light, the relationships and composition.

With the start of a new wedding season I’m continuing to use these elements in my couple’s portraits.

What makes YOU click?
~Zofia, Nantucket Wedding Photographer

Weathering impending storms and stomach bugs, we ShootStylers held our second reception lighting workshop in Worcester last week. The sold out affair was attended by a great group of photographers from New England and NY. We want to send out a HUGE thank you to all of our participants. It’s especially lovely to see repeat attendees from previous workshops of ours! We love the love!!

Each of us went over how we do our thang at wedding receptions, when the lights are low and the pressure to produce killer images is high. An informal lecture followed hours of hands on shooting and gear explanation.

Whether it’s Andree’s light on a stick twinkie technique, Jamie and Earl’s studio light bonanza, Stacey’s one light mood lighting, or Michelle’s  and my bounce-a-thon, we all manage to skin our cats our own ways and get the job done.

Joe Ciarca from Gamut Prints, the workshop’s sponsor, was on hand to display examples of his ridiculously awesome fine art prints. A big thank you to Mark Crosby for taking these behind the scenes photos!

We hope everyone had fun and we’re looking forward to seeing you all soon during our Facebook Assignment Series, social events or workshops throughout the year!

~ Zofia, Nantucket wedding photographer