Pheewww.... this week is Fan-tas-tic! Mainly, we're all caught up with the major back-load of work that's been pending for quite some time and there is finally time to go through old emails, files, and do some major organization.
I must start this post win a personal apology to anyone who's emailed without hearing back yet. In response to so many of the same requests we get each day for answers on all kinds of things from business to photography to stuff like "can you send me that secret recipe?" we'll be starting a "Bananas FAQ" section of this blog. We'll be tackling a back-log of questions and requests and then move on to any additional FAQs so feel free to post any new ones below :)
Fun stuff!!
The first comes from Cindy in Arizona:
"Hi Liana,
I enjoyed your session at the Chicks conference. I have a couple of questions:
~ what software do you use to design your albums?
~ how do you market and/or how do client's find you as a destination photographer?
~ what software are you using to make your movie shows in?
~ you mentioned showing your movie shows at the reception - are you using your own portable projection equipment?
~ did you mention something about adding video to your new Web site? If so, what video editing software will/or do you use?"
Album Software:
Like I do with most ventures, we've tested out what is know as the http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif"best in the industry" and made our minds up after some use with each. I started using Photoshop but then turned to Photojunction and got great use out of that for some time. After a few constant quirks, we started looking for something with more flexibility and tried out Adobe's InDesign which is our favorite by far! It's MADE for design :) Kevin Swan has a GREAT, quick tutorial available for download/purchase that will tell you get you started real quick. We still use Photojunction for the old albums and they've been super helpful on the phone whenever we need help - so that's a good option too, just not for us now that we've tasted the ease of using InDesign.
How Clients Find me To Photograph their Destination Wedding:
Most of my clients have heard of me through someone they know and then checked out my site online before contacting us. Some hear of us via the WPJA, the Knot chat forums, via Industry publications and forums, and random web searches. I think updating the blog with pics helps a lot too - we have a lot of inquiries come in after I've photographed & blogged about a destination wedding or trip :)
Movie Shows:
I'm not sure if you mean my slideshows that are posted online? For that I use ShowIt Web - it's available at www.ShowItFast.com. Literally thousands are able to enjoy watching pics from a wedding I photographed only days earlier. I've booked jobs off of these alone when my site was under construction.
If you're asking about the actual movies on my liana.tv site we use FinalCutExpress and Apple has a built in iMovie which is easy and quick to use (much easier than any other program out there, in my opinion!)
Slideshows at Receptions:
I hardly ever project a slideshow at a reception unless a client specifically asks us to. We DO however do a slideshow on a laptop at almost every reception. Downloading, sorting, using the "quick collection" function, and slideshow function in Lightroom makes the process SOOOOO quick and easy. I actually go through the exact process in detail on our workflow/Lightroom tutorial that just came out. You can check it out HERE.
Video in New Site:
We're SUPER excited for the new www.liana.tv to premier later this fall :) It's been a work-in-progress for over a year now and will be stock-full of content-rich videos to help clients out. Most of the video is produced in Final Cut but we've got some stuff on YouTube and hidden on our sites now to help in the meantime that is produced on programs that are easier to use like iMovie.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Brand Camp field trip
inspiration field trip ... Here is Amber from Arizona and Dana all the
way from Bahrain scouting their new brand colors, textures, and
patterns.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The BananasEDU site is LIVE!!
We finally have v1.0 of the BananasEDU site up and ALIVE!!
Check out the DVD section for the SAME GREAT SPECIALS we ran at the Pictage Partner Conference this past week. We'll be running these for a limited time - stay tuned for more!!
Check out the DVD section for the SAME GREAT SPECIALS we ran at the Pictage Partner Conference this past week. We'll be running these for a limited time - stay tuned for more!!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
KISS & SHOWit
We're here at the Pictage Partner Conference this week (much more on this coming soon) and Sara put together a fun photo collage from the KISS & SHOWit party last night. It got a little crazy with all of us doing our best to get the NON-dancers to dance - and it worked!! More soon because I have to run out the door now....
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The TRUE Cost of Photography / PPA ABI
Archive: Originally Published June 7, 2006
WOW. For the past two days, I had the opportunity to participate in a very new and VERY enlightening training at the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) headquarters here in Atlanta. It was awesome because there were another 19 photographers there who came from all over the country and a pretty diverse crowd as far as what we do too (MANY portrait studios there).
Scott Kurkian (CFO of PPA) and the legendary Ann Monteith (previous president of PPA and ABI guru) led us through tons of materials, questions, and methodologies to equip us with becoming Approved Business Instructors for PPA. What these two have done for our industry is amazing and it's awesome the charge they've set forth in helping photographers with their businesses.
On Sunday, class was scheduled from 9am to 9pm so I had the pleasure of dinning with Scott, Lori, and Julia for both lunch and dinner.
Julia Woods, me, and Lori Gragg in class
Thanks gals for all the stimulating conversation on pricing and biz in general!
One of the most interesting things about the past two days is when they shared the results of a financial survey that was just completed (and isn't even published yet!) They surveyed and analyzed financial statements on over 180 photography businesses and this is the FIRST time the industry has qualified, in-depth data in this area... which means we will FINALLY be able to analyze and base our financials on an industry-standard!! AWESOME!
Ann and Scott are making sense of these numbers so that they can be published over the next few months, but a few stats that stuck out to me are that:
- On average, a photography studio needs to have 150,000 - 250,000 in net sales to be profitable (enough to make a living off of) !!! The exceptions they showed were few and far between when someone was able to keep the cost of sales, overhead, and asset depreciation down considerably. These numbers are especially shocking when I think about all the small businesses out there that have no idea what their numbers are or where they're at with their numbers.
- The average home studio makes $32,977 (this is net profit / owners income) WOW. WOW. WOW. (and who said photographers were overpaid!!??!)
A final interesting consensus (the class made) is that in the middle-market, a studio needs to be bringing in around $5,000 per wedding to be a profitable wedding photography business, given the average Cost of Sales, Overhead, and the Assets needed to run the business. Again there are exceptions but it's so interesting to see these numbers spelled out finally - it's going to make a huge impact to those who take advantage of this information and get their businesses on-track financially.
UPDATE: The results of this study were published in July 2006 in a report titled "PPA's 2005 Studio Benchmark Survey" that can be downloaded from PPA's members-only section. If you haven't already check it out ASAP!
WOW. For the past two days, I had the opportunity to participate in a very new and VERY enlightening training at the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) headquarters here in Atlanta. It was awesome because there were another 19 photographers there who came from all over the country and a pretty diverse crowd as far as what we do too (MANY portrait studios there).
Scott Kurkian (CFO of PPA) and the legendary Ann Monteith (previous president of PPA and ABI guru) led us through tons of materials, questions, and methodologies to equip us with becoming Approved Business Instructors for PPA. What these two have done for our industry is amazing and it's awesome the charge they've set forth in helping photographers with their businesses.
On Sunday, class was scheduled from 9am to 9pm so I had the pleasure of dinning with Scott, Lori, and Julia for both lunch and dinner.
Thanks gals for all the stimulating conversation on pricing and biz in general!
One of the most interesting things about the past two days is when they shared the results of a financial survey that was just completed (and isn't even published yet!) They surveyed and analyzed financial statements on over 180 photography businesses and this is the FIRST time the industry has qualified, in-depth data in this area... which means we will FINALLY be able to analyze and base our financials on an industry-standard!! AWESOME!
Ann and Scott are making sense of these numbers so that they can be published over the next few months, but a few stats that stuck out to me are that:
- On average, a photography studio needs to have 150,000 - 250,000 in net sales to be profitable (enough to make a living off of) !!! The exceptions they showed were few and far between when someone was able to keep the cost of sales, overhead, and asset depreciation down considerably. These numbers are especially shocking when I think about all the small businesses out there that have no idea what their numbers are or where they're at with their numbers.
- The average home studio makes $32,977 (this is net profit / owners income) WOW. WOW. WOW. (and who said photographers were overpaid!!??!)
A final interesting consensus (the class made) is that in the middle-market, a studio needs to be bringing in around $5,000 per wedding to be a profitable wedding photography business, given the average Cost of Sales, Overhead, and the Assets needed to run the business. Again there are exceptions but it's so interesting to see these numbers spelled out finally - it's going to make a huge impact to those who take advantage of this information and get their businesses on-track financially.
UPDATE: The results of this study were published in July 2006 in a report titled "PPA's 2005 Studio Benchmark Survey" that can be downloaded from PPA's members-only section. If you haven't already check it out ASAP!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Breakfast with Rudy Giuliani
Archive: Originally published May 18, 2006
This morning I had the awesome opportunity to join a bunch of other Atlanta area business people at the AJC's 100 Best Georgia Companies Awards Breakfast with former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
We had killer seats right up front and it wasn't until 15 minutes into breakfast that I realized Giuliani was parked at the table diagonal from ours. He talked with us for about an hour about six qualities that strong leaders all have in common. It was interesting because just before he went on, they had a panel of 5 CEOs from the top-ranked Georgia companies for this year answer the question of "what is the most important quality a CEO must have to lead their organization successfully."
I would love to go in depth about "Rudy's Six" but fear that time is not on my side today so here they are:
1. Strong Beliefs (devote time to thinking and making goals)
2. Optimistic - focus on solutions and remain calm and positive
3. Courage - does not mean a lack of fear, it means recognizing fear and overcoming it. We MUST be willing to take risks.
4. Relentless Preparation - If you prepare for everything you can think of, when the unexpected happens you will still be prepared because it will be a variation of your practiced scenarios. He used specific examples from 9/11 how they had not planned for a disaster of that magnitude, but all the other plans (like triage and evacuation procedures) allowed them to move forward.
5. Teamwork - A leader asks themselves 'what are my weaknesses and how do I balance them with strengths of others.'
6. Communicator - A leader is able to communicate all of the above. i.e. A coach of a football team does not do a thing on the field but is a teacher and a motivator and leads the team to victory because they can communicate effectively with the team.
In the end, Rudy says: "You can do all of these things but none of it matters unless you CARE about people. Organizations are comprised of people. People with emotions, personal lives... you can not ignore these things. If you are successful in this area, you and your organization will be successful too."
If you ever get a chance to hear Rudy in person - go! - He's a phenomenal speaker and quite the comedian too!
This morning I had the awesome opportunity to join a bunch of other Atlanta area business people at the AJC's 100 Best Georgia Companies Awards Breakfast with former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
We had killer seats right up front and it wasn't until 15 minutes into breakfast that I realized Giuliani was parked at the table diagonal from ours. He talked with us for about an hour about six qualities that strong leaders all have in common. It was interesting because just before he went on, they had a panel of 5 CEOs from the top-ranked Georgia companies for this year answer the question of "what is the most important quality a CEO must have to lead their organization successfully."
I would love to go in depth about "Rudy's Six" but fear that time is not on my side today so here they are:
1. Strong Beliefs (devote time to thinking and making goals)
2. Optimistic - focus on solutions and remain calm and positive
3. Courage - does not mean a lack of fear, it means recognizing fear and overcoming it. We MUST be willing to take risks.
4. Relentless Preparation - If you prepare for everything you can think of, when the unexpected happens you will still be prepared because it will be a variation of your practiced scenarios. He used specific examples from 9/11 how they had not planned for a disaster of that magnitude, but all the other plans (like triage and evacuation procedures) allowed them to move forward.
5. Teamwork - A leader asks themselves 'what are my weaknesses and how do I balance them with strengths of others.'
6. Communicator - A leader is able to communicate all of the above. i.e. A coach of a football team does not do a thing on the field but is a teacher and a motivator and leads the team to victory because they can communicate effectively with the team.
In the end, Rudy says: "You can do all of these things but none of it matters unless you CARE about people. Organizations are comprised of people. People with emotions, personal lives... you can not ignore these things. If you are successful in this area, you and your organization will be successful too."
If you ever get a chance to hear Rudy in person - go! - He's a phenomenal speaker and quite the comedian too!
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