Expert: Wedding Photographics - 11/14/2007

Question
John,

I am a photographer new to the business, well fairly new. I have been in the field for about 5 years, but just recently started advertising. I am wondering how I might go about getting new business in a small town. I mean really small, 6,000 to be exact. I have read up on all kinds of ideas, i.e. contact other wedding vendors and working together and word of mouth, bridal shows, etc.

I am not a studio photographer so I do not have a store front to help promote my business...I have a decent portfolio built up but half of those clients were not local...I am rambling, sorry about that. I just and looking for a way that will work to generate new business.

Any thoughts would be great!

Thanks

Answer
Hi Laticia,

Thanks for your photography questions.

The quality, style & pricing of your work and the quality, style & pricing of your competitors are obviously the biggest factors that will effect the number of inquiries you generate.

You describe a very small town of 6,000. So unless that small town offers some kind of major wedding attraction for brides outside the town, there will be very little weddings to photograph in town.

I believe that the most cost-effective way for wedding photographers to aquire lots of inquiries (during the BOOKING season) is by maintaining a search engine friendly website, attending the best annual Bridal Show and simply offering great wedding photography which is NOT over-priced - but FAIRLY priced.

The slowest months for the vast majority of photographers to be booking weddings are October through January. This is due largely to people holding onto their money for the holiday season for making trips, buying gifts etc.  But this very slow time can be very discouraging.  Fairly new photographers often ask themselves during this time, "What am I doing wrong?"

But it's really just a very slow time frame for ALL photographers.  You just have to be patient during this time.

Photoshop - I simply buy books and study them.  I usually pick up some photoshop books now and then when I see some kind of problem with an image I've shot.  I especially like "Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers" by Martin Evening.  But it's no secret among digital photographers that the two biggest problems with digital photography today is highlight capture and shooting in mixed lighting conditions.  So I've studied and learned to apply every photoshop technique there probably is to address those major photography issues.

The result of my photoshop work to all the digital images I provide helps to distinguish my wedding photography from so many of my competitors.  Many of my competitors simply promise to provide all day coverage and many hundreds of images - and of course any amateur photographer with a digital camera can do that.  No big deal.  So I show samples of "Before" and "After" to help educate and inform brides-to-be what they should be looking for and what they should expect from a Professional wedding photographer.  This strategy has also been a big help to my business.

BOTTOM LINE: I think the best advice I can provide you based on what you've told me - keeping working to make your photography the best available in your market, fairly price it, market/promote it largely through your website and you MUST ATTEND the best annual Bridal Show in the closest much bigger town.  You have to be prepared to work MOSTLY outside that very small town - because that very small town will hold you down.

As far as "networking" with other vendors, especially in a small town - you and all other wedding vendors there are actually competing against each other for generally very few weddings and small wedding budgets. A very good photographer who is FAIRLY PRICED doesn't have to network with other wedding vendors anyway.  Why?  The vast majority of brides are ready to spend the biggest percentage of their total wedding day budget on (drum roll) their wedding photographer!  Other wedding vendors NEED YOU a LOT more than you need them!  That's the truth.

Hope this information helps.  Hang in there and keep working hard.  Please visit my website now and then for ideas.

- Wedding Photographer John Wilson
www.weddingphotographics.net