Over the last five months of so, I have been involved in one of the best things I could have done for my business! I started school with The International Academy of Wedding Photographers.  I can’t even believe where I would be without my awesome instructors, and the crazy amount of information and knowledge that I’ve gained in just five short months!

I have got to learn from some of the best wedding photographers in the business, including Matt & Carissa Kennedy (of Vancouver, Canada), Justin & Mary Marantz (hailing from New England), Katelyn James (from Virginia), Amy & Jordan Demos (of Phoenix, AZ), and more!

First out of the gate- Matt & Carissa Kennedy. Their love for each other permeates through the camera and I can just feel how important marriage and family is to them. How awesome to have wedding photographers that feel so strongly about the basis of their business. The amount of not only photography skill, but business knowledge the two of them have is incredible! Without their “Business of Wedding photography” I would have never even thought of creating my own Business Plan for the year, and SO much more! They have brought points to my attention that I never would have even thought about, including describing my ideal client.

Katelyn James was next, with Branding! OH. MY. GOSH. I don’t know what I ever did without her in my life. HA! Let me honest real quick. She has the cutest dog, Bokeh, the best style, and is the QUEEN of blogging. She knows her stuff when it comes to making your brand YOU, and attracting that ideal client that you described in Matt & Carissa’s course!  My website and blog greatly appreciates her expertise and I am eternally in her debt. After getting into her course, I REALLY wanted to hire a designer for my site and blog, but just don’t have the resources to do that right now, but with the knowledge I gained from the course, I was able to make a website that I’m proud of with design elements that I never even knew about first starting out! Oh, and I would like to think that we would be besties in real life. 😉

Amy & Jordan–the high school sweet hearts. I have mentioned my appreciation for such couples in the past, being one myself. Just like Matt & Carissa, Amy & Jordan LOVE each other. I haven’t gotten to take their course yet, but have seen them with our LIVE webinars, and I have watched their promo video about 1038589239 times. They’re adorable, and I can’t wait to dive into their course, “the complete wedding client process.”

–Photos courtesy of onlinephotoacademy.com–

Lastly, Justin & Mary. I’m working on their course right now, and at one point Mary talks about how when your potential clients come to your website, you want them to GET you. Well, maybe it’s just their awesomeness on camera, but i totally feel like I GET them. Again, i feel like we’d be besties. 🙂 That’s probably why they do such an amazing job as wedding photographers. They just get people, they know what makes people tick, and they use that strength to help and educate the people around them. They are just awesome!

So, after gushing about my AMAZING course instructors, let’s end with my top 10 things that I’ve taken and applied to my business thus far.

1. Who is my ideal client, what they value, and their interests. Along with my business plan!

2. Branding essentials! 3 fonts (main, secondary, and content), 1 texture or pattern, 1 icon, 1 main color (bright colors look affordable, lighter looks more high end), 1-2 accent colors. I also learned that you want your viewers eyes to naturally move across the page. I haven’t QUITE figured out the best way for that, but then again, i’m no graphic designer. Regardless, my website and blog have started looking SO much better.

Website before…..Website After….AH! So much better 🙂 New logo included!

3. You want to create a brand experience. You want people to WANT to work with you. -side note- I have wanted this from day one! I want people to really feel loved when they work with me. I like to build connections to people, and I don’t want them to just disappear after the wedding day is over! BUT, now I have more of an idea of how to make that experience EVER BETTER!!

4.Facebook’s algorithm sucks. HA. Kidding. That’s not one of my list. But online marketing and being consistent is. I need to be consistently blogging, sharing it on Facebook, twitter, and instagram, and keeping the content interesting, fun, and fresh.

5. Three words that describe my photography. I decided on Fun. Fresh. Romantic. I definitely want my clients to have fun when they are working with me. I don’t want to just have images that everyone has ever pinned on pinterest. We can take an idea, and make it their own, but i don’t want to be anyone’s copy. And being romantic makes for some AMAZING images, let’s be honest.

6.Much to my dismay–i really have all the lenses that i need to shoot weddings. Of course i can add more, but there’s only so much time in the day to bust them all out. HA. But i still want to buy more. It’s just the way it works. 🙂

7. What Makes The Difference. This is probably one of the coolest things I have learned from my posing class. What stands for ‘wide,’  Make -‘middle,’ The- ‘tight,’ Difference -‘details.” Shooting wise, this gives your session diversity, and some GREAT shots. 🙂

8.I’ve heard it before from the Superman of head shots himself. The Squinch wins every time. #SHABANG  When there’s no life in the model’s eyes, there just isn’t that connection that i want in my images. As Matt puts it, it’s not squinting. You try to bring your lower eyelid up. Try it. #SHABANG

9. I finally figured out Short lighting/Broad lighting. I could see it, but i just couldn’t put it to practice. The Off-camera flash course helped SOOOO much, and i can’t wait to bust that out during receptions! I even bought two more flashes to add to my collection. 🙂

and 10. Market with Love. As stated before, I want my clients to feel loved, as well as the other people that i work with (i.e. venues and other wedding vendors). I want them to know I care, because i do! When I’m successful, they are too.  Mary said “Awesome people are friends with more awesome people,” and i want to find those more awesome people.

So there it is! All wrapped up. I can’t wait to continue learning, and growing my business, and I’ll be pretty proud when i can say I’m a graduate of The International Academy of Wedding Photography.  Until then, I’ll keep imagining me and my instructors are best friends.

Stay tuned to find out even more of what i continue to learn! 🙂

And if you’re a photographer interested in joining the Academy -you wouldn’t regret it- here’s a link to join!!

http://onlinephotoacademy.com

You can put my name in the referral area!! Seriously though, best thing I have ever done for my business! Give it a shot!! 🙂