A wedding (attending not working!) and an odd booking request.
The new job is taking up a fair bit of my time (and my Mac is still yet to be unpacked!) However, I've got some updates. Firstly, my long-awaited and much-desired Nikon Pro User membership card has now arrived! I can barely contain my excitement! I'm sure, with this piece of plastic in my pocket I'll be the most envied photographer in all of Lincolnshire!
As the blog title mentions, I had the pleasure of attending a good friend's wedding this weekend - I took the camera and got a few good pictures - however I was there primarily to enjoy myself! (I did have a bit of banter with the official photographer though - filthy Canon user!) Once the happy couple have vetted my pictures, I'll pop a couple up on the site.
Finally, I had a bit of an odd inquiry through the website, asking if I'd do some photos for a personal injury claim - not what I originally had in mind, but I've given them a price and we'll see what comes of it - I very much doubt I'll be putting the pictures on the site though!
Moving house, another bit of kit and lots of calls.
So, a busy couple of weeks - moving up to Lincoln from Wiltshire. Now I'm here it's time to start getting some advertising sorted in the right places. I should have a business listing on Google soon - just waiting for their verification letter.
I've had a rush of calls this week, sadly not for bookings, but various bodies wanting me to advertise in obscure charity magazines. I guess my initial advertising means my name it out there. I've said 'no' to them all as I'm not convinced of the value for money this would be. One that looks a more promising is a staff-discount scheme for Lincoln Police. I had a meeting with their rep, and the deal seems quite good - assuming it would drive business. Something to ponder this week!
I've arranged to take some pictures for SHA Services, a motor-mechanic based in Norfolk - in exchange for some emergency repairs on my Wife's car! I'll be heading over once we've unpacked all the boxes currently filling the house. Take a look on Facebook for their page.
Lastly, I'm now the proud owner of a battery grip for my D300, should make sure I don't run out of juice on long shoots. It'll also help with some time-stacking stuff I want to try this summer. Interestingly, Lenstag seems to think its worth $2000 (as opposed to the £35 it cost me!)
Back Down South
Well, my great trip north was a success and I actually managed to squeeze in a couple of good pictures. You may have seen the pictures from my last blog post out on a rainy beach - as expected those shots were generally terrible! However, the next stop at Applecross did bear fruit. After an evening sampling the best food and single malt the Applecross Inn had to offer, I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed at 0530 the next morning - the fresh air certainly set me up for the day! The first surprise was to come face-to-face with a stag; well, he was probably 20 metres away, but after a few seconds of regarding each other he wandered off into the woods. I didn't have a long enough lens to really get a shot of him, and it was still so dark that I would've needed a tripod - he wasn't hanging around long enough for that! I then spotted the two boats sat by the waters edge. If you take a look in my 'Places' gallery you'll see the image I got - I'm quite pleased with it.
I also mentioned in my last post that I had a couple of family shoots arranged; I did the second of them this morning. The weather decided to play ball, and we had a pleasant hour in the garden. I got the images turned around in double-quick time and I have another happy customer! Take a peek at my 'People' gallery for a couple of pictures from today.
A trip to the North.
I'm about to change 'day job', but I have had a final trip away; visiting the North of Scotland. I am lucky enough to have stayed my first few nights with some close friends, who I was going to do a full family shoot for - sadly with some illness we had to call that off. I still got some nice informal shots done though, so keep an eye out in the 'People' gallery.
The next phase was a trip through the Highlands to the west coast, some amazing scenery - shame I was driving to a schedule! If nothing else, it's given me some ideas for future visits.
Once we got to our accommodation for the night, I bimbled down to the beach to try my hand at some more long exposure shots. The wind and rain may have spoiled my evening, but at least I got a chance to try out my new Triggertrap dongle.
Waiting for the light to fade (the cable is my Triggertrap dongle.)
A slightly wet Nikon! (I blame the poor focus on the buffeting wind!)
It's too soon to really see how these came out - I'll have to wait to get them into Aperture and see them on a bigger screen! I suspect there may be some wind-related wobbles.
We've another few days up here, but the forecast looks particularly dire, so I doubt if I'll get any shots. However, some good news is that I'm now listed on Yell.com and will have an entry in the next Lincoln edition of the Yellow Pages. Fingers crossed it'll bring me some business!
Getting Started.
This is my first entry in this blog - which I hope will record my efforts to build a successful photography business. This website is perhaps the most obvious sign of my progress so far. Additionally there's been some further web presence building - a FaceBook page, a LinkedIn page, and a Twitter account. You could say that I've got most of the social media scene covered! The links for these various pages are at the foot of each page of the website - along with links to my 500px and Flickr pages.
As you've probably seen, I've added some of my pictures to this site - mostly landscapes and some aviation pictures. Pictures I'm proud of, but not likely anything that people would pay money for: I need pictures of people.
So, in order to build my portfolio I offered a friend a free family photoshoot. This was a great learning experience, and we got some great pictures. You can see a couple of images from this shoot in the 'People' gallery.
After delivering the images, my friend ordered himself a canvas of one of his favourite pictures. Here it is up in his lounge:
I think that counts as happy customer number one! Off the back of this I've already got 2 more shoots arranged over the next couple of weeks!
I'll plan to update this blog weekly (or as and when I've got something to say!) - so please come back and see how I'm doing!