Photospark

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens... ... YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! EVERYBODY GETS A CAR!!!!! OK... maybe our Favorite Things episode isn't going to be AS exciting as the amazing musical, Sound of Music OR Oprah giving her whole audience cars. But we are pretty excited about it nonetheless! One of the things we tend to miss about having an office job is the interpersonal relationships you build in a setting like that. You're constantly chatting with co-workers (if you're lucky) about a myriad of topics, including things you're obsessed with at the moment! We decided to bring a bit of that atmosphere to the show this week, and we're talking about our Favorite Things!! Most of them are "semi" photography related, but we weren't too worried about that. We just wanted to dish about some stuff we've been loving lately!! Here's a highlight of our favorite things... tune in to hear more! Rothy's: Julie is OBSESSED with her new shoes. These shoes are made from recycled water bottles (yay!) and are SUPE

We think one of the BIGGEST hurdles in owning your own business is pretty much being on your own timeline. Without a boss lurking around, it's very easy to put tasks off until later & chill on the couch bingewatching Grey's Anatomy instead of doing your work. The three of us definitely struggle with procrastination on a regular basis, so we decided to do an episode all about it! Tune in while we chitchat about ways we put off important tasks, haha, and hear how we deal with fixing it! LISTEN HERE!   Key Takeaways UNPLUG. We might be beating a dead horse on this one because we've totally talked about this in the past but it's the EASIEST way to keep yourself from procrastinating. Unplugging from social media, Netflix, texting, heck even your family sometimes will really help you be more efficient with your workflow. Just do it. This applies to that stuff that's awkward or hard that you just kind of don't want to deal with. The longer you put off that uncomfortable phone call, the harder it will be to mak

HI EVERYONE!!! Wwwwwwww.... long time no see!! We are SOOO excited to bring you the new, revamped PhotoSpark... season TWO! This season is going to be full of awesome guests, new topics, and maybe even a few special get-togethers to meet you guys!! This first episode is just a quick one to catch you guys up on what's been going on in OUR lives since we last chatted, so tune in to hear some updates from the PhotoSpark ladies! Julie Ferneau For those of you who don't already know Julie, she's the wedding photographer of the group! She is a social butterfly who is amazing at keeping up with networking on TOP of her booming photography business! The past few months have been packed with second shooting gigs in addition to her own clients. Julie has had a few THREE wedding weekends over the summer, which to me is completely crazy! There's really no end to the "wedding season" in San Diego. The weather is amazing year round, and couples take advantage of the cooler fall and winter weather in addition to the sprin

For this week's throwback episode, we decided to re-release a fan favorite episode about newborn photography with Sophie Crew! Sophie is a top photographer here in San Diego and her work is BEAUTIFUL. She joined us to chat about how she became a newborn photographer and what she's learned along the way, so we decided to re-share some of her tips on the blog! Download the episode to hear more about Sophie's story & how she gets those stunningly perfect shots! Sophie's Tips: Age- Ideal age for newborn photos is 7-8 days. However, she still has luck with older babies, even up to 4 weeks old! They just take a little longer to get to sleep, and they're a little bigger so poses and props are different sometimes. The 5 S's- A soothing technique for babies! The 5 S's are: Side/stomach position, shushing, swinging, swaddling, and sucking. It's her go-to when babies are super fussy and having trouble falling asleep! White Noise- When making white noise/shushing, make it REALLY loud. Like... way louder than you th

We LOVED recording this embarrassing stories episode last year... it's my absolute favorite personally. So we wanted to share it again while we prep for Season Two! This is definitely an episode you need to listen to to get the full impact, so this blog post won't really do it any justice! Ok... now that I'm listening to this, it's definitely mostly MY embarrassing stories (spoiler alert, Kate does the blog posts). So if you want to hear about the time I swallowed a fly and barfed during a shoot, ran into a client at a concert while reeeeally drunk, and/or the time I got pooped on by a pelican, tune in! Julie, Ashley, and guesthouse Terran DO contribute some funny stories too, don't get me wrong! But I'm starting to think this is maybe my issue.... hm..... Let us know what you think!! And PLEASE share some of your own embarrassing stories on our Facebook page to make me feel better!   Download from iTunes Here

This week, as we prep for Season Two of PhotoSpark, we decided to share another favorite episode with you guys. We know one of the biggest mistakes business owners make regarding taxes is waiting until the last minute to get everything together. At least, I know that's MY issue! So we are hoping that releasing this Throwback Episode again NOW in the middle of summer, you'll find inspiration to organize everything you have for 2017 so far... thus making your life easier come April of next year!   Key Takeaways: DO #1: Have a business checking account. One of our most important tax tips for photographers is to have separate accounts for your business and personal transactions. Melissa admits that she commingled the two for awhile (I’m not going to lie; I totally did too!) and it made things a bit of a mess when she got audited. She ended up having to claim income for deposits that weren’t actually business related, which cost her money in the end, because she couldn’t prove they were personal deposits (things

We have some BIG news! We are launching SEASON TWO of PhotoSpark this summer! EEK! Season One was awesome... we have learned SO much about Podcasting & have enjoyed chatting with tons of special, amazing guests! We've applied so many of the lessons we've learned to our own businesses and are reaping the benefits. Now that we know exactly where we're headed, we decided to take a few weeks to get our content together for Season Two! In the meantime, please enjoy this throwback episode from last year! In this episode, we chat with Melissa Mitchell about improving SEO and Google results! Key Takeaways Image names MATTER. When you're blogging or adding images to a gallery on your website, you want to make sure they have keywords that represent exactly what you'd want them to pop up for in Google. Naming them after the client might be an easy way to keep your images organized, so you can go ahead and keep doing that for yourself, but when uploading online, you want to rename them. For example, if you did a w

This is a perfect time for photographers to start considering ways to improve their workflow. Wedding busy season is in full swing, so wedding photographers are realizing just how much work they're doing on a daily basis, and holiday season is right around the corner so family portrait photographers are trying to put strategies in place to make that as easy as possible. One of the best ways to streamline your photography business is by hiring an assistant! Hiring an assistant can be scary, so we're here to help! We invited Jennifer Dery on the show this week & she's worked with many assistants, second shooters, retouchers, etc... so she's the perfect person to chat with about this topic! Enjoy! Key Takeaways: Watch for good composition right off the bat. This tip applies to second shooters. Jennifer mentions that you can totally teach technical things like exposure, posing, etc... but you typically can't teach good composition. People tend to either have an eye for photography or not. You want to make

Photo Cred: Amy & Jordan Photography As photographers, we have a lot of competition. Thanks to digital photography & improving technology, more photographers are coming out of the woodwork than ever before. The truth is, up to 85% of these new photography businesses will fail. Why is that? Well, this week we are trying to figure it out! Our guest Cole is a fantastic resource... he started a photography business almost 10 years ago & is now the creator of Cole's Classroom, an online resource for photographers. Cole joins us in the studio this week to talk about how to succeed in photography! Key Takeaways Ask for advice... but take it or leave it. Cole & Kate started their businesses in the same year, and it was right around the time digital photography was beginning to take over. There was a huge battle going on between up & coming digital photographers & portrait photographers who were struggling to keep their film businesses afloat. This led to a lot of harsh criticism of new photo

Isn't it just the coolest thing ever when you see a peer of yours do amazing things with their business?? We are totally excited to have Erin Brant on the show this week because she is totally doing that and more!! She recently finished her Clickin Moms Breakout (The Happy Now) which was a huge success AND she just announced she'll be presenting at Click Away 2018!! She joined us this week to chat about FUN! She is a big believer in candid photography... as in, prioritizing play over posing and she's here to tell us exactly what that means and how she tends to run her shoots! Key Takeaways Establish expectations with your clients. Clients who are in the market for candid photography can be difficult because sometimes they don't quite know exactly what they want. They might THINK they want all candid shots but then once the shoot starts it's clear they'd like some posed shots too. Erin makes sure to outline her expectations of the shoot beforehand. She knows a few shots she wants to get, and once those are

There have been a lot of trends in the photography world. Some are around for a short time and disappear (thank you selective color), and some stick around for good. We absolutely love the shift from stiff, posed portraits toward lifestyle photography, both in weddings & in family portraits! Chrystal Cienfuegos is an extremely talented birth & family photographer & she is amazing at capturing documentary style, candid photos. We invited her on PhotoSpark this week to chat with us about what lifestyle photography entails & how she achieves such great images! Key Takeaways: Why lifestyle photography? There are a million reasons why this style of photography is amazing both as a photographer and as a client! First of all, it's SUPER personal. You're really getting to know your client on a very intimate basis. You're likely in their home for at least a few hours & you're capturing very special family moments. This is a great way to bond with your clients & keep them for life! Also, for

Let's start with an easy statement: Finding balance as a business owner is HARD. Seriously, SERIOUSLY hard. Whether you're single & trying to find balance between work & time with friends, or you're married with a bunch of kids & trying to find balance among that, balance is a struggle for most business owners. I know as a new mom, I often find it tough to feel good at the end of the day. Either I spent too much time on work stuff & missed spending time with my kiddo, or I played around with my kiddo all day and neglected some work stuff. It's really hard to have a perfect day where you feel accomplished in all areas of your life. However, it's very important that we figure out ways to do this, and to help us with this, we have Cathy Olson on the show this week! Cathy went through a pretty life-changing experience as a new mom and business owner a few years back, and it helped put everything in perspective for her. She's nailed this work, life, family balance thing & in this episode she g

Photo Cred: Turtle Julian Hi everyone! Here at PhotoSpark headquarters, we often discuss ways ourselves and our listeners can go above & beyond in customer service for our clients. We want to have guests on the show that can help us (and you!) learn ways to stand out from the competition. These days, with SO many photographers around, this is a very important part of being successful in business. Nothing helps you stand out better than a perfectly curated client gift! To help us with this topic, we invited the beautiful & charming Ryann Gaspara of Gaspara Flora to join us in studio!!! She chats with us about client gifts and the reasons why you should be giving them out! Key Takeaways: Echo your brand with your client gifts. This doesn't mean you have to have your branding all over your gift, but you definitely want to give them something that makes them think of you. So if your brand is soft & feminine, your gifts should echo that so your clients are reminded on their experience with you when

Helllooooo everyone! So we have to be honest, we absolutely LOVE having guests on our podcast! Not only do we think guests bring their awesome expertise to the table, it's also kinda like having an awesome excuse to hang out with super cool people we look up to in the industry! However, we also love the dynamic the three of us have together, without guests! We have three super unique personalities, and every now & then it's fun to just hang out in the studio without anyone else! This week, we realized it's been awhile since we've "checked in" with you guys, so we're chatting about all things US and giving you an update on some cool stuff each of your PhotoSpark hosts have been doing! Kate: In classic Kate-style, she's choosing to use her 5 minutes in the spotlight to vent about someone (ok she probably does vent more than the other PhotoSpark hosts, but venting keeps things interesting...right?). She chats about a situation where a client seemed to be taking advantage of a special "friends only" discount

WOW! 2016 is almost over. We can't believe that we've been doing this podcast for almost a full year!! The three of us have definitely learned a ton of valuable things this year, both from the podcast & the amazing guest hosts we have, and from our individual businesses also! We figured this would be a great time to poll some of our listeners and ask them what they've learned in 2016. So tune in as we chat about some lessons learned this past year! Our Three Favorite Lessons Learned in 2016: Do not make exceptions for mini sessions. No more rescheduling! Kate has had a ton of experience with this in 2016 and she JUST had a client do this to her. This defeats the purpose of the mini sessions. Mini Sessions are supposed to be a win/win situation. It's a win for the client because they get great photos at a special rate, and it's a win for the photographe r because we get to make more money than we normally would per hour (if you're doing it right!) and we basically get to hang out in one spot all day, so

Photo Cred: Cassie Rosch So we've never had a flashback episode before, but as the three of us are sitting here doing taxes, we figured this might be a great time to relaunch our tax episode from last year! Melissa McClure joined us in-studio to chat about business taxes: the do's, the don'ts, and what it's like to get audited! We loved listening to this episode again and we hope you guys enjoy hearing about tax tips for photographers! We also want to send a BIG SHOUT OUT AND CONGRATULATIONS to Melissa on her very recent wedding!! She married her wonderful husband in Mexico last month... so in honor of that we're sharing a few of their gorgeous photos on this blog post (because tax-related photos are boring and wedding photos are fun!!). So go give her some love on her Facebook page! Photo Cred: Cassie Rosch Key Takeaways: DO #1: Have a business checking account. One of our most important tax tips for photographers is to have separate accounts for your business and personal transactions. Melissa admits tha

Julie is out of town this week (at Melissa McClure's wedding... lucky ducky!!) so Ashley & Kate decided to take the chance to talk about photographing children! We invited Chris Dowd of All Colors Photography to join in on our conversation. Tune in as we tackle subjects like working with tough kids, tricks to get kids to smile, and more! Below, we've outlined a few of our favorite tips for family and child photographers! Key Takeaways: Establish expectations beforehand. We all know we work better when we are comfortable and relaxed during a shoot. Same goes for our subjects! By establishing expectations prior to the shoot, you're making sure everyone remains calm. If you're photographing 2 year olds, you should probably inform the parents that you'll try for posed photos, but a lot of the photos will be candid shots of the kids having fun. That way, when the kids don't want to sit still & look at the camera, mom & dad already know that's totally normal & you plan on getting great shots anyw

This episode was so much fun to record... we could have recorded hours upon hours of content for you guys! Kathleen Reeder is a photographer, educator, and author specializing in wildlife photography! She chatted with Kate & Ashley about wildlife photography, and told some awesome animal stories! If you've ever fantasized about photographing big cats on a safari in Africa, or if you're just thinking of taking a trip to your local zoo, this is a great episode for you! Here are some of our favorite tips about achieving great images of wildlife from Kathleen! Our Favorite Wildlife Photography Tips Get technical. Wildlife photography is definitely going to give you a chance to test your skills using the manual mode on your camera. The entire trifecta of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed play a huge role in being successful and getting great shots. Starting with shutter speed, you'll typically want a pretty quick speed to allow for zooming without camera shake, as well as any movements the animal may make. S

Very people on earth are cooler than Tim King. There, we said it! Tim is just one of those people who exudes confidence, both personally and in business. He's a professional when he needs to be, and a goofball when he doesn't. And somehow he's found a way to combine both of those traits when in professional situations and it works great for him! He's very social, and very curious about just about everything, so he was a great person to chat with this week about networking beyond the photography world! We are so used to attended photographer events, that when we think about networking outside of our comfy, photographer-filled circles, it gets a little daunting. Why should we be networking beyond the photography world? What "non-photographers" should we seek out to network with? These are all questions we've faced at some point in our careers, and Tim has the answers! Check out a few of our favorite talking points below, and be sure to tune into the whole episode for more! Key Takeaways Networking beyond th