Photospark

This week we are joined in studio by Tracy Petrucci, an expert in social media marketing! Tracy owns a small business marketing agency here in San Diego, so she is the perfect person to chat with about marketing your photography business online! Brief Social Media Rundown  Instagram- As photographers, we should take advantage of the fact that our job automatically gives us really pretty images we can post to social media... specifically Instagram! Most business owners aren't so lucky! So we should definitely be posting consistently on Instagram. Facebook- Facebook ads are SUPER valuable! You have a TON of control over your money when using Facebook ads, which make them a pretty affordable means of social media marketing. You can set a budget of $20 or so, try out a target market, and see how the ad is working! If after a few days you aren't happy with the results, you can pause & change your ad to your liking until it works for you! Pinterest- Pinterest tends to be a bit better for businesses who are ac

This week we are joined by the amazing Sophie Crew! Sophie specializes in newborn photography. Sophie has been photographing newborns since her oldest was born 10 1/2 years ago, but has been officially full time since 2009. Her style is whimsical, dreamy, and colorful... she has the most amazing, magical editing style!! One of our favorite parts from this episode is when Sophie chats about submitting her portfolio for approval in a group many years ago. She had a friend look it over and was told everything looked great except for her newborn images. Instead of taking those images out of the portfolio, Sophie took that constructive criticism as a challenge & improved upon her craft & learned everything she possibly could about newborn photography. We love that she faced that challenge head on and didn't get scared away!! 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, a

  One of the biggest discussions we've seen in online groups is the benefit of Yelp for photographers. Some people swear by it, some people swear it's the worst! This week we are joined by Corey Dane, the manager of local business outreach for Yelp!! The three of us have very different experiences with Yelp... Ashley & Kate have quite a few reviews, but Ashley chooses to advertise with Yelp & Kate does not. Julie only has 2 reviews & has had some experiences with Yelp that put a sour taste in her mouth. It was perfect to chat with Cory & ask him ALL our questions & get honest answers! Did you know that 82% of people use online reviews to research their decision before making a purchase? That means a LOT of your potential clients want to see reviews about your business before deciding to book you! Key Takeaways Claim your Yelp Business Page: Corey emphasizes how important it is to take control over your business's page! The whole process takes about 2 minutes, and from there you can add u

We are fangirling out a little bit here over at PhotoSpark over our most recent guest! On this week's episode, we're joined by Leslie Kerrigan, the founder of Seniorologie! In case you're unfamiliar, Seniorologie is a GREAT tool for senior portrait photographers! It's a website & community that provides inspiration, knowledge, and resources to senior portrait photographers, as well as online and in person workshops & business tips! Keep reading for a quick outline of what we chatted about when we discussed senior portrait photography with Leslie Kerrigan! Key Takeaways: Yearbook photos: Don't worry if your area has strict yearbook restrictions for senior portraits. Leslie mentions it's important to focus on lifestyle-type senior portrait photography even when your photo can't be in the yearbook. It's actually a benefit to us because we don't have to worry about the yearbook deadline & can photograph seniors all year! Portfolio-Building: Don't be afraid to shoot for free! The more you shoot, the

Hello everyone!! We are really excited about this week's episode because once we started brainstorming our ideas for it, we couldn't stop! This week we're chatting about 15 unprofessional habits of photographers! We are all guilty of some of these, so this is a no judgement zone, but we do think it's important to address a few of the most common faux-pas we see within our own businesses & other photographer's businesses to make sure you guys aren't doing any of these things! Key Takeaways: We aren't going to share EVERY bullet point with you here (you have to listen for that!) but here are our 5 favorites from the episode: Typos on websites and emails: Oh man... huge pet peeve!! We totally understand that grammar/spelling isn't everyone's strong suit, but if you know this about yourself it's a good idea to have someone proofread your website, email templates, and online promotional ads! Typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors could completely overshadow a beautiful portfolio on a website for some

This week we are joined by San Diego photographer, Don Sheffler! Don is a great photographer in our community here & he does great work with skateboard/sport photography, senior portraits, and other genres as well. He chats with us about his philosophies regarding keeping photography fun! Don loved photography in the 80s, but he didn't do it professionally for another 20 years. In 2006, his son joined pop warner football & Don took the opportunity to become the team photographer, taking photos on auto the whole time & just having fun with it. He enjoyed it quite a bit & eventually took a photography class with his daughter (and his old high school photography teacher!), and the new DSLR cameras blew his mind! His knowledge of photography came flooding back & he purchased his first DSLR shortly thereafter. The rest is history!! Key Takeaways: Working for free- Don is not afraid to do on-speck "free" stuff to get his foot in the door in the sports photography world, and it's paid off for

We're excited to share another Three Minute Tips episode with you guys! This week, Julie shares her three favorite ways to improve productivity in the office. Tune in to see what small changes you can make in your daily routine to help you be more productive! Follow the Two Minute Rule: The first thing you should do when you start your day is make a list of all the tasks you can get done in two minutes or less. This could be something like cleaning up your desktop on your computer, filing away paperwork, or writing a thank you note. By doing these tasks first thing every day, your to-do list will get MUCH shorter before you start your big tasks, and make it easier to accomplish everything else! Avoid meetings when possible: Meeting people face to face can be a great thing, but it can also take up a LOT of unnecessary time & effort. You have to plan the meeting around multiple peoples' schedules, drive to the meeting, find parking, meet the client, and then drive home. Julie suggests if there's ANYTHING

This is a pretty fun episode to listen to because of all of the mutual "fan-girling" going on in the studio!! Ashley is away this week (she'll chat about where she is and what she's doing in a future episode!) so Julie & Kate held down the fort! They're both HUGE fans of San Diego officiant Bethel Nathan, and she's a huge fan and listener of Photospark, so it ended up being an AWESOMELY fun time!! Bethel is a wedding officiant here in San Diego (Ceremonies By Bethel), as well as a business coach (Elevate by Bethel), and just overall awesome presence here in the San Diego wedding industry! She dropped by the studio to chat with us about weddings & the modern couple. She's super inclusive and loves ALL types of weddings! Photospark definitely supports marriage equality, so we wanted to have Bethel in the studio because she's basically an expert in this area, and she gave us some awesome tips we can use when working with modern weddings! Key Takeaways: Make Your Support Clear: If you support marriage

When starting this podcast, we knew we'd have to split up our tasks (there are quite a few of them!) and delegate certain tasks to certain hosts, based off our strengths & what we like to do most! Julie is definitely the networking guru out of the three of us Photospark ladies! She loves going to events, meeting new people, and spreading the news about our awesome podcast! In this Three Minute Tips episode, Julie discusses some ways to get the most out of networking! Key Takeaways: Find Relevant Events: Look at the invites you receive and do some research! Check out their social media, guest list, and event hosts & make sure the event is a good fit! It's never a bad idea to add the hosts as friends on Facebook or follow them on Instagram.. if they know your name when you arrive, you're already a step ahead towards forming that networking bond & connection with them! Chat with Multiple People: It's so tempting to find your friends at these types of events & stick within your comfort zone, but

Living in San Diego, we are lucky to have ALL sorts of creatives, entrepreneurs, and business-minded peers close at hand. Our goal at PhotoSpark is to deliver as much advice as possible from these awesome people to you guys!! At no charge! How rad is that?! Anyway, Julie & Kate were joined this week by Becky & Jesse Morquecho, the creators and owners of Idealust- a community for creative entrepreneurs. These two are an awesome team of wedding photographers turned business coaches, so they know all the ins and outs of the photography industry! They chatted with us about their must-know strategies to make more money with your creative business. Check out their episode to hear all of them, but here are some of our favorites! Download from iTunes Here Download from iTunes Here Key Takeaways: Everyone starts somewhere: Becky & Jesse emphasize the importance of following your dreams and making that jump into the creative industry. A lot of people wait for the PERFECT time to start, making excuses

Hello everyone!!! If you're anything like us, you're smack dab in the middle of the summer busy season. Here in San Diego, we notice a HUGE influx in photo shoots during the summer... locals & tourists alike all want those bright, sunny beach photos right? Well as fun as it can be to be super busy (we all love making money!), we've noticed that sometimes busy season really hurts our creativity. We get so used to driving to the same locations, doing the same types of shoots over and over again, that it can put a damper on our spirit! This week, our Three Minute Tips episode is all about how to reignite creativity! Key Takeaways: Setup a Styled Shoot: Styled shoots are GREAT! They're a breath of fresh air because you get to build the shoot from scratch. You don't have to worry about things like client expectations, location issues, lighting issues, etc because everything is laid out ideally how YOU want it. Plus, you get to play around a little more & experiment because it's all for you!! If setting u

As our show grows, we are lucky to have more & more guest hosts who are interested in coming on the show & sharing about their companies and how they can help photographers with their business! This week we are joined by Meghan Brown of Two Bright Lights! In case you're unaware, Two Bright Lights is an online publishing platform that helps photographers get published both in online blogs & in print! It's a GREAT resource and super easy to use! Meghan chatted with us about some benefits of getting published, as well as some publication tips to help your work get published through a site like Two Bright Lights! Tune in for all of her awesome tips, but here are a few highlights!!   Key Takeaways: Two Bright Lights breakdown: Meghan chats a bit about how TBL works... once you have an account, you create an album (up to 150 images) from your event or photoshoot (they accept pretty much any type of shoot!), and then you can select which blogs, websites, magazine, etc you'd like to submit to. You have

Hi guys! We are coming at you today with another Three Minute Tips episode. This week, Ashley shares her tips for extended family sessions! Ashley totally rocks these sessions and does quite a few of them during the summer. Being in San Diego, we get a lot of family reunions, family vacations, etc, so we all get bombarded with a lot of requests for shoots with a lot of people! If this is something that sounds a bit overwhelming to you, you're not alone! It can totally be overwhelming and a lot to handle! However, Ashley's tips will help make these extended family sessions seem a little easier to deal with. Check them out! Key Takeaways: Charge More: Don't be afraid to charge more! You're going to put a lot more work into this shoot than you would a smaller family. There's a lot more time spent organizing everyone's desires pre-shoot (location, date, time of day, etc), as well as during the shoot. More faces mean more chances to get shots where people are blinking, looking away, etc. So that's extra retouchi

WOW! We can't believe PhotoSpark is 6 months old! It's been a bit of a whirlwind from the first spark of our podcast idea until now, but we are so happy with where we are right now! We have some awesome Facebook followers (shout out to all you guys!) and have made some awesome connections with other photographers & business owners both locally in San Diego and abroad via Skype! This week's episode is a little PhotoSpark half birthday check in from each of us; we're updating you guys on what's changed in our lives, businesses, and more in the last 6 months! First off; did you see the photo above?! We just hit TEN THOUSAND DOWNLOADS! That's soooo rad! We are so excited about how quickly we are growing and how many people have heard our podcast!! This is fantastic & we can't wait to see where we go next!! Julie starts us off by chatting about her rebranding! She hired a legit brand specialist (from England!) and is working really hard on honing in on exactly what she wants her specific brand to be! She'

We were joined in-studio this week by the lovely & talented Krystel Tien, the owner of Couture Event & Elle Bridal Boutique here in San Diego, CA! Krystel started Couture Events about 8 years ago, and she started Elle Bridal Boutique about a year ago after seeing a gap in her target market for the types of dresses & bridal gown services she was looking for. She's preparing to launch an online academy to help entrepreneurs, wedding planners, and brides plan their own weddings! We are in love with Krystel's style, taste, and companies, but we really wanted her to come on the show to talk with us about finding passion and purpose in your business! Join in & listen to our super fun conversation with Krystel! Key Takeaways: Find the "YOU" in your business: Krystel's style is very french, couture, and beautiful... this style is cohesive & found between all three of her businesses! She suggests finding the traits & styles that make you unique & stand out from the rest of the businesses

We all agree that one of the nicest parts about being an established photographer with a (fairly) steady income, is that we can turn away shoots if we feel the need to. Of course we want to make as much money as possible, but sometimes it's better to trust your gut and just say no! We were inspired to record this episode after reading an article posted on Honeybook by Chrissie Arpie titled "4 Reasons to Say No to a Client." In this episode,  we'll chat about this article and explore a few other reasons to turn clients away! Key Takeaways: They disrespect your time: Ashley dives into this a bit.. she's recently had two clients who haven't replied to her in a timely manner and who let their contracts expire. This put a bad taste in her mouth & she ended up telling the client she doesn't think they'll be a great fit. Our time is valuable and we can't waste it on clients who aren't going to appreciate it! Budget issues: Nobody likes getting those emails where clients are asking for a discount. Sometimes it'

Meet Lauren Nygard!! Lauren was actually one of the original co-founders of Photospark, but had to step back a little bit due to her upcoming move to North Carolina! During this episode, we chat a bit about how she's prepping for her move, and we also tackle quite a few listener questions! Listener Questions Rescheduling due to weather; how do you decide to reschedule & how do you notify your clients? Do you offer discounts to long-term clients and/or friends & family? When should the "portfolio building" phase end & how would you go about updating your rates during a move? RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Lauren Nygard   

In this episode our guest Terran Bayer of Westway Studio, shares her heart pounding experience about how she found out her image was used by another local business in an advertisement without her consent.  This led her down a rabbit hole of research on how to protect her images from copyright infringement.  We touch on Professional Photographers of America aka PPA, copyright law, and watermarks. Visit Terran Bayer's Website: http://www.westwaystudio.com US Copyright Office: http://copyright.gov/eco/faq.html Grab your coffee or cocktail and join us for candid conversation about photography and business! We are three women entrepreneurs who talk about networking, workflow, client relationships and more. We’re not afraid to share our own ups and downs and we’ll help you tackle yours!  We’ll have guest speakers, answer listener questions, all while giving you tips & tricks to help get you through the upcoming years! PhotoSpark is hosted by Kate Mills, Julie Ferneau, and Ashley DuChene. Send us your Question

We discussed some of our tricks for keeping clients, adults and children, happy during the family portrait sessions. Elmo makes a cameo!  Ashley shares how being told off by a frustrated client actually pushed her into making a change in the way she operates. Kate describes some clever ways to handle kids and parents who make lame requests during the session. Julie ponders doing Senior Portraits...will she be persuaded to give it a try?  Oh, and don't tell your kids to call Ashley "The Photographer" at the session, she has a name! Join us for candid conversations about photography and business. We are three women entrepreneurs who talk about networking, workflow, client relationships and more. We're not afraid to share our own ups and downs and we'll help you tackle yours.  We'll have guest speakers & answer listener questions, all while giving you tips & tricks to help get you through the year! Hosted by Kate Mills, Julie Ferneau, and Ashley DuChene.