marketing say what?

I have come to a stand still, and am stumped at what to do next. Writing helps me answer most of my own questions. I am going to envoke the law of attraction and summon the clients to me. But I will also put forth effort to find them. I will keep telling myself that the clients will come, and that I will be sucessful. I will type it in present tense. I have many wonderful clients, I am successful and financially thriving.

I am trying to figure out what to do next, because I dont always feel productive sitting in front of my computer, I want to do something that has an effect, I want to go talk with people, florists, cake decorators but something is holding me back. So I need a plan of action, but I need to go beyond the planning and actually DO!

First I will list the projects that I am working on right now that might develop into something more, opportunities can open up anywhere!

I will be hanging 13 fine art prints on the walls of Antonio's restaurant Gran Gusto.
I am going to be going up and photographing authentic Greek olive oil being processed and bottled in 2 weeks time. They also might use my photos on their website! I also would like to develop my olive oil photo shoot into a little final cut piece for promotional uses.

I would like to make a promotional movie for my business, but I also love making little movies that tell peoples' stories. I want to start making 1 minute or shorter movies for companies that they can use for promotion. I would have fun and my photography gets exposure, plus clients would pay a lot such a nice product.

I am putting the spazzy free for all behind me. I should make a new food postcards and email that out to the food photographers I have on my list.

I should bite the bullet and call Jon and grovel and ask him how he finds wedding business and ask for some tips.

I should update my personal website and get the inthenook website up and running with matching business cards and promo cards to match. Then I need to actually step out of my apartment and distribute the post cards to local businesses. I know I have lists of florists and cake bakers and dress designers. I will have to organize these lists and systematically go to them, and just say "look I am a wedding photographer, I was wondering if I could place some cards in your store." NO ONE WILL BITE also I should get a little card stand for the cards.

I will keep a list of the dates I go to these places and revisit them??? How can I make it worth while for them ?? I need and excuse to revisit them.

At the current moment I will flip out if I read one more article about marketing. I will take a break from them and then revisit them because I am sure there are some useful tips somewhere burried in the countless articles Google shows me.

I did like the idea of notebook business cards, essentially your business card is the cover of a little notebook that is perfect for a purse or pocket, its an attempt at people not throwing your card away and seeing your name when they use the note pad.

I should register/sign up or atleast visit the Cambrigdge Chamber of Commerce and see what networking meetings they have to offer.

I should keep in contact with Greg and give him some promo cards to put in his store.

I need to get up the nerve and see if I can photograph the food at the Stolen Menu in York.

I need to book more time in the studio to photograph food with my love.. and not spaz out. I am smarter than the seamless.

I also want to practice portrait photography. But with who?

I need to learn how to put up a graphic add on craigslist and update it weekly

I should send a promo card to everyone I have a business card of.

Maybe try and contact Pat and see if other people in that building are interested in my photography services.

I sometimes lack the motivation needed perhaps because I cant see a result, I should think of building my wedding photography business like planning my wedding, as exciting and new. Also weddings cost money, but by marketing my wedding photography business I am hoping to make money, so there is an added incentive.

I need to join more photograph organizations and attend meetings they might have in the area. I also need to look into wedding expos and tradeshows, because those are elemental in reaching new customers, maybe have a give away and have a list to join the mailing list. To go along with that I will need some display materials to impress the clients with.

Studio Food Shoot

Today Connie and I went to do a food photo shoot at school. Here are the difficulties that I ran into and some things I learned:

The seamless was really frustrating to put up and not wrinkle, plus a whole bunch of it was already dirty so there was lots of rolling and unrolling and improvising. 

Its important to stay calm and listen to those that are there helping you. 

If you dont like the way a photo is turning out stop, step back and see what you can change to get better results. 

Have fun with your food 

I will post a few photos from this shoot and a few previous food shoots soon 

Things I accomplished that weren't a total waste of time

Today I got home from work and firmly planted my self on the couch. I should amend that. I went to the farmers market and bought some wonderful tomatoes. I then proceeded to photograph them on a blanket and then photograph my process of making a mozzarella tomato basil salad. But after all was send and done, then I sat down. I sit at my computer in hopes of being productive, sometimes I am but mostly I feel drained and get distracted. Today a mish mosh of Cash Cab, How its made, and ET were playing in the background. Jenae came home and told me all about the happenings of her jobs as they come and go. I attempted to order some products online with surprising difficulty. So my evening happened away while I sat in my living room. Here is what I did. 

Emailed Olive oil company, asked to order olive oil and attached pics I had taken in email, and checked out their website

Emailed Portsmouth Tea company and attached pics to their email too, and checked out their website

Talked with My Love

Checked email

Ordered lotion from Dirty Moose and looked at their website

Posted on both blogs several times 

Burned discs for Leanne, and Dr Hall and wrote addresses on post its, set them aside to be mailed tomorrow 

Talked to my mom

Stumbled on a few cool websites

Proofed and re-proofed the book I designed in Iphoto

Cursed Iphoto for loosing some of my photos and generally being difficult 

Repeatedly tried to order said book and finally was successful on 3 or 4th try

Stumbled some more 

Cooked dinner-raviolis with basil and butter

Chatted with Jenae

Imported the pictures I have put on flickr(awesome) into Iphoto (the devil) so I can put promotional photo albums on my Iphone(amazing)

Put those photos in albums but didnt update phone yet bc it takes forever

Wrote a pretty awesome cover letter/artist statement- I am pretty proud of it

Updated resume

Then used it to apply for two photography job openings. 

Blogged again 

 I am exhausted just typing the damn list. 

Now I may blog one more time before bed and read a page or two of my book before I go to bed 

I will post my tomato photos when I have edited them.

Good Night All 

In the Nook

Me and Connie are in the process of starting our own wedding photography studio. Here is a promo card I have designed. Our website isn't up yet but we plan on calling ourselves In the Nook Photography. 

Blog Crazy

I am posting in rapid succession to catch my blog and readers up with my recent shoots. I alternate updating my flickr and this blog. My flickr is more organized so check in with that site too from time to time. 

Here is some picks from a home photo shoot, the ridiculous set up and the results!

Portraits for Leanne

I did a photshoot for my cousin a couple of weeks ago, I believe I mentioned the shoot in a past blog. Here are the results 

Portrait and Office Shoots

Here are a few shots from a job I did last week for a doctor, of himself and his office