Archive for Networking
I am on Pinterest
Posted by: | CommentsI made a board on my Pinterest for all of you subscribers! What is it? Pinterest is a visual social networking format connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.
Organize and share things you love like bulletin boards. You can browse pinboards created by other people to get inspiration and ideas about all kinds of things like wedding planning, decorating, and recommended reading.
To get started you simply request an invite with your email address from Pinterest or a current user can invite you. Luckily for me, Melissa was on-line and got me started fast.
There is a free getting started guide I found at http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-pinterest-for-business/ Download this before you sign up, it has some great tips.
Then you can go to www.Pinterest.com to set up your account. It is easy.
At any time Barb Gordon Photo Coach subscribers can now pin your favorite images you have taken to my board. Here is the link:
http://pinterest.com/barbgordonia/barb-gordon-photo-coach-subscribers/
I am excited to see what you have been doing. Remember, the image you “pin” must already be on the web, so take a look at your blog and see what you have there. But before you pin: There is also some concern about copyright and image use agreements with Pinterest.
I for one find all the legal jargon hard to understand with use agreements. So I did not think too much about it until I found the following links articles that got me a bit concerned. You might want to be get more informed yourself so here are the links to get your research started:
http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterest-copyright-issues-lawyer-2012-2
and
and
In the article “How to use Pinterest without breaking the law” on the Wall Street Journal blog located at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/13/dont-get-stuck-by-pinterest-lawyers-warn/?mod=wsj_share_twitter Jonathan Pink, a California-based intellectual property lawyer with Bryan Cave LLP told the Law Blog, “if you are going to play it conservative and safe, you should never pin an image on Pinterest for which you don’t own the copyright interest or for which you have not obtained a license from the copyright owner.”
If you decide to proceed, make sure you go to http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/ to download the “follow buttons” to add to your website pages.
The Photography Industry is Business Friendly
Posted by: | CommentsPhotographers are blessed in more ways than one.
One way you may not be aware of is that the group of professionals that make up the photography industry is quite special. Unless you have been in other fields you may not really appreciate or experienced otherwise. If you have not found this out yet, I just want to share some thoughts today.
Many years ago, I was in the gift basket industry for a short while. I found the vendors to be unpredictable and unreliable. It made it hard to be able to count on getting product. Sales people would not stay with their companies for any length of time which made contacting them obviously difficult. Many of the companies had such high minimum orders that I, as a small start up, could not work with them.
Contrast that with the professional photography industry. I have found during my twenty-five plus years that the vendors are very stable and reliable companies. Many of them have sales representatives that will call on your studio and give you assistance, answer questions, and offer advice. I believe they do care about our success.
We also have the convenience of having little to no requirements in minimum orders. It is especially helpful that framing vendors can ship us one custom frame at a time.
We have a very strong national association, Professional Photographers of America (www.PPA.com). And the state affiliates of PPA are equally as impressive. If you are not a member as yet, at the very least in your state organization, I encourage you to join. Not only will you learn a lot, have a chance to network with your peers, they are very supportive organizations.
Lately I have been attempting to go to a horse clinic as a participant only to find how unorganized, unprepared, and unprofessionally these clinics are operated. One would think these trainers would go out of business without paying closer attention to their business systems. It is a good thing that as much as I love horses that I am not interested in that drastic of a career change.
Considering what an industry’s reputation was like before picking it as a career was not something I was savvy enough to do. I suppose most of us don’t. We just go with our heart. I am just blessed, like you are, to be in a profession that is this amazing.
And of course the best part of all is capturing those beautiful, priceless moments only a storyteller with a camera can do.
An Adobe Bridge Fix
Posted by: | CommentsThe first time this happened I thought I was losing my mind. In Adobe Bridge, I could not find the Image Processor function. It was totally gone, disappeared. I called a reliable friend of mine who confirmed that the function was indeed supposed to be there. He suggested uninstalling and reinstalling. Good idea, but I hate that stuff. So I asked in a forum and got a quicker fix.
This function disappears from the selections for me often, why I don’t know. But somehow the opening script gets lost. I have on many occasions had to reset my scripts.
If this ever happens to you, here is where to find it:
- Edit>Preferences>Start Up Scripts
- Check all the boxes
- Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the one that comes unchecked for me (don’t know why).
Oh, and if you are like me you will forget to do a restart on the computer. That is necessary. Good luck.
Tip to market your business
Posted by: | CommentsHave you stepped out of your comfort zone lately?
This week has been a stretch for me on two levels, business and personal.
First, I gave a talk at our local hospital to a cancer support group. I started a blog for cancer survivors in which I photograph them and they write blog posts on different aspects of the cancer experience. The support group chairperson asked me to share with others about the project and how it is going. It is called www.PortraitsAndStories.com if you are interested in seeing it.
As if public speaking in general wasn’t enough, the local television station was there doing a feature piece. So before my talk, I was interviewed in front of a very scary big camera.
Second, I loped (or cantered) on my new horse that I have only known for five weeks. You would have to know my background and timid personality to understand how big of a deal this was for me. It might be equal to someone else’s jumping out of an airplane. Well, sort of.
It is difficult to set yourself up for uncomfortable things on purpose. To call someone up and say, “I want to give a speech,” if you are nervous, or terrified of public speaking is highly unlikely.
The key is, for me I guess, is not to automatically say no to an opportunity just because I am not confident. Say yes and then figure out how to pull it off. You will grow from the experience and gain so much more self confidence. I know I learned a lot about how to prepare for my next television interview.
And the best part? I survived both experiences. I didn’t pass out, sweat through my jacket, or fall off my horse. It was a good week. God Bless.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
About Barb
Barb Gordon, of www.BarbGordonPhotoCoach.com, is a Master Photographer, Photographic Craftsman, and Certified Professional Photographer with the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) to which she has belonged since 1984. She is a nationally published and award winning photographer, entrepreneur, speaker, and author including being published in the prestigious PPA Loan Collection 2006, PPA Showcase 2003, twice named Iowa’s Top Ten Photographer of the Year, 2010 Iowa’s Master Photographer of the Year, and 2010 PPA’s Photographer of the Year, Silver Level.
