On the second day of the chicks who click conference we had several marketing sessions, which I ate up! The first was done by a lady from the Denver area named Sandy “Sam” Puc’. She started her photography biz when she was 18 and now has a payroll of 42 in her studio!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW! She is also one of the founders of a charity called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep or NILMDTS. That group provides professional photography services for families who’s baby did not/will not live. Sometimes older children as well but mostly newborns. It’s an amazing organization that I’ve been looking into for some time actually and think that I would like to be a part of in the future. I’m not there yet, but it’s good to know the opportunities that are out there to use photography to help people in ways you never thought possible. You should check it out!
Anyway, her session was not NEARLY long enough in my way of thinking. I would have liked to hear much much more from her, but she does do tours so perhaps I’ll have the chance to do that someday.
We also heard about other ways to use charitable marketing to actually help your business. I’m looking into the possibility of helping launch a new PPA charity called Smile Day. This conference that I am at is a charity event. The charity that the PPA supports is called Operation Smile and it helps children with cleft pallets. It’s amazing what they can do for those kids and families. And of course photography and smiling go hand in hand. It’s great!
There was a lot of information presented on Day 2, and I really enjoyed it. The photoshop session at the end got me inspired to try some of my own designs with the photos. I don’t use photoshop so some of it wasn’t usable, but the concepts certainly were. So stay tuned for all of the overflow from my inspiration. 🙂 I’ll have to test it all out on someone after all. ha ha ha!!
I met a couple gals who, like me, are just starting out. It was good to know that I’m not the only one. Some of the instructors have been talking about the recent Texas School that they just taught and of course I’m DROOLING to attend one of those. (okay, not really. don’t send me a bib, please. ha ha) But the one best piece of advice that I have discovered recently was in an amazing little article written to new photographers from someone who has been at it and making it work for a long time, and it was,
“- It’s easier to focus on buying that next piece of equipment than it is to accept that you should be able to create great work with what you’ve got. Buying stuff is a convenient and expensive distraction. You need a decent camera, a decent lens, and a light meter. Until you can use those tools consistently and masterfully, don’t spend another dime. Spend money on equipment ONLY when you’ve outgrown your current equipment and you’re being limited by it. There are no magic bullets.”
So that’s something that I need to keep in mind. Not just with my equipment, but with my desire for more learning. There are so many ways to grow as a photographer, but I can’t do them all… at least not all at once. 😉 I need to take and apply what I have learned from this conference and my last workshop, and then when I feel that I’ve exhausted all of that and need something fresh, I go again. 🙂
That’s a wrap on Day 2. I skipped out on the “Girl’s Night Out” and went to P.F. Chang’s with my friend Angela. I got the better end of that deal for sure, cause after a very good dinner, (Who is p.f. chang btw?) we finished off the evening with some good old chocolate moose tracks icecream! YUM!!!! I’ll take that over martinis and dancing polls any day!