For wedding photographers, one of the most frustrating things can be getting exposure for your work and your studio. You work on your craft, work on your site and work on your business in general all the time, but how do you get the industry to recognize your talent? Whether it is vendors in your own state, photographers you look up to around the country or magazines that you want to be published in, the industry is an important part of the success of your business!
Here are five ways that I believe you can connect with the broader industry to enable your success and get the recognition your work deserves.
1) Join forums and contribute to the conversation that is going on there. As you contribute and build relationships, those in the community will help to promote you and your work to the larger community.
A few forums to check out: Pictage’s Forum (free to all members and password protected), Digital Wedding Forum, the B-School and Digital Photography School.
2) Start a blog and post relevant content. Numerous photographers from around the country have risen to prominence by creating a following for their blog. Producing great content is king here and making sure the information is relevant to the your readers. As your following and voice grows, so will your standing in the industry. It’s best to concentrate on a specific niche that you want to establish yourself as an expert in!
Start a blog here: WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. All of these options are free and easy to use.
3) Submit your images to the photo directors at magazines that you admire. If you don’t know how to submit your images, I am sure there is a blog for that! My resource suggestion is following @knotrebecca on Twitter, she gives great advice and from time to time is looking for direct submissions. If you have a specific magazine in mind for a submission and don’t know who or what to send, it is a good idea to send a DVD of 120-150 images from the wedding to Attn: Wedding Editor at that magazine. On the DVD should be your name, the couples name, date of wedding and location. It is also good to submit with a cover letter explaining why you think the wedding deserves publication. Don’t be turned off if you don’t hear back, it takes time to build these relationships.
4) Network at user groups and industry-leading events, like PUG’s, Partner Con, and WPPI. Even better would be to volunteer to lead a discussion at your PUG or submit a proposal to speak at PartnerCon or WPPI!
Find your PUG, save the date for this year’s Partner Con, and make sure to register for next year’s WPPI here when it opens.
5) Enter competitions that will give you good exposure to the community. Print competitions, album competitions and image storytelling competitions would all be good places to stand out.
You can take your work front and center today with the emerge Photography Contest.
For a limited time you are able to enter for just $1 (use code emerge2010) and receive excellent exposure, as well as $30,000 in prizes! emerge will be judged by leading wedding professionals, including Rebecca Crumley, Weddings Photo Director at The Knot, and world-renowned wedding photographer Joe Buissink.
Tweet to win a free year of Pictage Starter: Follow @emergecontest and @pictage and RT to win 1 year of Pictage Starter Free! (http://blog.pictage.com/?p=3775)
Winner will be drawn May 5 at 5pm EST.
Written by J Sandifer
J is a professional photographer and Business Development Manager at liveBooks. He lives in Portland, ME with his wonderful wife Emilie and their two dogs. Their photography studio emilieinc shoots 50 weddings a year from the Caribbean to Alaska, but mostly on the beautiful New England coast line.