Rick Paul: November 2009 Archives

Thanks, Nikonians!

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I opened my email today to find that I was the featured Nikonians Blogger! Then I visited the Nikonians homepage and found the same news in the headlines! What a nice surprise, everyone! Since that posting is bound to be bring new visitors to my blog, I thought I'd recap and re-introduce myself. Educated and working as full time Systems Engineering, I started a new journey two years ago to start up Saguaro Shadows Photography. Having a full-time job that pays the bills has allowed me to start this business with minimal risk.

I could not have started this journey without Nikonians. Members like Digitial Darrell Young mentored me in improving my photography and starting this journey. Nikonians forums like the Speedlights and Lighting, and Weddings and Social Events forums provided me with a lot of the answers I needed to get started.

The result is that in 2009 I shot 5 weddings, and more than a dozen family portrait sessions. I fully meet my booking and financial goals for the year. I have moved beyond just shooting friends and family. Most of my business these days is new business coming from people hearing about me through word of mouth, or finding me on the internet. One recent client found me because I had given someone a business card on an airplane flight earlier in the year!

For 2010 and beyond, I have aggressive goals for increasing my business even further. My goals also include dedicated studio space in the future.

Lastly, I started this blog because of all the posts I saw in the Nikonians forums asking very similar questions on how to get started. So I decided to start this blog to document my journey and the lessons I learned along the way.

So if you're new to the blog, please read through all the previous entries. If you have any questions, or suggestions for future topics, please let me know!

By the way, if you're a reader of my blog, and a Facebook member, please become a fan of Saguaro Shadows!

Christmas is here!

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The Christmas season is in full swing, and business at Saguaro Shadows Photography is picking up!

This past weekend, we opened our home studio for family Christmas portraits. The weekend was quite successful, and we shot several family portraits:

We gained most of our clients through word of mouth, but also had some contacts from clients who found our website through Google. We have more Google clients lined up for this coming week, and a few Thanksgiving weekend. The Google AdWords campaign is definitely working!

Our Christmas portraits were shot with a 3 light setup. Two SB-800's shooting through umbrellas to the left and the right, and another SB-800 bouncing off the ceiling to open up the shadows a little in the background.

Although most of the image is a hand-painted background, the bookcase in the scene, and the presents are real. This gave the images a more realistic and 3-dimensional feel.

As well as taking Christmas portraits, we've also hooked up with a professional graphics designer to created custom Christmas card templates for us. Saguaro Shadows can now offer our customers a very unique, one of a kind Christmas card:

We worked a barter deal with the designer, so we now have several Christmas Card designs at a minimal cost to us.

By the way, if you're a reader of my blog, and a Facebook member, please become a fan of Saguaro Shadows!

Christmas is coming!

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Christmas is coming fast, and Saguaro Shadows Photography is ready!

We're opening our home studio this coming weekend for family Christmas portraits. The point of the effort is to draw in a lot of clients with 1 setup, and provide an inexpensive Christmas portrait they can use for presents for grandparents, or holiday Christmas cards.

We started by getting a high quality, hand-painted background from David Maheu. David creates among the best backgrounds on the planet. You can see the results in our first test shots with this background:

We already have some clients lined up, and will be trying to line up more in the coming week by word of mouth, Google Advertising, and our Facebook presence. By the way, if you're a reader of my blog, and a Facebook member, please become a fan of Saguaro Shadows!