Episode 7!

*Note: Very special episode. Airing live from a pink couch.

Question #1: Where do I find a good workshop in Canada?

Dave: There’s always something going on, and there’s also Henry’s School of Imaging.  It depends on what level you’re at, but if you don’t know [light bands?], Charlotte and I took one last year because we weren’t familiar with it, so things like that you can always pick up.

Taylor: Absolutely.  Other than that, good workshops are always on tour, so eventually something’s going to come either to Canada or a close border state like Buffalo – since sometimes it’s tricky for photographers to get into Canada.  So just keep an eye out.

I’m looking forward to Skip Summer School this year – it’s a wide selection of speakers at about two hours each, so that should be good.

Dave: I just finished Jerry’s workshop here in Toronto, and it was awesome, so if you can catch him, it’s worthwhile.

Question #2: Who are your favourite album suppliers?

Taylor: First off, I love Vision Art.  I love their customer service – they’re kind of like Zappos, and I feel like they’re just customer service company that happens to do albums.  It just comes up to the simplest stuff: I repeated an image back near page 35, and they spotted it and gave me a call.  Also, they’ll Photoshop things in your photos if there’s something that needs to be fixed, and yesterday they caught something and gave me a call.

Dave: We use exclusively Finao at this point, and we’re super happy with them both.  We’ve used other companies that I haven’t been happy with the consistency of quality, and with Finao we haven’t had an issue – period.

Vision Art’s printed with cliché printing – ink jet to fine art paper.  So instead of a photograph , you print it with an ink jet printer, which gives it a soft, lush texture – like silk.

Question #3: How often do you adjust your pricing?

Taylor: Every couple bookings, usually.  Maybe every four or five now.  Back when I was getting started, every three I would bump myself up about $200 or $300, and just kind of kept continuous momentum building.  The main thing is that I’m focused on where I’m going to be in a year when I’m shooting their wedding, so I’m pricing for how good I’ll be in a year from now.

And if someone’s booking in 2012, I don’t take anything more than a year and a half out, so I wouldn’t take it because you never know where you’ll be.

Dave: We’ve actually done a unique thing: about nine months ago, we put all of our pricing online and made it totally public, and that’s been awesome for the honesty of communication.  It gets fewer inquiries, but when they do inquire, they know what they’re in for.  We basically give collections at three different levels, and as people spend more they save more, so when they come in and ask for 30% off, we tell them they only have to spend a certain amount to get a discount.  It gives them a hurdle to jump over, but they know it’s not just them – it’s everyone.

With destination weddings, that’s the one spot we’ve found challenges with.  We used to build extra pricing into the costs, and now we have to let them know it’s $2000 to come down for the week because you’re sacrificing a couple engagement shoots, a baby shoot, editing – all that.  So now we judge a flat fee and commission.

Question #4: How important is print advertising?

Dave: With print advertising, if you’re going to do it, do it so it appears in January or February because people get engage around then, and you want your print ads to have the most impact.  It’s an expensive way to get some leads, though.

Taylor: But the positive is that because it’s such a high-margin industry, typically a print ad can be covered by one or two weddings – in theory.  I’m not a huge believer in print advertising.  I think if you’re going to do it, avoid advertising to brides and advertise to other wedding officials like planners and florists so you can become better known among vendors in the industry.

Dave: Even getting referrals by other photographers – that’s something we do with about five or six photographers in Toronto, and we want to make sure they’re of our calibre, so it’s a good way to establish your position in the industry.

But other than being conscious of our SEO, we don’t really do any Facebook or Google ads.

Taylor: I do a little bit of Facebook – about $2.50 a day, and maybe it costs me $50 a month, but it’s actually paid off quite a bit.