Progress
I wrote a few weeks ago about starting a store front to sell prints. Well I have made some serious progress. In fact, the site is essentially built. I have a pretty decent selection of prints and all of the buttons and shopping carts are set up and ready to roll. So you want a preview? Sorry, that isn’t what this post is for. You are going to have to wait just a little longer to see it in action. It should be fully ready to go live sometime next week. I will write another post when it is up, and add the link to the top of the page. Stay tuned.
Cards
So I just sent off for some new business cards. I designed them myself, and that was a little more nerve racking than I anticipated. I think I went through a total of about 20 designs before I settled on a very simple and clean look. I started with some super complex cards that contained several images and lots of typography. Those just weren’t me. I wanted it to be simple. I finally went with a two sided card with no pictures at all. The front is gloss black and MATT DANNER | PHOTOGRAPHY printed large across the center (the first time I did it it said MATT DANNER | PHOTOGRAPY… that was a close call). The back is a black to gray gradient (just like the website) and has a little logo and my basic information. It was pretty fun stuff. I used OvernightPrints.com to print them. They have great prices and a wide variety of quantities. I should have them next week sometime, so I will let you know what I think of the print job.
Wedding Site
So I just put up a new site about my wedding! We are really excited, so I wanted to get a site up and running with pictures and details and such. If you visit, you might notice some similarities between the wedding site and the site you are on right now. That is because the are both using the same theme from Shutter Themes, just in a different (more wedding appropriate) color. Well hope you will have a look. I will be adding pictures as we get more. Right now it is kind of just a collection of photos of Jessica and I. Soon I want to change the front images to our engagement photos. But that hasn’t happened yet. Anyway, hope you enjoy.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT MATT AND JESSICA’S WEDDING WEBSITE
Storefront
I have been thinking recently about creating a virtual storefront for some of my work. I already have the hosting, all I really have to do is register a name and head over to iThemes and, SHABAM, I’m set up. I would really like to sell more of my prints online. I sell a few here and there in person, but I really feel that I could get my images out there a lot more if I sold them online and mailed out the prints.
This is not an original idea. I know a great deal of photographers that have a store set up just to sell prints. This seems like a relatively easy way to a) get my stuff on people’s walls and b) make a little extra money. Gotta remember, I’m going to need all the money I can get!!!!
Keep your eyes out for a my store. School is out now, so I have a couple of weeks “off” to get this off the ground. See you soon.
Life Changing?
So I got an iPhone. Is it life changing? I submit that it is. Actually I am writing this post from my iPhone via the WordPress app. Wonderful. My beautiful fiancé Jessica got this for me for Christmas. Thanks Jessica.
Dead
Dead week has taken on a whole new meaning. For those of you who may not know what dead week is, it is a tradition at most universities the week before finals. Normally, it gives students nothing due the week before finals so that they can adequately prepare themselves for the big tests. Well in the photography program we handle things a little differently.
All of the labs (darkroom, studio, and MacLabs) are monitored and cared for by student Lab Techs. The university has a policy that no lab techs can work the week of finals. This leaves us in a strange situation, because that means all the labs must be shut down for the last week of school. That leaves Dead Week to work on all final photography projects.
This week has lived up to its name. I wish I were dead. This is thursday, and I have been nearly sleepless since monday. Two VERY long nights in the darkroom, and one split between the MacLab and studio.
Well at 5:00pm today I am finished with this semester. It can’t get here fast enough.
Self Promotion
I recently (today) made some promotional prints to send out. This will just keep everyone up to date with my work. There are 3 different ones, so here is a taste.
Committed
I am officially engaged. I proposed to the wonderful woman of my life today, and it was amazing. So now I guess I am the one in the market for a photographer. I’m gonna need some engagement photos and wedding shooter. Nothing worse than looking for a wedding shooter, and I think Jessica Claire is out of my price range. Too bad I guess.
Thank you to all who were involved in making today special with us. Special thanks to Birby for shooting video for me. As soon as we get the video edited I will post it here for sure. I will keep this updated with everything that is going on in my photographer search.
The Top 10
So I ran across a photographer the other day that really captured my interest. Her name is Jessica Claire, and she is from California. Some of you may have already heard of her; it isn’t like she was a hard find. She was recently named one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world by American Photo Magazine. If you haven’t ever seen her work, I really encourage you to go take a look at her website.
The point of writing about her is that she is not only a great photographer, but she also has a GREAT website. She has recently restyled her site into a blog format. Maybe I am a little bias because that is the same setup I am currently running, but who cares if I’m bias, this is my blog. She incorporates a ton of her portfolio images into the blog, telling stories all along the way about each shoot. Anyways, she is really great, so go check her out. If you didn’t get it from the links above, you can check her site out HERE.
Posing Ideas
I shoot a fair amount of portraits for individuals; but sometimes on the spot, the pose I want just doesn’t come to me right away. I know I am not the only one who has had this problem. But alas, there is a solution. This solution was brought to my attention by, you guessed it, Brandon Irby.
It is actually pretty simple. Just scavenger your old images and images from the net that have good poses that you like, then upload them to your iPhone. This way, you always have a catalogue of 10-15 poses in your pocket. You can review the poses while your subject is changing outfits, moving to a new location, or when you want to pretend that you got a text message during the shoot. Okay I was kidding about the last one, that would be really unprofessional.
Go grab some images, upload them to your iPhone, and shoot some pictures. Oh yeah then come back and share them with us all. Feel free to post links in the comment section back to your blog with images you shot using this technique.
