Melissa Jill Photography Blog

Melissa Jill Photography Blog http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm Melissa Jill Photography Blog en-us Systematizing Publication Submissions http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1089&systematizing-publication-submissions http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1089&systematizing-publication-submissions Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:27:00 GMT

Since reading The E-Myth Revisited a few years back, I've been on a mission to systematize every part of my business. Some facets of my business have proved easier to systematize than others. When it comes to our wedding workflow, the last remaining hold-out has long been systematizing our publication submissions. Until now. Today I'm checking goal #7 off my 101 in 1001 list: Develop a better system for submitting to wedding publications.

We put this on our workflow for EVERY wedding because we want to make sure it happens EVERY time. That's the only way to ensure that the things you want to do consistently, actually happen. The goal I've set for my business is to get every wedding I shoot published either in print or on a wedding blog. Getting real weddings published in magazines or on wedding blogs can be great exposure. It can build buzz for your brand, get your work in front of potential clients and industry professionals and can be a low-cost form of marketing. Initially, many of my opportunities for getting my work published dropped in my lap but since discovering how helpful it can be, I've made an effort to learn more about publication submissions and make them a regular part of my workflow. If you're interested in seeing some of the places my work has been published, click here to go to the press section of the website.

I'm sure there is more than one way to systematize publication submissions, but this is what I came up with. And PLEASE know, as you're reading this, that I did not come up with this overnight. This is a goal I've been working on for at least three years. Last year Sara came on full-time and we made this one of our main goals for 2011. So I know it's a lot but it was developed over time. Here is our system:

1 -- Sara has created a massive spreadsheet -- actually 4 -- that help us organize this venture:

Spreadsheet #1 -- A list of all the print magazines we are interested in being featured in along with the following info for each magazine: Whether or not they are on Two Bright Lights, whether or not they are exclusive (requiring that no other publication features the same wedding), the editor's name and contact info, the website, whether they also have a blog, their publication submission deadlines, the format they like to receive submissions in and what type of style/content they desire.

Spreadsheet #2 -- Similar to #1 but delineates all of this information for the wedding blogs we are interested in being featured in. In addition to the above info, we also have a field where we keep track of which blogs accept engagement shoot submissions.

Spreadsheet #3 -- A list of all our weddings that are currently submitted and those that are pending. It lists the wedding date, the publication submitted to, the date of submission and the status of the submission.

Spreadsheet #4 -- Titled "published," this spreadsheet is basically a list of all the weddings (moved from spreadsheet #3) that have been successfully published. This helps us keep track of which weddings were published where.

2 -- We include a number of steps on our wedding workflow checklist for each wedding that move us toward our goal of getting that wedding published.

#1 -- We ask our brides to fill out a vendor contact form one month before the wedding that gives us all the contact info for the vendors we are working with.

#2 -- We have a "publishing plan" section of the workflow checklist (pictured above) where we choose which blog or magazine we will submit to first, second and third (in case the first or second publications don't pick it up). If we are working with a specific planner on the wedding, or with a bride who has an invested interest in where the wedding is published, I will consult with them when making this plan. That way we are all on the same page.

#3 -- After the wedding, I create a folder of 50-100 images from that wedding for publication. I choose these with our target publication in mind -- mostly including lots of details, scene-setting shots and a few portraits.

3 -- Sara follows the publishing plan and uses the folder of images I've created along with the vendor contact list when submitting. We love to use Two Bright Lights whenever possible -- if the publication is one of their editorial partners. Click here to read more about how and why we use this amazing service. If the magazine or blog does not accept submissions through Two Bright Lights, we will either use their online submission tool (if they have one) or submit via our custom publication kit.

4 -- On the 1st of every month, Sara and I have a Pub Sub Review scheduled on the calendar. "Pub Sub" is short for "Publication Submissions" and this is our time to pow-wow on the status of various submissions, review or tweak our publishing plan and pick which weddings should go to which publications. This step was the final key to making sure nothing in the system falls through the cracks, and that we keep this goal of getting published consistently in view.

Phew! Like most systems that are done well, this one took a lot of time and work to set up, but is very manageable to keep in motion now that the system is in place.

Using this system, we were able to get 8 of our 15 weddings from 2011 published and are still in process with three more. We haven't reached our goal of getting 100% of our weddings published, but I'm hopeful for 2012!

What to do next?

1. Write down any concrete goals you want to implement from this post. If you're inspired but overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, start with these simple goals:

-Sign up for Two Bright Lights and submit one wedding for publication.
-If you haven't already done so, type up your wedding workflow checklist. If you have one already, add a step or two that will aid you in getting the wedding published.

2. Leave a comment below if you have any questions or further thoughts about what has worked for you. I'd love to hear from you!

]]> Self-sufficiency vs. neediness http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1090&self-sufficiency-vs-neediness http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1090&self-sufficiency-vs-neediness Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:25:00 GMT
But I'm also a child of God, a believer in Christ, a human designed to be in relationship with my Creator. I'm designed not only to be in relationship with my Creator, but to NEED him.

I recently met up with a dear friend who is also a believer and is going through multiple trials. Her mother-in-law has cancer, a dear friend and employee had a stroke and is dealing with memory loss, her grandfather passed away, and meanwhile she has a newborn and is attempting to run her own business and be strong for everyone. She was upbeat and positive and appeared surprisingly strong in the midst of these trials. I saw myself in her -- the typical American Christian -- self-sufficient, yet trusting in Christ and knowing that God "never gives us more than we can handle."

With how much that phrase gets thrown around in Christian circles, you'd think it comes straight out of the Bible. But it doesn't. And while it is well-meaning, I don't think it's true. I recently read a great book by Greg Lucas called Wrestling with an Angel. In it, he shares about his personal journey of raising a son with special needs. He wrote something that hit me hard in the gut:

"I hear religious-minded people say all the time with good intentions, 'God will never place a burden on you so heavy that you cannot carry it.' Really? My experience is that God will place a burden on you so heavy that you cannot possibly carry it alone....All the while He will walk beside you waiting for you to come to the point where you must depend on Him. 'My power is made perfect in your weakness,' He says, as we strain under our burden."

God isn't looking for us to buck up under trial and be self-sufficient. He WANTS us to need him.

I read a daily devotional called Jesus Calling that is based on Scripture but is written as if Jesus were talking to us. A recent entry drove all this home for me:

"My Peace...is still your deepest need, and I, your Prince of Peace, long to pour Myself into your neediness. My abundance and your emptiness are a perfect match. I designed you to have no sufficiency of your own. I created you as a jar of clay, set apart for sacred use. I want you to be filled with My very Being, permeated through and through with Peace."

I am a product of my culture and so easily lulled into self-sufficiency. But self-sufficiency is not valued in God's economy. He values our neediness. This realization is SO transformative for my soul and something that I need to be reminded of on a daily basis (so much so, that I wrote it on the inside cover of my journal under the heading "Daily Reminders."). The God of the universe not only designed me to need him, but he LONGS to pour himself into my neediness. Amazing.

]]> Frivolous Friday vol. 3 http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1088&frivolous-friday-vol http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1088&frivolous-friday-vol Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:11:00 GMT

Frivolous: playful, lighthearted, trivial; the little things in life that should be savored.

Favorite Outfit of the Week: Ruffle top: ModCloth. Cardigan: J Crew. Purple skinny cords: Loft. Heels: Nordstrom. Necklace: Charming Charlie.

Collapsed in a heap of exhausted human jello on the sofa Wednesday night after pouring my brain out for the MJ2DAY during the beginning of the week. I love people but I fall slightly on the introverted side of the personality continuum. So I soaked up the quiet and snuggled Dixie to my heart's content.

Got a call from a couple industry friends Wednesday at 1pm asking me if I wanted to go to lunch last minute. Looked down at myself and realized I was still comfortably clad in my pjs. Aw, the perks of working from home. I feel so loved when people call me to do something spontaneous, though, so I threw on some clothes and met them 20 minutes later. Didn't look super-cute, but it was super-fun nonetheless.

Highlight of the week: Getting to know 13 sweet and talented attendees who came to my house from all corners of the country for the MJ2DAY. You can read more about it and see their cute mugs here and here.

Had to give Dixie a total of 5 emergency whisker baths this week. She's a trouble maker. But a cute one.

Yes, I did this:
1 -- Started crying after watching a kiss. On a comedy sitcom.
2 -- Talked so much during the MJ2DAY that I had to constantly pop Luden's Wild Cherry Cough Drops throughout the second day to remain comprehensible.

Celebrating: Down time after exhausting but very satisfying hard work. There's no better feeling.

Tonight I'm going to this awesome event and if you're in Phoenix, YOU SHOULD TOO. Everyone who is anyone will be there :). Sara has been working super-hard to put this exhibition together. She is both curating it and showing in it. She's super-talented and it should be super-interesting. And that's a lot of "super"s.

Feeling Blessed: Already mentioned it above, but it bears repeating: I get to work in my pjs and snuggle the cutest dog in the world.

]]> MJ2Day Phoenix mock shoot http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1087&mj-day-phoenix-mock-shoot http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1087&mj-day-phoenix-mock-shoot Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:09:00 GMT

Yesterday I shared some photos from my workshop earlier this week here in Phoenix. I took the group out to do a mock engagement shoot on Monday afternoon through my neighborhood. I was able to demonstrate how I run a typical engagement shoot -- finding great light, interacting with the couple, posing and looking for compositional elements -- all things we talked about earlier in the day.

Our two models were Ryan ... Sarah who have been married for a few years now. I've never had the chance to shoot these two and when I called Sarah, she informed me that she was about 6 months pregnant with their first child! So, I thought -- hey, why not? We'll make it a mock engagement shoot of a couple having a shotgun wedding :). Sarah loved the idea of capturing a few maternity photos, so I made sure to highlight her cute bump in some of the images. These two were so cute together and total troopers in front of 15 cameras.

We started out the shoot by walking down the street in the late afternoon light (image by Larry Reeves):

I love the good light we were able to find:

I encouraged the attendees to mostly observe and listen, but they also brought along their cameras to get a few shots themselves (image by Will Duris):

I have some sweet neighbors down the street with a great backyard that they welcomed us into:

Complete with chickens running loose:

Sarah is absolutely stunning:

So sweet. I can just imagine these two lovebirds are going to make amazing parents!

When we got back after the shoot, I off-loaded my images and showed the attendees my photos straight out of camera -- complete with out of focus images and all. It was a great learning experience and the attendees left feeling more confident in running their own shoots.

I'm thrilled that once again, the MJ2DAY was a huge success! I love that I know 13 more photographers from around the nation who are working hard to bring their photography and businesses to the next level. I can't wait to see where their individual journeys take them!

I wanted to give a shout-out to our fabulous sponsors who added so much value to the attendees' workshop experience: Pictage, Jared Platt Workshops, ShowIt, Queensberry, Two Bright Lights, Electric Dreams Design, B...H, Emma, and Sitehouse. Thank you so much for your support!

Photographers - if you're interested in attending an upcoming workshop, click here to go to the workshop website for all the details!

--------------------------

Equipment used for this shoot:
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 50mm 1.2 lens
Canon 70-200 2.8 lens

]]> MJ 2 DAY Phoenix http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1086&mj-day-phoenix http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1086&mj-day-phoenix Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:25:00 GMT

WHAT a cute, sweet group we had for the Phoenix MJ 2 DAY this week! I feel like I've been talking non-stop since Sunday night. Oh wait -- I have. But it was SUCH a joy to do so because I got to talk with these gorgeous, talented photographers.

Guys are always welcome at the MJ2DAY but this time, the crew was all sugar and spice and everything nice. Six were from Arizona, 4 from Texas, one from Boston, one from Atlanta and one from California. Starting at the top row L to R: Elizabeth Langford, Jessica Leigh, Michelle Boyd, Heather Smith, Lauren Pinson, Debra Malkiewicz, Daylelynn Davis, June Lantzer, Karyne Norton, Amy Kelly, Suzanne Melissa, Kim Thuillez, Sara Nevels (my A-M-A-Z-I-N-G office manager ... assistant for the workshop), and Andrea Brewster.

The workshop took place at my home in Phoenix. I planted some flowers last week to spruce the place up:

Each attendee received a gift bag with fun trinkets AND over $350 worth of gifts from our generous sponsors.

Yummy snacks, including my friend Julie's homemade chocolate chip cookies, were on hand and thoroughly consumed:

Each attendee also received this great workbook full of info in which to take notes:

We spent some time the first day talking about photography-related topics such as shooting techniques, how to see and find great natural light, interacting with clients, posing, picking shooting locations, post-processing and off-camera flash for receptions:

Dixie insisted on occupying a spot on her sofa:

The second day we talk about all things business: the state of the market, workflow, album design ... sales, blogging ... social media, website ... branding, pricing, vendor relations ... networking, and initial client meetings:

Dixie was sad to be left inside when we headed out shooting:

And the whole stinkin' cute group:

Thanks to Jared Platt, Larry Reeves and Will Duris for the above photos I'm in!

Stay tuned! Tomorrow I will be sharing some images from our mock engagement shoot!

Photographers who are interested in attending an upcoming workshop, we still have openings in the Annapolis and Orange County workshops this summer! Click here for all the details and to register!

]]> Favorite Vendor Spotlight: Petal Pusher Florist http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1085&favorite-vendor-spotlight-petal-pusher-florist http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1085&favorite-vendor-spotlight-petal-pusher-florist Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:56:00 GMT

I have had the opportunity to work with some of the most talented and personable vendors and wedding consultants in the wedding industry. I love to refer my clients to professionals I have worked with who I truly believe will do an amazing job for them. I have a blog post dedicated to my favorite vendors, but I wanted to also occasionally spotlight each of them more in depth.

Today, meet Tamara Noack and her team from Petal Pusher! As florists go, I work with these guys more than anyone else. They are true artists and are clearly passionate about what they do. Everything they create is drop-dead gorgeous. To see some of the fabulous weddings we've done together, click here.

Tamara and her husband, Matt, head up the Petal Pusher team and their pup, Diamond often keeps the team company at their Avondale shop:

Here is some Q ... A to help us get to know Tamara, Matt, and their team better. Read Tamara's answers below each question:

1. How long have you been a florist?
We started out late in 2005 and put together some weddings for friends to help build our confidence and knowledge, then went "professional" in February 2006.

2. What got you interested in starting your business?
There is no glamorous story here. I didn't grow up around any type of floral nor did l know much about the industry. I had worked for a local catering company and once in a while I would create centerpieces for clients, and eventually created more ... more pieces for some of the events. I just fell in love with it! I missed the creative arts and I just knew I didn't want to say later in my life "I wish I had"...so with all my being and the incredible support from my husband I took the risky leap and started my own business.

3. What do you feel sets you apart from other florists in the wedding industry?
I think mainly what sets us apart is that we are self-taught and don't necessarily follow "floral rules". I am a creative person and often when I am excited about a project the ideas come flooding in and I can hardly contain them!! Sometimes I even squeak out of pure eagerness when ideas flow. Matt will often fabricate custom pieces for brides ... grooms simply because we can't find a vessel that suits our concept. Between the two of us (and our amazing team) we can truly create a one-of-a kind event.

4. What kind of flowers did you use in your own wedding? Would you still make the same choice now if you were getting married today?
Matt ... I were married in July in Denver in a quaint wine cellar. It was magical! The Denver florist used clusters of vessels down our long tables in canary yellow florals including orchids, callas ... roses with textural greens ... lots of candles. I wouldn't change a thing!

5. What do you enjoy most about working in the wedding industry?
I am a person who loves change and hustle ... bustle. Mostly, I love that I am inspired over and over by prospective clients, and also fellow vendors in the industry. One week, we are creating a romantic, classic wedding with all roses and the next, a modern wedding with grass ... acrylic...I immensely enjoy that my weeks are never the same!

6. When meeting with brides who don't know much about flowers, what is the biggest tip you find yourself giving them?
I ask about hobbies, their favorite foods, colors ... stores. Really, anything that I can pull from their personal lives to help to jump start the creative process and create a look and feel that they are comfortable with. I will show photos of past work and have them tell me what they like as well as what they don't. I also have index cards so I can show them different floral varieties.

7. What current trend in wedding flowers do you personally like the most?
Though I would like to say I don't follow trends -- especially in weddings where the event is such a personal compilation of the couple -- it is almost impossible not to be aware of trends as they are everywhere. Right now, I am liking the metallics. Gold seems to be a popular choice and I am noticing that brides are wanting more lush looks with the florals and not so much the submerged ... angled outlooks.

8. Any fun-facts that we should really know that would contribute even more to your coolness?
I have a background in costume design. I had once created a sheath dress from shaved cedar. That was my first experience working with anything botanical. I love woods ... pods, and if I could I would interject my love of woods in every event.

Thanks Tamara ... Matt for being so fabulous at what you do and making my job so fun!!

]]> Frivolous Friday vol. 2 http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1082&frivolous-friday-vol http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1082&frivolous-friday-vol Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:49:00 GMT

Frivolous: playful, lighthearted, trivial; the little things in life that should be savored.

Favorite Outfit of the Week: Dress: ASOS. Belt: Urban Outfitters. Cowl neck scarf: Target. Jacket: Anthropologie. Boots: Nordstrom. Grey tights: GAP. Earrings: Charming Charlie.

Getting ready to welcome 13 MJ2DAY attendees to my home Sunday night! Can't wait to get to know them all! This coming week is going to be crazy-exhausting and crazy-awesome!!

Sara and I both came down with head colds this week. Head colds that could not be more unwelcome or have worse timing. I've been force-feeding Sara vitamin C and decongestants in hopes that we kick them before the workshop. If we're not successful, the combination of mucus and video cameras may be disastrous.

Highlight of the week: Great time with God every morning. Trying to resist the urge to check email first thing and instead, read the Word and rest in God's presence. This is a huge challenge for me -- the night owl and productivity addict -- because it means having to get to sleep at a decent time AND when I get up -- ignoring the computer which, I swear -- audibly calls my name. SO worth it though.

Planted some flowers. Might be a little early -- and I'm hoping there's no overnight frosts coming up -- but wanted to make things cheery around here for the MJ2Day-ers. I'll have to post some photos of the prettiness next week.

Yes, I did this:
1 -- Dropped a bag of groceries on the floor when I got home. Of course it was the one with the eggs in it. Three of the six eggs suffered fatal injuries. Par for the course -- I'm a huge klutz.
2 -- Laughed while eating a fortune cookie. This resulted in a very unattractive coughing fit. Never a good idea to laugh while eating anything crumbly.

Celebrating: Booked a wedding in Angola, Africa later this year! SO excited! This will be my first wedding in another country!

Great, productive week in the office. Sara and I worked on processing last week's wedding, publication submissions, networking, our monthly newsletter, blogging, prepping tax stuff for our CPA, bookkeeping and workshop prep. And people ask me all the time what I do during my "time off" from shooting :).

Feeling Blessed: Loving the January Phoenix weather. Walks with Dixie everyday and sitting by the fireplace at night. O, Arizona winters, how I love thee.

]]> monthly newsletter http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1084&monthly-newsletter http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1084&monthly-newsletter Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:12:00 GMT

This is the top of my monthly e-newsletter that just went out yesterday. We send these out at the end of each month to re-cap what has happened in the past month at Melissa Jill Photography. If you're a photographer, I would highly recommend that you do the same. I've been sending out monthly newsletters for 5 years now and I still get people commenting on a monthly basis that they receive them and love them.

For me, the real beauty of the monthly newsletter is keeping you and your business at the forefront of people's minds. And not just any people -- the 50% of Americans who don't regularly read blogs.

I blog four times a week. I put a TON of work into it. And it's well worth it -- blogging has done wonders for my business. I've taught entire workshops on how valuable it is. But what about the people who don't read blogs? Statistics show that about 50% of Americans still don't read blogs. The monthly e-newsletter is the answer. It's my way of delivering the goodness of my blog in a pretty little package straight into their inbox.

If you're a photographer, it may seem like just one more thing to add to your list of things to do. But here's the secret: There is no unique content in my newsletters. It's all basically copied and pasted from my blog posts that month. So people who read my blog on a regular basis will be bored. But, it's not intended for them. It's intended for the people who DON'T read my blog.

Throughout the newsletter, I give small teasers along with beautiful images, all intended to entice the reader to click on the links that direct them to the full posts on my blog. My hope is that they catch up on my blog once a month and then find themselves checking in on the blog on their own -- without the nudge of the newsletter. It's all about creating blog readers and customer evangelists out of those who have shown interest in me and my business.

So, who do we send the newsletter to? Initially, I added my family and friends to the list. We add any clients, vendors and wedding consultants we work with along with wedding guests who sign up on little half sheets of paper that we put out at receptions indicating they want to see the photos online. Individuals also have the ability to sign up to receive my newsletter here. So we get a good number of photographers signing up there as well. Over the years, our newsletter database has grown to 4000+.

There are a number of great e-newsletter services out there. We have used Constant Contact in the past, but currently use Emma -- and really love it. The great thing about Emma is that you can easily format your email newsletters to fit your branding. All of these services help you organize your database and also make it easy for people to opt-out of receiving your emails if they'd like.

If you don't already do so, I'd highly recommend sending out a monthly newsletter. It's a great thing to do to maximize the reach of your blog, build your brand and increase and solidify your network.

]]> Eric & Kari's Album Design http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1083&eric-and-karis-album-design http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1083&eric-and-karis-album-design Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:55:00 GMT

I'm so excited -- Eric ... Kari's album design is DONE! These two were married Friday at Villa Siena and the day was absolutely lovely.

One of the things I'm most excited about is that Eric ... Kari ordered my newest luxury Queensberry Duo Album. It is 18x10 inches in size and horizontal in format. This album fuses traditional matted and flush-mount digital images. The white pages are beautifully textured white mat within which images are pagemounted but you also have the option to include images that span flush to the edges of the page. Click here to see images of my sample to get a visual of how gorgeous their album will be when it is finished.

And click here to see Eric ... Kari's full album design! It's hard to see the images because of how the horizontal format translates on the web, but just imagine them MUCH larger :).

Note to photographers: If you need help getting YOUR album designs done fast, click here to find out how you can purchase my templates!

]]> Eric & Kari http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1081&eric-and-kari http://www.melissajill.com/blog.cfm?postID=1081&eric-and-kari Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:36:00 GMT

It was the night of their first date. Kari was nervously getting ready - wondering how the night would go. Would she like him? Would they have anything in common? Would it be a relaxed, fun, easy first date... or one of those first dates that you hope someone calls with an emergency to get you out of it? As she took one last look at herself in the mirror, from outside her apartment she heard a familiar sound...

Country music.

She opened the door to see Eric climbing out of his Hummer with country music playing at full blast.
Every bone in that Missouri-born-girl's body began to sing and she knew it was going to be a good night.

It was a a few days later they were dancing at a Brad Paisley concert and decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend... Though Eric will tell you he knew, from the first time he saw her, that she would be the one he would want to spend the rest of his days with.

Eric and Kari were wed on Friday at Villa Siena in Gilbert. The day started out with Kari getting into her gorgeous Stephen Yearick gown:

I love the drama of her white and black anemone bouquet next to the sparkle of her Steve Madden heels:

And her hair was a work of art! GORGEOUS!

Kari made an absolutely stunning bride:

And Eric looked very dapper himself. At the salon, I overheard Kari saying that she had asked Eric earlier that week if he was ready to marry her. He said, "I better be. It was my idea." Good man :).

I love both of these next photos, but especially the one of Kari's dad before the ceremony. You just know he was thinking about giving his little girl away: