Why I’m NOT Giving Up…..

Lisa Devlin

Alexa Loy

August 20, 2013

Sheesh, I have recently seen sooooo many rants on the internet from photographers giving up because they find it too tough to cut it as a wedding photographer or they are sick of competing with the newbies who "under cut their prices/ don't know what they're doing/ use vintage processing/ are ruining the industry". So here is my two pennies worth... first up a little history, I started working as a photographer in the early 1990s first in music and then from 2000, the majority of my work has been in weddings. I am still as thrilled to earn my living in this way as I ever was, still as excited about each and every job, from the simple engagement shoot I did in the sunshine on Brighton Beach last night, to the recipe book I shot with an acclaimed chef that is due for release soon. I will NEVER tire of taking photographs or being in such a privileged position that people trust me to record their memories on one of the most important days of their lives. I will always be on a quest to take THE perfect photograph that sums up a wedding day.

Addicted to the Busy

Lisa Devlin

Devlin Photos

June 6, 2013

Are you always busy? When that group email or Facebook event invite gets sent your way, are you never able to go because you have to work? Weddings are a weird industry, everyone knows that you work a lot of weekends but then it is also expected that you are contactable first thing Monday morning. If your marketing campaign has been successful and the bookings are healthy, you may well find that suddenly weeks and weeks are stretching in front of you with no proper break. Every wedding you take on has a significant amount of admin and for us photographers, there is that mountain of post production. Throw in a few double or even triple header weekends and that mountain can quickly become Everest.

It’s Good to Cringe

Lisa Devlin

Devlin Photos

May 23, 2013

Build Your Own Eiffel Tower

Lisa Devlin

Devlin Photos

March 5, 2013

Sometime late last year I got an email from Kat asking if I wanted to go to Paris to do a shoot with her, Gala & Shauna. My answer was of course an enthusiastic "Oui ma Petit Filous!!" The'd bagged themselves a fabulous apartment that we shot in, but of course I also wanted some photos by the Eiffel Tower. On the Eurostar on our return, I got to thinking about the tower and its purpose in the city. Sure, it's a big tourist pull, but I started to wonder how on earth it got built in the first place and why it's even there at all. So I did some research on the most recognisable iconic landmark in the French capital.

The Happiness Fallacy & New Project Syndrome

Kat

Lisa Jane

January 29, 2013

I hope that all the days in your business are happy ones - challenging but happy. Yet, the reality is that they won’t always be. I'm not here to rain on your parade, or hold a pessimist pity party so early on in the life of your sparkly new business. But, the biggest issue that you will face with any new endeavour is how to keep the positivity going once the 'newness' has gone.

Is Vintage Photography the Dance Music of the Wedding Industry?

Lisa Devlin

Lisa Devlin

January 22, 2013

Beat the Bullies

Lisa Devlin

December 18, 2012

The week after anti bullying week, both my daughters experienced incidents of bullying at school. They are aged 7 and 4 and that Friday, we sat down at the kitchen table and discussed bullying and what we can do about it. Now they are both fairly feisty and have handled this situation well, but halfway through telling telling them ways I think they can stop this, I realised that actually they never will.

Dealing with the December Slump & Making Those New Year’s Resolutions

Lisa Devlin

December 4, 2012

It’s December - everybody is gearing up for Christmas and I mean everyone. It’s like the world stands still and gets covered in fairy lights and glitter. I love Christmas so much that we are always the first people in our street to put up our tree and I totally wind down on work so that I can make the most of this magical family time of year.

Pick Yourself Up and Try Again

Lisa Devlin

November 13, 2012

We've all been in situations when something work-related just hasn't gone our way. And if it's something you feel you have worked super hard for then it's even worse. Gutting even. Not everything we plan for or aim towards always comes off, so how can you cope with a professional disappointment without taking it out on your loved ones or hitting the gin?

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Kat

September 21, 2012

Blogging. If you're in the wedding industry you'll be hard pushed to avoid it. Still a relatively new medium, the first blogs (called web-logs back then) were launched in the late 90s. The wedding industry quickly adopted this format as their own with many wedding suppliers now using a personal blog to promote their work and to connect with others in the industry as well as potential clients. There are even people (like me!) who make a full time career out of blogging. There are currently a reported 164 million blogs in existence, so how do you make yours stand out? Is blogging even right for you and your business? Two UK wedding photographers battle it out...

Something Borrowed, Something Roo: A Day With Katie

Kat

September 15, 2012

Allow me to start this post with a short disclaimer: this post is shameless. This post includes mentions of boobs, bottoms, and other jiggly bits. In this post, you’re going to see me in my undercrackers. This is a sight that few have dared to peek at – similarly; it’s a sight that I don’t dish out very easily. Like most women, there are bits of my body that I dislike for a myriad of silly reasons ("they’re too small!" – "it’s too big!" – "but that scar is so unsightly" – "overdue for a wax, much?"). For all of these reasons, and many more, I was beyond terrified at the idea of baring all at my first 'public' underwear fitting. The only other time I've ever let a professional handle my bits and bobs* was way back in my mid-teens, when I found myself crying in the middle of Marks & Spencer's lingerie section because I couldn't find a bra to fit my silly diddy boobs. My mum promptly marched me into a cubicle with a lovely member of staff who measured me properly, and I walked away with two beautiful new sets of underwear, and a whole load of new-found self-confidence. Such an ego boost! On the tube to Ladbroke Grove, I had a cheeky spritz of deodorant and tried to harness the emotions of that previous positive experience – hopeful that this one would be just as good, if not better.

Great Expectations

Lisa Devlin

September 11, 2012

Today I want to tackle the tricky issue of managing client expectation in the wedding industry. Sooner or later no matter who you are or what level you are at, the chances are that you will encounter some sort of complaint or confrontation in your business. We work with people who are often planning the biggest experience of their lives and there can be a lot of pressure all round. A wedding can be a bit like all your Christmases at once - if your family all get on then brilliant, but a wedding can often highlight any issues too. Then there are all the money concerns connected with weddings. Good for you if you have a bottomless pit of cash to splash, but for many couples a wedding can be a huge financial strain on them or their immediate families. Add to that some of the other pressure that couples can put on themselves... Like making their day the stand out amongst their circle of friends, getting super carried away with how their wedding is going to look, or being obsessed with making their wedding 'blogworthy'.

Feel the Fear

Lisa Devlin

August 28, 2012

When I first moved to London, my flatmate at the time had a book called Feel the Fear but do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers. Not really being one for self help books, I never got round to reading it but as it hung around the lounge, the title really spoke to me and it's kinda hung around in my mind ever since. At the time I had pulled out of doing a degree in fashion and textiles after it had dawned on me that I wasn't anywhere near as obsessed with fashion as my fellow foundation students who had got onto the same degree. They were going to college in Victorian Underwear and thick black tights while I was still channelling Neneh Cherry in a purple satin bomber jacket with a spiral perm (hey, it was twenty years ago!)

Something Borrowed, Something Roo: The Groom’s View by Lamb (AKA Mr. Roo!)

Kat

August 6, 2012

When I started thinking about my special suit for our special day, I knew more about what I didn’t want, rather than what I did want. From the off we knew our wedding wasn’t going to be Royal Ascot; I definitely wouldn’t look right in a top hat and tails, plus Roo may have baulked at the idea. I also new that I didn’t want to rent a suit; as is evident with most things we’ve chosen for the wedding, we aren’t fans of the (con)temporary. We’re given more to the robust, the long-lasting, and sentimental. This suit was going to be mine, forever. The material chose itself - robust, long-lasting, sentimental? It had to be tweed.

Another Level

Lisa Devlin

August 3, 2012

I often get asked how can someone take their wedding photography business to the next level? Today I am going to give you some examples of things I did that worked for me, and offer some pointers for the direction you could go in. These are from my perspective on the industry. Sadly I'm not going to give you a magic formula to success but can start by saying that sheer hard graft plays a large part. What makes me qualified to talk about this? Well a few years ago I was maybe a lot like you. I was trundling along nicely and year on year the bookings came in. Yes, I was probably getting a little complacent.... If things were looking quiet I would take out an ad somewhere or submit to a magazine and boom, the phone was ringing again. But then things really slooooooowed down. My home life had been super busy... Hello two small blondes who are the best thing I have ever done but also the most demanding. Looking back I have no idea how I juggled things or got myself to any weddings at all but I did keep working. Then when the Winter kicked in and I had time to review the business, I was a little bit concerned that the next year's diary wasn't very booked up and being completely honest I wasn't that excited about many of the weddings.

Let’s Make the Web Faster – Images

Gareth

July 31, 2012

Beautiful photographs are our bread and butter. They're eye-catching, enticing and transcend language barriers. But they are often the heaviest elements on a web page and so they're the focus of today's article on speeding up your site.

Let’s Make The Web Faster

Gareth

July 24, 2012

At the School of Rock Kat talks about the importance of serving up a snappy website experience to your visitors. A statistic from Mashable claims that one in four visitors will abandon a website that takes over four seconds to load. While visitors do tend to be more tolerant of slower websites in image-heavy markets such as photography the underlying message is still important for us to hear.

The Purple Cow: A Guest Post by Charlotte White

Kat

July 20, 2012

"Well, it doesn't really have anything to do with cake. Shouldn't it be something a bit more 'cakey'?" he said. I was really excited to be sat in my first proper 'grown-up' business meeting, up until this moment. It was my first year as Restoration Cake and I was trying to get to grips with the concept of charging strangers for my creations. The afternoon was to be spent with a colleague who knew all the financial stuff. I went to the meeting with a website, a Twitter account, a growing list of orders, and a name.

Bitchless Bride on Rock n Roll Bride: Communication is Key

Kat

July 16, 2012

You may have seen me talk about Bitchless Bride before, especially on twitter. She is my new wedding industry hero! The alter ego of a wedding planner (and no, even I don't know her true identity!) who was sick to death of crazy bridezillas and mental wedding vendors, she set up her blog to give it to us STRAIGHT. I loooove her. She's a hoot. And hell, she rocks a pink wig. We're definitely destined to be BFFs. I just about wet my pants with excitement when her video guest blog landed in my inbox. Some exclusive Bitchless Bride on Rock n Roll Bride?! Hell. Yes. We are a match made in wedding heaven. Listen up brideys, listen up wedding suppliers, cos Bitchless is about to give it to you. No holds barred.

“How Do I Get More Likers?!” – Facebook Tips For Wedding Professionals: A Guest Post by Cathie Watts of Phunkey Photography

Kat

July 13, 2012

Originating from New Zealand, wedding photographer Cathie Watts of Phunkey Photography is a Facebook wizz. With just shy of 11,500 'likes' on her photography facebook page she boast more 'likers' than many full time wedding bloggers! So how did she get so popular on the social network? What things did she do to get herself 'liked'? This week I asked Cathie to share some of her top tips for getting started when using Facebook for your business. If you have any more specific questions for her, hit us up in the comments. I'd certainly love to read a follow up from her! Over to you Cathie...