Portfolio question

divamum

I'm not sure whether to feel pleased or trapped :rofl

Wedding #1 has earned me a bride's-friend-looking-for-a-photographer-for-her-stepdaughter recommendation, and I've had an enquiry from a potential bride. I know I don't want to make weddings my main focus, but I had enough fun at the two I've done to be willing to take on a select few for as long as I keep enjoying them. However, regardless of where this does (or doesn't) go over time, it's important to me to keep it as professional as I can, even at this stage.

Not unreasonably, she wants to see a portfolio. I know advice is to "show only what you want to shoot", but I'm not even sure what that is at this stage! I have two weddings and two engagement shoots to pull from, and that's it. I know I got some decent shots (mostly in the couples portraits, which seems to be where I shine the most at the moment), but the rest drifts into being pretty much representational rather than artistic. The couples were happy with what I got for them and there are certainly a couple of wallhangers from each event but, frankly, not a huge amount of range. I certainly don't feel I have an identifiable "style" to demonstrate at this stage.

Somewhat intimidated by the "WOW" editorial-style shot I see in so many portfolios. I have no backlit raindrops, fiisheye wedding parties, wide-angle reception halls dripping with roses and crystal, no Caribbean beaches, dragged-shutter bouquet tosess, or moonlit silhouettes against mountains.....

Thoughts on what I should show?

ETA: First effort at compiling something click here. Bleah. All so same-y.

Icebear

I'm not going to tell you anything you don't already know. Don't try to show something you aren't. You know your strengths and you've shot a few weddings. What you've collected is representative of the product you will deliver, should a potential bride hire you. (You aren't a Lithuanian genius with an overabundance of stinking rich oligarch clients.) A bride who hires you based on the portfolio you linked us to will love what she gets from you. If what she sees in your portfolio isn't what she wants, you don't want her wedding 'cause you'll fail to deliver her dream. Win-win.

divamum

Thanks, John, and great advice. (also literally snorted out loud at your descprition of the brilliant Lithuanian lol)

The problem (or at least what I feel is the problem) is that so far everything has been for or through friends, or at the least friend/relative of a friend (the stepmom who effected this introduction is another singer friend of mine as well as Bride #1). So I'm trying to figure out how to keep things both professsional AND "personal contact". This will also affect pricing; I'm happy to charge what I think covers my time (meaning more than these first two ), but I won't jack it way up just to see if people will pay it.

I've tweaked that gallery a little this morning to add a few more not-just-couples-kissing shots. My thinking

- lead with what I think are my best ever couples shots
- added a couple with kids in them (who doesn't love cute dressed up kids?)
- added a couple of ceremony shots to prove that I've actually done them!
- some more dancing/reception to show people having fun *and* that I can light in difficult circumstances

Talk about "the reluctant wedding photographer". Don't get me wrong - I really DID enjoy the two events I've done (or I would just be saying a flat "no" for this enquiry), but I know I don't want to be a full-time wedding photographer. I'd like to second, maybe. And/or take on a select few that sound interesting a year. But I didn't expect that to happen quite yet!!!

Matthew Saville

Yeah, I would just go through your past two weddings, pick out the best 100-200 that show off the whole day, toss them in a nice looking gallery, and send them to potential clients. Don't pretend to be someone you're not, but on the other hand be honest about how you'd LIKE to photograph them....

=Matt=

wave01

I agree with Matthew just show your best shots as you do more weddings you can make changes then

trevorb

Your link looks great. I have zero of the portfolio wedding pictures you mentioned but I still book weddings
As far as showing what you want to shoot I think comes in time. If you look on my website you won't see one picture with a cowboy hat. That's because I don't like shooting cowboy weddings so I don't show them on my website or blog. But I live in Colorado so the majority of weddings I started shooting were cowboy weddings in the beginning.

divamum

Thanks, Trevor. I've shared both that gallery and my "highlights" galleries (that I've given the brides to hold them until I can get the full set delivered), so we'll see what she says. Frnakly, I think they're may be date conflicts with this anyway (I don't have info yet, but given the time frame I have a hunch it may not work), but as, I mentioned, it's important to me to treat it as professionally as possible, even at this stage of development

kdog

Hey Diva, just wanted to say your site looks terrific. Inspiring. I really need to do something similar for my business.

divamum

Aw, thanks Joel! The site itself isn't that imaginative - all basic "new smug" stuff - but I did have a logo designed and matched it up to my blog. Pretty pleased with it for now, although at some point want to direct my main domain (divatography.com) to the smug front page instead of the wordpress one. Simply haven't had time to sit and figure out how to do that!!

kdog

divamum wrote: »

at some point want to direct my main domain (divatography.com) to the smug front page instead of the wordpress one. Simply haven't had time to sit and figure out how to do that!!

Oh, that's easy peazy. http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93340-how-do-i-set-up-a-custom-hostname-domain-

divamum

Yeah, except it's currently paid to and managed by wordpress, and I'm not sure what happens to the blog if I redirect it to smug (or if other changes need to be done). Please share if you know if there are other steps I need to take as well as the (very easy peazy!) steps above!

kdog

Pretty straightforward. You have two options. Leave the domain registered with Wordpress, or transfer the registration to Smugmug. Since you're keeping your blog, the easiest thing would be to leave the domain managed by Wordpress and just change the nameserver. Instructions here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/change-name-servers/
There's a link on that page to instructions how to change to the SmugDomains registrar if you decide to go that route.

After you've switched the domain to your smuggie site, then I believe you'd link to your blog using Divatography.wordpress.com (or whatever your name is on wordpress).