For Photographers | 6 Reasons I Blog so Many Pictures

27

Apr

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For Photographers, Uncategorized

If you have followed me for some time, up until a year and a half ago, you know that my blogging was intermittent and not consistent. Part of this was because I was working full-time as a school teacher and didn’t have the time to blog as often as I wanted to. The other part was my lack of interest in blogging. I was fine with blogging my weddings and engagement sessions, but I didn’t blog many pictures- maybe 20-30 from each wedding; and I was very bad about turnaround time in blogging. Often, my clients would get their pictures before I even blogged them! It was almost an afterthought on sharing my pictures.

After going to Katelyn James’ workshop in December of 2014, I came back with a newfound respect and love for blogging. Last year, you noticed a BIG change in my blog! Most weeks, I blogged at least 2-3 times a week, I blogged more than just my wedding and engagement sessions, and I got personal. But the BIGGEST change I made was my turnaround time for weddings and engagement sessions on the blog and how many pictures I posted from these sessions.

Since making the change last year, I have consistently blogged my weddings the following Tuesday after the Saturday wedding. (I only missed one last year, and that’s because I immediately went from a Sunday wedding to a week-long conference, but I did post a preview of about 50 pictures in lieu of the full blog post.) Not only have I consistently blogged, but I also typically blog on average 200 pictures from the wedding day and at least 50 from the engagement session.

When I have mentioned how many pictures I blog, I have been asked by fellow photographers, “what is the point of sharing so many?”

Well, before I started blogging so many and so often, I might have agreed with them; but after seeing the change I made and how much my clients enjoy it, I will never go back, and here are the reasons why:

1) Not everyone gets to go to the wedding
Choosing your guests for your wedding is the probably the hardest thing about planning a wedding. Unless you have endless amounts of money when it comes to planning your wedding, you cannot afford to have everyone there that you would like (or that your parents would like!). So people get left off the guest list that you want there and there are always people who do want there that can’t make it. I want the people who didn’t get to go to feel like they were there and get to relive the wedding through my pictures. This doesn’t happen if I post just a handful of 20-30 pictures. The non-guests do not get a clear picture of the day and what it looked like. I want them to enjoy the day through my pictures since they were unable to be there.

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2) The guests are only there for part of the day
If you are a guest at a wedding, you show up 20-30 minutes before the ceremony starts. The guests miss out on all of the stuff that happened earlier in the day and leading up to the ceremony. They weren’t there for the getting ready pictures, the couple’s First Look, the wedding party pictures, or the laughter that was captured throughout the day. I post a ton these pictures so that the guests can feel like the experienced the whole day and not just part of it.

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3) No one sees the details
People pay so little attention to the detail items that I take at least an hour of pictures of. These are things like rings, earrings, necklaces, shoes, and more. Can I tell you how many of my brides shoes are never even shown on their day since their dress is so long and covers their feet? I take a TON of these pictures during the getting ready time, so I blog a TON of these as well. I want the bride to feel like her $150 purchase for her Betsey Johnson shoes weren’t wasted on the fact that no one saw her shoes. I want to feature these items as the “stars” of the pictures.

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4) There’s excitement in seeing so many pictures
I am a shoot and share photographer, meaning I deliver all of the pictures to my clients that tell the story of their wedding day. Typically they get 700-800 pictures from an 8 hour day. If I am going to give them so many at the end, why not give them a ton in the beginning? If you have been married, you know the excitement and anticipation of waiting for those pictures. If you’ve even had family pictures done, you know what I’m talking about. There is so much excitement and anticipation in wanting to see the pictures! Why not give them a chance to see a ton of them just a few days after their wedding? Tell me, as a client, would you rather see 50 pictures or 200 pictures after your wedding day? If you are a in person sales photographer, then this model doesn’t work for you and would be really bad for your business; but as a shoot and share photographer, this is a great way for me share a ton of pictures for my clients.

View More: http://mandimitchellphoto.pass.us/alicia-and-alex-wedding
5) It’s great for prospective brides
You know how often we get asked by prospective brides, “Can I see a full gallery or more of what my day might look like?” I love how much I post on the blog now, because it is super helpful for my potential brides. They see the blog post and can get a very accurate idea of what their day will look like. They can scroll through my blog and see the many different weddings I have shot and see the nearly 200 (or sometimes more) pictures from each wedding on the blog.

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6) It helps my workflowย 
If I know I have to blog the Tuesday after the wedding, it is getting my butt into gear to edit and work quickly. And if I am blogging nearly 200 pictures and delivering 700-800, by the Tuesday after the wedding, I already have at least 1/3 of the pictures edited and done! I cannot tell you how helpful this has been for me in turning around weddings a lot faster than I used to!

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I’ll admit, if I was working full-time still as a middle school teacher, there is no way I could turn around a blog post the Tuesday after the wedding, nor blog so many pictures. But if you are a photographer with a full-time job, maybe try to get the blog post up within a week or two of the wedding with at least 100-150 pictures.ย If you are a full-time photographer and aren’t blogging many of your pictures, I encourage you to consider my post and my reasons for posting so many pictures. I would love to hear your thoughts on it! Do you agree with me or have a different opinion? ๐Ÿ™‚

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  1. Denise says:

    I love this. You have inspired me to blog more!

  2. Kim says:

    Great tips! Love your work!!

  3. This is great! I just starting blogging more, and the response has been amazing. Maybe I should be posting more images!

  4. Crystal says:

    Great blog post! I’ve always kept blogging photos to a minimum because we are told that we are more searchable with more text. However, this all makes perfect sense! This year I’m going to add way more photos to my blog!

  5. Mellissa says:

    Such good reasons to blog several pictures! I’m sure your couples don’t mind it either ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. Very good article, thank you for sharing. Nice photography too!

  7. […] gives me around 200-250 pictures. This is much more manageable in my mind to edit for the blog as I choose around 150 for the blog. After I edit for the blog (I’ll talk more about this part of the process later), I go back […]

  8. doruhalip says:

    Very interesting article!

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