Two Photogs » for photographers by photographers

Monday, January 31, 2011 Posted in photographers, Photography, Uncategorized, Us

We’ve received a LOT of emails about where we’ve been and what’s going on with Two Photogs.

Like pretty much with everything I do, I am going to be honest with everyone. Mentoring was a lot of work. A lot more work than I was prepared for.

I really liked meeting new photographers, helping them grow their business and watching them become more successful. But the root of everything I do is photography – my business, my love for all of this. So if I were to be one of those photographers that stopped shooting because I was too busy teaching, I would be denying myself the one thing that keeps me passionate about this industry: taking photographs. We couldn’t maintain the pace of 4 new photographers every month, because we had our own clients and businesses to run.

So that’s one reason why this blog died down. The other is that it’s hard to work with one of your best friends. Danna and I are such close friends, we think so much alike. But we also are women that run our own businesses and are not exactly used to working with a partner with equal input. It was difficult for both of us to work with someone else, and we did have a lot of different ideas. What I like best about us though, is that we actually sat down and figured out together that this particular way of doing things wasn’t going to work. We both agreed that our friendship was too important to risk.

So that brings us to now. We’re teaching together locally, just some basic camera classes for moms. We still enjoy mentoring, and you can contact us separately if you’re interested in learning more about private mentoring with either of us. We are also still just as close friends as we were before (whew!). I’d still like to have this blog around – mostly because we STILL get comments and emails about the 25 Biggest Mistakes post. And I still love talking photography. I still love sharing ideas about new products, websites, etc. So I’d like to still post here. I’d like Danna to still post here because she has a zillion great ideas and oftentimes we get a great yin/yang thing going. But we just can’t do the mentoring at the pace we were doing, the way we were doing it.

Feel free to pop us an email if you want to chat about photography, have questions or ideas, or anything really.
Email Brandy
Email Danna

and you can always visit our blogs:
www.freshsugarblog.com
www.bowesphotography.ca/blog

Tags: bowes photography, bowesphotography.ca, brandy anderson, calgary, danna bowes, fresh sugar photography, freshsugar.com, photographers, Photography, photography mentoring, two photogs, twophotogs.com

Thursday, June 3, 2010 Posted in Deals, Photography, Us

First off, I’d like to apologize for being away from Two Photogs for so long. Danna has been busy preparing for speaking at the Beyond Just Images conference in Banff next weekend, and I’ve been busy working on my new site!

I worked with Big Folio which just happens to be THE best website company I have worked with. I had originally hired a custom website designer, and that experience didn’t really work out. It left me a little bit broke, and a little bit disappointed in myself, because I felt like I had no idea what I wanted. I erroneously thought that custom website designer meant they would come up with the design for you – but you need to have ideas and know what you like – and I just wasn’t there. Yet.

When I saw Big Folio’s Artist Series, I knew exactly what I wanted. I loved the flexibility of the design – it reminds me of the ProPhoto Blog template that I also love, just because there are so many ways to customize it to make your site unique. I was thrilled because it was *like* a custom site, but already done, and at template prices.

I’m not sure where to start with the love, so I will just dive right in. I’ve used other templates for my website throughout the years, and either the design was lacking, the backend was confusing or the customer service was absolutely scary. With a Big Folio site, it’s basically idiot-proof. It tells you how to size your images, how to upload them (right through the site – no ftp’ing necessary), how to arrange them in the galleries (drag and drop, hurrah!) and pretty much how to change every aspect of your site. If you do have problems with figuring something out, support tickets are answered crazy fast. I don’t think I ever waited more than a few hours for an answer. Seriously.
If you’ve used some other companies, you know how unheard of this is.

One of the things I was most wary of was the fact that you have to host with them to have a site. I was happy with my hosting (GoDaddy) but I have to say that I have been equally happy with my hosting at Big Folio. They are so willing to help – it’s fantastic to be able to ask someone how to do something, or even have them do it for you!

After working with a custom designer, I am also now very appreciative of how affordable website templates truly are. My site has video included, tons of galleries and pages – all which are separate costs when going custom. Those costs add up fast, and it makes it harder to truly have your “dream” site. I might someday again try custom, but I will be sticking with Big Folio when that time comes. It’s a great company with amazing ideas and fantastic people.

Those fantastic people are offering readers a discount code: BFSAVE50 will save you $50 on a new site! Their prices are super reasonable, but not super cheap (meaning not every new photographer on the block will have the same site as you – a big plus!)

So go take a look at my new site: www.freshsugar.com and tell me what you think! If you get yourself a Big Folio site, let us know – we would LOVE to see what you’ve done with it!

Tags: Big Folio, bigfolio.com, brandy anderson, fresh sugar photography, freshsugar.com

Friday, May 14, 2010 Posted in Giveaways, photographers, Photography, Photoshop

Congrats to Stacey Haslem, the latest winner of Ashley McNamara’s awesome actions!

We’re super excited about next week – we have an incredible giveaway and some great blog posts planned. :)

Tags: photography contest, two photogs, twophotogs.com

Sunday, May 9, 2010 Posted in Cool Blogs, Giveaways, photographers, Photography, Photoshop

We had such a great response to one of the prizes in the last challenge, that we asked if Ashley McNamara would generously donate another set of actions to give away to a lucky Two Photogs reader. We’re going to make it super simple to win – just head on over to her site and download her awesome free Vintage action, then come back here and leave a comment! One winner will be chosen randomly on Friday.

Make sure you take a look to see all the awesome things you can do with her actions, and see some gorgeous photography to boot.
www.ashleymcnamara.com

Tags: actions, ashley mcnamara, ashleymcnamara.com, bowes photography, bowesphotography.ca, brandy anderson, calgary, danna bowes, fresh sugar photography, freshsugar.ca, photographers, Photography, photography contest, two photogs, twophotogs.com

Friday, May 7, 2010 Posted in Education, photographers, Photography

We’ve asked our favorite videographer (she did all of our mentoring videos) to write up some tips and pointers for slideshows. We all know it’s a great way to build emotion for clients, but what is the best way to create these slideshows?

Shawna Toth from Small Wonder gives us some great tips:

Slideshows, montages, photo DVDs. Taking still images and turning them into a dynamic presentation. It is a great way to present edited photos to clients. There are a few things to consider before getting creative with your slideshow. The most important thing to keep in mind? Don’t get carried away with the graphics and transitions. The purpose of the photo slideshow is to showcase your images, not the capabilities of your editing software.

The Basics:

Make each image 5-8 seconds long.

Use 1-2 second dissolves almost all of the time.

Transitions: Just because they exist does not mean you should use them. The clock, blinds, the sawtooth…video editors refer to these as “cheesy wipes” for a reason. There can be a time and place for them, but generally, they take away from the images they are between.

Graphics: Again, not necessary, and probably do more harm than good. Unless there is information that must be conveyed to the client within the slideshow, stay away from words and graphic images on the screen.

Adding interest to your slideshow:

Add slight motion to the photos. A small amount in one direction will add to the slideshow without becoming distracting. If every image is panning and zooming, it can be too much. Mov