BullPenNovember winners
We had an excellent presentation last night, in spite of only having ten submissions…(blaming thanksgiving for that…)..The Winnners….
Bull Pen Critique November 2016
1st Place image by Shauna Smith – Winner of $100. & a No BS Winner’s Certificate
“Three of A Kind”
2nd Place image by Andrea Long – Winner of $50. & a No BS Winner’s Certificate
“Winter Kisses”
3rd Place image by Dan McMahon – Winner of a No BS Winner’s Certificate
“Santa’s Magic”
Why RAW is a total crock….
Friends in photography,
Go ahead. Hate me. I got enough scars on my body from all the arrows
flung at me over the years.
I can take it.
Thing is, I don’t care.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, my clients don’t care, nor give a rats’ pittout
what file format I shoot their work in.
And I’m talking real clients. Not some portfolio of hot girls photographed in
a ‘portfolio’ building workshop either.
Or a bunch of images shot during travels.
I’m talking real sessions, where real people called me,
eager to pay me, and in the end, leave my studio with my creations, smiling.
Their money in my pockets. Everyone happy.
And at the end of the week, when I total up my bank deposits,
the bank teller doesn’t ask me: “did you make this money shooting RAW? Or JPEG?…”
NO one cares….no one.
Well, sorry, some people do.
It seems many photographers care whether other photographers shoot RAW.
It’s like a religion. And you better get on board.
Or, sweeennngggg, off with your head.
Weird, I know. I don’t get it. But it’s there.
My main droog and jpeg shooter James Hodgins and I used to wear T-Shirts at conventions.
Big ones too, like WPPI…. and such.
On the back it said: “Real men shoot JPEG”
🙂
We liked having a few laughs.
We also had some that said: “MAC…whatever.”
Shooting RAW, using a MAC, creating images on your Canon DSLR
and 1.8 prime lens makes not a photography business.
Ask my accountant. And get over it. I am. And was, a long, long time ago.
Come hate me some more over here.
I’ll show you what really matters when building a successful, long term, and profitable
photography business.
And it’s got nothing to do with file types, computers and cameras.
Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher
Are you speeding up the process in which your bank account gets drained?
When you have a great marketing plan, and you implement, but you have a crappy photographic product, you’re simply speeding up the process, the time in which the market place discovers how crappy you are.
That simple.
Likewise, if you have a great product, superior, best of the best top shelf, and you have no marketing, you’re speeding up the process in which your bank account gets drained.
No money honey.
The goal, obviously, is to deliver a product, a service, that folks will want.
And, then ramp up the marketing game.
And take their money.
Some photogs are very, very good with their cameras. And yet they have the erroneous belief that because they are good the market will find them, and delivery buckets of cash to show how much they appreciate them.
D-uh. Maybe on another planet.
Here on earth, where we need to shake the money tree to make dollars fall to the ground,
marketing is everything.
Everything. Unless it’s a just a hobby, then that’s different. I’m ok with that.
But we’re talking about business here. Stay with me.
Back to creating a great product, one that folks want.
I do see a ton of crap out there. A ton! I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
Maybe you’re guilty of delivering crap too. Sometimes? Knowing this is valuable.
Let’s be honest. It’s the only way to get ahead.
If you’re not happy with your work, hold off on the marketing. For now.
Focus on getting better. Get goalz. Get serious and get focused.
And getting better requires honesty. Of course, the best place for honesty is the marketplace where they get to vote with their wallets.
Another great place to find honesty is feedback from real, legit professional photographers who are in the war zone everyday slugging it out, toe-to-toe, belly-to-belly with real paying clients.
It’s one of the reasons why we run a monthly bull pen contest. And why I run a photography forum.
Not a forum where everyone gets together and gloats, bloats and braggz about how good they are.
A place where you get to post images for feedback. Or, share your success stories with others.
No bull. Little ego.
Those things get in the way.
But it’s hard working on yourself. It hurtz. I got so butt hurt the first time I entered my prints into competition I thought I was doomed.
Of course, I thought my images were the bomb. Hence the problem. Me.
Once I got over that, and kept working on me, and my big ‘ol ego, things got better.
Much better. As in ninja grade better.
Be a ninja…..Print competition dates and replays
Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher
“Thank you to you my friend for PUSHING ME harder -…”
Friends in photography,
We had a great Bull Pen last night…some amazing feedback and entries….
the judges, ahem, were on their game…:)
Total 25 submissions.
First, second and third place were all dog portraits.
Go figure.
First place was by Maria Sampaio…it scored a near perfect…”Excellent”.
not a score you see all the time.
Numerically that’s about a 96. Or, an A+.
Susan Gertz won second and third place….amazing. Here’s her images:
Susan’s second winning image titled: Mini me:
Here’s an email I received from Maria this morning:
“So…. I shot those puppies WEEKS ago and could never “find the time” to put it together. I came home, ignored all my family and put 15 puppies together in less than 2 hours bc of this (Bull Pen) tonight. Had no time to work on shadowing and hated the title but submitted anyways just to test the waters….
Thank you to you my friend for PUSHING ME harder – this competition motivated me to work tonight on something I could never find the time for…. I am now going to perfect it and enter it in state….and then imaging USA.
Watching the comp was interesting…. OMG If I could just come through the screen …. LOL – no one would have had a chance to talk!! haha – it’s amazing how much I have learned in 10 years….
I want to bring this industry up so bad!!! 🙂
I am so proud of everyone who entered bc that means they are trying to improve and are willing to take critique and that is AWESOME – even if that meant a “not accepted” – for now….
Anyhow Rob, thank you for your dedication to our industry too 🙂
xoxo, Maria”
Now that’s what were talking about…..
Her image was of about 15 or 20 puppies and a few barrels. It’s a fun, well done shot.
You could barely tell it was all the same dog….at least I couldn’t.
James and I even grabbed a few screen shots of some of the entries and did a quick workflow to enhance and show some creative ideas re: cropping, burning, dodging etc etc.
We showed those ideas after the Bull Pen was officially over.
I thought this was a cool and helpful approach, the screen capture/work em up strategy.
And, we plan on doing this on the upcoming Bull Pens as a general practice.
If you want to watch the replay and see what Maria, and everyone was so excited about, go here (login first):
Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher
Two rrreeaalllyyy big shows this week…..
Friends in photography,
We have two big rrreeaaallllyyy BIG shows this week…FIRST ONE……yup, tomorrow night!
Tuesday, October 18th, members only mastermind marketing meeting.
Join us again for our monthly marketing and accountability
call.
We’ll discuss the struggles, successes, wishes, hopes and
aspirations in running a professional photography business.
Real info, real strategies, from real photographers….
Special guest James Hodgins will be joining us to chat about
selling, leaving money on the table and getting it right when getting
paid.
Members login and go here for registration links.
Non members….easy peasy….for $19.97 CA you can have total access HERE.
Also, don’t forget this Thursday, the October 2016 Bull Pen print show. We still have room for your submissions.
You’ll get some serious kick-*ss print critique and honest, valuable, solid strategies on improving your photography. PLUS, you can win some hard cold cash….
But ya can’t get there unless you submit your images.
Go here for info on how to do enter the Bull Pen
Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher
In an industry where so many of the blind follow the blind, he’s a refreshing voice…
Brian DeMint is one of my favorite photography peeps.
In an industry where so many of the blind follow the blind,
he’s a refreshing voice.
Why? Mainly because he’s good. Dam good. His artistic shooting skills
are through the roof.
He’s rocket-engineer NASA level smart when it comes
to art. And photography.
He knows how to create a visually stunning, high impact image.
And do it over and over and over again. With bar bones minimal lighting
and props.
Most times he uses a basic kit lens and Best Buy prosumer camera. That, plus whatever
minimal props he can scrounge from the hotel lobby or borrow from someone in the audience.
No fancy cameras or prime 1.8 85MM lenses for this dude.
He proves my point that I’ve been yammering for decades….”It’s ain’t the equipment!”
I see it over and over, this mindset that “when I get that lens or that camera…”
Brian has the ability to see, really see, and he shares this skill with us
all the time.
Every year he’s busy running around giving live shooting demos and he packs
the house with eager fans.
People love him…because he’s real, he’s legit, he’s stratospherically creative, he’s funny
as hell and often, because of the “no filter, foot-in-your-mouth syndrome” (I suffer from this, so we got
sympatico on this one buddy) he says exactly what’s on his mind.
With Brian, you get the whole deal. The whole enchilada. No piecemeal, small portion
served out.
He’s like a tsunami wave of creativity where most are ripples on the lake.
And tonight he’s rocking the boat again in our on going Creative Cross Training….
Join us….9:00PM EST Thursday, October 13th CLICK HERE
If there’s room, you may be able to submit an image or two for Brian to critique (he’s critiquing ten images only!)
See you on the dark side….
Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher
Friday Wrap Up, April 15, 2016
WEEKLY WRAP UP April 15, 2016
From the NoBs Photosuccess Inner Circle Members forum
Next Bull Pen Print Competition April 21st, 2016
Less than one week away! Get your images in before we fill up.
Next Bull Pen Print Critique is April 21st 9:00PM EST.
Sign up here
The Wedding show report from Marian has created one of the best, and on going threads on attending wedding shows. He keeps adding new updates and very good info for anyone who wants to come up with the very best in wedding show booths…..check it out:
HERE
Maternity On The Beach In Costa Rica
This young lady is about to have a baby any day…
I’ll be creating a video soon explaining in detail how I shot, and processed these…
Fairy Day Ads Using Canva.com
Rob’s back in the saddle running his studio. Fairy day is set and already booking in. See his ads created using the new service canva.com posted here:
Fairy Portraits Mastermind Bull Pen
Speaking of fairy day promotions (and how much moolah you
can make running them) here’s two of the best
presentations from the recent past
on selling and promotion faiy day portraits.
Click
Mastermind on Selling Fairy Day With Tina Provencher
Feedback: Communion Portrait
Want feedback? of course you do. Ok, it’s a straight on portrait,
communion, of a young girl looking at the camera, slight smile.
Read More
Another Beach Session…
I know, I know….not another beach shot. I had like three in
our last week in Costa Rica…
started to feel like I was making inroads and a name for
myself. But alas, we had to go home.
Who knows where and how this will evolve. If we stayed
there permanently, I feel there’d be
a market, judging by the response so far, and I have
a fairly good idea how I would push
offers and promotions to said markets.
Wedding Season Is Here… Looking For Inspiration?
Time for some wedding photography inspiration? Wedding season is
upon us and there is some great information from Vanessa Joy, Sam Sciarrino,
Rob Provencher, Jaco Fourie and many others in the wedding success section in the forum.
Yours in Photography and all things NoBs,
Gabi Wright
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