June Campbell : Writing from Vancouver

If you enjoy photography, you will discover that family portrait photography is among the most rewarding and financially profitable approaches to earning an income with your digital camera.

However, if you approach this in the wrong way, you may endanger your reputation before you even begin. To start off on the right foot, spend the time you need to hone your skills and to acquire the equipment that raises your status from amateur to professional.

Your Digital Camera

You cannot skimp on the camera that you use. You will be taking photographs that are intended to become family heirlooms, treasured remembrances of a family’s history. The quality camera that you need is available today (in the US) for approximately $200. This price range will obtain a camera that is substantially better than those costing even a little less money. The perfect camera would be a digital SLR camera. Professionals opt for SLR cameras because they provide a highly accurate view of the frame prior to shooting, and because they allow you to use a wide variety of lenses. However, a SLR camera is not essential. You can get by nicely with a non-SLR model.

Before you begin developing your business, the first move is to learn to use your camera properly. If you are inexperienced with professional photography, you would be wise to invest in one of the many digital photography books and guides that are on the market. An example is DIY Portraits.net, a downloadable guide that you might find helpful.

Other Photographic Equipment

Your camera is your first piece of equipment, but for family portrait photography, you will need to invest in some other items as well. Lighting is crucial. You will need to do whatever is necessary to create a soft lighting effect around your subjects. This calls for flash equipment, umbrellas and reflectors. Reflectors are items that reflect a light onto the subject. Photography umbrellas are shaped like rain umbrellas, but they bounce, reflect and redirect a source of light. You will also need a tripod or two to hold your camera steady. Digital cameras are particularly susceptible to wobble.

Expect to pay perhaps $1,000 for your extra equipment. Gently used equipment in good condition would be acceptable as well.

Perfecting Your Technique

It is always excellent advice to become a skilled photographer before you approach paying customers. Practice and develop your technique using friends and family as subjects. You will also be able to create a portfolio this way, which is an invaluable marketing aid.

Remember, it is your job to direct your subjects and advise them how to stand or sit so you can showcase them to the best advantage. Use your imagination. By adding small props to a scene, you can change a portrait from boring to stunning. For example, a family portrait is likely to encompass two rows of people, the front row sitting and the back row standing. This is a traditional, but unexciting shot. Place a large vase of flowers on the floor in front of the sitting row, but not centered.

Voila! You have an interesting and appealing picture.

Remember that it is your job to make this experience an enjoyable one for the family. You may be challenged to sooth anxious children or to calm the family pet. Come prepared with toys to entertain a young child and to focus their attention.

How to Attract Clients

As in any business, once you have the equipment and the skills, you are faced with the need to market yourself and attract paying clients. You want to aim for a happy situation in which your calendar is filled with client bookings.

To begin, ask your family, friends and other contacts to pass your name around. You might want to supply them with business cards or brochures for this purpose. if cashflow is becoming a problem after you have purchased your equipment, you can get 250 FREE Business Cards from VistaPrint for only S&H.

This being done, you might consider advertising in your local newspaper or magazines. You might also look at a marketing campaign using brochures or leaflets. Try contacting your local postal service and investigate the feasibility of distributing fliers door to door. Another approach could be to visit the parking lot of a shopping mall on a busy weekend  and tuck fliers under wiper blades.

If you prefer to promote yourself online, make use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, or promote yourself with keyword searches on a major search engine like Google, Yahoo or Microsoft Search.

Once you have a foot in the door and you are attracting clients, you can reduce the amount of advertising you do. At this point, you will be getting word of mouth referrals. This puts you in the enviable position of having an established family portrait business that lets you do what you love best – taking photographs.

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I’m thrilled that my Squidoo Lens,Tips for Green Scrapbooking has just been named Lens of the Day (LOTD). In Squidoo land, this is considered an honour. I am pleased that my work is recognized in this way, and many thanks to all the people who visited and left comments.

I donate all proceeds from this lens to the ASPCA.

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My newest client is Leaf it to Me Catering Service.  Based in Vancouver, Canada, Leaf it to Me delivers the most delicious salads to your door daily. They specialize in light, nutritious, healthy food. This is a newly launched start up business and its sure to succeed.

The owners have long advocated healthy eating, but have observed that many people lack the time, interest or skills to prepare healthy food that is also a taste treat.

These salad meals are so much more than just lettuce and tomatoes.  If you have ever thought that salad meals had to be dull and boring, these foods will dispel that idea. The prices are reasonable, and there are three weeks worth of menus to choose from.

For more information, check out Leaf it to Me on the web, or download their menu and list of ingredients as a PDF file.

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Protecting our earth’s resources is important. My hobby is scrapbooking, card making and various other forms of paper craft. I have just created a Squidoo lens offering approximately 16 tips for Green Scrapbooking.

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Forex Trading Books have much to offer the new or experienced Forex trader.  Forex trading, as you know, is the complex art of investing money in foreign currencies. The Forex market is world’s largest currency trading market.  Traders with knowledge, skill, and perhaps a bit of luck can make a fortune at this activity.

As any experienced trader will tell you, you cannot master Forex trading in a day or two.  It requires concerted effort and a willingness to persevere as you study the market and the global macroeconomic picture. However, great rewards often come to those who put forth this effort.

There are various ways to study Forex trading. One possibility is through using Forex trading books.

The Case for Using Forex Trading Books to Master this Skill

In today’s digital world, many individuals look to the Internet when they need information or training. This approach to training and learning has a large advantage.  Training materials are likely to be current and up to date. It’s an easy thing to update an online course or an ebook, whereas updating a print publication is a major undertaking.

The downside to the Internet is that you may be challenged to locate training materials that are encompassing, structured and provide the step by step training that you require.  On the Internet, you are more likely to come across articles or blogs that discuss single aspects of Forex training, where as you need the whole picture.

Although these articles have their uses, a good and thorough Forex trading book can be a better choice.

A book provides a structured training on a large topic, or on a sub-set of a topic. Books typically take you through the training process in an incremental, step by step manner. In many cases, the author may have spent months or possibly years researching and writing the tome.  Before it is published, editors will have proof read and edited the book.  By the time it reaches your hands, the book has been corrected and perfected.

Also, consider that in the world of printed books, publishers rarely accept a book unless the author has credibility.  In the case of self published books, the author has invested a substantial sum of money to bring the book to print, so has a strong interest in producing top notch work.

Such is not necessarily the case with Internet publishing.  Certainly, you can find well written, well structured and well researched materials that are published online.  However, it is also true that anyone with a computer can write and publish on any subject on the Internet. This can be both a blessing and a curse. It gives voice to those who would other wise not share their knowledge and experience. It also gives voice to those who have little of value to say, but say it anyway.

Suggested Reading Materials

A great many Forex books are available at Amazon and at other book stores.

Some are better than others. Also, books written about the stock market or about commodity trading are also beneficial. There are some differences between these approaches to trading and Forex trading – but there are also enough similarities with respect to the mind set and discipline.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator Annotated Edition

This book was written in 1923, but the learning points are as valid now as they were at the time. It’s a story about one man’s trading activities that took him from rags to riches and back to rags. Because he’s open about discussing his mistakes, you learn the lessons vicariously instead discovering them yourself the hard way.

The New Market Wizards: Conversations with America’s Top Traders

Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards are two related books.
Both of these books are considered to be classics in the trading genre. Several prominent traders provide interviews, and each interviewee uses a distinct trading strategy.  Since these books appear in an interview format, they are easy reading and easy to understand – but nevertheless provide open, honest and thought providing messages about trading.

Pit Bull: Lessons from Wall Street’s Champion Day Trader

Despite being about the stock market, this publication provides priceless lessons that the author learned in his experiences as a trader.  The writer, a man by the name of Mar Schwartz, depicts his career as a trader, including his decision to being managing other people’s investments as well as his own.  This transition altered Schwartz’ approach to trading. The reader is provided with a complete schedule of Schwartz’s day, including bathroom breaks!

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