There are so many options when it comes to choosing who to use for your photography business needs – it can quickly become overwhelming! You find yourself asking questions like “is pearl finish really better than luster?” or “how much will I actually lose when I crop this picture?” We’re here to help with a list sharing a few of our favorite photography resources in today’s blog!
Favorite Photography Resources
How To Start Your Photography Business
Starting a Small Business in Virginia
Virginia Department of Taxation
Open a Business Checking (and Savings) Account with your Bank
Get Business Insurance to cover You, Your Gear, and Clients (we work with Hill & Usher)
Contracts
Rachel Brenke, The Law Tog – you NEED a contract to protect yourself, as well as set expectations for you and your clients. Rachel’s shop is a great place to start!
If you’re not ready to spend those hard earned $$$, check out SLR Lounge, they have a template that can give you a place to start out.
Business Cards
There are SO many great options out there you to create amazing business cards! If you’re looking for a local spot, River City Graphics is where it’s at! Any type of graphic print you need, they can take care of you! Another great option is MOO (for a different type of card) or even Vistaprint.
Business Templates
Design Aglow – everything from website templates, marketing materials, useful forms and IPS information, all customizable to YOUR brand!
The Modern Tog – business tools to help take your photography from passion to profit.
Gear Rental
If you’re looking for a way to “try before you buy”, renting a new camera or different lens is a great option.
Digital Lens Rental is a local gear rental place here in Hampton Roads and Nick is AWESOME!
If you need another option, BorrowLenses.com is also another great place to look at!
Workflow
BlogStomp – this tool has been invaluable in my blogging and social media! It was something I bought few years ago, and each time they release an update, I always get it for free (whoot whoot!).
Mailchimp, Mad Mimi, Constant Contact – whichever service you use, pick one and get that email list operational!
Hootsuite – awesome for social media planning/scheduling
Google Analytics – keeps tabs on website metrics so you know who’s coming in from where.
Planoly – this is a life-saver for curating my Instagram posts!
Submissions
Matchology – a powerful new tool that saves you time by matching your submissions with the world’s top wedding blogs.
Two Bright Lights – an amazing online resource with over 400 blogs where creatives can submit their work. Two Bright Lights makes it simple to find the perfect publication to showcase your work.
Studio Management
Honeybook, 17 Hats, Pixifi and ShootQ all have amazing options to help automate the process and make your business run more smoothly – find the one that will work best for you!
Websites
WordPress, Squarespace, Showit, Wix – it doesn’t really matter the platform as long as you have a useable site to display your content! There are free and paid versions of websites, find what works best for you!
Web Developer
Formidable Tech – my personal web developer, Kevin and Jen do a great job creating the website you envision and make the process easy from start to finish! Couldn’t recommend them more highly!
Client Gallery Viewing
Smugmug, Zenfolio, PASS, Instaproofs – Online gallery for clients to view/purchase their images
StickyAlbums – This is a mobile app clients can use to download their photo gallery to their phone.
Client Prints
Richmond Professional Lab – Hands down, my favorite print supplier EVER – their customer service is unmatched! I get personal as well as client photos done through them.
WHCC, Millers, AdoramaPix, ProDPI, Simply Color Lab, and Mpix are also a few other great options!
Albums
Nations Photo Lab – a less expensive option to order from, but they may not have all the options you are looking for.
Artsy Couture – my absolute favorite luxury album company! The pages are velvety soft and the colors are rich and extravagant!
Renaissance Albums, Red Tree, and Bay Photo are a few other options for creating high quality books!
Personalized USB’s
Photo Flash Drive – I love that there is so much ability to customize your final product! You can do just a simple USB, choose the size you want, matching packaging to go with it… and so much more!
Take Your Business to the Next Level!
Now that you’ve got a list of our favorite photography resources, I would love to help you out in your photographic journey and make it happen! Fresh Look Photography offers private mentoring to help with any aspect of running your business, and we’d love to chat with you! Feel free to drop a comment below or click the { Contact Me } button and we will get rocking and rolling!
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