About 2 years ago Enna had a grand vision. While the big pro photographer networking forums are a wonderful resource, she wasn’t completely satisfied with them – she wanted something that was more local in nature. She wanted to create an online network for local photographers who were tied geographically and who we could actually meet face to face on a regular basis… a community of trusted friends who we could count on for more than just online support. So, she pulled a few all-nighters and created the Boston Photographers Guild. The Guild has been built strictly by word of mouth and facilitates peer-to-peer mentoring via a free forum for professional photographers who have ties to Boston. In less than 2 years the forum community has grown to almost 300 members! The goal of the Guild is to create an environment where local photographers will support each other in a positive way to help each other grow as business people, and also as artists. We have become mentors to many on the Guild, and many on the Guild have mentored us. We have also met some of the best people in the world through the Guild, people we are proud to call our closest friends. Two years! It’s only been two years and so many great things have happened because of it. Now we are excited to announce the first ever mini-conference hosted by the Boston Photographer Wedding Photographers Guild: Inspire Boston 2010!
We find too often that when photographers become pros, they can easily forget to seek originality, and become complacent with making images that are expected, or follow a recipe for images that were successful in the past. Enna and I admittedly fell into that trap and almost left event photography several years ago… frustrated that we were not making the images that we wanted to make. So we challenged each other to forget that we were photographing a wedding, and to just let go… have fun, seek the light, and create a story of the day. We sat in our studio that night looking through our fine art book collection, admiring, dreaming. I remember that moment well. We went to the next wedding and had a blast! We found shadows that defined our subjects and emotions that narrated the day. We excitedly showed off our back-of-the-camera LCDs to each other as we worked, and drove home with smiles on our faces. We found what we were looking for. It was the biggest turning point in our career. Not because our studio suddenly started earning more income, but because we found what we dreamt of as photography students. We found images that moved us as photographers and that also moved the people in them.
The freedom to create something original isn’t easy when you’re trying to do it all – branding, marketing, post production, album design, blogging, web sites, networking, sales, and managing the nuts and bolts of running a small business… oh, and raising a family too! The workflow behind event photography is hard. We shoot on average 5000 images per week. And we prefer RAW files – that requires a lot of boom boom in the desktop hardware! It also requires a lot of organization. We are talking time management and image security. Having a good working system allows us to be creative for the families that invite us to be their artists for that big amazing wedding and/or special family portrait. And somewhere along with all those tasks we still have to find time and energy to renew our creative selves.
THIS is what the Inspire Boston 2010! mini-conference is about: creating a workflow, developing a brand, learning new skills, and above all else seeking that spark of originality inside you that will set you apart from others. We currently have 16 of the best event photographers in the Boston area lined up to inspire you this February. Meals are included so that we can all eat together and network and spend quality time with the speakers and other attendees in the evenings. We have limited the attendance to 150 in order to keep it intimate. Check out the schedule below and we hope you’ll join us! Anyone with an interest in making their life better with photography should come ~ it’s not only going to be amazing, it’s going to be inspiring!
And if you want to save $50 off registration our discount code : grazier
Thank you to all who help create this amazing conference. We simply can not wait!
Oh, and this conference would not be possible without the generous support of Lens Pro to Go (co-host of the conference), Pictage, ShootQ, and numerous others!!!
by Enna
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