My first wedding

[brooke+3]

Thankyou for kind words i have now jumped into the deep end and i have got my own business and website please check it out and let me know how i can improve it eg: do u think my prices r to high etc please tell me the truth .


Brooke


www.brookeadamsphotography.com

[habro]

Just a few things I've noticed, sorry if I seem like the harsh critic!

Not sure about grey font on grey near-grey background, blends in a bit too much to be too readable.

On the home page you've got "Although wedding photography is my passion. --new line-- I am also...: Not sure why this is two sentences or paragraphs as the first sentence doesn't make sense, I'd be making that just one sentence "...is my passion, I am also"

Might be inclined to do a bit more 'selling' at the beginning of your homepage. Hundreds of wedding photogs in your area, is one that one paragraph enough to differentiate you between the rest? I don't know, but I'd question it.

You've got no meta data or keywords in your code! Google is going to struggle to find you and when it does, it won't have nearly enough info. Make sure you stick some keywords & meta in there. Google about if you're not sure what I mean, or ask for help here as we have some experts on the forum, I think Mr Laurie is one himself.

The image on your homepage down the bottom... it's nice but that front page should smack of the 'wow' factor ie your BEST wedding shot/s. A shot of yourself I'd reserve maybe for the 'Contact' page. Basically people might have 20 websites to go through, a lot will judge the proverbial book by the cover. That front page has to make them stick around.

On your contact page you've spelt 'prefer' as 'preffer' - easy mistake.

I've noticed in your price list that you don't specify a maximum of hours. Doing so seems like a common theme in wedding pricelists, probably for those people who's 'reception' goes for 8 hours at the local. You're telling them you'll shoot reception, so they expect you to be there the entire time. If you put something like 'maximum 6 hours' or something, at least you have an out clause if the night just turns into an all-hours reception.

Not website related as such, but look at throwing some 'specials' out there while you're new. Make people think they're getting a great deal. Like your engagement package, maybe if they get your engagement package they get 25% off their wedding shoot? A hook helps when you're starting out.

Might be my own opinion & not the general consensus, but you seem to talk about the $200 deposit & when moneys are due a bit prominently. Perhaps leave that til they've spoken to you, or have a terms & conditions area? I wouldn't add T&C to your Menu, but just a link they can click on. Alternatively, like I said, maybe just leave it completely off your site & just say "Some T&C apply" & get into that stuff once they've made their initial inquiry.

Your portfolio has some really nice pics, though it may be a tad laborious loading photos. Down the track perhaps look at using SimpleViewer or something to load a flash portfolio which will look a lot better & function excellently. But that's a down-the-track thing I think.

Feedback & contact me are quite similar in content, do you need both? What did your cousin have to say about you as a photographer? Maybe a testimonials page would be better than a Feedback page. Have you done any shoots for anyone else [paid or unpaid]? Why not ask them what they thought & make sure you get some good lines for a testimonial? Potential clients want to know what others think of you & use that to help determine if you're worthy of their time/money or not. I'd highly recommend using a testimonial page. Don't have enough testimonials? Why not do a prac shoot on a friend and get them to say something?

In the Feedback area you say "My job is to provide a record..." - job sounds a bit... eh, like you're in it for the money. Stick with 'passion' which you've used on your homepage to good effect. Also in Feedback is "Your comments and suggestions, are greatly appreciated, so feel free..." - you don't need that first comma, unless you talk like Christopher Walken. Man I love that guy.

In spite of what you may think after reading all of that, I do think you have a very nice website up and running. A few tweaks [remember most of these are just my point of view so others & yourself may disagree, and nobody knows what you want to do more than you] & you're definitely on the right path.

[DG77]

Thankyou for kind words i have now jumped into the deep end and i have got my own business and website please check it out and let me know how i can improve it eg: do u think my prices r to high etc please tell me the truth .


Brooke


www.brookeadamsphotography.com

Your prices are far too cheap to be giving away high res. disks.
You can keep the prices as they are but take out the disks, or charge (a lot) more and include the disks.

[DG77]

Just noticed the budget wedding package... that's almost full coverage and a CD for $400 !!!
Do you enjoy working for free ??
With those prices there's no way you can afford to further discount packages as per Habro's suggestion, unless you want to start paying clients for your time.

A high res. CD should alone be worth at least as much as your most expensive package, as this is the money you are giving up by releasing the CD.

How many hours of your time are you including for the $400 ?? (including post processing, pre-con time, scoping locations e.t.c.)

Nobody should be in any business charging less than $100 + GST per hour.
Any less than that and I guarantee you won't be in business for long.

[habro]

I tend to agree with the pricing criticisms. If you want to give those out as "mate rates" to friends & family that's one thing [although that's been widely criticised as well] - but especially the $400 package... a few people I know have gotten married for a second time or been on a real tight budget, they've been excited when they've found someone for $800. That's the margin I think you should be aiming for if you want to go really low. Low prices predict low quality.

If two people opened the same business in the same middle class area, Person A charging twice what person B does, it's much more likely that Person A will succeed. Premium pricing makes people think of a premium product.

Another thing to think of... imagine business is going well & word of mouth is spreading, all these bookings start going at $400, what a bargain for people! How do you put your prices up then? Everyone knows you're $400, push that up to $600 and people stop calling.

Also, if you're giving them images on cd, what's to stop them from printing their own pics on their 10 year old printer & framing them? Someone comes round & sees this 72dpi pic hanging on the wall with all the wrong colours cos their printer profile is wrong... gross. Your packages should include you printing x pics for them, that way you are your own quality control.

[DG77]

Also, if you're giving them images on cd, what's to stop them from printing their own pics on their 10 year old printer & framing them? Someone comes round & sees this 72dpi pic hanging on the wall with all the wrong colours cos their printer profile is wrong... gross.

I've been saying that all along, but still most people on here seem to think giving away full res. CD's is a good idea, and usually with the defence of `it's ok if you charge enough for it, but the simple fact is nobody is charging enough.
I won't do it out of principal. I don't care if someone offers me $500 or $5000for the disk, I won't hand over a high res wedding CD.
Even if Brooke was to charge an extra $400 for the disk, 100 images @ $400 still equates to just $4 per image... Does Brooke employ a team of sweat shop workers for several cents a day to prepare these images ??
Even making the simplest of corrections and using a brilliant set of CS4 actions takes time when correcting 100+ images.

I'm sorry, but I just don't understand how anyone can do a whole wedding and supply a disk for $400 and make anything out of it, not when my average wedding overheads are about $800 each.

Brooke, my rant is in no way a personal attack, please don't take offence, I think it's fantastic that you're going out to do something that you enjoy and show some talent for, but nobody should work for free, and I really hate seeing people getting into trouble because they're simply not charging what they are worth.
Feel free to PM me if you'd like some free tips on more realistic fee structures.
We're in different states so it's not as if we're competing for the same clients or anything.

[Molko]

Hi Thanks for your reply i have a nikon D60 the first and third where taken with 18-55 lens and the other was a 55-200 i did all editing in lightroom i am really still learning i have only had my first SLR camera for about 4 weeks .

Here is couple more does the effect on the second one work i am still looking at it and not sure.

With the first one same pose different photo do you think its better in colour or black and white.

How did you do the second photo in the car? What software did you use? Lovely photo's.

[vqscorpions]

last one seems good but the broom's face should be brighter