Attention Photographers!

After many people have inquired about purchasing my Adobe Lightroom Steller Presets, I am proud to say that I finally have everything ready for delivery! There are 52 individual quality presets in the collection being offered at the special introductory offer of only $40!

Lightroom? Presets? Why? These presets allow me to artistically process hundreds of photos for proofing in a quick amount of time, all while giving each photo a little unique love of it’s own! Your clients will love you for the speedy turnaround and the “artistic” style that you are able to share.

Be sure to check out our FREE Lightroom presets, too!

With Lightroom’s lightning-fast mouse-over preview function, these presets offer a great starting place for sparking your creativity. After selecting the preset you want, you are able to tweak the settings to fit the photo (maybe just increasing the exposure or bumping the saturation), then sync those custom settings with every similar photo from the session. Ta-da! You’ve got it made and you get to spend more time do what you love…taking photos!

After processing in Lightroom, editing in Photoshop becomes a relative breeze. I usually refine each photo with a trusted action (Check out my favorites from Doug Boutwell – Totally Rad Actions) or set of steps to maximize the photo and then I am done!

Here is a preview of some of the presets in action on some of my favorite photos.

Find out more about the Steller Presets!

Totally Rad Actions – THE best actions around, in my book. I use them daily in conjunction with my Steller Lightroom Presets (coming soon!). If you don’t own them, buy them now! They save time, money, and look….well, rad! Check out Doug Boutwell, the creator, in his latest hilarious video tutorial.

I am stoked that I had the opportunity to meet a ton of fantastic local photographers this past weekend at two separate events here in Kansas City!! The award-winning Jan and Marco from the recently re-branded PhotoMementos.com were the gracious hosts of one event where I met some great new friends! the very next evening, I got to hang out with a handful of incredibly talented photographer ladies at Black Dog Coffee House for another event that I learned a lot from. I can’t wait to meet with them again! Meeting these wonderful people and then being reminded of the events I have attended in the past, I have been a bit inspired for a kinda long diatribe that I hope you will read and enjoy. If you are a photo client, you have my permission to ignore this post!

As a wedding photographer producing a relatively new breed and style of imagery, I think that it is important to have a network, a local network, of people who shoot similarly to yourself and are treating business similarly to yourself. What?! Be friendly with other wedding photographers?! *gasp* Even share info?! Aren’t we in competition?! For heaven’s sake why, you ask?

Yes, I think we are in competition, but not with each other in the same genre, but rather we are against the currents of the traditional market. We are trying to forge a new path and this is easier done together than stumbling on alone. A wise man once said (and the amazing becker* recently repeated it in a podcast), a rising tide raises all ships. This new breed of wedding photography is fresh and is buckling the very foundational thought process in the arena of what was previously known as wedding photography. Rising above the petty competitive spirit within the old market, this new creative genre is allowing for those of us with like-minded perspectives to gain solid strategic ground as a whole business model. Isn’t that cool?!

What about competition? Aren’t you losing money? No! Each year, wedding photographers (the good ones) get booked quickly. There will always be an influx of surplus clients coming in. That is the nature of the business. For the rest of the year they then have no choice but to turn work down! If these wedding photographers then turn work to others that they trust/admire of a like mind, then the genre continues to grow and develop, and even the newcomers (like me) are able to gain a solid foothold into the new business model. The brides then get the photogrphy style they desire. the photographers grow their businesses and succeed. The new genre gains momentum. Everybody gains.

So, with the base of “enough business for everybody to gain”, why not then have the photographers gain in all other aspects of their business? If those of a like mind are collaborating, then not only are businesses growing, but the individuals involved are growing too! Challenging one another, Critiquing one another, Celebrating one another! Every post on another’s blog….every handy little tip…every piece of advice freely shared… It will all be coming back to yourself!

I look forward to helping my fellow photographers learn and grow…becoming better…and all the while helping me to be better, as well. If you have thoughts or questions to share, please do!

*becker — What?! You haven’t heard of him? This guy simply rocks. He (his blog, that is) reads so personally and forthright. I love checking it out daily. He is an astounding photographer, friendly with the lovely Jessica Claire, inventor of the famous shoot sac and whom I shot at the anti-workshop, and becker is also a fanatic (in a good way!) about helping other photographers succeed. Check out his new [b]school for more info. Photographers! Check out his [b] school blog for great tips and trick and subscribe via iTunes to his podcasts!