Hill City Bride | Photographer's Tea

It has been such a pleasure to be a part of the advertising family over at Hill City Bride. Jennifer has been doing so much for the vendors that advertise with HCB as well as other wedding vendors. On Monday she threw a little get together for women photographers in the area (advertisers and non-advertisers with HCB). We met at the new Ploughcroft Tea Room downtown and had tea together! It was such a lovely time of connecting with other ladies that share the same passion for photography. I am grateful to be a part of such a wonderful community here in Lynchburg. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our time together:

Jennifer, thanks for hosting such a lovely event! I hope we can do it again soon!

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This is a test. This is just a test. :) (I'm playing a bit with my blog settings. Hop on over to check out the changes! Brownie points to the first person who even notices any. ;))

7 Blogs I wish I knew existed when I started my photography business

There are so many resources out there on the internet for aspiring photographers. If you are passionate about starting a photography business, I am sure you have done a few Google searches to help you along your journey. I don’t know about your Google search results, but during my research all the pages I came across had some sort of way of charging me money before I could get the information I was looking for. Over the past three and a half years I have spent a lot of time researching business practices, learning lessons through trial and error, and wasting a lot of my hard-earned money on photography business tool kits and design templates that I thought would help me. Products like those do work for some people, but they didn't for me. At the beginning of this year, I had come full circle in my search and realized that the way I ran my business needed to be the way that worked best for me and my family. I design all of my own albums and templates and I build my pricing and packages in a way that works for my business. It has been a crazy ride, this photography thing, but I am sure I have many more lessons ahead of me as well.

I wanted to share the few resourceful websites I discovered during my journey that I found to be the most helpful as I got my business off the ground. The best part about these sites? They are completely FREE! Each of the blogs listed below have content rich archives that one can spend hours reading through. These professionals are open to sharing their methods and each offer a lot of information about how they run their businesses. I highly recommend giving their blogs a visit today!

1. Melissa Jill Photography - An awesome example of a blog that touches on personal issues, photography help, and business advice. Plus plenty of inspiration!
2. Jasmine Star Photography - Another great example of a personal blog with a touch of business advice. Check out her FAQ's posts.
3. Digital Photography School - A fantastic place for beginners with a lot of technical and how-to advice
4. The [b] school blog - Photographers interviews and product reviews
5. MCP Actions blog - Tutorials, How-To's, and a lot of guest posts written by professional photographers
6. Paperie Boutique - Branding, packaging, and business image suggestions and inspiration. Plus a TON of giveaways!
7. Brand Camp Blog - A humorous blog with a lot of business advice. Easy to read and very content-rich.

As you browse those blogs, you will definitely come across a couple of paid resources. I challenge you to not drop a dime into your photography business (outside of equipment purchases) until your business can pay for it. :) More on that another day...!

31 Days of Change | Internet fun!

Each month usually brings a new adventure or "challenge" out there in blog world. August brought The August Break, where bloggers everywhere joined the well known blogger Susannah Conway and posted a picture (and only a picture) daily. Believe it or not, this was a way to encourage bloggers to get out and enjoy summer and not spend all day writing blog entries. Seriously!

So this month brings another fun challenge and I am really excited about it. Not because I will be participating (I've learned that I have a hard time with those daily blog committments) but because I am going to be reading like crazy! The awesome lady behind The Nester is participating in a 31 Days of Change challenge and has talked a number of her friends into joining her! So this means lots of super fun content for the ladies (or guys who have a knack for decorating and living simply) coming right up!

I'm pumped! I have already created a "31 Days of Change" label in my Google Reader and subscribed to my favorite topics. You can find the full list over at The Nester, but here are the ones I am super excited to be reading this month:

31 Days of...

• Autumn Bliss
• A Less Messy Nest
• Living Simply
• Grace
• Stress Free Entertainment

And one that I think some of my readers may be the most interested in: 31 Days to a Better Photo!

I tell you what... my job is awesome. Or maybe I should say the flexibility of my job is awesome. :) I love that I have time to read these blogs and get tips and tricks of how to live a better, more peaceful life. I hope you have the time to enjoy all the awesome reads coming up this month, too!

The Great Outdoors

Just a quick note that I am headed out of the office this morning. We are going to a mountain to spend the next week living off the land. Well, if that's what you call cooking s'mores and hot dogs over the fire and sleeping on an air mattress in a tent. Then yes... we're living off the land. ;) I'm super excited! This is the first time in a long time that I will be completely unplugged - no phone, no laptop, nothing! Please be patient with email response times while I am gone. I will be back Friday afternoon and will respond to emails and voicemails in the order they were received.

I'm off to enjoy The Great Outdoors! I will be bringing my camera and I hope to take some photos to share with you all when I get back.

Hope ya'll have a fab week!