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Being with The Guild of Photographers

Being with The Guild of Photographers

When I first trained with Claire Elliott at Newborn Baby Posing Ltd, their Newborn School course was linked with The Guild Of Photographers.  Naturally, I joined.  I am in my second year of being a member of the guild.  But why join?  What’s in it for me?  Do my clients benefit too?

The main reason why I have stayed as a member of The Guild of Photographers is because I am working towards my newborn photography qualification, which would be awarded through The Guild of Photographers.  My  mentor, Claire, is incredibly supportive and gives me feedback on my images and shows me where I can improve – everyone can always improve!

Claire is a ‘Craftsman’ at the Guild, which means she’s got hawk eyes when it comes to looking over your images and knows everything there is to know about newborn photography, safe posing and lighting.

Being with the Guild is similar to being with a trade union (except we don’t have trade unions for photographers lol).  They offer advice to their members and via The Guild, I can offer my clients an Interest Free Credit Service as an option for payment for any products they may want to purchase.

The main benefit to being a member of the Guild is the support network.  It can be very lonely being self employed – I do often miss my school team – but here, we have a great support network and Facebook groups too where we can share work, ideas, success, advice and meet up with other local photographers.

The Guild also have Image of the Month competitions where awards can be won.  This is something I would like to enter into in the not-too-distant future.

 

So if you’re thinking of joining the Guild, take a look at how the network can support your work at https://photoguild.co.uk/r/5CB4pa (This referral link will also get you a discount!)

Have you been pleased with my service?

It’s always interesting to me how you got to know about my business.  The majority of my new clients come from word of mouth – this means their friends have been super happy with what I have done for them that they’ve told their friends to use me too.  That is absolutely the best feedback I can get.  (As a side note, I will be introducing my refer a friend scheme VERY soon!!!).

 

The next most common is Facebook.  Facebook has really helped our small business community grow and I, for one, will forever be thankful to it.  Sharing my work, recommending me on groups when people ask for newborn photographers near Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, Tamworth etc even just interacting with me posts all helps boost my visability so others can see.

 

When people come to choose their newborn photographer, they tend to put a lot of research into it.  And rightly so!  You want the person who’s taking your baby photos to know what they’re doing, be well trained and also to producce beautiful images.

 

That’s where your Google reviews come into play.  I always read the reviews on Google first for a business if the business is new to me.  It’s a huge thing!  To leave a google review, you just need to have an accoutn with Google and then click my link.  It only takes a minute.  It is very much appreciated from my end to all of you who do take the time to fill out a review and it really does make a difference to my potential clients.  I now always make sure I review small businesses that I have used as I know how much of a difference it really can make.

 

If you haven’t left a Google review but have been for photos with me, I would very much appreciate you taking the time to leave a review. https://g.page/nickibyrnephotography/review?rc

Thanks 🙂

What to wear for an outdoor photoshoot

What to wear for an outdoor photoshoot

When clients book with me I often get asked, ‘but what do we wear?!”

My first response is always something you feel comfortable in.  If you are comfortable, you will look comfortable and I can photograph natural smiles.

Two big considerations are the time of year and where you will be.  I’m currently booking outdoor photoshoots for over the summer and usually in Sutton Park.  You want to wear something that stands out (i.e. you’re not blending in to the background) but not something that’s too bold and gaudy.  I always suggest to avoid bright busy patterns.  I usually look towards the colour wheel.  Opposite colours complement each other.  You also want to use colours that complement you.

So you want to use the colour wheel to help you select your colours.  As a rule during the summer, blues look great outdoors and whites.

 

The colour wheel is also useful if you’re having a photoshoot with flowers.  Take the colour of the flowers into consideration.  Bluebells are very different to poppies and sunflowers.  Again, blues and whites always look good with all of these flowers but you could go for a different colour e.g. green with poppies, purple with sunflowers and red with the bluebells.  It just depends on what you like and where you are going to have your pictures displayed.

 

Lots to think about!

 

Another thing to consider is pattern.  You don’t want busy patterns.  Plain and simple items of clothing is perfect.  You don’t want the shirt to be the main focus of the picture – you want the people to be the main event.

 

Have included some outdoor portrait pictures in here to give you some food for thought.   Some of these photos are from my Autumn Minis sessions but have included them to show you the importance of colour.  And also these families rocked their outdoor shoots!

 

But if you have ANY questions at all, let me know!

 

What will you wear for your outdoor photoshoot?

Reopening!!!

Reopening!!!

Following the government advice regarding covid-19, I will be reopening on Monday 15th June 2020.  They advise that photography studios may reopen from 15th June 2020 providing social distancing can be adheared to.

 

Unfortunately, because my studio is a home studio and also not the largest I will not be able to social distance and therefore I am only offering outdoor shoots for the time being.  

 

This is also giving me a bit of extra time to get the studio up and running too.

 

There will be a few changes to how I operate even with outdoor photoshoots too.  We must keep to the 2m rule which means I cannot style, move, handle, pose.  Although this is going to be quite difficult for me as I like things to be quite precise, I know it’s for the best for you and me.  I will also be wearing a mask.  All payments must be via bank transfer – no cash can be accepted.  Any props or material that is used will be thoroughly washed and anti bac’d – this is something we always did anyway.  Take a look at the picture below for our safety guidelines for our outdoor photoshoots. 

Rome wasn’t built in a day … but my website was!

So … here it is.  My first actual tester blog post since finishing my website.

 

There’s bound to be some glitches in the website but if you could all have a look and let me know your thoughts that would be lovely.  

 

I’m so glad I found this website builder, very easy to use for someone who’s not great at coding (and by not great I mean absolutely have zero clue).

 

Website will go live next week – officially on Facebook.

 

Until then … I will hope to write  a few blog posts to keep me entertained 🙂