Ever wanted to make the jump from amateur photographer to pro? Laurel Housden, The Photo Enthusiast, and The Queen of All Contests on Digital Photography Life comes on today to talk about her transition from enthusiastic amateur to paid photographer.
Laurel is a long-time listener of our previous podcast, and the information she learned from pros like Scott Kelby, Rick Sammon and Kevin Kubota inspired her to try her hand at becoming a professional shooter.
Laurel shares how she got her first clients, how she promotes her business and what photo and processing techniques she uses to capture her stunning images. Like us, Laurel loves the plug-ins from Nik Software, especially Color Efex Pro 3.0.
Be sure to Laurel's galleries and blog...including - we hope - her intimate and irresistible boudoir sessions.
Laurel's a terrific photographer and a great friend - we wish her all the best as she becomes, we're certain, one of Florida's premier photographers.
Our first photo contest is over, but you can check out the entries at dplife.smugmug.com.
Speaking of SmugMug, did you hear Laurel talking about how much she loves her SmugMug account? She loves it even more because she got such a deal - 50% off the first year of service by using the code provided to listeners of Digital Photography Life. You should too. We've heard from a number of listeners who have signed up for SmugMug on our recommendation, and every single one of them has raved!
SmugMug is our favorite site for sharing and selling your photos. You can set your own prices and make as much or as little as you like! SmugMug has two fantastic offers just for our listeners:
- 50% off your SmugMug service at any level (enter code "Flickr" at checkout). This is a fantastic discount and you should take advantage of it in time to share your holiday photos!
- A free camera strap to any listener of Digital Photography Life: This one is just crazy. A high-quality camera strap that replaces the neck-slicing piece of canvas that your camera's manufacturer condescended to include with your DSLR. Get your freebie here.
As always, thanks for listening. Remember, you can find us everywhere, including
Twitter
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Michael on Facebook
Scott on Facebook
Scott on MySpace
As always, thanks for listening!
Scott
A great interview with Laurel Scott - I really enjoyed it. There is a lot of talk at the moment about the economy (especially here in the UK), and how its a bad time to start a new business - personally, I think now is a great time as its an opportuntity to broker deals with suppliers, get the pricing right etc and as long as you have a business person mindset as well as a photographers then I'm sure it will be sucessful.
Posted by: Kevin Mullins Photography | February 02, 2009 at 04:05 AM
Great podcast. I think there is a large under/unserved market for family photography. I mostly do sports but get asked all the time about doing senior portraits and occasionally about on location family photos. It seems there is a niche in between the studios and the big box store photo departments. Laurel offered a lot of insights and the podcast was most helpful.
One beef and this is kind of a general beef, it seems to be that often when people talk Mac vs PC they aren't exactly doing it (excuse this expression), apples to apples. I mean if they are talking about a 17" Macbook pro vs a PC are they looking at a $2,800 PC or a $1,200 PC? That extra $$ can buy a lot of speed, maybe not in the OS but in the memory, vid cards, drives, etc.
Posted by: Alex | February 03, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Just started listening to your Podcast the other day.. (I've had an iPod for years, just never really got on the Podcast bandwagon... now I'm a junkie!) love it! Thanks for mentioning the free strap from Smugmug - I've had a Pro account with them for a few years now and have been VERY happy with their services, print quality and website. I've recently gotten into using Flickr as well, and Facebook (never enough web presence, right?).. so many great options are available for us now, it's crazy. Anyways.. thanks again for letting me know about the free camera strap from Smugmug.. I just put in my request.
Posted by: Mark Brooks | February 06, 2009 at 02:09 PM
I love your podcasts! I've been listening for a while now. Just heard this episode and the comment on stuff being "pants" made me laugh so much. I'm from the UK too and I totally understood what that meant. Do you know the phrase "dog's bollocks"? It means something that is really really cool (opposite of pants). For example "Lightroom 2.2 is the dog's bollocks and totally the opposite of Lightroom 1 which is a bit pants." This is the end of your UK/US cultural exchange programme.
Posted by: Thouarella | February 08, 2009 at 08:53 AM
Hey Scott and Mike!
I really enjoyed this show. Laurel had a great 'journey' into her business which I'm truly jealous of :)
Although I must make a small remark - after you guys have stopped doing podcasts with the previous carrier, I've forgotten 'bout you for a while (sorry bout that;] - but I've downloaded all the previous podcasts to be up to date) and Iwas very happy that you are back online, but - these commercials / adds of lensbaby or smugmug is very distracting ;/ I understand that in some way you benefit of this, but maybe try to change the formula of these announcements? in example play them on the beginning (as you do) or at the end of the show - but please not in the middle!
Sorry about these harsh words, but I felt you should know..
take care!
Posted by: Rafb | April 02, 2009 at 03:53 PM