Free Photography Workshops Online!

I just participated in the free live seminar with Creative Live for Food Photography with Penny De Los Santos. It was fantastic. I didn't get to watch the whole seminar, however, I did get enough out of it to learn some new food photography tips. I just received an email from Creative Live - they are having more free Photography seminars and I thought I would share the info!

Yes they are free - when you watch them live. They usually replay them late in the evening for free as well with other time zones. If you want to watch it after the fact or a copy of the DVD, there is a fee for the workshop. The setup is basic. It's a live webinar with an audience. There are places to log on their site so that you can chat with other people who are watching and another spot to ask questions. There are moderators that are reviewing the questions that are in the room with the speaker. There is a live audience actually taking the workshop in person. If you have a flexible schedule, these are great.

Here are the list of the future workshops:

June 10th and 11th  
     Doug Landreth, Artistic Post Production
July 29 - 31   
     Lighten up and shoot - Street Photography
August 26-28 
    Mark Wallace: Anatomy of a Photoshoot
September 9-10
    Tamara Lackey: Taking Care of Business
October 7-9 
    David Nightengale: Dramatic Images and Practical HDR *** I
    have been wanting to do HDR photography forever, can't wait
    for this one!
October 21-23 
   Rick Sammon Photography Weekend

I plan to attend each one... This is a great way to get workshop training but without the price tag... The site to get started and register is HERE... Remember you want to ENROLL not purchase. The current available courses to attend for free are listed first. You will have to create an account and give your email and that's it:) Enjoy!!!

Back in Action

2010 has proven to be more hectic than 2009 for sure already. Sorry to have left you all hanging. As soon as I put out one fire another one erupts. Oh well....

I have been catching up with a couple of my personal favorite sites   - Coffeeshop Photography, The Pioneer Woman and Texas Chicks

If you haven't checked them out lately - There are a TON of new actions and storyboards on Coffeeshop AND I noticed that Rita is doing custom blogs and Logo Designs. There are a lot of great tips and even a section on how to tweak your blogger blog!

They have a really neat story board now http://coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com/2010/03/coffeeshop-shadowhouse-storyboard.html

The Pioneer Woman  http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ is another one of my favorites, too. She has a new action from TRA made for her:) You can check it out under the photography tab. Also check out her recipes. I have this one added to my google reader. I love her! I also get a lot of great recipes from her site as well:)

Get your actions loaded:)

Free Prints

I always like to pass on when I see free prints deals.... For a photographer, I really don't get a chance to print out personal pictures for my own albums, when I do, I usually look for the freebies to fill my scrapbook. Would never use for clients or pics that I would be showing to clients, but for me they suit just fine!

CVS has 50 free prints http://www.cvsphoto.com/account/register.aspx  if you register, you can always pick up at the store!

SNAPFISH http://www.snapfish.com/  usually has freebies for new customers, last time I checked you get 50 free prints and if you purchase at least 1 print (usually .09) you will get another 100 free....They have cute novelties for gifts for families or friends.

HOTPRINTS http://www.hotprints.com/?site=ite=ny2010 Thanks to Couponers United!! Get a free photo book

As always, if you are trying to test out a professional printer for those wall hangings, archival or client prints, get the free sample prints

MILLERS - http://www.millerslab.com/ 
CPQ - http://www.cpq.com/   *** right now they are offering 30% off 16x16 or larger prints
WHCC - http://www.whcc.com/

**most will require you to be a professional photographer to access, order, and view price lists**

Those are my favorites. Millers will mark up the samples, but the other two do not. I used them for display. All three have exeptional prints in my opinion.

I just won 5 Swagbucks!!!! Wooohooo

Just got me 5 Swagbucks from doing a search on my SWAGBUCKS toolbar. Swagbucks is a great way to earn extra cash and gift cards. You can earn points for searching the internet, playing games, taking surveys, trading in old electronic equipment... Can cash in via paypal, gift card (amazon wooohoo) and as entries into contests. All of my mommy and money saving favorite bloggers swear by it so I checked it out earlier this month.

If you want to check it out, click here . I installed the toolbar and nothing in my antivirus antispyware came up. As always, with anything, make sure those are up to date.... remember my drama in December!!!

I forgot I had this acct since beginning of January. I used it the day I signed up and today and earned 10 swagbucks from just searching those two days. At 45 you can cash out for $5in your paypal or a $5 gift card.....

Always looking for a deal:)

Marketing Monday and a Freebie too.....

Hi, all... back in action:) Today I wanted to talk about partnering up with local businesses to promote your photography business. Here are a couple examples.

1. Contact local bridal shops, limo services, DJ's , Retailers that have gift registries. See if they would be interested in raffling off a free engagement session to their customers or maybe $200 off a wedding gift certificate. This would be something that they would promote so the only cost to you is your time for the session. If they like you they may book you for the wedding. This can generate a lot of business.

2. Partner with a local business for advertising or to take place in local bridal shows/baby shows. Offer to donate the prize (usually required for registration) and offer to man the booth/buy lunch. Give them acknowledgment on your blog/website and even offer to give brochure to customers of yours for engagements. This is free advertising for them, you are covering the giveaway and they are going to the show anyways, so they incur the cost of the show.

3. Offer to do a photobooth at the local event. This won't cost you anything, yet you will get a lot of exposure. I did this for the local fire company. Gave them a disk of the pictures for the website, set up online ordering for the parents and included a $25 off session gift card.

4. Call the local paper or magazine and see if you can offer the "weekly giveaway". I would donate a free session. Possible exposure of thousands!!! Our magazine offers the readers a chance to in a product/service from the business of the month. I am awaiting a call back from the advertising director - keeping my fingers crossed:)

These are just a couple Ideas that can help you market your business....More to come

FREEBIE - This is courtesy of THE FREEBIE BLOGGER, one of my favorite freebie sites

Free Guide 10 innovative ways to use twitter for business

My Canvas People Free Canvas is here

Just got it yesterday and was sooooo excited. Great quality and they were super speedy too. No complaints here:)

Here is my favorite pic of my little man on canvas with my other prints. Fits in nice:)

Their site is http://www.canvaspeople.com/freegift  I did have to pay for shipping and framing.


Not sure if the offer is still good or not. Worth checking out

Canvas is the top right

Computer Stuff and FREEBIE - PLEASE READ to save you some future time and hassle

Hi, all. Finally got my computer back!!! It was infested with Malware according to Office Depot. One thing that they told me is to Lay Off the toolbars. Apparently they say that it casues spyware. They also told me to never let a subscription to your Anti virus lapse (I didn't but there was two installed on my computer - double the protection?  Nope actually they counteracted each other and canceled some protection out). If you let it lapse there are viruses in your computer now, but the antivirus quarantines them but they sometimes stick around. If you let the AV lapse for even a day you are suseptible to Virus attack. Just thought I would pass this along!!!

Also make back up or RECOVERY disks. If I would have lost pictures I would have been devastated. I transfer all of my pictures personal and proofs to an external hard drive and back up with a CD as soon as I pull them off or make edits. It frees up space (If you shoot in RAW the files are HUGE) and also if your system would crash, you have back up.

Luckily, just lost a few non-essential programs.... CS3 and lightroom were saved.

FREEBIE ALERT!!!!

Today only Snapfish is offering a bunch of freebies for new customers. 50 free prints with an upload, Free photo stickers, Free Coasters, etc. If you sign up today, they will credit these. They will give you an expiration when you use them. To get them you must sign up today, you can use them all at a different time.

A "NEW" Customer means new email address/login:)

http://www.snapfish.com/ is the address

Giveaways, Marketing, and Freebies OH MY!!!

Don't forget to sign up for your shot to win the Sharper Image Digital Photo Keyring!!!! Find the post from last week and follow the directions....

I was having an issue with my feedburner and just had to ping so check back - we have had a lot of great posts - Marketing, Money Saving Tips, giveaway, etc:)

Hope you all are having a great Monday:)

Saving Money Tip:)

I just signed up with a site called Coupon Carryout to be an affiliate... You can order coupons that you will use for that week. Right now I am ordering my pampers coupons for the little man. This is genius. I usually buy between 2 and 4 Sunday papers. I make back about 10 times that in saving so I see it as a good investment. However, a lot of the coupons go unclipped. Wasted the whole paper and because I am concerned about the environment that is really wasteful. So when visiting one of my favorite sights - Big Fat Piggy Bank I found this service. They clip the coupon and for a small fee (not selling - read the terms of conditions) for their time (8-20 cents per coupon) they will clip and ship just the items you want... Huge timesaver. I will still prob get my one paper and then match up sales. Items that are free or almost free I will order the coupons from this site so I can buy multiples and stock up. This past week there was a $2 off Pampers (certain kinds) TARGET coupon. I have a ton of Manufacturers $2 off Pampers coupons. Did you know that you can double up because of Target's coupon policy. If you have a MFG and a TARGET coupon, you can use both!!! That is $4 off per bag. If you can hit the $8.99 price, that is $4.99 per jumbo pack!!! I just learned this little tip and I have already used it to buy Hershey's Kisses (our favorite) I had a MFG coupon for $1 off two, a TARGET coupon for .50 off a bag, and a MFG coupon for buy 3 get one free so the math goes like this

$2.50 per bag on sale - bought 4
Take $1 for 2 MFG Coupon
Take $1 for 2 MFG Coupon (can use 2 because I am buying 4)
Take $.50 off

Then I gave my Buy 3 get 1 free and that took off $2.50

So I got 4 bags of Hershey Kisses for $5... That comes out to $1.25 per bag. I don't think I have ever seen them that cheap at any store...

Plus I got 2 free snuggle softeners at Walmart, 2 free Wet Ones Canisters (hand sanitizing wipes), Free Neutrogena for men face lotion, free Conair brushes, and free Olay Body Lotion (2) at Walgreens. This is all stuff we use. If it is for free I get it. I am getting together a package of freebies that I can't use to donate to the local shelter. We can't afford to give a lot this Xmas but I can do what I know best and shop:) and donate what we get for free to people who need it.  I am sooo addicted to the whole couponing thing, too.... I have a list of couponing and my favorite photography sites on the right. P.S. these sites I am not an affiliate just a big fan. I know on Dec 1 we need to start disclosing these things:)

I am now a affiliate of coupon carryout, so if you are interested, click below to check it out. If not, that is OK. When I find something I believe in i may decide to become an affiliate, however,the opinions are always my own. I will also never be an affiliate with a product that I haven't tried or don't believe in. I am here to provide a free service to you all and I am not here to make a quick buck. I will always disclose if i review or talk about something. So far, I think that this is the first one:) I have affiliate and free trial links on the side where you can see them. Even on your free trials, I will get credit (trust me - I think since I started I have made .25 , not even worth updating everyones banners) so the choice is always yours. Just wanted to put it all out there because I know some sites do not tell and that is dishonest....

Click here to check out Coupon Carryout

Freebie - Great magazine!!!

Hi, all! Here is the link to Rangefinder magazine. They have a free subscription for US residents. Rangefinder is a magazine for professional photographers and they have some great articles:)

Click here to get to the subscription page.

Coming Soon.... Download Freebies

Thought I would have had this done for this Friday, but reached a little snag. Someone is setting up a password protected area for me for my readers so that you can download some of the freebies I am working so hard on for you. Once that is up, I will have a sample press card, business card, and gift certificate to share with you all for your businesses.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend. Off today to search for some holiday props for my Xmas shoots.

Want to leave a freebie friday on this note:

Please check out this awesome site and click here... it is a little bit of digital scrapbooking, a little bit of photo editing. There is Free Tutorials, Backgrounds, Classes, Kits (that have awesome backgrounds for templates) I love the Strawberry Lemonade Kit!!!

Freebie Friday - Actions

My favorite part of learning photoshop was discovering the wonderful world of actions. When I did, I cut my post processing time in half! Actions are specific sequence of photoshop layers/commands, etc. that are automated. Lets say that your normal post process is to curves layer, soft light layer, reduce noise filter, then sharpen - you could create an action so that instead of doing those steps independantly, you can do them all at once saving time. Actions can also be used to create certain effects, like black and white, vignette, lomo, HDR, etc.

There are some phenomenal FREE actions out there. My ultimate favorite free action website is COFFEESHOP! Most will run both on Elements and CS, CS2, CS3, CS4.  Pioneer Woman has a great action set and great photography information. Click on the photography tab on the bottom of the screen and take a look around. While you are looking - Texas Chicks is also the site you want to check out. There are a couple free actions and they also have a subscription that you can join for future actions. (The subscription has a fee, but well worth it - they have some great stuff!!!) I found these other links as well:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/10/20/the-ultimate-collection-of-useful-photoshop-actions/

http://designm.ag/resources/photoshop-actions-touchups/


http://naldzgraphics.net/freebies/60-useful-photoshop-actions-to-enhance-your-photos-for-free/ Great Touchup actions

http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm this is the quick download page – no pictures

At first I was obsessed with downloading EVERY free action I could find. My action file was bogged down and it took me forever to find the one I wanted, actually making the process less efficient. I would forget which one was which! Then I started to sort through. I would download and keep the ones that I don't use on a regular basis in a file with others on my external hard drive, labeling with a description. Then I could just add as needed.

HANDY TIP: What I did was create a file where I actually had a picture I took with the action. My first photo was the Original and then I ran an action and that was file #2. I then went back to the original and ran another action this would be another file. I have an option to print with my document which allows me to print a contact sheet so I put the images all on one sheet and printed so I could quickly reference what action effect I was looking for.

Personally - I keep it simple - I have a photo retouching/eye pop (Coffeeshop glamour glow), I have a sharpen - MCP Crystal Clear, I have a black and white with optional vignette, I have a vintage, I have a color pop, and I have a resize for web/sharpen for web for my blog. These are the ones that I use 95% of the time when proofing for clients. Those I will keep handy in the Action folder in Photoshop. The rest I have stored away for a rainy day when I feel like playing:) I am sure when you ask different pro's, they will have different ways of doing it - this is how I like to stay organized and keep things simple - my new mantra.

The most important thing is to have fun and play around with the actions and see if you can fit them into your workflow. I will have a future Tutorial Tuesday article on Workflow and how to make your own actions so stay tuned!

FREEBIE FRIDAY - Textures/Patterns Part One

Hi, all..... here it is the first FREEBIE FRIDAY... I just wanted to say thank you for stopping in and visiting. I love making my own cards and storyboards! When I started out, I had $0 in my pocket so I began to search the vast internet for free textures and brushes to make this happen.

I found sooooo many generous people out there who have so kindly shared free textures and put them out there for all to use... I first found COFFEESHOP and I must say the site is awesome. She takes so much time to put out textures, storyboards, actions and so many other awesome resources for photographers. She also has tutorials on how to use the textures or make cards/storyboards. I found some really funky and fun textures on BEST DESIGN OPTIONS. I love love love the cherry blossom texture as you can tell from this blog. I also found some interesting patterns at Squidfingers. There is about 140 or so free ones to choose from - they have some neat damask-like patterns in there and some plaids too. I also LOVE Pixels and Icecream. I love the Mocha Damask and the Pretty in Pink patterns. If you are looking for more "organic" textures, the Texture Warehouse is definately for you. There are textures of stone, bark, brick, leaves, etc. Smash Apps showcases different artists who have created textures. There are really cool grunge and rust textures. So I gave you some great resources to get started. Start playing around and downloading the ones you love.

As always make sure that you have your Virus protection on and never download from a site you don't feel comfortable with. Also, please make sure to read each individual sites terms of condition, some will require you to give credit if you use for commercial. I always give credit, its the right thing to do.

So what do you do with all these textures? Check out this Tuesday for Tutorial Tuesday and we will check out some things you can do with these Freebies!