Book Review

This book has good basic information regarding setting up in wedding photography.  It starts with basic equipment that is required and has good clear images of things to avoid and how to photograph indoors against natural sunlight and stained glass windows and also how to get the best angle under these situations.

Roger writes about his own experience of weddings that he has covered and gives good tips on how to manage other difficult situations including lighting and weather.

Book Review

I found this ebook quite useful as a beginners guide to exploring and marketing photographs.
The book takes you through the basic stages of equipment, resolution required, types of images that sell and how to upload your photographs.  the book even provides a list of websites that have stock photos you can sell your photographs to.  Everything is covered in great details and it even gives you ideas on which keywords to use when uploading your photographs.

Memberships of Professional Bodies

There are various organisations offering membership to become registered with a professional body such as the SWPP in the photo below.

These sites are often used to search for different genre of photographers, located in different parts of the country.  There are also training opportunities and chance to attend seminars or shows.

Some organisations even hold regular competitions, this will help raise your profile as a photographer.

SWOT - Personal Development Plan

SWOT Analysis helps a person realise where they are and how they can progress from here, but I think it's about being honest with yourself and identifying your own strengths and weaknesses.


Strengths 
confident
practical
good communication
good contacts and networks
good cultural background
speak few languages

Weaknesses
time management
prioritise work over photography
need to develop better camera skills and gain more experience

Opportunities
business opportunities available
partnership opportunities available
marketing and promotional tools available


Threats
other people in the business
cheaper business by unqualified photographers

Asiana magazine - research

Asiana magazine is the top Asian Bridal Magazine in the UK, selling thousands of copies.  Asiana magazine is available at most Asian shops but also available in WHSmith across the UK.  Asiana magazine contains the latest styles with shops advertising Asian fashion and Asian wedding outfits as well an Asian Wedding Directory with adverts from photographers to hall and equipment hire and catering.  Having looked through the magazine it seems that the majority of the adverts are placed by people based around the London area and I didn't find any for the North East of England.

Asiana has also expanded their services as as you can see from the photographs below they now offer a web design service starting at a thousand pounds.

Methods of Communication and advertising

Social media is being used more and more as a means of promotion and communication as it reaches a much wider audience worldwide.

Blogs - Becoming more and more popular with photographers and people linked to the photography industry to showcase their work.

Websites - Individual websites I believe are a must to showcase your work and talent and makes you look more professional rather than just telling people the type of work that you do and giving out business cards, which seems to be a thing of the past.

TV. Satellite Channels - are an excellent way to promote your services as audience is worldwide and reaches millions of people without them having to search for you.  This is a more expensive way of marketing and promotion, however, it has become increasingly popular and Asian channels such as B4U and Star Plus now feature many makeup artists and wedding services from the UK.

Facebook - Most photographers are now on Facebook with many followers, this is good to showcase work, however, in my own experience Asian Photographers tend to share other posts and comment on general articles more rather than focus on advertising their photography.

Twitter - Good for keeping people updated and informing them of your services, but again people would need to search for you and follow you to have access to your updates.

Email - More personal and  selective as I find that this would be a much slower process of marketing and networking as it takes time to build contacts and establish relationships with people.

Networking - I found that the ideal way to establish good networking links for Asian Wedding Photography is to attend an Asian Wedding Exhibition.  There are many Asian Wedding Exhibitions around the country with the more popular ones being held in London, Birmingham and Bradford.  I attended one at Birmingham and found that there were people from different parts of the UK including Bradford and Newcastle there to showcase their work and approach  potential customers.  Wedding Exhibitions include:  Stages, Henna Artists, Makeup Artists, Cinematographers, Photographers, DJ's and Dhol Players.

Costing and Selling Work - internet prices

Below are samples of price lists from various photographers across the UK, unfortunately the majority of Asian photographers do not have a price list on their website.

Both Shahed and Flash Shots do have their own websites that display their photography work but unfortunately don't display any prices.

http://www.sharontruemanphotography.co.uk/PRICELIST.aspx

http://www.shaanphotography.com/packages.html

http://www.kayahphotography.co.uk/prices.html

http://sromel.com

http://www.ovoma.com/?gclid=CJiF4IaF7b0CFefMtAod8mUArg

http://www.shotbyshahed.com/site/#/page/a945/documentary-wedding-photography-in-newcastle-by-asian-wedding-photographer-shahed/

http://www.flashshots.co.uk