A grant

This is kind of late in the game, but we want to try for a chance to get a $250,000 small business grant!

We are planning on expanding and have a great idea the no other photographers in our area are doing and this could really help!

But we need at least 250 votes at missionsmallbusiness.com. Please type Tess Moody Photography and vote for us. Thanks!!!

Photo Nuts and Post ebook-It's a contest!

I've been heavily promoting this awesome new book, Photo Nuts and Post. If you've been thinking about getting this, I've got a great incentive for you to buy it!

Pick up a copy of Photo Nuts and Post before midnight (US Eastern time) 21 February and you’ll go in the draw to win one of the following great prizes to help you improve your photography:

-a Canon 60D DSLR with 18-135mm lens – worth $1180 USD

-a 21.5 inch Apple iMac (2.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 with 500GB Hard Drive) – worth $1199 USD

-Adobe Photoshop CS5 and a 16GB Wifi iPad 2 – worth $1200 USD

The winner will be chosen at random from those who purchase Photo Nuts and Post and will be given the choice of one of the above 3 prizes. This competition is open to buyers in any part of the world – we’ll ship the prize to you at no cost.

This competition is for a limited time only, so go now!! ;)

Photography Concentrate-Giveaway!

{UPDATE: WINNER IS Mercedes!}

I love it when I come across such friendly businesses. I started this site so we (photographers) could help each other with anything photography-also because I love anything to do with photography!

I often ask businesses if they would like to share their products/knowledge with my readers. I do get the occassional snub, but most are kind. When I heard back from Laura and Rob Lim of Photography Concentrate, I could actually feel the love through their email. ;)

They have been very generous in letting me test out all three of their products-AND they want one lucky winner to win their choice of the following...

Now, I want to let you know about each of these fabulous photography tools, but I would like to start out and let you know a little bit about the fabulous photographers behind it all.

I stumbled upon an article about WHY they teach other photographers. I wanted to share with you a couple of paragraphs in their words as to why they teach.

"What we found, after years of self-teaching, was that the number of high quality and affordable resources out there for photographers was a lot smaller than we would have imagined. Sure, there are countless forums, blogs, and articles that you can find for free. But many of them offer differing opinions and ideas (though all too often they don’t see them as opinions, but rather as fact! That makes it even more difficult for a new photographer to understand what to do!). They also take a lot of time to go through, compile information, and try to process it in a way that works for the individual. It’s not easy or fun, and often it’s just downright overwhelming! I fear that a lot of people likely give up, simply because the task of finding and digesting high quality information is just too difficult.

Furthermore, many resources are currently being offered for very high price tags. Often upwards of hundreds of dollars (thousands if we’re talking about workshops). While there’s no way for us to decide whether those are worth it, we do know that they are far outside the reach of many photographers. Photographers on average aren’t rich people. They often have budgets just like anyone else, and many are left unable to purchase the tutorial they’d like, or going into credit card debt to attend the workshop they think will solve their problems. We were deeply unhappy with that approach. We strongly believe that teaching should be to help others, not yourself. With that in mind, we made a commitment to offer our education at prices that anyone could afford, including students."

I was happy to find out that they have the same mind set as I do when it comes to what "educators" charge. I don't agree that books and workshops should be so expensive. Your average new photographer doesn't have 1000's to spend. Thanks, guys!!

Now, with that, I want to get on to their products. The first product I want to let you know about is one I'm excited about!

Extremely Essential Camera Skills



Learning about your camera and how it works-in just 3 hours!

I'm not sure about you, but when I first got my camera, I skimmed through the manual briefly, just to find out how to turn it on. lol. I really wished I had this tutorial when I was first starting out. Even if you've had your camera for awhile, you might want to take the time and actually learn about your camera and how to take better photos.

I'm not one to just sit down and read a how-to book. I love how Rob and Lauren split up your learning experience with videos and exercises to keep things interesting. This is a great idea for those who like hands on.

Super Photo Editing Skills



For anyone wanting to learn how to edit faster in Lightroom 3, this is a great product to get. This has tons of awesome stuff included:
Quickstart Videos- 3 hrs!
Advanced Videos
Bonus Videos
Photo Editing Field Guide
Editing Style Field Guide
Super Color Presets-23
Super B& W Presets-27
Essential Lightroom Shortcuts Cheatsheet
Example Files

Awesome Album Design Skills



If you want to learn how to design a great album in Adobe InDesign CS5, these video tutorials are for you!

Do you wish any/all of the following?

More profits from an easy-to-create custom product?
More free time to spend away from the computer and with real people?
Clients that fall in love with your albums, and absolutely, positively have to have one?
The skills to create your own album templates for any size you’d like?
Mega fun designing, and confidence in your skills?

Don't we all??

I love designing albums, but I would still love to be able to get done faster. I welcome any help-I can't afford to hire someone, nor do I want to cut into profits. I would love to be able to design my own templates to create beautiful pages. If you offer albums, then you need to check this out!

Okay, so now that you heard about how terrific the creators of these products are and just how awesome these products are, you know you want to try to win one!

Win it.

Required:
Just leave a comment stating which product you want.

If you love this community (and for extra entry):

Follow me and leave another comment.

Tweet about it and leave another comment.

Post about it, leave link and another 2 comments.

Giveaway ends 2/6/12

If you don't want to wait, you can order through this link (and help keep this site running!).

A cool contest

With all the templates out there for photographers, it would be nice to be able to create a one-of-a-kind album pages. I've never really gotten into scrapbooking, but I think I found a software that might help for wedding, baby and senior books.

I really like My Memories scrapbook software because it gives me all the help I need to create really neat layouts.
The program is easy to download and set up. I had it all installed within 20 minutes. Learning the software itself takes a bit of time because there is so much you can do with it.

My wedding albums are set up as a storybook style. My senior albums are urban style. I think I can do wonders with this!

.

Would you like to win a free copy for yourself?? Okay! One lucky reader will win a copy for themselves!

I got another surprise! Everyone gets a prize! My Memories is giving $10 off to all readers- Just use the coupon code: STMMMS54461

WOO HOO!!

In the meantime...

Here are the RULES to win: (You need leave a separate comment for each entry.)
1. Be a Pro-tography 101 with Google Friend Connect (on the sidebar) and leave a comment at the bottom of this post telling me that you're a follower. (This is the only mandatory entry.)
2. Be a Pro-tography 101 Facebook fan and leave a comment at the bottom of this post telling me that you're a fan.
3. Be a Pro-tography 101 Twitter follower and leave a comment at the bottom of this post telling me that you're a follower.
4. Visit My Memories and come back here and leave a comment telling me which pack or layout you like best.

Good luck!
The Winner will be announced on Monday, December 19th.

Of course you can use it for photo albums too. You can make greeting cards and even videos and much more, plus the representative tells me they are always looking for designers so you could even create kits to sell on their site. That's a boon in this crazy economy.They have plenty of free pages and kits available on their site too. And the software comes preloaded with lots of templates, papers, textures, embellishments, etc., etc., etc. You could do so much without even buying a single item. There's plenty in their preloaded library, and plenty more online both free and for purchase. There's even a dollar store section.

Featured Vendor: Shutter Buddies-Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed!

Winner is:

Breanne

Our Featured Vendor today is Leora from

Shutter Buddies

She makes awesome lens accessories to help make kids smile while taking their photo. She is also giving away a Shutter Buddies (the Sun Buddy) to one lucky reader! Details after interview.

Tell us about yourself!


My name is Leora. I am proud Army wife and we have three kids. Two girls, one boy. We're pretty lucky since we were told at one point we probably wouldn't be able to have any. I enjoy making my products to keep me busy since the Army keeps my husband pretty busy. I also love reading, eating good food, college football and The Office. :) www.etsy.com/shop/shutterbuddies

What type of product do you offer to photographers?

I offer Shutter Buddies and photo props. My Shutter Buddies are the most popular of all the items in my shop. They are all handmade and all include a squeaker as an extra attention getter. Kids just think they are fascinating and then once they squeak, the kids think the Buddies are hilarious. They are fantastic to get kids to look at the camera and smile.

What made you want to start this kind of business?

I am very interested in photography, but honestly and truly don't have "the eye" for it. Nor do I have the talent like most photographers do. I wish I did. So, since I love business and I like to create, I came up with the Shutter Buddies. If I can't take good photographs, why not help those who can? :) Not only that, but nothing pleases me more than hearing from my customers how much they love my Buddies.

Are you a photographer as well, or at least a photo-taking junkie?

Like I said before, I don't have "the eye" for photography. But, I do consider myself a photo-taking junkie so my husband can see pictures of our kids while the Army takes him away from us.


Do you have a favorite photographer that you drool over their photos?

Oh man, I love so many. I love browsing all photography blogs and Facebook pages just to see people's work.

What do you do like to do when you aren't running your business?

Play with my kids, read, spend time with husband, cook, shop at Ross, mow my lawn (seriously) and just be with my little family.

Any advice to someone wanting to start a business?

Make sure it makes you happy. Working while you're unhappy isn't worth it.

Win it.

Required entries:

Like Shutter Buddies http://www.facebook.com/shutterbuddiespage and Pro-tography on Facebook.

Leave a comment on here letting me know your favorite Shutter Buddy.

Extra entries:

Follow Pro-tography on Google Friends

Twitter about contest.

(leave separate comment for each extra entry)

Contest ends:

Aug 22nd

Featured Vendor AND contest!

Giveaway has ended:

Winner:

Lara

The Gowder Family

If you are looking for some new props for your newborn/children shoots, check out our Featured Vendor Sonia McCutcheon of

Milk Money

(cute name!)

AND...
She's giving something away!

Tell us about yourself, Sonia!

Hi! I am Sonia McCutcheon the fiber addicted owner of milkmoney http://soniamccutcheon.etsy.com/ I taught myself to knit about ten years ago, I needed a stress relief from my insanely paced job as a production coordinator for a media company. I had no idea that I would become so impassioned for all things fiber! Since launching milkmoney almost three years ago, I have also taught myself to spin yarn.

I absolutely LOVE THAT TOO! My wonderfully supportive husband bought me drop spindle about four years ago and my fabulous mother in law bought me a spinning wheel for Christmas about a year and a half ago. I love getting lost in the process of spinning yarn and love everything about making my own yarn. I am hoping to add a line of products to my shop that are made from wools that were spun and knitted by me. My latest adventure is learning to dye my own fiber. I am currently experimenting using natural and food grade dyes to color my wools. It is important for me to use something safe since my products are used on children.

What type of product do you offer to photographers?

milkmoney has a wonderful selection of hats, wraps, knitted bowls and am currently in the final stages of launching a line of tutu's and knitted cocoons

What made you want to start this kind of business?

milkmoney was launched at my sister's urging. I had inundated my family and extended family in hats and scarves. Living in the south there obviously isn't that great a need for these items so, in an effort save herself and others she suggested I check out Etsy and seriously consider opening a shop. I did, and haven't looked back. It is fulfilling and humbling to know that items made in my studio, with my two hands are being used by photographers and moms in places as far away as Vietnam and all over the United States, wow!

Are you a photographer as well, or at least a photo-taking junkie?

I am not a photographer but rather a great fan of photographers work. I am the mom that shows up at birthday parties and forgot the camera, thankfully my husband brings his! I love looking at Flickr and seeing the talented work posted there.

Do you have a favorite photographer that you drool over their photos?

I have to say that I adore all things creative. I love and appreciate how two people can look at the same item and not see the same thing. I have a close working relationship with Lisa Slate the owner of Lisa Slate Photography. She approached me when I first started out on etsy and has provided me with the most adorable photos to use in my shop but more importantly honest feedback on how my items work and fit. The feedback that I get from her allows me to make my items adorable but functional.
What do you do like to do when you aren't running your business?

When I am not running milkmoney...I have been married to the most wonderful and supportive husband. We have two children, my son is five and my daughter is four. I stay mostly at home, but do teach at my children's preschool, it's great for us to leave and come home together. My little one's play soccer, they love to do art and we spend a great part of our day covered in paint of some sort and/or markers, playdoh. We love to sing and dance and play outside. We read and have been known to jump on the bed.

Any advice to someone wanting to start a business?

Follow your dream, don't be afraid to take chances! Ask for advice and be willing to listen, sometimes we hear things we don't like but feedback isn't personal. The world is what you make of it!

Win it!

Would you like to win a product of YOUR CHOICE?

That's right!

Sonia wants one lucky reader to win one of her wonderful products!

How to enter:

Required.

-Leave a comment stating your favorite product from her store.

-Like milk money.

Three Extra Entries:

(leave three more comments)

Add my blog to your favorite blog list.

While you are waiting to see if you win, she is also offering a 15% discount to her shop!

Use PROTOGRAPHY101 for discount.

Thanks, Sonia!

Contest ends:

May 12th.

Winner Announced!

I'm so sorry about the delay of the announcement of our huge contest!

I meant to do it yesterday, but I had a wedding from hell on Saturday (more about that later) and just was so behind in getting things done.

But, enough of that!

The winner that I chose randomly is:

Kara Janelle!!

Congrats, Kara!

If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be announced.

Thank you to all who entered!

Please come back for more contests-I like contests! ;)

Ultimate Photography Giveaway!

UPDATE:

You can find out who won here:

Winner

It's finally here! To celebrate the success so far of Pro-tography 1o1, I would like to give back to my readers by hosting an AWESOME giveaway!

One lucky winner will receive 12 photography related prizes!

Boy, do I wish I could enter!

These prizes are to help a photographer to grow their business, but even if you are just a photo-taking junkie-you need to enter!

Here are the 12 prizes:

1.)$40 gift certificate to Art-is. I love these products!

2.) Tour of Europe Collection (Includes both "Italy & Ireland" and "France".) ($60 value) from Chasing Dreams Photography. Turn your photos into Art!

3.) Odessa’s Chic BabyBand AND a $50.00 gift certificate from Chic Bebe. Oh yeah!

4.) Newborn posing guide ($65 value) from McCarthy Photography. I want a Newborn Posing guide so bad!

5.) Camera Love Necklace ($24 value) from Pamela Topping . Don't you love it?

6.) A flour sack hat (Labyrinth's color choice) from Little Labyrinth . You can never have enough baby hats!

7.) Bokeh Masters Kit from DIYPhotography.net. I've never seen this before!

8.) Home Studio Photography ebook from DIYPhotography.net . A great book to have!

9.) $10 gift certificate from Jaybird Designs. She is a wonderful and talented lady!

10.) A 8.5 x 11 classic photo book from Mixbook.com. I have used them personally.

11.) A product of winner's choice from Totally Rad. Great actions!

12.) Consultation Giveaway- winner's choice of email/phone/post processing from Andrea Halsey Photography. You need to learn from this photographer!

A special treat for ALL readers: free shipping at Cricket Creations (mention Pro-tography 101 in the Message to Shop at checkout).

How To Enter:

The Ultimate Photographer Tools Giveaway starts today, April 13th and ends on April 30th at midnight Central time. The winner will be announced May 1st. The winner must claim their prize package within 24 hours, or a new winner will be selected. So, be sure to keep your eye on this giveaway!

Rules:

Vendors may not enter to win.

If you don't follow required entry rules, you will be deleted.

Us Residents only.

REQUIRED ENTRY:

-Follow me-leave a comment letting me know and to be entered in random drawing.

Extra entry:

-Tweet about it and leave link in comment.

Two extra entries:

-Visit vendor’s Facebook Pages, like their page and leave a comment on their wall-only two comments total for likes:

Jaybird Designs

Totally Rad Facebook

Pamela Topping

Mixbook

Andrea Hasley

DIYPhotography

Little Labyirnth

McCarthy Photography

Chasing Dreams

Art-is

Chic Bebe

Good luck!

What's in store for you

First of all, I wanted to say thanks to all my readers for visiting my blog and I hope that you will continue to visit-I have big plans for the future! To help celebrate this launch, I am hosting a huge giveaway tomorrow!! I have some great sponsors with great products to give and a special for EVERYONE that enters! So, please stop by tomorrow and enter-you won't be sorry!

On another note: I have been in business for over three years now and the colors that I chose for my brand were red, black and white. I basically kept my logo the same as well.

Here is my logo:

I've been fine with it, but lately, I've been itching for a change. I know we've been told to keep your branding the way it is so people will identify with it but I REALLY want a change. So, I think I want to take the risk and redo my business look. I'm thinking about hot pink and black. I think it stands out and is bold. So, I'll be designing some logos and see what you think!

I also am starting a weekly photo assignment this weekend with a weekly prize.

So, please check back for all the fun!