And if you are still thinking about if all this social media stuff like Facebook and Twitter is worth it, read this amazing story of Keith how Twitter let him connect with people he didn’t know in Guatemala and how they became friends.

So, my recommendation for 2010: Get you a Twitter account and follow Keith Ferrazzi @keithferrazzi

Have a great 2010!

Blog: www.joemcnally.com/blog
Videos: Joe McNally on YouTube
Website: www.joemcnally.com
Book: The Moment It Clicks

Worth to have a look at!

Now that I finished reading Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi (it’s really great!), I started to read another famous book: Love Is The Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders.

That’s what it is about. Another great book about business, networking and marketing. And how to become a person that will have a deep impact on other people’s life. It was recommended to me by several US photographers and because I’ve already read The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams by Tim Sanders it was no question that I will buy this book too.

In short: Tim Sanders believes love is the crucial element in the search for personal and professional success. His definition of love business is: the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles with your bizpartners. While our intangibles are our knowledge, our network and our compassion. Tim Sanders believes that these are the keys to true bizlove.

Read it and you will understand how right he is!

If you are interested to explore more go to stalk Tim Sanders’ blog about business, culture and spirit: Sanders Says

Also watch Tim Sanders’ videos on YouTube. I especially like The XBox Story he uses to illustrate the power of compassion. Watch it here:

Quite some homework to do… I nearly finished reading Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi (see this post). It’s great, I only can recommend it again!

Recently I noticed how important it is to read books. Not just novels for entertainment (currently I’m reading Harry Potter before falling asleep :) but also books about running a business. You can learn so much by reading a good book. A lot of great authors share their knowledge, their wisdom with you. Knowledge they elaborated over years and years of work. Profit from them! And start sharing too! (remember my post about sharing? **CLICK HERE** or for another post about the importance of sharing **CLICK HERE**)

If you run your own business you will notice how important networking is. Keith Ferrazzi is like the guru in this field. He teaches you that networking doesn’t just mean exchange of business cards. But more importantly networking means connecting with people, making new friends and keep the connection with people you already know alive. Connect with people, share things with them and care about them. Truly. It is a skill you can learn. And you should do so.

I’m just reading Keith Ferrazzi’s famous book Never Eat Alone. I recommend this book, it will open your eyes. Especially if you always refused networking because you thought it’s a bad habit to use connections. It’s not. It’s vital.

Check also Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone Blog if you are interested in some more information about networking and how it can help you to grow your business.

The book is also available in German: Geh nie alleine essen!

So let’s dive into the subject. Why does it need post production and what is it? Compare the two pictures below. The difference is called post production :)

This is the untouched photo straight out of the camera:

It’s a nice, acceptable shot. Exposure, focus and colors are OK. But not more. That’s what you get (or maybe less) if you hire just the cheapest photographer to cover your wedding or another high end event. Often they work the “shoot to burn” style: shoot the wedding and just burn the photos right from camera to a CD and hand them over to the couple, without any post production or retouching. It’s obvious why “shoot to burn” photographers can offer their services for a very low price. They don’t need expensive tools, not years of learning and acquire skills, no time at all after the wedding for finishing the pictures and no backup strategies. The photos are ready to deliver to the client at the moment they are shot. That’s where their workflow ends.

And that’s where the workflow starts for the “other” photographers.

This is what the picture looks like after some work in Photoshop, called “post production” (click to view it big):

The image has been lightened, converted to black & white, added some sepia toning and the texture of an old paper to give it the taste of an old photo. To make the picture something unique and special.

[Working with "textures" like this is very modern at the moment in photography, check out the website of the master of FineArtTextures, Jesh de Rox!]

In the previous post (open the link in a new window to compare the pictures “side by side”) I used the same photo to announce the slideshow of Sibylle & Jan. The picture is in color but nevertheless did get some post production: lighten, color correction, contrast bump, a little vignette and sharpening.

Post production needs time, knowhow and sometimes special tools and software. That’s what you pay the photographer for. Not just for showing up with his fancy camera for 10 hours at your wedding. Also cheap photographers can afford an expensive camera. That’s not what makes the difference. It’s the photographer’s eye and creativity, his knowhow and professionalism and what the final result looks like. After post production (And that’s also the reason why photographers are not payed for the amount of hours they are “on location”).

If you’re fine just getting average (or below) images of your wedding, go ahead to hire the cheapest photographer you can grab. But don’t expect wonders and don’t be disappointed afterwards.

If your main concern is the quality of your wedding images and the album, examine the photographers’ work well and ask them the right questions before you sign the contract.

Every couple should choose the photographer that fits its needs, style and budget. And it feels comfortable with. It’s OK to hire a “shoot to burn” photographer. If you know the difference and are aware of the limitations this might bring. But don’t expect wonders. As everywhere else in business, what you pay is what you get! The choice is up to you.

Enjoy your wedding day! It will be an unforgettable moment in your life. Hopefully you picked a good photographer and will enjoy his work for a lifetime.

(If you are more interested in the photography business read John Harrington’s great book Best Business Practices for Photographers or his blog Photo Business News & Forum.)

If you’re interested in lighting and portrait photography you should check out this book by celebrity photographer Michael Grecco: Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait He’s telling all he’s secrets, philosophy behind his lighting and includes even drawings of the location setup showing the position of camera and strobes, grids he used etc. Highly recommended!

Paul Arden arbeitete viele Jahre in der Werbe-Branche und man könnte den Titel des Buches auch missverstehen (der englische Titel ist präziser: “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be”). In dem Buch geht es um Erfolg und Strategien zur Selbstvermarktung. Es geht darum, dass man das, was man sich vorstellt, als sein Ziel definiert, auch erreichen kann und wird. Im Vorwort schreibt Paul Arden: “Nur wenige reiche und mächtige Menschen sind besonders begabt, gebildet, charmant oder gut aussehend – Sie sind reich und mächtig, weil sie reich und mächtig sein wollen. [...] Zu wissen, wo oder wer du sein willst, ist die wichtigste Voraussetzung für Deinen Erfolg. Wer kein Ziel hat, wird kaum etwas erreichen.”

Ähnliches hat Gary Fong wiederholt in seinem Blog beschrieben: In all seinen Unternehmungen oder Projekten hat er nie an seinem Erfolg gezweifelt. Er hat sich das positive Resultat, den Erfolg immer derart stark verinnerlicht und visualisiert, dass es schon fast real war. Und schliesslich auch tatsächlich Wirklichkeit geworden ist.

Das Buch ist kurzweilig und nicht nur für Werber interessant. Es enthält auch viele allgemein gültige Weisheiten von Paul Arden und Zitate von Beckett, über Konfuzius bis zu Churchill. Lesenswert!

Und der Blog von Gary Fong ist einerseits für Fotografen interessant, enthält aber immer wieder Wissenswertes zum Thema Business und Erfolg. Oder einfach nur Quatsch :) Gehört zu meiner täglichen Blog-Kost.

Not only David Jay or Gary Fong are talking about how sharing helped them to help others and improved their own business at the same time and even the whole industry. If you read the book “It’s Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be” by Paul Arden, you will find the same ideas. He writes: ” If you tell/share what you know, you will get even more back.”

It’s a short book that is easy and fun to read. Enjoy!

Gary’s blog is not just interesting for photographers. He also talks a lot about business and success. Or just about his daily life. One of the blogs I read daily.