Unveiling my Website

For a long time now I have been wanting to build a website. I've been building my portfolio and showing it all on my Facebook page and on here, my blog, but my lack of web design skills held me off building one. More and more lately I had been thinking about doing it, to try to be taken even more seriously about doing what I love and to be able to market myself. It wasn't until I was watching an Epic meal time video (of all things) that I finally got pushed over the edge. They were advertising 30% off Squarespace fees. I had used Squarespace before at one of my other jobs and had mastered how to do that so I took up a free trial to begin with and with the help of my lovely (geeky) boyfriend I've now got it all up and running. I'm sure that I will be making little tweaks here and there along the way but I'm thinking it looks pretty good.

So heres where you come in! Submit a photo of something that makes you EPIC-ly happy! I'm thinking that laughing face of your child, your favorite beach or park to visit, or even just a photo of a time that is now a great memory. You can submit either by posting it to my facebook page or by emailing it to me at erin@erinwoodgatephotography.com. I will put all the photos into a folder on my facebook page called 'The Epic Competition' (I've put a photo in there of a happy memory) and the person whose photo has the highest amount of 'likes' wins a free photoshoot of your choice either for yourself or to use as a gift certificate for someone else. I realize that my 'fans' are everywhere from here in London to across the country in Halifax to all the way at home on the Central Coast and as I'm going to be in all 3 of these places within the next 3 months it will be possible for everyone to enter!

So go on, have a look at my new website, then look through your photo albums and submit a photo that makes you Epic-ly happy, then share my page with your friends to get more likes on your photo and have some fun in the process! As an extra bonus, everyone who enters get $25 off their first photo session!

I'll be drawing the winner in 10 days or when my page hits 350 likes, whatever comes first :)

Etsy Photography Trade

So I'm not the best Etsy-ier. I have to admit it, I got really excited at around Christmas and decided I would put up a bunch of prints to sell and make some earrings, I loved taking the photos of the earrings but after only one sale I kind of gave up, I didn't keep posting new things and my shop slowly dwindled away. I was at a party last week and I was talking to someone about photography and Etsy, and suggested that I contact some Etsy sellers to see if they were interested in doing a trade.

I honestly couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner! Image is everything on Etsy! And were always told that to have professional images of your Etsy products will boost your sales, that products will sell better when they are shown being used and photographed by a professional.

So Etsy sellers, or any other designers for that matter, what I would like to do is offer photography services of a range of your products in exchange to add a couple of your products to my prop collection. Its a win win situation for both parties. I will photograph at least 5 images of each item.

This can be for anything, think outside the box, everything from newborn hats to Jewelry for adults, clothing for children, cool home goods I can use as props or for stylized shoots, etc. If you are interested, all you need to do is send me the link to your shop (or if you are not open yet, tell me about it and what you are selling) in an email to erinwoodgatesphotography@hotmail.com

Pack your bags!

Today I spent a bit of time packing up my bags for Tina and Alberts wedding tomorrow, and I thought I might share what I throw in my wedding bag to make the day go that little bit smoother.

First there is the obvious, back up cards and cameras, all the lighting equipment and Lenses you need. That one is kind of a given.

Loads of extra batteries

Don't leave the house without anything you wouldn't normally leave the house without, my regular checklist is wallet, mobile, camera, keys, sunnies- yes, even in winter.. I have sensitive eyes ;P

Energy bars

Not so much for this early in Spring but during summer I would pack a change of shirt, deodorant and sunscreen because carrying all that gear while running around getting all the shots you need is hot work!

Fun for the guests, props for photo booth style photos

All the other stuff- lens cloths, bobby pins, paper(for writing on and for possible missing pocket squares), headache tablets, band aids, tampons, cotton buds (Q-tips) business cards, Burt's bees lip balm, clothes hanger (for hanging the gown on for photos at the beginning), small scissors, safety pins, hotel sized sewing kit, contact numbers, portrait shoot list, sharpie, pen. With this little swag you never know who's life you'll be saving!

New work Wednesdays

I'll take this blog post to 1. Show you some photos I took not too long ago of a lovely model Aurora who froze her butt off in the -15 degree weather to get some lovely winter wonderland photos and 2. Announce a new 'Spokesmodel' search to get my High school senior portrait photography sessions off to a flying start.

Last year I went to a seminar put on by Atlantic Photo Supply which had a speaker talking about running a photography business and he was mainly a 'Senior' photographer. Where I'm from graduating isn't such a big deal, we don't even do the cap and gown photos but I do think it is an important thing to document so listening to him speak about how he would capture each child in a family growing up and graduating really resonated with me and my love of capturing life- like my last post.

So here it is, the Erin Woodgate's Photography Senior search!

Looking for creative and outgoing high school seniors for a great opportunity to document this special time of your life!

Everyone is unique and has different likes and dislikes. Would you like to do something other than the standard cap and gown photos for your senior year?

Let's celebrate who you are and capture something unique and you!

Erin Woodgate's Photography is now searching for 5 special seniors, one from each high school in the London (Ontario) area to be spokesmodels and here's the exciting part- you get your session absolutely free!

Here's what you get-

- You get a FREE High School senior photo session

- Online Facebook gallery to share with friends and family

- 10 retouched digital images from your session on disc

To get more images from your session on disc here's what you do-

I will give you some of my business cards with your name and a special offer for your friends and family on it for you to share.

- Each person who hands in your card when they have a session gets you 5 more images on your disc.

- 5 images for every 20 friends or family who "like" my Facebook page- Erin Woodgate's Photography (They must send your name in a message to keep track)

You and a parent MUST sign a Release Form if you are under 18.
All Spokesmodels will be featured on Facebook, my blog, and marketing materials.

If you would like to be a spokesmodel for Erin Woodgate's Photography, please send me a photo of yourself and a short note telling me why you'd like to be a senior spokesmodel. Applications must include your full name, phone number, email address,which school you're attending and what grade you are in.

Applications are due by May 1, 2011.

Please email applications to erinwoodgatesphotography@hotmail.com

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!


New Work Wednesdays

After working for a year and a half at a family portrait studio at home and working at a similar studio since I've been in London it is hard to imagine the amount of living rooms that photos I've taken will be hanging in for years to come. The thing is though, because I have been working for companies they own the copyright to all of the images I've taken so I don't get to show the amazing photos like a little girls first steps, or how amazing it is to take maternity shots of a very pregnant soon to be mother and then the very next week taking photos of the newest member to the family.

I decided recently that I needed to have some of this for my portfolio and so I started doing sessions for free for people who would not otherwise have got photography of their baby bump or bundle of joy. Why free when I know on average even at the studios I've worked for the average family would spend over $300 on photographs I've taken? Because I feel that if I don't have anything in my portfolio to show people they wont be able to visualize what I will be able to take for them, so therefore don't know what it's worth. Also I'd rather do it free than setting a really low price for my building portfolio sessions and limit myself to that for in the future.

When I first spoke to Amanda she was41 weeks pregnant with her second child and so I knew we had no time to loose. My next available day I went around and started my first on Location maternity shoot. She said she felt a lot more at ease doing the photos at her own house compared to at a studio and It was great because if I got an idea for a photo, like with the sonogram photo we could easily access whatever it was that we needed.

Missing pieces..

Before Christmas I got obsessed with Etsy. I bought most of my Christmas presents on there and even opened up a store to sell my photography in. I haven't really been too active with it to tell you the truth and that is probably why I haven't sold anything yet but when I saw that some people were putting together a shop to help the people effected by the Queensland floods I had to submit something. I had been working on making Jigsaw jewellery for a little while, mainly for myself but when I saw this I thought it would be perfect as it would be nice and light to send anywhere in the world and I already had it made.

Unfortunately the shop will be closed Thursday night Australian eastern standard time so if you would like to help out a worthwhile cause and get something unique for your trouble then head on over to the Etsy flood relief appeal site!

Click on the picture below to go to my entry.

Memory Mondays Week 2

Just before I left Halifax I decided that I would try my hand at asking locally owned and run businesses if they needed any product shots. This got me onto the Halifax farmers market website and then onto photographing Rawthentic Chocolate. I loved the idea of being able to tell the story of that I was paid in Chocolate so I went along and took a bunch of product shots (below) of their beautifully crafted chocolate. Unfortunately I forgot to get the chocolate out of the fridge in the rush to leave to go to the airport for leaving for Europe and I never got to eat any of it which still annoys me to this day!

Tis' the season to be online shopping..

Right about now is when the stores start to have that buzz about the air of people making their lists, but people who like to shop online have already done this and are in the final stages of checking it twice.

In previous years I haven't really done any Christmas shopping online, I've always turned to ebay for cheap scrapbooking supplies and random electronics and this year I've discovered Etsy at it's fullest so for as many gifts as possible this year i've decided to support people just like me on Etsy and i'm starting to get sorted now as i'll be going to England on the 17th of December to be with my family there for Christmas so need to be done that little bit early.

I opened a shop on Etsy around a week ago now and I know things take time so I'm not disappointed that I haven't sold any of my photography yet, and continue to get inspired by other artists on there and my brain is ticking over trying to come up with different ways to diversify my photographic products.

The thing I love most, and spend an absorbitant number of hours doing, is searching random tags and favoriting a huge array of gorgeous items, some that I have actually bought, including a Barbie camera ring and whenever I have been buying gifts i've usually bought more than one thing from the seller to save on postage.

Some of the items I have favorited though I know that i can either not afford, would like to attempt to make myself or change in some way or put into 'Treasury' lists. Check out the two I've made so far- Cameras and Cupcakes and Away for the Holidays.

A cupcake camera strap, could anything be more perfect?