It’s not a matter of if, but when. There is never a good time for your hard drive to fail, especially your primary drive that you store all your weddings on.

That’s what happened to me last week, and I didn’t lose one image.

A back up system is a must when you are a wedding photographer. The images you create can never be recreated. I truly feel the images I create are worth so much more than I charge for them. So it is very important to have a rock solid backup plan.

I’d like to share with you the structure of my back up system before the crash, and how I have now changed my system after the crash.

First, we’re going to refer to this crash as “The Big Crash of 09”. It was quite scary when it happened. All of the sudden my hard drive that I store all of my wedding images on would not mount. Even after transferring the hard drive to all the different computers in the studio, it still would not mount. And after a call to tech support, it was quickly determined that the drive had failed.

My network of computers are all Apple, and Apple has a backup system called Time Machine which backs up all new information every hour on the hour. It really gives you a nice warm and fuzzy feeling. But when it comes time to retrieve that information, you have doubts as to how well the software has been working. You begin to question if the software has been working at all.

With each wedding I photograph, I make a back up of all the images I have created to DVD. I then edit those images down to the ones I want my customers to see, and then I back up those images to DVD. But how do you know that you have backed everything up? Even though my routine is very strict, you always have a nagging feeling that you may have missed something.

I was lucky this time, and everything had been saved using Time Machine onto a very large eight terabyte external drive called a Drobo.

Before the recession started, I had one person working with me in the studio, and because of this fact I had all of the studio images stored on a server for central access. But now that I am working by myself, I find that I really am no longer in need of a server, so I have now changed my backup system, which has added one more layer of redundancy.

Attached to my primary workstation, I have now added two external one terabyte drives, and one eight terabyte Drobo. Inside the workstation are two 500 gig drives.

So, now when I bring my exposed cards in from a wedding my routine works like this. First, I download the images to one of the external one terabyte drives. I then back up the raw captures onto DVD. The second external one terabyte dive is my back up drive, and is an exact mirror of the first external one terabyte drive. I accomplish this mirror using Carbon Copy Cloner.

As I have said, there are two internal drives as well. One is my startup drive, and the second is a mirror of the startup drive, again using Carbon Copy Cloner. This way, if the startup drive fails, I can still operate the computer and album production can continue while I wait for a replacement drive to be installed.

All four of these drives, the two internal 500 gig drives, and the two external one terabyte drives are all backed up ever hour onto the eight terabyte Drobo.

This then is the most solid backup system I have ever created for myself. A double layer of redundancy.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

For many wedding photographers, selling parent albums can be a difficult task. Most customers today are satisfied with an online gallery and a DVD of their wedding day images. This makes the sale of a wedding album a luxury product on top of another luxury product. The sale of a parent album is then a sale of a luxury product, on top of a luxury product, on top of a luxury product.

As a weding photographer, one of your jobs in selling your services is to continually suggest the sale of your products until you hear the word no. More often than not, the offering of a parent album is where you will hit the “No” barrier.

Appeal to the couple. Suggest that the purchase of a parent album for both sets of parents would be a great way to say, “Thanks for everything.” Offer the sale of the second parent album at a slight discount from the first.

Wedding photographers that have a physical sales room have an advantage. When the wedding is over and you have processed the client’s images, offer to show the results as a slide show at your studio, making sure to have both sets of parents attend. Have sample parent albums in clear view next to the slide show and sitting in front of the parents as they sit to view the slide show.

Making sure to acquire the physical and email addresses for both sets of parents at the time your clients reserve your services is essential to selling parent albums. If your clients have purchased an online gallery of their wedding day images, make sure to include a time sensitive discount for the purchase of a parent album when emailing the password to access their private online gallery. More than likely you will fail to make the sale if you email this time sensitive discount to the couple and not to the parents directly. Do not give up. Deliver the time sensitive discount again when mailing the parent DVDs directly to the parents.

How to market and sell wedding photography.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

As a wedding photographer, one of my most popular products that I sell is my time. What do you do when you are at an event, contracted for a start and end time of your services, your time runs out but the event isn’t over?

I photograph a clock. In this case, my iPhone.

Photographing a clock is proof that after that particular shot you were shooting on overtime for your clients and you can charge accordingly.

I never approach a client during an event to let them know that their time has run out, I simply ask if there are any additional images they would like me to create before I go. If you do not have the opportunity to talk to your clients, then you have a choice. You can leave as contracted, or you can stay and continue shooting.

If you stay and continue shooting then you give yourself opportunity for additional sales. You can show your clients the additional images, and perhaps they will want to purchase them. Your clients may also want to only purchase a portion of your extra images. My policy is to sell the first image equivalent to the amount of overtime I worked, and the rest are free.

I have a saying. 100% of the images I do not shoot, will not sell.

Much more information on Marketing and Selling Wedding Photography.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

You may be a fantastic wedding photographer but you won’t be in business very long if you lack the skills to effectively track your sales results. Always track your efficiency at each step of the process. How did your inquiry find you? What percentage of your initial inquires did you convert into consultations? What percentage of your consultations do you convert into paying clients? What percentage of clients do you convert into repeat clients? The answers to these basic questions will help you to develop your ability to sell your services and keep your doors open. you will have a better understanding of where you are weakest.

There are a few different software titles out there dedicated to professional photographers that will help you keep track of these statistics.  We use Success Ware.

Remember, as a wedding photographer, your time is your most profitable product. Make the most of it.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Early last week my Mac Book Pro crashed right after I installed a new font. I put the new font into my system and then restarted my computer. When my computer attempted to restart I found it stuck in a restart loop. Very frustrating.

I backup every computer on my network every hour on the hour using Apple’s Time Machine backup software. The backups are stored on a device called a Drobo.

The Drobo I have is a first generation Drobo, but it is still a very sound machine.

My first thought to resolve my computers crash was to restore my computer using Time Machine. I began the restoring process and 12 hours later I was saddened to learn that the restore was unsuccessful.

My second attempt to resolve my computers crash was to reinstall the system software using the CD that came with my Mac Book Pro. This too proved to be unsuccessful. A quick trip to the Apple store and it was soon obvious that my hard drive had failed.

Returning home with a new hard drive installed, I attach my Drobo directly to my laptop. Because my laptop is normally backed up over my network, my Drobo stores my backup file in a different format which makes it impossible for Apple’s Time Machine to restore from.

I was finally able to restore my computer back to its normal state, which is the point of this blog entry. My solution was to insert the install CD that came with my computer and then restart from the CD. Instead of reinstalling the system software, I used the restore application found on the CD. This application was successful in accessing my laptop’s backup file on my Drobo. 12 hours later my computer was back to normal.

Hope this helps someone out there.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

There is no perfect wedding album.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Looking at my body of work as a whole, over the past 23 years of shooting, I have one favorite image. One. And it’s not my signature image.

If you’ve ever attended one of my photography workshops, then you know one of my definitions of success for a visual artist is recognition. Recognition can be achieved by having a signature image.

What makes an image a signature image is your use of the image. Your signature should be the first image people see when they visit your site, when they look at your brochure, when they look at your advertising campaigns, when they visit your bridal show booth, when they look at your business card, and it should be the first image seen when a customer enters your studio.

Your signature image should become your logo. Your signature image will become a sent trail for your perspective clients to follow, so when they finally arrive at your studio the first image they see is your signature image and they will know without a doubt that they have arrived at the right place.

But how do you know which image to use as your signature image? Do you get to choose it yourself? If you’re smart, you get other people to tell you which image to use.

The following idea can also be used to chose which images to use in your advertising campaigns to accompany your signature image.

Here’s the idea. Pick out 30 of your favorite images, and submit all of them to Flickr. Then submit these 30 images to groups on Flickr that correlate to the type of photography you do.

After a day or two, see which images people gravitated to most. Which one got the best reviews? Which one did people, other professional photographers, like the best?

With any luck, one or mores of your images will have been accepted into Flickrs elite Explore Category.

This is a great way to find unbiased opinions about your work fast, allowing you to chose which images to use in your advertising, which is what I am doing right now. I’m changing all the images for my web ad on The Knot.

Hope this helps.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Please leave a comment below and let me now if this information was helpful to you.

At times I’ll be giving one of my workshops on the business of wedding photography, and I’ll inevitably be asked why blogging is important. What’s the point of it?

For me, one of the main points is to provide images for people to look at, but also to include valuable search terms that will attract people needing my services to their site. While this may seem obvious, many photographers just blog about how great their clients were. No one is searching for “The Smith Wedding”, except of course The Smiths.

I’ve run a report using a statistics program called Woopra, showing the different search terms that have brought 819 people to my wedding photography site over the past month. Many of the terms that brought in only one visitor were acquired through blog entries. After looking at the report below, you’ll notice that I have brought people to my site by including in my blog entries the name of the wedding facility and reception facility.

For instance, go to Google and do a search for a wedding facility here in Houston called The Courtyard on St James Place Houston. Because of my blog entries I should be the second or third listing.

While I’m telling you that this report shows that the following search terms brought in 819 visitors to my site, that is not the total amount of visits I had to my site. 819 visits represents the number of visits generated by searching for specific search terms on sites like Goolge. The total amount of visitors to my site for the past month is much higher at 4773. Higher than some, but much less than many.

As a rule, I try to focus on four basic search terms throughout my site and blog. For each of these terms I want to always be on the first page of returned search results with Google.

Houston Wedding Photography
Houston Wedding Photographer
Wedding Photographer Houston
Wedding Photography Houston

Here’s the report. I hope you don’t get to bored. My hope is that you will see how important it is to include search terms in your blog entries that you think people planning a wedding might be using.

Name / Visits
houston wedding photographers 40
solaris studios 37
solaris studio 33
houston wedding photographer 29
houston wedding photography 24
wedding photographers in houston 15
solaris studios houston 14
wedding photography houston tx 12
wedding photographer houston 10
wedding photography houston 9
solaris photography houston 9
wedding photography 8
wedding photographers in houston tx 8
bella terrazza 7
solarisstudios 7
solaris photography 7
houston photographers wedding 6
senior portraits 6
bill balleza 6
wedding photographers houston tx 6
wedding photography in houston 5
wedding photographers in houston, tx 5
the knot best of weddings 2008 5
wedding photographer houston tx 4
agave road katy tx 4
wedding photography in houston texas 4
wedding photography houston texas 4
gelato truck 4
wedding photographers houston texas 4
balleza 4
www.solarisstudios.com 4
wedding photographers houston 4
senior portraits houston 3
free tickets to hawaii 3
houston tx wedding photography 3
aric hoek 3
wedding photographer houston, tx 3
wedding photographers in houston texas 3
paraiso maravilla 3
houston senior portraits 3
beginning wedding photography 3
solaris photo houston 3
portrait studios in houston 3
wedding photographers 3
solaris studio houston 3
houston tx wedding photographers 3
houston texas wedding photographers 3
wedding photographer 3
chateau crystal ballroom houston 3
wedding photographer in houston texas 3
honeymoon 2
family portrait photographer 2
photographers in houston tx for weddings 2
wedding photograher houston 2
st. regis houston wedding 2
senior portrait 2
how to make money with wedding photography 2
wedding photographers houston, texas 2
a photographer who photographs shadows 2
soloris photographer houston texas 2
bridal portrait houston 2
family portraits what to wear 2
wedding photography in houston,tx 2
the knot best of weddings 2
houston photography 2
how to become a wedding videographer 2
clothing for family portraits 2
courtyard on st james houston 2
portrait studios houston 2
tobias rimkus 2
how to photograph weddings 2
projected background for portrait 2
photographer houston tx 2
aric hoeck photography 2
my experience at school 2
wedding photography houston, tx 2
photographing weddings 2
Senior Portraits in houston texas 2
houston wedding photography blog 2
bluebonnet wedding 2
houston tx event photographers 2
executive portraits houston 2
bill balleza houston 2
houston family photographers 2
wedding photographer in houston 2
wedding photography in houston tx 2
photographer, south houston, tx 1
professional photographer in houston texas 1
solarisstudios.com 1
hoek masters 1
wedding facility on agave road katy rd 1
soalris studios 1
bridal portrait outdoor 1
wedding pictures downtown houston 1
houston wedding photographers. 1
profoto explained 1
mitch daniels videographer 1
photographers houston 1
professional photographers in houston, texas 1
wortham center bridal portraits 1
wedding photografy master 1
annunciation 1
honeymoon photography 1
aric hoek photographer 1
wedding agave road katy 1
photography studios in houston, tx 1
exclusive executive portraits 1
make money as a wedding photographer 1
rear projection portrait 1
agave road bridal 1
agave road bridal session 1
the tuscany gardens & villa houston 1
wedding service annunciation catholic church houston 1
cost of wedding at courtyard on st. james 1
abundant love christian ctr in 77062 1
the bridal session” +pricing” 1
links:www.solarisstudios.com 1
paraiso, houston, wedding 1
wedding photography housto 1
good portraits 1
solaros downtown houston 1
soaris studio 1
unique senior portraits male 1
weddings at st. regis houston 1
master of light texas photographer 1
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tuscan villa in garden oaks 1
the knot best of weddings houston 1
agave road, wedding, houston 1
photographers in houston, tx. 1
hawaii from houston 1
master photographers houston 1
courtyard at st annes houston 1
senior picture photographers houston, tx 1
houston bridal portrait locations 1
saloris studios 1
houston weddings photographer 1
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master of shadows photography 1
leigh ann hood 1
wedding cakes average customer retention 1
young adult photography in houston 1
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ebook wedding photograher 1
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houston modern wedding photograph 1
agave road katy 1
family portrait studios in houston tx 1
family portraits with twins 1
petroleum tower houston 1
st.regis 1
solaris studio 3730 kirby dr # 610 houston, tx 77098 1
cage veil+houston 1
co-cathedral of sacred heart houston wedding pictures 1
professional photographers family portraits houston, tx 1
cap gown portraits 1
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By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Many businesses are resorting to words like SALE, or DUE TO THE RECESSION.  Using these words only instills fear, causing people not to buy.

Instead, why not changes things slightly and make it easier on your clients to purchase your services at the same price you’ve always sold them for?  For example, we sell our wedding photography services through an A La Carte System.  To protect the studio from a one hour booking on the busiest day of the year, we’ve always had a minimum purchase requirement.  We have now removed our minimum purchase requirement.  This makes it possible for our clients to reserve our services without the purchase of a wedding album.  While we are not getting as much per booking as we used to, we are still booking.  People still need 6 hours of coverage, and they still need their images delivered to them in one form or another.

Right now, volume is king.  Do what needs to be done to help your clients book your services.  Giving yourself the opportunity to sell a wedding album at a later date is better than not booking a client at all.  More than likely, when you do book a wedding the event will still be a few months off.  Book the wedding, and then once a month send out a news letter to your future weddings discussing the importance of purchasing a wedding album, a bridal session, or an engagement session.  Let your clients know that the purchase of their wedding album after their wedding is an option.

Once you have completed a wedding, and if your clients have not purchased a wedding album, then you still need to continue to periodically send reminders that a wedding album is still an option.

Times are changing.  Change with them.  See what works for you.

Is your studio changing with the times?  If so, leave a comment as to what you’re trying aned what’s working for you.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers

Can you imagine the nightmare of double booking the same date! While this is a very obvious problem to avoid, what is important is to understand how this can happen, and more importantly how to avoid it.

Perhaps it’s late because your prospect couldn’t meet until after they got off work. At the conclusion of your consultation your clients reserve the date. You create a contract, collect your retainer and have the contract signed by all parties. You’re tired and fail to place the date as booked in your calendar, or the date gets erased from your calendar.

This can happen for a variety of reasons: human error, a computer crash, a malicious employee, or more.

Another couple comes along inquiring about the same date. You check your calendar and see that the date is still open. The couple comes into the studio and books the date.

This time you successfully place the date into your calendar.

The date of the wedding soon arrives. You show up at the second couple’s wedding and receive a phone call on your cell. It’s the first couple wanting to know where you are! Not only will you more than likely be sued by the first couple, you will be so off your game at the event you are covering, you will probably produce less than professional results.

While this situation is very unlikely to happen, it is your responsibility as the owner of your studio to make sure that it doesn’t happen.

To prevent this disaster, keep all of your open contracts in a safe. Every month, on the first of the month, pull them out and compare them to the booked dates on your calendar. If you come across a contract that has no correlating reserved date on your calendar, you have just prevented yourself from a possible double booking.

Now, do this process in reverse. Check your calendar, and look at each weekend for a booked date. For each booked date you find, make sure you can locate a signed contract that correlates to the date! This will prevent you from booking a wedding and marking down the wrong date in your calendar. It also ensures you have possession of all your active contracts.

This is just one of many tips that you will find in my eBook Actions You Can Take To Promote and Protect Your Studio. The book is 50% until 3/27! Use the discount code “sale” to receive your savings.

By Aric C. Hoek, owner and creator of Ten Houston Wedding Photographers