Our new home (and contact information)
Happy New Year!
As we get ready to turn the page on 2018 and get ready for 2019, it has been a truly life-altering year for us in both our family and our business!
After 17 years in California, Nicki and I moved the family to a small town just east of Madison WI called Lake Mills. It’s a quaint, and picturesque lake town that is 20 miles east of Madison and about 50 miles from Milwaukee (and only 2 1/2 hours away from Chicago). My life has come full circle — and we are thrilled.
It’s a move that brings us to the same town as my sister Mary, her husband Scott as well as their daughter Stefanie, her husband Jeremy and their two little girls. We wanted our kids to know their aunts, uncles and cousins and be able to head over on their bike. Living in the same town was important for that connection.
Plus we’re also 25 miles from my old hometown of Columbus, WI where my Mom and my older sister Peggy live.
Next year is full of exciting plans and dreams for family and our photography business.
We had our offer accepted on a lovely home in Lake Mills, just around the corner from Mary and Scott so that is going to be a big part of our January and February.
I’ll also continue my teaching and speaking on behalf of Sony and am excited about upcoming trips to NYC and Arizona in the first quarter of the year. Building an online community that supports wedding and portrait photographers and helps them grow as photographers and as business people is also on the horizon.
Wedding photography here in the Madison area (as well as Milwaukee and Chicago) is going to be a big part of the focus of my photography business in 2019.
It already got off to a superb start with a winter Chicago wedding at the historic and boutique Blackstone Hotel this past weekend. I will be sharing more of that work in the coming week.
Our new contact information is:
PO Box 548; Lake Mills, WI 53551
Phone is 920.728.6183
Email remains: paul@paulfgero.com
We hope your 2019 is healthy, happy and full of adventure!
Paul, Nicki (Kate and Sparky too!)
A Trip Around the Infield | Photographs with the Sony 400mm f2.8 G Master
This past Sunday Kate’s softball team played in a tournament in Irvine.
During warm-ups though, she caught a ball on her right hand — her throwing hand — and she was unable to play in the field. It was a deep bruise and very painful. It kept her from playing defense.
But she did bat twice.
The first time, she popped out to the catcher on the first pitch. She winced in pain and was in tears walking back to the dugout. More ice on the hand.
I didn’t think she would play again but she did bat during the team’s final at bat.
First attempt — a bunt —she laid one down but it went foul.
The second was a soft infield hit and she ran for first hard (as usual). A throwing error to first resulted in her getting safely to second. She then stole third and then came home on another teammate’s hit.
Unfortunately the team lost by one run but I was very proud of the way she gutted it out and made something happen by sheer hustle and determination.
Davis | Class of 2019 | Tesoro H.S.
These portraits are from a very recent session with Davis, who will be graduating in the spring from Tesoro H.S.
This session took place at Salt Creek Beach and we had an amazing shoot.
His Mom, Jennifer, was there and I also worked with my lighting assistant (in this case, my 12 year old daughter Kate!).
It’s always great to see young people like Davis who are going to make great contributions to our world — he is planning on attending Baylor and hopes to be a doctor.
New Think Tank Emergency Rain Covers for your Camera Gear
Now that we will be moving to the land where it does rain, these new emergency rain covers could not have come at a more perfect time!!!
Our friends at Think Tank Photo have released two new concepts in camera gear protection. The Emergency Rain Covers, that come in two sizes, are small, lightweight, fast-deploying protective covers you can have on hand when weather conditions change swiftly and you need to protect your bodies and lenses.
The Lens Case Duos are protective lens sleeves that can be used both when transporting your lenses in transit and while shooting. They are available in a range of sizes to fit most DSLR and Mirrorless lenses. Don’t forget that when you use these special URLs you will receive free gear and free shipping on all orders over $50.
https://www.thinktankphoto.com/…/emergency-rain-cover-mediu…
https://www.thinktankphoto.com/collec…/lens-case-duo-series…
Delivering images to your clients -- some great resources for this part of your workflow
Pixieset, ShootProof, Zenfolio and Photoshelter are four companies delivering high quality digital delivery to clients (and even more!).
I hope you're Wednesday is going well!
I just wanted to share a couple links that you might find useful for when it comes to your digital delivery of images to your clients.
Even though I often sell prints to my clients I deliver images to them, slideshows, etc. digitally via download. In the past I delivered images in CDs with custom cases and now I love the simplicity of the digital downloads. Some photographers use USB drives that are customized with logos and boxes and that is great.
For my weddings that are only photography and images only I don't deliver any physical product in order to save on having to collect sales tax (disclaimer: I'm not a CPA or bookkeeper and check with your state or region -- laws may vary).
The service that I use most for my portrait and wedding clients currently is a Canadian company called Pixieset.
I find their galleries to be simply superb, clean and easy to navigate. Downloading photos is easy for my clients. It's perhaps more "basic" in terms of feature sets than some other companies out there (which are coming up), but I just find it comfortable and easy to use and that makes a big difference. I liken their interface to the simplicity of working with Squarespace as I do for my main website.
Pricing for Pixieset starts at $0 (yes, that's right Free) and goes up to $40 per month if paid annually or $50 if paid monthly. You can see their rates here. The only caveat is that their top plan maxes out at 1000 GB.
Shootproof is another company that is similar to Pixieset and also market heavily in the portrait and wedding space. For many photographers I know, it gets down to selecting either Shootproof or Pixieset. My friend Marc Weisberg uses Shootproof and is very pleased with them.
Pricing for Shootproof starts at $0 (for up to 100 images) and goes up to $60 per month (for unlimited number of images, up to 50mb per individual file). You can see more details about their rates here.
Zenfolio is a company that I have used for many years and I primarily use them to host my archives. Their services start at $5 per month if paid annually (or $7 monthly) and go up to $30 per month if paid annually (or $42 monthly). They offer website services as well.
You can find more detailed features and pricing for Zenfolio here
I have used all the three above and they are all very good -- you have to try them out for yourself to see which one fits you best.
And the bonus one to consider is PhotoShelter. This company has been around for a long time and is used a lot by commercial and editorial photographers and they, much like Zenfolio, offer websites as well as hosting archives. I love their commitment to that industry and they provide much useful educational content.
Their services start at $10 per month if paid annually (or $12.99 monthly) and go up to $45 per month if paid annually (or $49.99 monthly).
You can check out their pricing
If you are a heavy shooter who wants to find a home for those files then PhotoShelter, Zenfolio and Shootproof should be the ones you check.
As always, keep making great images!
Paul
p.s. before I go for today, I wanted to share with you a very inspiring podcast that I listened to during my pre dawn walk.
If you have ever struggled trying to step out and market as a creative, I think you'll find this podcast an incredibly useful listen:
Cathy Heller was recently a guest and she talked about how she came to LA to live her dream and become a recording artist. She got her contract with Interscope Records -- her dream -- and then, it ended.
How was she going to create a sustainable life and business still making music? You'll hear some of her unique ideas and ways to market in this podcast. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
pg