photographers, if you haven’t heard of pictage you’re missing out. pictage is one of the largest proofing companies in our industry.  i’ve been with them since ‘06 and have been super happy to be one of their clients! jim collins (pictage ceo) has really helped to take pictage to a new level.  they really care about their clients, and sincerely care about our experience with them.  they are ever evolving and working hard to out do themselves each year.  i like them.

they are putting on a family and kids photography conference/workshop next month called pictage u and i’m speaking and teaching at it! when they contacted me about being an instructor i was humbled and blown away…and then nervous.

i will be teaching right along side some amazing photographers who i know i will definitely learn from as well.  one thing i love about this conference/workshop is that it’s affordable!

you get to listen to each instructor speak on subjects that they are passionate about and ways that have helped their business to succeed.  i’ll be speaking on creative products, how to offer them, and how to sell them. as well as our studio space and why it works for us, and loads of more business info! we will also be doing a demo shoot where each photographer will spend time shooting a family or child demonstrating the way they approach that type of session.  and even better, the next day you all get to spend time directing and shooting the models.  great portfolio opportunities!  it sounds like the perfect workshop to me. and i get to be a part of it!! there will also be mentoring sessions available for individuals as well.   i’ll be giving a mentor session on retouching and overall image improvement in photoshop. a crash course if you will to make your photos look even better! mentor sessions are a great way to learn quickly what you need to learn without spending loads of time and money in a classroom.  i’ll be offering mentor sessions to photographers in the months to come  covering many different aspects of photography. contact us for more information. we’d love to chat with you about mentor possibilities!

CLICK HERE go to the website to get more info and to learn about the other instructors.  i hope to see you there!

to read a recent blog post i wrote on products on the pictage blog go HERE.

hello friends! there’s been a lot of baby talk flying around here lately.  in case you’re just tuning in we’re expecting a baby girl this fall! with all of this baby talk present jim and i have been seeking God’s heart for us and our business…before you *gasp* no, we’re not closing the doors, we’re simply cutting back .

we will not be taking any portrait sessions come this september through the winter so that i can get ready to be a mama. many of you know that we have a beautiful studio space in the near southside of downtown fort worth. we will continue to have this studio space and are interested in sharing the space with another professional.  preferably someone in the arts industry.   it will be open to all wedding professionals!  we are super flexible and will only be needing it during the days and again, these days are open.

if you or someone you know might be interested please shoot us an email with your questions!   if you’re serious about pursuing the idea let’s grab some coffee and talk!  the sky is the limit with this space.  don’t let anything hold you back, we would love to chat with you.  it’s possible that we will only share it with one other business, and it’s possible that it could be perfect for those who are needing to meet their clients from time to time.  our space has a “meeting nook” complete with a flat screen prepared to be hooked up to your laptop, which can allow you to show your clients slide shows of your work.

the building is a gorgeous fully renovated historic building.  we have an awesome restaurant, cat city grill right below our studio that jim and i like to frequent often (a great place to take your clients after a consult.)  there’s a certain buzz around the magnolia area with many unique, really tasty restaurants up and down the street.  i’m sure you can tell by now how much i love this place!  it really is a great place to have a business.  we are blessed to have many plano, and dallas area clients who gladly drive to our studio, so don’t worry if you have a large dallas clientele.

please email us at info[at]heatheressian.com

here is our beloved studio:

**UPDATE**

we’ve partnered with Vera Green Productions a talented all green event/floral design business in sharing our studio space.  we couldn’t feel more blessed and excited!

Kelly Moore is giving away a bag! go check out these gorgeous, a bazillion different uses-camera BAGS here! so stylish.

hi friends! okay, well i wanted to take the time to answer some questions that i’ve received from other photographers. so here it goes…i by no means have all the answers or necessarily even the right answers. all i can do is answer them in a way that has applied to me, everyone is different, so i would encourage you to find out what works for you!

1. how did you get into photography, and how many years have you been shooting?

i’ve been shooting now for almost 10 years. i started out by taking some photography classes in college (pre- digital photography) and proceeded to assist and work for any photographer who would have me. i worked with wedding, commercial, portrait, and fashion photographers. thank you to those who allowed me to stumble my way through helping you! i would still drag the bags of some of my favorite photographers just to get a glimpse at the way they approach things.

2. what ps actions do you use?

i use 90% of my own actions, and the other 10% is made up of totally rad actions- oh snap! and a kubota- warm bw action. i greatly enjoy building my own actions from nothing ( for ex: i don’t use purchased actions to build my actions) and find it to be crucial in bringing my vision for an image to completion. but i do feel like purchased actions serve our community well, and at times can really take imagery to the next level. the only thing i think we should be careful of is not relying on our actions to make a good image.

i have some other thoughts about actions, so maybe i’ll share them in the next photographers post.

3. what equipment do you use?

i’m all canon baby! i shoot with the 5d and use many different canon L series lenses. i have the most wonderful think tank gear bag that is designed specifically for traveling, and fits perfectly in the overhead bins of airplanes. love love love this bag!

4. how many years have you been in business?

we are in our 4th year! so excited about that, and i can’t believe it’s gone by so quickly.

5. do you sell your high res files to your clients?

hang onto your seat folks, i have some strong feelings about high res files or “digital negatives” . we do sell them to our wedding clients because we think people like to have them for archival purposes. however, we don’t offer them to portrait clients. i’m not saying that we wouldn’t consider it but it would have to be super special circumstances.

here are my thoughts on why we don’t offer the disc:

i came from the film days when many people didn’t give away their negatives, it just wasn’t a common thing to do in the photography business.  i had the opportunity to learn the business side of print fulfillment, and i got to experience first hand actually working with clients and building relationships with them. so much of this experience drives the way i feel about giving a disc to clients. i’m blessed to have clients who trust me, and trust my vision for the session from start to finish. they want my help in choosing enlargements and what we call “story walls” or a series of images. it’s more then them wanting to print the photos for themselves. they want to purchase artwork of their loved ones for their walls, and we just so happen to specialize in this. i’ve also worked in a professional printing lab (shout out to cbc!) where i learned color and density correcting in depth, so i apply this knowledge to my editing of images.  for me, to hand the disc off would feel like i would be ignoring all that i’ve worked so hard to learn. and i enjoy editing and working with my clients just as much as i love to photograph them! so i would be sad to send the disc away with them .  and it kind of makes me squirm at the thought of professional photos being printed at wal-mart. not that there is anything wrong with wal-mart, but it is not a pro lab, and the colors could come back wonky and then heather essian portrait arts might appear to be a wonky photography biz.  we definitely lose potential clients from time to time for not selling the disc, but we realize that we can’t be all things to all people and we had to make business policies for our sanity. in all honesty we are so blessed to have loyal clients who don’t question this, and these clients are very supportive of our decision.

*muah* to our amazing clients!!

my last and final thought; and i promise to step off the soap box after this is: for me photographer=print fulfiller, i can’t do one without the other. i enjoy the entire process way too much. we own a photography business to make a profit and we don’t profit from our session fees alone, we’ve got expensive equipment and studio space to pay for each month which means we would be out of business at this point if we gave away the disc. yipes.

with all of that said, i do think that there is a place and a market for photographers who sell the disc, i just feel that they need to charge appropriately for the disc for their own benefit. we put long hours into our jobs working hard which takes us away from our spouses and children.  therefore,  hopefully we make more then minimum wage for doing so.

*if you’re not sure of what to charge for the disc or prints you can check out easy as pie pricing strategy for photographers. this will be some of the best money you could spend on your business. don’t be afraid to invest in your business.

6. do you have any employees?

i do not, i’m actually my husband’s employee. no, i kid, i kid. but he works with me full time running the business while i focus on the creative stuff! i’m so thankful to have him and don’t know what i would do without him. he really is the pulse of our business.  if done legally, employees for small businesses can be extremely costly (another reason to charge appropriately for your services) because employee tax is quite high. and hopefully you want to run an ethical business.

7. do you have a studio space? and do you think it’s necessary for a photography business?

we do have a studio space right on magnolia street in the near southside of fort worth. i don’t think it is necessary to have a studio space as a photographer. as photographers we are so lucky to have a business that can be run out of our home with minimal overhead. i say we keep it that way as long as we can. the goal in any business should be to try and keep overhead as low as possible (per my husbands advice). i think it really depends on the business. jim and i prayed long hours about our studio space and felt lead to move forward with it.  personally for us, we would not have moved forward without a complete peace because it was quite scary. the studio space has been such a blessing for us, and i still get giggly when i walk in the door! i just want to scoop up all my girly damask fabric and furniture and kiss it!

8. do you have workshops for photographers?

i about fell over when i read this email. what? me have a workshop? this is something i would love to do one day in the future.  however, i’m not quite sure i have the following to do so, but whatever God has in store for us, i’m game!

**if you have a question please send it over- better yet, add your question to the comments section of this post. i want to get to know you all better! i’m happy to help if i can. please don’t be alarmed if it takes a few days for me to get back to you, it will probably mean i’m deep in editing or design work.**

and just for fun, considering i’ve still not shared many europe photos from over a year ago…here is a favorite of mine.

Cinque Terre, Italy

*this was the real light folks! not much ps work done at all on this image. yes, i would like to move to italy. i guess i’ll settle for photographing weddings there instead any italy brides out there…call me.

great! cause i need a strong 2nd shooter for some weddings this season! please email me at heather@heatheressian.com as soon as possible if you’re interested, and include a link to your work

my  *g o r g e o u s * cousin, kara. more to come from her session very soon.

this image will be displayed as a 24×30 canvas gallery wrap…it will definitely be a show stopper at the wedding!

*UPDATE* THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WONDERFUL PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO EMAILED ME TO LET ME KNOW YOU WERE INTERESTED! THE POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED.  I NEVER EXPECTED THAT MANY RESPONSES, THANK YOU ALL! I HOPE TO GET TO WORK WITH EACH OF YOU IN THE FUTURE.