Goal # 11 on our 101 in 1001 list has been a long time coming.  We’ve been offering the same gorgeous wedding and guest book albums since about a year into shooting weddings.  We’ve had sample albums of weddings for a really long time, but we’ve just never quite gotten around to designing and ordering a guest book album sample. Until now.

Feast your eyes on the album goodness.   This is one of our wedding albums.  Supple Italian leather cover.  2mm thick lay-flat pages printed on Fuji Crystal Archival paper.  And it smells like a new pair of shoes straight out of the box ;-)  If an album were a type of food, we’re talking about a decadent, super rich, chocolate desert.  Yum-my.

Next up, the chic little brother of the wedding album – the engagement session Guest Book.  Don’t be turned off by it’s smaller stature, this little baby can still hold it’s own.  This thinner, linen covered version of the wedding album still has the same gorgeous ability to showcase your most precious memories.  Since there are a lot more images from a wedding than an engagement session, it’s usually about half the number of pages.  These albums are created with a clean, spacious look, leaving lots of white space for guests to write messages to the happy couple.  Now, there’s a guest book that won’t get thrown in a box as soon as you get back from your honeymoon!  We offer this same style of album for portrait sessions too, although the designs are usually a bit more traditional.

So that about does it!  And if you’ve every wondered about the value of buying a wedding album we invite you check out this great post from our blog archives: FAQ: Do I Need a Wedding Album?  Have a great week everybody!

We’ve been working on goal number #27 on our 101 in 1001 list ever since we bought our house and we’re so excited that it’s finally complete!  We are super psyched to take you on a little tour of our new in-home studio! As many of you already know, it’s been a long time in the making.  Here’s how things went down:

1. We bought our house – this room was actually one of the biggest selling points for this particular house because we knew we wanted to start meeting clients in our home.
2. We bought most of the furniture within a few weeks of moving in.
3. We spent weeks agonizing over what images to put on the wall and then we finally ordered canvas prints.
4. We found an awesome deal on a TV.
5. Ryan & his Dad spent about 3 weekends installing the recessed lighting, putting in a bunch of outlets and mounting the TV.
6. We hired a contractor to come patch up the big hole in the ceiling where the fan used to be.
7. Then we spent a few weeks adding all the little decor touches.
8. A month later we actually got around to shooting some photos of it and blogging about it. LOL!

Step 2 took place in July 2010 so the whole process took about 6 months.  Considering that we spent the bulk of September and October out of the state shooting weddings, I’d say that’s not half bad!  A little longer than we’d hoped, but it was totally worth the wait :-)

Feast your eyes on the goodness . . .

We wanted the space to feel like a comfy living room with a hint of modern gallery mixed in.  Our guests will be invited to view our work and get to know us while enjoying a glass of champagne and soaking up all that makes up the Simply Knot brand :-)

Here’s what the view will be like for the couples that come to meet with us.  (Picture the two of us sitting on the Chase talking to them – kinda like the image at the top of our blog, hint hint ;-)  There will be a slideshow of images and a presentation using our iPad on the TV.  Then they can flip through some sample albums while resting their drinks on our handy custom coasters.  ”It’s gonna be grand” if I don’t say so myself.

And of course, they can also request an introduction to the real head of our family, Miss Molly . . . who has recently claimed the studio as  her favorite room in the house.  Probably because of the rug.  She misses the better traction of a fully carpeted house :-(  Sorry pup.

YAY!  Can’t wait to meet with our first couple in our finished space!  Hope you all enjoyed the tour!  Don’t forget to leave us some comment love!

For some time now Denise and I have been talking about making our business more focused on the experience of shooting with US.  We thought, “How can we differentiate ourselves from the mass of people out there in our industry?”  In Seth Godin’s book The Purple Cow, he talks about making your product remarkable.  He writes,

“The old rule was this: Create safe, ordinary products and combine them with great marketing.

The new rule is: Create remarkable products that the right people seek out”

We have learned over the years that our “product” is not just our photos, albums and canvas prints.  It’s more than that.  It’s us.  So, how the heck can WE be remarkable?  We are just a happy couple that likes to shoot other happy couples.  (Thanks to our awesome former bride Lilia for summing us up so perfectly!)  There’s a reason we like to be BEHIND the camera.  We don’t always want to be the center of attention. It took some time to adjust to the idea, but when it all comes down to it, we came to the conclusion that it made sense to target clients that identified with us on a personal level. We want clients that want US – Ryan & Denise. The best part of the Simply Knot experience is building a relationship with our couples. That’s how we are able to tell their love story through our images.

Once we decided to move forward, we knew that the first thing we needed to change was our website and blog.  Our website is, most often, the first impression a potential bride has with us.  So, without further adieu, we are so incredibly excited to announce the launch of our new (much more personal) website! Not only does our new site show off our work, it also lets people really get to know “Ryan & Denise”. We’d love it if you would stop by and check it out.  (And if you’re reading this post, you’ve probably already notice many of the redesigned blog features.)

By the way, we are by no means claiming to be the inventor of this business philosophy, just an adopter. You can thank Seth Godin and a ton of other great photographers that paved the way for us.  We’ll close with one more quote from The Purple Cow:

“In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing.  In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”

What makes you standout and be remarkable?

-Ryan

Another “CHECK” on our 101 in 1001 list!  In preparation for our studio space we have invested in a whole set of gorgeous canvas prints!  We ordered two 24×36′s and 4 20×30′s from Simply Canvas to display on the walls in our studio.  I can’t tell you enough how much we LOVE them!  Canvas prints are such a fabulous and modern way to transform a beautiful photo into an work of art.  There’s just something about them that makes an awesome image looks even more incredible.

Every canvas is hand stretched on a custom built 1.5″ wooden frame and spray sealed with a UV inhibitor to prevent fading.

There’s only a couple of teaser images in this post because we wanted to save the reveal of which photos we picked until we post shots of the finished studio :-)  Sorry guys!  You’ll just have to wait to see them in all their glory.  If you have any guesses on which images they are though, feel free to leave them in the form of a comment below.  Some of these aren’t disguised THAT well in that last shot ;-)

Having these gorgeous images in our house has totally made us wish we had at least one canvas worthy photo from our own big day to hang on our wall (sigh.)  Oh well.  Guess we’ll just have to renew our vows someday and hire an incredibly awesome photographer.

We LOVE being photographers!  And the fact that we get to do it together, as a married couple, makes the gig even sweeter :-)  We love capturing special moments in our clients lives and we have a lot of fun doing it.  Throughout the year, we make it a point to grab images of each other in action to help us remember what our world looks like from BEHIND the lens instead of only how we see the world THROUGH it.  So without further adieu, here we are “in action” in 2010 (and a couple favs from 2009 that never found their way into the public eye).

(Ashley & Jesse’s Wedding – Sept. 2010)

I love this one of Ryan shooting AND demonstrating a pose at the same time.  As you can see, that hubby of mine is pretty entertaining to shoot with!

(Smart/Collins Portrait Session – Aug. 2010)

“I know it sounds weird guys, but seriously, it’s gonna look awesome!” – Ryan

(Katie & Justin’s Bridal Session – Oct. 2009)

We really do cherish the special moments we get to share with each of our couples.  Ryan loves the times when he gets to “chill” with the groom while he’s waiting to see his bride for the first time.

(Lilia & Lou’s Bridal Session – Oct. 2010)

(Audrey & Aaron’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

Not only are we photographers, we also come with a long list of other talents as well.  Like dress fluffing.  I’m an expert dress fluffer.

(Amanda & Caleb’s Bridal Session – March 2010)

And Ryan is an expert bouquet holder . . .  what a stud, am I right?

(Shaina & Matt’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

Now THAT’s talent :-)

(Jennie & Scott’s Wedding – Nov. 2010)

Perching on random objects is pretty much normal for us.

(Shaina & Matt’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

(Vanessa & TJ’s Bridal Session – Nov. 2009)

(Amanda & Caleb’s Wedding – March 2010)

And once in a while you have to get down and dirty to get the shot.

(Amanda & Alex’s Wedding – May 2009)

(Amanda & Caleb’s Wedding – March 2010)

(Lilia & Lou’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

This one’s extra special since Ryan is shooting his cousin Allison for her senior photos :-)

(Allison’s Senior Session – Jan 2010)

The ability to sneak up on people is also a must.  Sure, it may look like we’re stalkers now and then, but believe me, we’re not as creepy as we appear.

(Katie & Justin’s Engagement Session – Aug. 2009)

(Lilia & Lou’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

And yes, I did almost fall in the water several times during this ceremony!

(Shaina & Matt’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

This shot was actually taken by Flo’s maid of honor Tracy- she was kind enough to send us her “photographer in action” shot.  Love it! And BTW . . . we weren’t shooting Flo’s butt.  The back of her hoodie said “Mrs. Hettle September 18, 2010″

(Flo & Brad’s Wedding – Sept. 2010)

“Ok guys, how about a kiss?” – Denise

(Katie & Justin’s Bridal Session – Oct. 2009)

Cocktail hour = Gotcher photo op time :-)

(Shaina & Matt’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

(Shaina & Matt’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

(Renate & Carlos Engagement Session – Dec. 2010)

(Renate & Carlos Engagement Session – Dec. 2010)

And once in a while the stars align and we manage to snag a shot with BOTH of us in it :-)  This one just makes me smile.  Nice shot sweetie!

(Ashley & Jesse’s Wedding – Sept. 2010)

We just couldn’t pass up this self portrait opportunity :-)  Please excuse the bizarro house of mirrors affect.

(Audrey & Aaron’s Engagement Session – April 2010)

Testing lighting is always a good time to grab an “in action” shot.

(Lilia & Lou’s Wedding – Oct. 2010)

That’s typically when things start to  get a little silly too . . . like Ryan showing off his russian marching dance?  Is that what you’d call this?

(Dasia & Scott’s Wedding – Sept. 2010)

What can we say?  The party bus was calling our name.  Well, at least the pole in the party bus was calling Ryan’s name :-)

(Dasia & Scott’s Rehearsal Dinner – Sept. 2010)

(Dasia & Scott’s Rehearsal Dinner – Sept. 2010)

At pretty much every reception, a guest asks us what our Fong’s (the Gary Fong Lightsphere Diffusers) are for.  In this case, I probably told them it was a cup holder.

(Amanda & Alex’s Wedding – May 2009)

Sombrero anyone?

(Amy & Bryant’s Wedding – Oct. 2009)

Hope you all enjoyed a little behind the scenes look at Simply Knot Photography!  There’s a whole lot more silliness in the slideshow below so make sure you take a look!

For those of you who don’t already know, Simply Knot Photography has been in business since 2007.  We have gone through lots of changes in the past three years.  One name change, two logo changes, and dozens of business card designs.  While all of this change has been SO much fun <—– sarcasm.  We’ve learned how important it is to establish and maintain consistancy in your company’s branding.  We have slowly been headed in that direction for about a year now and I am happy to say we are almost there.

A few days ago our new business cards arrived in the mail and now we get to check an item off our 101 in 1001 list!!! The thing that we like most about our new cards, is that they represent who we are as photographers much better then our old ones did.  When it all comes down to it, we are all about having fun with our couples.  That’s really who we are and what we want our branding to emulate.  While our old cards were nice, our new ones are so much more focused on that aspect of our business.

Denise and I have been trying to come up with a design that we both love for way too long now.  We even went as far as ordering a box of cards just to throw them away because we did not like the finished product.  Finally we sat down one night at my computer, and decided we wouldn’t let ourselves go to bed until we had it.  I can’t tell you how happy we are with the results!  Fun, simple, and professional.

Today’s blog post is geared towards all the other photogs out there (or really anybody that just happens to be curious about how we do things for our business.)  We’ve decided to start a new little blog series to share some of the tools that have helped us make our business more efficient (and keep our sanity) over the last few years. One of the hardest things about being a new photographer is figuring out how to run the “business” side of things. Sure, maybe you can take pretty pictures, but what about the rest? We learned a ton from reading other photographer’s blogs, attending conferences and knowing some awesome photogs that were totally open and willing to share with us, so we thought it was about time we started to do the same.

We have learned a lot of things in the last 3 years that could totally help out someone else who’s trying getting a handle on things.  Now keep in mind, we’re not saying that all of the tools we use will work for everybody, they just happen to work for us.

First on our list of awesome Photo Biz tools . . .

ShootQ is an online studio management tool that’s designed to meet the needs of photographers.  We refer to ShootQ as our office manager cause it pretty much does all the work a real live office manager would do for us!  It contains our contact list, accounting information, client records and a ton more.  And the best part?  It’s all online so we can access it from anywhere, even our iPhones.  It’s an A-MA-ZING program and we were up to our ears in outlook folders, excel spreadsheets, file folders and lots and lots of paper before we had ShootQ.  Now we’re so much more organized and can lend a nice nod to the environment since our studio is almost entirely paperless :-)  Here are some of the features that we use the most:

Calendar Management & Appointment Scheduling

ShootQ syncs our personal and business calendars so we can have an easy snapshot of what we’ve got going on and what’s coming up.

When we need to set up a meeting with a client we can actually send them a meeting request by defining just a few easy fields.  Then the client can choose what date and time works the best for them.  It factors in any conflicts on our calendars and only allows them to choose from our available dates and times.  So much easier than trading dozens of emails back and forth just to schedule one meeting!

Email Templates

I love writing the same email over and over again, don’t you?  I THINK NOT!  ShootQ has made us a ton more efficient when it comes to keeping our inbox under control and streamlining our correspondence.  We just set up a bunch of templates and then do our emailing from within the ShootQ interface.  Every email is tracked and linked to the client or lead, which is extra nice with there being two of us.  This way we don’t both accidentally email someone about the same thing!  A simple click of a button now creates the email we used to retype every time.  After applying a template, you can still customize the message based on your relationship with the client or any specific questions they have.  Using a template is just a great way to avoid having to retype all the standard info over and over again.  The templates can even be designed to fill in the name of the client and other important details for you :-)  ShootQ takes such good care of us (sigh).

Lead Management

When ever someone inquires about our services through our website or blog, the ShootQ contact form automatically sets up a lead profile with all the wedding/session details and alerts us via email so we can go check it out and respond to them.

The lead tracking section of the site allows us to categorize each lead, track our correspondence and set up reminders to follow up with them after a certain amount of time has past.  Easy peasy :-)

Shoot Details

Once a client books us, their lead profile is converted into a client profile where all the information for their wedding/session can be kept in one place.  Contact info, notes and correspondence, workflow tasks, package and billing information and even other vendors related to their shoot can all be accessed from one easy place.  There’s A LOT of information to keep track of for every client and this flawless system makes it so easy to make sense of it all.

Client Sites, Surveys & Contracts

Every client gets there very own password protected client site where they can update information about their wedding, track the progress of their album, make payments and interact with us in a variety of ways.  The very first thing they do on this site is sign their contract & pay their deposit.  No more waiting for contracts or checks to come in the mail!  It’s all in one quick, easy, online process that’s super convenient for us and for our clients.

We also use the client sites to send surveys.  These surveys are an easy way for us to gather information for planning a couple’s engagement session or confirming all the logistical details, portrait list and schedule for the day of their wedding.  There’s even a handy feature that asks our wedding couples to enter the contact information for their other vendors.  When they do, it’s automatically entered into our ShootQ contact list, making it really easy for us to connect with their vendors before and after their wedding day.

Workflow (Task Management)

I’m a total checklist person – mostly because I’m naturally pretty forgetful!  The only way I’ve found to combat my forgetfulness is to be very organized.  Before the days of ShootQ we would spend hours creating tasks in Outlook for each of our shoots so we wouldn’t forget to do anything.  It was horribly tedious, difficult to share between both Ryan & I and a huge waste of valuable time.  ShootQ allows you to create workflow templates with all the typical tasks related to every shoot.  We have one for portrait sessions, weddings, engagement sessions, album production and a few others.  You define how many days/weeks/months, etc. a task should occur in relation to a shoot or booking date and ShootQ does the rest. During the process of booking a new client we apply the appropriate workflow and BAM!  All the tasks are created for us.  No muss, no fuss.  And every day when we log in, there is a lovely little preview of what needs to be done and what’s right around the corner so we never miss a beat :-)

Seriously, we don’t know how we were getting by before investing in ShootQ.  It has made our business better in a thousand ways.  We’re more professional, more organized and can provide much better customer service to our clients because of it.  And for us, it’s worth every single penny.  Now in case you’re wondering, ShootQ didn’t ask us to write this post.  I’m sure they don’t even know about it, but we feel so strongly about what they’ve done to help our business grow, that we felt inspired to share it with you.  We highly encourage you to check them out – just click the link below and take a tour!

If you have questions about how we use ShootQ feel free to leave us a comment or email us.  Or if you have another photography related question you can ask us over at our Formspring page. Thanks for reading and we really hope that you found the information helpful!

Over the weekend we added a cool new feature to our blog!  At the bottom of every image from our photo shoots, you’ll  now see a little check box on the right hand side that reads, “I love this”. You can click on it to vote for your favorite images.  You can also see how many people have voted for each image on the bottom left hand side. Vote for as many images as you want.

As our readers vote, their favorite images will be displayed in a gallery of thumbnails at the top of our blog based on their popularity.

Cool, right?  It’s probably not near as awesome to anyone else as it is to us, but we really like to hear what our readers love. We can’t wait to see what images people vote for! Thanks for reading and go “love” some images!  (P.S. This doesn’t excuse you from commenting so feel free to keep (or start) doing that too. LOL!)

Whew!  It’s been a very busy and very HOT few weeks for us.  We’ve been neglecting our blog a bit – not because there hasn’t been anything to say, but mostly because there’s hardly been time to say it!  Between the fourth of July holiday, Ryan’s birthday festivities, living out of suitcases for days while our AC was out (yuck!) , and everything else, it’s just been a super crazy time for us.  So much for having the summer off!  Our shooting schedule may be a little bit lighter (cause no one wants the theme of their Arizona wedding to be “sweat”), but we’re sure keeping oursleves busy.

We’ve got all kinds of fun stuff in the works that we can’t wait to share with all of you!  In the coming weeks we’ll be introducing a whole different look and feel for Simply Knot Photography.  Ryan and I have been talking a lot lately about who we are as photographers and what our buisness is really all about and we’ve kinda come to the conclusion that we’ve outgrown a few things that we put in place when we first launched out buisness.  The first thing to go: our logo and color scheme.  It’s time to kiss the old black and white ”SK” goodbye and say hello to this this cute little number:

So much more FUN and FRIENDLY, right?  When it comes to working with our clients, we’re ALL ABOUT the fun and friendly so we thought that it was time for the look of our buisness to reflect that too!  We also wanted to get away from the more tradtional look of our old stuff and emphasize the modern look you see in our photographs.  No stuffy traditional stuff here!  There’s a lot more changes to come, inlcuding a brand new AMAZING website so I hope this little taste will hold you off for a while ;-)

Wanna hear a little secret about our new logo?  The four dots are not only a cool graphic element, but they represent the letter “G” in the braille alphabet . . . “G” for Gotcher :-)  I’m probably the only one who cares, but I think it’s really fun that it has another meaning.  Don’t forget to leave us lots of comments below to tell us what you think!

As you can pretty much tell by looking at it, our blog page has undergone a major overhaul this past week.  We’re super excited about the new look and features!  Here are some of the highlights:

• BIG BIG BIG photos!  Our previous blog only allowed us to post photos at 600 pixels wide, but now we get to post at 900 pixels wide!  YAY!  We like big photos :-)
• At the top left hand side of the blog you’ll see a Twitter Updates box where you can always see what we’re up to via the social messaging utility Twitter.  If you’re a Twitter user, feel free to follow both of our feeds by clicking on the menu links under “Simply Knot”.
• On top of the comment box at the end of each post you’ll see a few little icons with ways you can interact with our blog content.  My favorite is the Facebook post icon that lets you automatically post the entry on your Facebook or send it in a message to your Facebook friends!

Exciting stuff :-)  Let us know what you think of our new blog by leaving us lots of comment love below!  Thanks for reading.