Friday, January 13, 2012 | Posted in Editorial
This thought was so good from Seth Godin, I was compelled to create a personal reminder that spoke to me and made a visual impact. So I created the visual below. (Full resolution file here.)
It reminded me how many of you express struggles with social media distractions, endless emails, long days and even longer nights.
What if you made a commitment every day to pick up your camera before touching your computer and invest 20 minutes challenging yourself to shoot *SOMETHING* to push your craft to the next level?
How radical could your business be if your daily routine looked like this:
• Pick up camera, shoot something
• Pick up phone, connect with happy clients
• Pick up phone, connect with new leads
• Open Photoshop and *CREATE* something with a couple of images you shot earlier
• Blog it, no matter how painful
• Pick up phone and call a friendly vendor
Can we just shrug the other, less interesting things? No, but I challenge you to find help. Your passion for photography can be equaled by another’s passion for bookkeeping. (Hard to believe, I know!)
Maybe post production eats your soul. There are solutions.
Cheers to a prosperous year ahead. Now go do your best work this year.
In our last blog post, we mentioned a great resource for photographers, Served Up Fresh. Their mission? Empower photographers to do better in business.
In their latest bonus PDF, they urged their 12,000+ subscribers to outsource their post production. Below is the clip from their newsletter:
Reduce the amount of time that you spend editing by using Colorati or a similar service – you can upload your images and they edit them for you.
If you are really really overwhelmed, you can submit the entire session and they will eliminate the extra images and process only the best. Then for .32-.40 cents and image – they can do all your editing.
If you have mini sessions that are presenting 10 images per client – that’s a mere $4 per client. Sessions of 50 images – less than $20. Is 3 hours of your editing time that you can put towards cookie baking and tree trimming worth $20? NO? Then you should totally try this and give yourself the gift of doing something that really matters during the holidays.
Also, if you are getting a backlog of album designs for the holidays, Colorati can take care of it. Outsourcing album design may not be the most proftable option for you and your business during slow months….but during the holidays, it can be worth every single penny and then some.
If Colorati could help you take on 3 more sessions with an average sale of $1,400 each — is it worth it?
Better yet, stick to your guns on the calendar options and just take a nap with your extra time. Even a 20-minute snoozer is well-earned and much-needed during the holidays.
That’s just one of the many great resources mentioned in this newsletter that is free for you to download from the Served Up Fresh website below:
Served Up Fresh holiday bonus PDF
Every day we talk with photographers who are thriving. Yet for every one of those who are thriving, there are many others who feel lost, confused and struggle with questions like:
• “How should I price my photography services?”
• “What should be in my contract?”
Perhaps that’s you.
You love being a photographer, but the business side of things are challenging enough to cast a dark cloud over your dream job.
Recently we discovered Served Up Fresh, a website whose mission for helping photographers succeed is so closely aligned with ours, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share such a great resource.
If you’re looking for a good coach on doing business as a photographer, check them out!
We are so excited that Pictage has chosen San Diego to host their annual PartnerCon convention! We’re also excited to be a part of it as a proud sponsor!
If you’re thinking about attending, enter the promo code “Colorati” when you register to get $60 off. This discount code expires on October 7, so get on it!
We just discovered this amazing website for photographers who love props:
Confessions of a Prop Junkie!
They shone the spotlight bright on a happy Colorati client, Alicia Loos owner of Purple Frog Photography where she got to tell her story and show off her studio space. Alicia’s passion is children photography, but like most of you, she mixes it up with some weddings too. She gave us an amazing shout out:
On average during the summer months I shoot 2-3 sessions a day Tuesday-Saturday and it drops down to 1-2 a day during the winter months. I love that I have the freedom to make my own schedule! To me that is the biggest perk of being my own boss!
On the flip side I dislike all the hats that I have to wear. (boss, accountant, marketer, photographer, editior, etc.) I am slowing learning to let go and start to farm out some work. I now send my unedited wedding files to an editing house called Colorati. They color correct and size my images for me! I now can turn a wedding around in 3 weeks! That is such weight off my shoulders! “
Thank you, Alicia! (And Tabitha for permission to repost!)
Read more about her story, her props, and her amazing space
(It’s amazing- go check it out!)
Don’t you love it when happy clients bless you with the most amazing write ups? We were all smiles over here the day Alyse French posted the following Colorati review on her blog for photographers:
As business owners, we have a crazy amount of daily tasks and to-do’s, including (but certainly not limited to) emailing, invoicing, culling, editing, designing, blogging, updating, packaging, UPS-ing, and archiving. Oh, and shooting… 
So how do we make time for all of these things? Outsourcing the bulk of our editing has been HUGE for us. Though I doedit all images used on AFP’s website and blog, as well as all images from portrait shoots, Colorati takes care of the rest.
We’re gonna go out on a limb here and assume that many of you have debated outsourcing your editing and have ultimately decided against it due to the lack of control associated with handing over your images to someone else. Believe me, we’ve been there… But approximately 16,800 images later, I’m sure happy that Colorati knows their stuff.
So why Colorati?
- They GET us: The Colorati team can mimick any workflow you throw their way. Nothing is lost in terms of our style or our brand. We send, on average, 600-700 images via passport drive, and pay just $0.32 per image for standard color (i.e., global white balance, exposure, contrast and saturation adjustments).
- They’re legit: Legit color analysts that is. Many members of the Colorati team are photographers themselves, and are white balancing/exposure adjusting geniuses. We also get our images back FAST so we can then turn around and give those images to our clients in record time. Colorati’s typical turnaround time is 5-7 days. Which makes OUR turnaround time as short as three weeks. BAM.
- Amazing customer service: Leon and Katie, this one’s for you.
Colorati is staffed with incredibly professional and NICE people, and you can never underestimate working with genuinely nice, caring people. They are also ALWAYS quick to respond to any and all questions whether by email, phone, or Twitter.
- It’s just plain worth it: Apart from giving us our life back, outsourcing also allows us to take on more weddings and ultimately make more money. It’s worth it in sooo many ways.
Have you ever considered outsourcing YOUR editing? Do you have any questions about how we use Colorati?
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Head on over to the Windsor Collective for all kinds of amazing photographer-related gems:
http://www.windsorcollective.com
Thanks, Alyse!
Hello friends!
Would you like to take a peek behind the curtain and find out how Colorati makes the “magic” happen?
Then please join me at the Costa Mesa Community Center in Orange County, CA for a free seminar on how to Strip Down Your Workflow, Hosted by the Orange County SMUG User Group Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 at 6:30PM.
If you can’t attend, you can watch a FREE LIVE STREAM of the event on the Colorati Facebook page, where we will be taking your questions and answering them live!
I will cover fundamentals of evaluating your images and pushing them to their best potential. I’ll also be talking about some simple mechanics that will free you from hours of tedious computer work. While this presentation will be based in Lightroom, the content is structured in a way to apply to ANY image editing software you may use. Learn how to supercharge your workflow and get back to doing the things that make you thrive!
Feel free to ask your questions on twitter as well by using the hashtag #askcolorati after your question.
I hope you’ll be able to join and learn something new that will propel you to a faster, more efficient workflow.
Leon Sandoval
Director of Operations
UPDATE: You can watch the archived video on our Facebook page from the “Ustream Live” tab.
Colorati Facebook Page
Hey friends!
We recently had a breakthrough in bandwidth at Colorati HQ, and so far the speeds are seemingly able to handle an increase on our FTP limit. Previously it was limited to 150 images per order but we just doubled it to 300!
Keep in mind this only applies to domestic clients. All international clients still have unlimited FTP access. Also, this is a “per order” limit, so if you have multiple orders to send in that are each under 300, send ‘em on in!
Undoubtedly some of you are asking… why the limit?
Well… if we served a couple dozen clients, straight FTP would work just fine. Scale that to several hundred clients all around the world and suddenly things slow to a crawl. And quite frankly, we had a physical limitation on bandwidth in both our old and new buildings. (Crazy, right?) But after years of pleading with ISP providers in the area, we finally have a pipeline that’s big enough to increase the limit.
So enjoy for now… there are many other cool things on the horizon, so stay tuned.
Hey friends!
We have a ton of new and exciting things developing behind the scenes here at Colorati, and we are announcing our first ever Colorati promotion just in time for Labor Day!
For all orders submitted between this Thursday and Sunday, we will give you 25% off your entire order of $55 or more!* Just make sure to include the promotional code FIRST25 when you submit your order and we will automatically deduct 25% from your total invoice (not including shipping). Use the discount code on as many orders as you like during the promotion -and share it with your friends so they can get in on the deal too!
You’ve worked hard and the season is heating up! Enjoy Labor Day with the rest of your friends instead of sitting in front of the computer. 
Don’t forget that you can always get all of the current Colorati news and promotions by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and searching for current promotions with the #coloratipromo hashtag.
Terms & Conditions
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• Offer valid only on orders of $55 or more submitted between 12:00am, Thursday, September 1, 2011 and 11:59pm, Sunday, September 4, 2011.
• Submitted images must be received no later than 11:59pm Friday, September 9, 2011.
• Offer is not valid on previously submitted orders and cannot be retroactively applied.
• Offer does not apply to Rush orders.
• Discount cannot be combined with any other offers.
• Discount is not applicable to shipping charges.
• Orders must include promotional code in order to receive 25% discount.
Hey friends!
As Colorati continues to flourish and expand with the industry, our dedication to customer service also grows. Which is why we are happy to announce that Ronnie Revoredo has joined the Colorati team to head our Client Care department!
Aside from being a super fun guy to be around, he is absolutely committed to providing the highest quality client care and strives to make sure that he is accessible to all of our clients. So to celebrate his joining the team, we would like to give something to you!
Be one of the first people to friend him on Facebook AND leave a comment, and you could win a 1 Year Platinum Membership with Snapknot. ($300 value!)
SnapKnot is the most beautiful listing site for engaged couples to find a photographer in their budget and city. Seriously, go check ‘em out!
by Leon
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