Bryan and Aaron
Full Day Continuing Education Merit
Day 1
Want to get the most out of Image Competition? Whether you're new to competition or are a more experienced competitor looking to refine your skills, we have the workshop for you!
Join Bryan Welsh and Aaron Hockley for a day of competition immersion. We'll show you how to look at your work with a judge's eye so that you can select the best competition images. We'll talk about shooting specifically for competition and using personal projects as source material. We'll review what makes an image strong for competition, and conversely, what are some pitfalls that can result in a lower score.
This program is appropriate for all levels of photographer.
Newer competitors can learn:
- What are the 12 Elements of a Merit Image? They're the building blocks for competition excellence, and understanding each of them will help you evaluate your own work.
- What you should know about preparing your digital files for a smooth entry process.
- Your client work may or may not be a good fit for formal competition. How can you identify if it is?
More experienced competitors can learn:
- While all 12 Elements of a Merit Image are important, strength in certain ones is more likely to lead to higher-scoring images. If you find your images stuck in the 80-84 scoring range, you'll learn where to focus to grow.
- We'll explain a straightforward Photoshop action that can automate a process for a simple, professional, judge-pleasing Presentation
- We'll dive into Titles, the unofficial 13th element, learning how they can help (or hurt) your ability to connect with the judges and have strong impact
Prerequisites: Attendees don't need to have entered competition previously, but should be generally familiar with PPA-style competition to understand the format of the event.
We'll frame all of this discussion within the context of PPA's Twelve Elements of a Merit Image, the framework that judges use to evaluate a competition photograph.
Class participants are encouraged to bring potential competition images for review -- we'll help you select your strongest images and give you some pointers on how to prepare them.
Day 2
Morning
Bryan - Marketing Riddle - The premise
The Marketing Riddle. Solve it and find your ideal client.
Learning how to solve the age-old marketing riddle is at the core of your business success. During this program, Bryan will guide you toward finding your ideal client, thus unlocking your path forward to marketing clarity.
Join Bryan as he unpacks marketing in a new way. He will use principles and best practices from both the photography industry and mainstream businesses that thrive.
Afternoon
Aaron - Leveraging Email Marketing
Email: Fresh Opportunities for Photography and Beyond (3.5 hours)
Wait… isn’t email dead? Not at all! In fact, lots of smart creative folks are seeing a resurgence in success in the last couple of years by using email intelligently.
Email is as old as the internet. While social networks come and go, email remains. In 2022, email newsletters are seeing a resurgence as independent creators are finding them a useful line of business that can complement their other ventures.
In this half-day workshop, we’ll look at a modern take on the email newsletter: it’s not about showing your latest work or sending out coupons, but instead we’ll look at how you can use email to provide resources to those in your community or areas of interest.
Along the way, you’ll establish credibility as a trusted leader and use that role to increase awareness and drive sales for your photography services and products.
We’ll cover:
- Why email is making a comeback
- Positioning your email efforts for success
- The technical mechanics of hassle-free email newsletters
- Investment: how much time or money will be involved
- How to build authority in your area (geographic or interest-based)
- How to turn email subscribers into paying photography clients
- Opportunities for revenue above and beyond your photography
Your instructor is Aaron Hockley, M.Photog.Cr, FP-OR, HFP-OR, a photographer with a background in the tech world. Over the past few years, he’s sent hundreds of thousands of email messages to his subscribers. Those efforts have helped Aaron establish authority and increase revenue for his photography services and related ventures. He writes frequently about the technical and online aspects of photography at TechPhotoGuy.com and his book “The Computer Ate My Photos: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Photography” was published in late 2021.
June 27 and 28
$99 for each day
Or $149 for the 2 day
Non member Rate $50 more
