These delightful creations were made by my good friend and extremely talented baker Katy Davies, who has just launched her new Facebook business profile over at KatyBakey. Go and take a look, and see how long you last before licking your lips…

What mattered was that I captured the photos I was after, and it only served to fan the flames of my enthusiasm for growing my wedding photography business. Since the wedding day my head has been literally buzzing with ideas of how to move my business forward, and how best serve my wonderful clients to provide the best experience possible for them.

Here are some ideas I’m planning to implement over the next twelve months or so:

Presenting photographs via iPad and Apple TV

This year I’m aiming to present all of my photographs in person to my clients, instead of solely uploading them to a proofing website. It’s nice for wedding guests to view the photographs on a website after the event, but for me the emotional impact of the photos is lost if you only present them as small thumbnails on a site. After all, you’ve spent all that time creating the images and enhancing them to look absolutely stunning, and then destroy all of that hard work by presenting them as 200 px square thumbnails.

I’ve been toying with the idea of buying / hiring a projector, but a decent one isn’t cheap on both counts. Obviously the photos I take are high resolution, so I’d need a high resolution projector to do them justice. Enter the iPad – in theory (and I’m yet to try this, so watch this space…!) I should be able to stream photos from my iPad over a wireless network to an Apple TV box / High Def television for the clients to enjoy. I think (hope) it’s safe to say that most people have broadband installed at home, so this will be a convenient / hi-tech / slightly flash way of wowing them with the fruits of my photographic labour.

Online proofing area

Of course, I won’t be discarding the ability to view the photographs on the web completely. I currently use Zenfolio, and will soon be upgrading allowing me to create a client-only area where clients can login and view their photographs, and even order various photography related products long after the event.

Moo Minicards

Moo are fab – I recently ordered some business cards from them and was more than a little thrilled with what I received. They also offer mini business cards which I’ll be using at future weddings. The plan? Create an empty gallery in Zenfolio, order some minicards with the gallery URL and a “live” date printed on (two weeks after the wedding usually), distribute cards to the wedding guests, rush home and process the photos before uploading to aforementioned gallery, sit back and feel smug as guests log on to the gallery and wipe tears of joy away as they view my photos…!

Branded DVD sleeves

Along with streaming photos wirelessly via the iPad and uploading to Zenfolio, I’ll also be providing my clients with a disc of images presented in a branded DVD sleeve. Rebinder offer some lovely recycled options, and AsukaBook offer custom printed DVD cases, allowing me to print each sleeve with images from a specific wedding (I haven’t enquired about the price for this service yet, I’m guessing it’s not cheap..!)

Email newsletter

At some point over the next few months I’ll be building and sending out an email newsletter, containing news, images and fascinating facts about my life as a wedding photographer. It’ll be sent to everyone who registers, and clients will receive special offers / gifts via these emails as well. Watch this space…

This event also gave me the chance to whip the camera out and take some photos of the kids as they ran around and played. Here’s my cousin’s boys William and James who, as you can see, were very camera-shy (cough…!)

That’s the motivation behind my photography too. I have a burning desire within me to create images that people talk about, and most importantly, love. I want people to hang my fine art photography on their walls; I want my wedding images to bring tears to my clients eyes. I know it sounds cheesy and a little bit gauche, but it’s true. That’s what drives me onwards.

I’ll never stop learning, and I know this journey will never end. But that’s half the fun…

This is a photograph of Jane and Donald, taken at their Islington Town Hall wedding in London. This was moments before the civil ceremony was due to begin, and the happy couple and guests were assembling awaiting the arrival of the registrar.

I think Jane’s expression says it all – her face conveys a huge sense of pride and no small amount of love for Donald. It was an extremely touching moment, and I’m honoured that I was able to be there to capture it.

You can also set up pinboards of your own – for example, I’ve set up “Photography Inspiration”, “General Inspiration” and “Music”. There’s a wealth of fantastic imagery being shared on there, and I find it’s a constant source of inspiration. Maybe you will too?

Pinterest - you've got to be in it to pin it. Geddit...?! I'll get me coat...

By the way, joining Pinterest is by invite only, but if you’d like to join I may be able to help – simply ask nicely in the comments and include your email address, and I’ll fire over an invite to your inbox! Oh, and if you’d like to see what I get up to on Pinterest, have a look at my photography Pinterest profile. See you there!

Dan