Photography Branding & Packaging

I never knew how important branding and packaging for a photography business until I read "Get Booked, Marketing Secrets" e book.

I have been only starting this business about 7 months a go. To be honest I do not have enough budget to create my photography business branding and packaging through a professional graphic designer, so I came up with an idea that  packaging and branding must be much  less costly then it should be.

I scoured high and low at Jo Ann Fabrics and Michaels (fabric and craft store) in the area.

I came up with my branding design by starting out with my photography logo, the mid tone aqua green/blue that looks like leaf sprouting out from a branch.  All  I knew that mid tone aqua green/blue and chocolate brown is the main color. Than I developed it from there.

Most of the labels I created in Photoshop Elements.

Since I know a special box is costly I created mine from the smallest USPS flat rate box. If you know any nice box for photography packaging that does not costly, please let me know. And I thank you for this.

***USING BLACK PAPER***

What good about the smallest flat rate USPS box is that when the client open the box, the first thing she is going to see is the note on the cover of the box itself, done in Photoshop. It says "Congratulations. Thank you for sharing these moments with me." I included a logo on the very bottom and usually a fairly small size.

I bought and collected mid tone aqua green/blue color ribbons from Michaels and Jo Ann Fabrics that are on the Dollar rack. 

I also put a surprise pouch that has a surprise gift in it.  I then wrote on the label "Surprise...!!" and tied with a cute aqua green/blue ribbon to the neck of the pouch to complete the theme branding.

I created an envelope where I inserted all the prints in it. I decorated it with a pretty USD 1.50 a package an aqua clip found at Michael. And using a double tape I glued a circular "You Look so Good" label in the middle of the package that I created on Photoshop Element.

If you can sew, you can create a pouch to put a surprise gift for the client. It is nice to put an extra little things in the box a long with their prints and the CD.  Here I hand sewn the pouch myself from a left over fabric.

Those packaging filler made from a shred paper that can be found at Michaels in the party isle for USD 4.00/large package.

***USING CHIP BOARD CARTON***

Another cute idea for a photography packaging is using chip board carton. Chip board carton can be found online or at Michaels craft store.  You can crate a CD case like the one  shown on the last picture but you need a CD hub that can be purchased through Amazon.  For the prints, I created from a similar material for the CD, the same way I did as the black paper envelope prints. I found a 'camera picture stamp' at Michaels for less than USD 4.00. Which I stamped on the bottom of the CD cover and on the envelope for prints. I wrapped around with a burlap trim found at Jo Ann fabrics store. (You might want to glue gun here and there so that the burlap trim wont slide). Next I inserted  an aqua color hair band found at Michaels for USD 1.00 a bunch.  A vintage lace trimmings tied in the middle as a decoration (found through Ebay)  then  I added a circular labels "You Look Awesome" on the CD case cover and "Smile..!!" on the prints package. This packaging is good for a children's birthday party or kids portrait, baby photography, senior, engagement, graduation, etc.

***USING MUSLIN FABRIC***

These packages are good for a wedding packaging. The cream silk flower is a pretty touch that adds a wedding flair to the whole wrapping. I created a label with the couple's initials, again done in Photoshop Elements.  Trimmings can be found at Jo Ann Fabric and Michaels stores. The material I am using is a muslin. I bought this at Calico Corners. This is a high grade muslin. It has  more  texture compare to the one from Jo Ann Fabric store.

I arranged and put these packages in the box in a similar fashion as the black paper photography packaging above. You can create a surprise pouch from a similar material.

Be creative with the whole packaging ideas. 

I love creating a package very much. To me, I really want to create a happy and a surprise feeling for my clients when they open the box. You should create 'a wonderful experience' for the client from the beginning to the end dealing with you as their photographer.  And going the extra mile by creating a pretty packaging  will definitely make your client happy.

Last, if you need some ideas about photography packaging, feel free to check out my Photography Packaging Ideas board on Pinterest. (here)

CD Hubs (here)

Jo Ann Fabrics (here)

Michaels (here)

Calico Corners (here)

Ebay (here)

Get Booked (Marketing Secrets) E-book (here)

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Thank you so much for stopping by!

A Vintage Bridal Gown

Steven and I have been married for almost 9 years this coming July. How time went by so fast. It seems like yesterday I met Steven for the first time.

I have been wanting to post about our wedding vignette that are displaying on a canvas in our wall bed room since a long time a go, for an unknown reason I totally neglect it. Yesterday I was looking at our wedding pictures, when I finished looking at all the pictures I then took some pictures of  the wedding vignettes from the wall and the vintage wedding gown  a long with the peonies I have in the living room.

It was a simple wedding party as I recall. I created all the table decoration like flowers and candle myself. I also created the invitation in Photoshop. I made my own hand bouquet of flower with a vintage button sewn on the stems that covered with vintage silk ribbons. My mother and father flew from Indonesia and brought many beautiful dried and polished sea shells as party favors, which I then decorated and to put on the table for each guest.

What I really love is the vintage wedding gown. It has a very soft unique color. It is like champagne color with a soft gray greenish and grey bluish tone in it. It is really a sweet 3 tiered vintage dress. The material looks vintage as well but in great condition. The top decorated with sequence all over the front part. It is simple, sweet and elegance dress.

Here you can only see the dress on the background. You can see the dried roses boutonnieres were worn by Steven and my son Buck at the wedding. Among other things on the canvas are my crystal flower hair pin, ribbons, a piece of the table cloth, mini wedding invitation, sea shells and the vintage rhinestone buttons that decorated the hand bouquet flower.

We are planning to have an exchange vows party for our 10 wedding anniversary.

I display the wedding vignettes near by my vanity table so I can see it every day. So far not a day went by without me thinking about this wedding day and  each day I  smile that we are happy embracing our moment together while waiting to celebrate our 10th anniversary next year.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Aarohi 1st Birthday Party

By now I found out not only that I love shooting food, vignette, home decor, etc. I also love shooting people; any age of people. But my true passion is shooting newborn and young children like these.

Candid shots of children are the most beautiful images in my opinion. The frozen emotion of these innocence kids are what I like to capture through my camera. They are so adorable. Don't you think?

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Have a nice week end Everyone?

Newborn Baby Girl Head Bands (DIY)

I can not  seem to get enough creating these new born baby girl's head bands.  It was like when opened up drawers and bins, found materials for them and suddenly there they are, six of them.

I have been itching to photograph a new born again lately. And when I dug deep in my heart and asked myself  again and again,  "what type of photographer am I?", the answer is a newborn photographer! But right now I  shoot everybody like family, birthday party, senior, newborn, etc. As a beginner photographer and seriously thinking about making this hobby turn into business; I need to practice and do a lot of photo shoot so that I am  comfortable shooting different people and clients.  From there, and in the future I would narrow down my niche. 'New born' and 'senior' are the two niches I feel like enjoy shooting. To be honest, I have not decided yet. I am happy to shoot anybody at this point.

Anyways, because recently I have been thinking and wanting to shoot a new born again (last new born photo session is here); so I created  these newborn baby girl's head bands in 2 hours  while watching television last evening. I think they are  adorable. I keep on imagining in my head  a newborn baby is girl wearing these head bands and I can feel the enjoyment and fun I will be experiencing from shooting her. 

I truly realized how competitive this business is.  But right now, although I must say that this is my business; I am not worry about getting a client or not. There is so much to learn about photography out there. It is endless. So I am always trying to perfect my skill in photography; technically, how to better use the camera, marketing, photo editing software like Photoshop Lightroom or Photoshop CS,  and finding my own style. I want to strengthen my style so that it won't just like any other photography out there. And let me tell you, this is very hard! I have been searching as much as I know about photography, still I can not find what it is that I am looking for. Again, I am not too worry about this since I have been in this business only about almost 5 months. Time will lead me the way, right?

So what do you think about these tiny head bands?

Thank you so much for stopping by!

And have a great week end Everyone!

Campanula

Hello,

How do you like the beginning of spring weather so far? I can't wait until spring time again. We had so much snow this year and so looking forward to spring time.

Last Sunday I bought this flower at Wholefood. I want a spring flowers to decorate my home and while I was arranging  the flowers in the vase I heard a bird  chirping away; tweet, tweet, tweet out side my window! It was so lovely. It felt truly like spring has arrived, it was was sunny just like a spring weather should be. I have not had this happy moment from just listening to a bird singing outside my window for a long time. 

So the flowers are looking pretty  in the vase and sitting in our living room right now. This is Campanula and I think the shape remind me to 'a bell'. I can't help myself to take pictures and started to paint them. I can't concentrate to paint that day as we are still fixing the new home.  That afternoon I ended up spending time in the new home sweeping the saw dust off of the floor as  they just finished putting the new hard wood floor in the living room. But I am happy with the painting though it still needs more work.

Happy Spring time Everyone?

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Emma-Grace

This was my first time shooting a new born. I can't tell you how happy I was when received an email from Courtney that she would like me to shoot her baby girl. Prior to that I have been wanting to shoot a new born so badly. I do not know why that I love shooting a new born. I have learned so much about it even before I shot Emma Grace. I bought all props and created so many head bands for a new born baby girl. (Sorry baby boy, I have not had one for you just yet).  So Courtney's new born baby girl was so perfect for me at the time.

During the shooting day, my heart was beating so hard of joy when she called me that they were near by my house. (The shoot was in my house). And Emma Grace was only 13 days old. She is so beautiful and has a lot of dark color hair.

Look how adorable Emma Grace is! I am in love with her picture.

"Courtney and Jacob, thank you so much for trusting me to shoot your beautiful baby girl."

March Journal/Collage

I can't wait for spring to finally arrive. It has been a long winter month here in New York. We had been having so much snow this year. Everybody just about had  enough of snowing and very happy to see warm days coming very soon.

This spring I promised myself that I will do a gardening. Our new home has a bit of ground in the front, side and back. I do many things in my spare time, gardening is not one of them for sure. I do not like touching the soil and seeing worms. But the thought of having flower from my garden decorating the rooms  has been in my mind since a long time a go. So I do hope I can do this gardening task just like I always dream about.

Do you have a special plan that you would carry out during spring and summer? I would like to know, please?

Thank you so much for stopping by!