Any professional photographer should ideally have a professionally taken picture. Being a semi-whimsical spirit, I always change my Twitter or Facebook (new fan page) profiles frequently. Most of the time with images taken with my iPhone.

After weeks of left-brained marketing work, I decided that it was time for a break. While visiting Jessica Claire today, I was inspired to take my camera out after seeing a bag of used film in her car.

“Dang it! My new camera is literally collecting dust,” I thought to myself.

Plus, I had another one of those “it’s time to change my profile picture” feelings today. How auspicious. So I went home and spent the next 15 minutes setting up two remote AlienBees AB800 strobes with one diffuser disk (didn’t have soft boxes with me).

It was a pretty easy setup for those interested. It was a two point system with one main light and one fill / hair light from rear.

Wouldn’t it be cool to do setups like this at every wedding? I would need at least 4 assistants. Takers?

Stay bright (ha ha pun king! just kidding.),

Lawrence Chan

P.S. Versace – if you like what you see, I would be more than happy to model / take pictures in exchange for sunglasses…call me! xo

Are you a frequent traveler or a person who likes stylish things? Either way, I want to share a new find – the Shootsac Hip Slip!

I’ve bought many laptop bags in the past. Some have great features, but end up being very heavy. Some are really light in weight, but end up lacking features. Until recently, I could never have both.

Jessica Claire and Keats Elliot engineered a new Shootsac product called “Hip Slip,” which is a laptop bag that is chic and light weight. It has a number of nice features:

• 3 main compartments (one in front, one for laptop and one in back)
• Laptop zipper has inner lip to avoid scratches
• Removable inner cushion for various laptop sizes
• Detachable shoulder straps
• Interchangeable covers
• AIRPORT FRIENDLY (just place entire bag through security without needing to remove laptop)

Notice the inner zipper lip, which will protect the laptop from scratches.

Check out the detachable shoulder straps via industrial clips.

AIRPORT FRIENDLY – my favorite feature!

Just for the record, they did not ask me to do this. I just like to share good products I find, and this is one of them.

Sincerely,

Lawrence Chan

P.S. Whenever I go to airports, you can find me in the following queue hehe

Hello everyone,

As you might know, I am leaving for Europe for six weeks. If it piques your interest, read the following article for all of the countries I am visiting! I will try to tweet / post here and there, but know that I undergo great lengths to find a cyber cafe to say “hello!”

subscribe | follow @tofurious

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Did you know that Tofurious started a WordPress blog in February 2009?

I am not saying that I am an expert blogger, but I’ve learned a thing or two over the years. And most of my knowledge was acquired by observing successful bloggers (especially those within our own photography industry). So the first step toward becoming an effective blogger is to…

Observe Successful Bloggers

I use the word “successful” loosely, but what I really mean is “effective” [bloggers]. Just like photography, we study images that “work” and with time create our own styles. I will be listing a number of blogs that I have learned from, but it does not limit them to only that trait.

Interview Someone

When I think of interviews, I immediately think of Jules Bianchi’s Cafe; interviews by her lovely sister Joy – @joybianchibrown. Using the informality of coffee breaks, Jules interviews various industry leaders at Jules Cafe.

What does this establish?

• It creates a relationship between the interviewer and interviewee
• The interviewee will promote said interview, thus promoting the interviewer
• Creates community

This is a good way for both parties to promote each other. Additionally, the interview will provide good content for readers, which is sort of the point. So…try to get interviewed, or interview someone (like me)! No one has interviewed me yet and it makes me sad.

Twitter

If you do not have twitter, go to www.twitter.com and register for an account. After that, follow @tofurious (that’s me) hehe!

Zack Arias @zarias recently wrote an interesting article about Twitter and “Six Degrees” of separation.

…helped the photography industry build community. Both virtual and real. Twitter is a key to my marketing plans over the next year but beyond that, it keeps me in touch with so many people that I would normally fall out of touch with due to time or distance. Not to mention how many new friends I have thanks to social networking.

In a nutshell, Twitter allows for a number of things, but not limited to what’s listed below:

• Follow activities of people through an instant feed of 140 characters
• You can connect with others
• Others can connect with you
• Spreading of ideas through #, RT, etc.

Less Is More

Jose Villa is the epitome of “less.” I was given the great pleasure of designing his new blog (not public yet) recently and his ideas truly inspired me. As a search engine specialist, I kept pushing for certain elements for his blog, but Jose dimissed them all. And I admire him for that.

So how does this apply to us photographers? Vu Bui once told me over breakfast that he discourages people to post more than 10 images on their blogs.

Vu preached that everyone has the same images over and over again. So rather than creating the same sink hole of bandwidth-sucking blog posts, post only 10 images that would knock the socks off of viewers. After that, post your 100+ images in a slideshow or something.

Jose uses minimalism in his photography artwork. He is, after all, one of the “Top 10 Wedding Photographers” in the world, so he is doing something right.

Transparency

I once asked Aaron Dieppa about something in his personal life, which I read on his website. “It’s something private, but it’s cool that you shared it.”

“Yeah, I believe in transparency. I want my clients to know me for me,” responded Aaron.

I had this similar conversation with [B]ecker and his poker aspirations. He and Jessica Claire are the only two people I know that post publicly their love for poker on their business websites.

Does this help / harm them? It’s relative. However, I believe that it helps them more than anything. By posting about one’s personal life, viewers can get to know the blogger on a personal level.

How does this apply to photographers? Brides have booked me [and the aforementioned] to shoot various weddings without even meeting in person. Great, isn’t it? Brides do this because they already have this informal / personal relationship with us. Before they even email or call us, they already have a good feeling how we operate as professionals and as regular individuals.

Take away the occupational titles, we are just humans. And humans like
to connect with other humans. We build bridges through common grounds, so express them!

Consistency

Have you ever read a blog post by Jasmine Star? She is one of the most eloquent writers I know [of]. (I hope to change “know of” to just “know” because I hear she is a fabulous person). All of Jasmine’s articles are like tiny excerpts of her clients’s lives.

Rather than telling a story only with pictures, Jasmine precedes it with a text-based story. And she consistently delivers every time!

So how does this apply? If you are consistent with a certain style, readers will expect it over time. However, I am not saying that you should not try new things. Just imagine cooking… Always bake your delicious cookies at the same temperature, but try throwing in raisins or chocolate chips to spice things up!

Cheers,

Lawrence

P.S. Transparency: I tried getting a pedicure for the first time on Wednesday. I liked it! I even got my eyebrows waxed. I liked that too! I think I will be visiting this one salon quite often now. By chance, you might bump into me

Honey Nail Spa – they ROCK

626-844-7299

563 S. Lake Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101

I – Doug (Lawrence’s brother) – took over this blog post! Woot! Yesterday I had lunch with Brian Khang and Aaron Dieppa. We had an interesting discussion about “radtastic” ideas.

My day was then followed by a competitive game of poker at Becker‘s pad where I saw a number of cool photography peeps – one of which was Jessica Claire! Check out my video journals with these inspirational people!

(screen shot from video)

Lunch With Brian and Aaron

Video blogging offers clients an opportunity to see our lives in a perspective aside from our professional demeanor. This allows them to communicate and bond with us on a more personal basis. Ergo, I advise everyone to not treat brides as clients, but more as friends

Chit Chat With Becker

Becker is not actually going out this weekend! When I filmed this, I was intending to release it next week, but decided that it would be no good by next Friday since Becker will already be in Las Vegas. Anyway, check out Becker’s [b] school – Changing the way photographers connect!

How Jessica Claire Got Started

There is no substitution for experience. Everyone has to earn their stripes! Therefore resilience coupled with prudent planning will pave roads to success!

By the way, Jessica’s work station has four 30″ monitors – I could barely keep my eyes off of it while holding up my camera. Anyway, check out www.JessicaClaire.net and her ShootSac products!