I’m going to profile one photographer a day in alphabetical order for the next few mornings.  All the links to their blogs, Twitter, etc. will be right here , so expanding your horizons will be just one click away.  

Scott Bourne:  Scott’s become a great buddy and we’re involved in the GoingPro project  together, but that’s not why he’s teaching at Summer School.  I love working with people who I truly learn from and Scott is at the top of the list.  Professional Photographer Magazine wrote a story about him as the “King of Social Media” and he deserves the title – just his blog alone gets close to two million page views a month, greater reach than most of the photographic magazines.  

Scott’s message is so strong and his willingness to help people utilize social media is unmatched.  People used to say you can’t be in business without a yellow pages ad…well today, you can’t be in business without a website and in turn, social media is a critical component.  How are you going to make your blog more effective?  How are you going to use Twitter to expand your reach? 

He’s done a few guest blogs here on how to get the most out of Twitter.  Plus his background includes virtually every specialty in professional photography and he’s got a great marketing head as well.  Technically,  he’s pure geek through and through – on a constant quest to stay on top of technology.   And it’s the same for staying current with the latest challenges in our industry.

In his controversial January 25 blog regarding too-low pricing he wrote:

“It’s impossible to run a sustainable business over the long haul, deliver good quality and care for the client at lowball prices. I’ve been around a long time. I’ve seen dozens of businesses fail using this model and more importantly (and more to the point) have seen dozens of brides’ wedding memories ruined by photographers who had no business being there in the first place. There’s no do-over on a wedding. It takes a decent budget to get a decent result. Good reliable gear with backups cost money. Training cost money. Quality wedding prints, albums, books and gallery wraps cost money. If you sell a bride a cheapo wedding album that falls apart because you couldn’t make enough profit doing the cheapo wedding shoot, how does that serve the client? These are people’s lives you’re messing with. What could have more value than the wedding album – the first family heirloom of a brand new family? Think about it.”

Scott’s program on Visualization will kick off the first full day of Summer School on August 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas!  Then he’ll be helping me with some fun networking ideas at the end of that day.  One of the best parts of Summer School is just the ability to hang out with everybody and Scott will be there throughout the program to answer questions and help you with ideas to build a stronger business.

Want to learn more about Scott?  Follow his blogs, Photofocus and GoingPro.  Follow him on Twitter @scottbourne and @GoingPro2010.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at Joe Buissink, repeatedly referred to as one of the top ten best wedding photographers in America!

It was the headline of a story by David Dudley in the AARP Magazine this month and yes, I admit to reading AARP and damn proud of being old enough to have earned the subscription!   But the best part of the story is that for once I feel I’m actually ahead of the curve.

One of my new year’s resolutions was to talk more and email less.  Just this afternoon I caught up to a new friend, Joey Carman, and had a conversation about WPPI.  Every day I talk to my co-author and good buddy, Scott Bourne.  Jim Davis Hicks, founder of Thirst Relief is coming over to the house for lunch in the next week or so and I know, like last time he was here, we’ll spend the day coming up with new ways to create more awareness for the challenge of more fresh water around the world.

The issue is let’s find a way to talk more and email less!   We don’t talk to each other enough, but instead we Tweet and email.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but we all need to do a better job of doing both!  It’s especially important since we’re all part of an industry that thrives on human contact – we’re in the business of capturing those special moments – moments of people interacting, not communicating through their computer!

So, here’s the challenge – see if you can match one phone call to anybody you know for every email you send and texting doesn’t count.  This is about using your voice and really talking to friends, no matter where they are.   If we don’t talk more we’re all going to lose our ability to communicate.   I’ve already noticed that I’m spelling things phonetically as I struggle to capture a thought in just 140 characters.   While it might B gr8 2 B able 2 do, we’re even frgetting how 2 writ!   Photographers became photogs and then just togs…grammar is out the window, words like “at” has been replaced with @, two, to and too is just 2 and the list goes on & on & on!

David Dudley said it best in his close: 

“We’re in danger of becoming a nation of hyperconnected hermits, thumbs furiously working our BlackBerrys!”

PS. After posting this a few minutes ago, I can’t stop laughing over the link for Scott Bourne.  You’ll go directly to his lead story at www.photofocus.com on using Twitter for business.   So, let’s clarify my point…it’s a balancing act.  Social Media is as necessary to building your business as a website is today or a yellow pages ad was twenty years ago.  But, it’s a balancing act with personal contact and you’ve got to have both.  Keep the connections “live” with close friends and good customers and let’s not let having a live conversation with somebody become an obscure art form!

The Internet changed the way we share images, shop and communicate.  Digital photography changed the way we create and capture.  Social Media changed the way we connect and with who we connect.  Do I miss my life from ten years ago – NOT A CHANCE!

First, I love staying connected to an industry I truly appreciate.   Think about the people you “talk” to every day.  It used to be a year between friends connecting, often only at an annual trade show.   Now I’m connected to those once-a-year friends every day.

Second, the world is getting to be a tiny place.  I “talked” to Jerry Ghionis from Australia the other day who’s in Rome doing a wedding with Ryan Schembri.  And I’m connected to Yervant and Anie on a regular basis. I’ve never met Chris Fawkes and yet we regularly communicate, again on Facebook.    I can also keep track of where everybody is…Seshu, who I’ve also never formally met, a contributor to Charity Fest last fall, is on his way back to CT from India, Joe Buissink was in Russia and Charity Goh, a student I met at Hallmark Institute last year is trying to land a job in her home country of Singapore.  It’s all thanks to Twitter and Facebook.

Third, trends that used to take months to create, are out there in seconds in front of hundreds of thousands of people.  And if a manufacturer produces an inferior product, the word is out on a dozen forums in a flash.  Best of all, when you need help with a challenge, especially in photography, just post it on a forum like DWF and watch the number of people, many of whom you’ve never met, come to your aid!

Fourth, how about the way digital technology is changing our lives?  Jason Groupp, Charles and Jennifer Maring, Joseph Victor Stefanchik and Katherine Hall are leading the charge in Fusion Technology, while Jose Villa is shooting exclusively film and creating work that’s spectacular.  Bambi Cantrell and Dawn Shields worked a bridal fair recently and Bambi sent me an image on her i-phone that was good enough to post on the blog!   We’ve got the very best of all worlds at our fingertips.

The world shrinks a little with every step you take further into Social Media, but best of all is the power you have as a photographer to market yourself.    If you do it right and build your website and blog with a great attitude and the dedication to stay involved, you’ve got the power to communicate that just a few years ago only a national magazine might have had!  Scott Bourne’s PhotoFocus site has over a million page views every month, more than most publications!

So, every now and then I’ll complain that my day starts out with a couple of hours of blogging and I’m answering emails before the sun comes up.   But, would I go back to a nine to five job and not knowing what was going on until I literally opened my mail?  Would I trade in my computer for the silver letter opener my Dad had on his desk?  Would I trade in the excitement of “chimping” now and then for the pride of getting 38 exposures out of a 36 exposure roll?

The answer to all of the questions and the dozens we could all add to the list – NEVER!   In the history of photography, there’s never been a more exciting time and never more tools at our disposal to capture, create and share images.   If you’re not actively involved in staying on top of technology, as well as social media, you need to take another look.  I found the following quotes that seem so appropriate:

 ”Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.”
Stewart Brand

“The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn’t think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.”
Steve Ballmer

So, here’s the fun of this – follow me (http://twitter.com/skipcohen) on Twitter and next Monday we’ll give away the bag below to a random follower.    Then, we’ll follow up next Monday with a medium men’s bag from the “Jack” product line to give away.   Camera bags are a very personal thing, but the fun of Jill’s designs is simply they don’t look like camera bags – color, lots of style and functionally terrific!

So, sign up to follow me on Twitter and you might just find a new camera bag on its way to you!   We’ll find our first follower at random next Sunday night, February 14 – just in time for Valentine’s Day!