Mike Impens and Impressions Photography's Blog

April 2010 Update

bigimp77 — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:27:51 +0000

This month, we have decided to write about a couple different topics.

The first is our attempt to institute a Customer Referral Program.
We would like to introduce a new customer loyalty and referral program at Impressions Photography. Starting immediately for everybody that you refer to us, you will receive your choice of free photographic services, or a monetary gift. Obviously these freebee’s range in value depending on what service or products the referred customer purchases.

We feel that if you are taking the time to tell someone about us, and it is because of you that they are booking a Photo Session or Wedding, we should thank-you somehow.

Just be sure to tell the person you referred to us to mention that you recommended us to them to qualify. Photographic Services or monetary compensation will be awarded after the referred clients have received their end product and final payment is made. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

The second is that we are trying to run a Senior Portrait campaign. I think that the problem here is the location. All of the Seniors that I have talked to have no idea about how this kind of thing works. I have tried to explain it, but they don’t seem to follow. I guess the rules are simple, they can have any kind of session that they want. Any location they want, like where their garage band plays, at the football field where they compete and with any props or attire that they want. The session would be to capture the uniqueness of themselves and to showcase their personality photographically.

If anyone wants information on anything that we offer, let us know.

Mike Impens
Impressions Photography
www.impressionsbymike.com
mike@impressionsbymike.com
519-322-4769

Sports Card Day

bigimp77 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:59:31 +0000

In our local minor hockey association, picture day has come and gone. Those days are always filled with such chaos and commotion. One thing that has always haunted me is the question of why any parent would want a sports photograph of their child when they are still and not participating in the sport itself? My biggest question is why then would someone want a hockey card, baseball card, etc… of their chid standing lifeless infront of someones lens? That doesn’t capture the essence of the sport.

I have been trying for the last little while to think of some way to give parents an option to these lifeless photographs. One way would be to have an action photo day, or have a few days in which a photographer would go out to a few games and take action photographs of the players actually playing. This way parents can actually get sports cards of their children that look more like the sports cards the professionals have.

I would love to get some feedback as to your opinion. Would this be something that you as a parent are interested in, or it just another silly idea?

Tagged: action, action cards, action pictures, sport, sport action photography, Sports, sports action, sports cards, Sports photographer, Sports photography, sports pictures

Time for Destination Weddings

bigimp77 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:11:57 +0000

Well, it’s almost the end of the season for capturing the fall colours. The wind has done it’s job and most of the leaves are off the trees until next year. Winter Weddings are starting to pick up, and I’ve been getting quite a few calls about summer 2010 Weddings. There are some out there that are inquiring about our Destination Wedding Packages. These packages are probably the most complete packages on the market.

Our packages are quite simply that we would be working for you the entire week. We will Document your entire trip for you by Photographing you and your group for 3 hours per day. We capture your excursions on the resort and off the resort, we set up beach, sunset, sunrise and other resort Photo Sessions and any other group gatherings that you might have. On your Wedding Day we Document everything from the Bride and Groom getting ready to the partying afterwards.

The Resort Photographers will charge anywhere from $1000.00 USD to anywhere up to $5000.00 USD to capture your Wedding day for only a few hours. We figured that we could come up with something that would be a bit more bang for the buck to these happy couples.

To start the next season of Destination Weddings, we decided that we would come up with a special that would kick start peoples interests. Our special is that we would offer our services at no charge!

Thats right….NO CHARGE for our services. All that would be required is that all Airfare and Accommodations for the Photographer and Second Photographer/Assistant be booked by the clients.

But Hurry, We will only be giving out this special to the first 5 clients who book us for their Destination Wedding.

You can email us at impressionsphotography@sympatico.ca.

www.impressionsbymike.com

Tagged: Destination Wedding Photographer, Destination Wedding Photography, Destination Wedding Photography Special, Destination Weddings, Photographer, Photography, Wedding Photographer, Wedding Photography

NewWebsite!

bigimp77 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:51:07 +0000

Well, we just finished with our new website. Hopefully everyone will find it easier to navigate, and can see samples of everything in one place.

You can view it at www.impressionsbymike.com Let me know what you think!

Tagged: Impressions Photography, www.impressionsbymike.com

Sports Photography event#2

bigimp77 — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:49:44 +0000

Well, we had a pretty successful outing during the Leamington Lakers Memorial Baseball Tournament on July 10, 11, 12, 2009. We had lots of interest in the way we had things set up but the most encouraging thing was all the positive compliments about the photos and the prints themselves after the customer had them in their hand. We have gotten referrals, and other photographic work from that event and I guess that goes a long way in saying that we deliver a quality product.

We have also been fielding emails and phone calls from other teams that would like our Team DVD Packages. For $300.00 per team (if you have 12 members on the team it works out to $25.00 per player) you would get a DVD for each player. Pictures of them swinging the bat, playing their position, throwing, catching, etc…(we also capture other sports, indoors or out)

Check out some of the images at: (Copy and paste to your browser)

http://impressions-by-mike.dotphoto.com

Till next time……..

Tagged: baseball tournament, event photography, Impressions Photography, leamington, leamington lakers, memorial tournament, Sports photography, sports pictures

Sport and Event Photography

bigimp77 — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:49:43 +0000

It’s been a little while since I have reported anything. We had a very busy day on Saturday June 20th 2009. This was our first launch of our sports photography division, and the weather didn’t look like it was going to cooperate. On the Friday night, it didn’t look like we were going to be setting up for the Saturday. At times the sky would just open up and let loose a flurry of rain followed by strong winds.
When Saturday morning came around, we immediately started searching online for the weather reports of the day trying to determine if we would be able to set up sometime around 8am.

We decided to drive to Wheatley to and gamble that the day was going to gradually get better as the weather channel stated. We arrived at the soccer field close to 8:15am and started to look for a spot to set up. This was going to prove to be a daunting task as the field had become saturated over night. We started to hunt for higher ground and settled for a section just behind the field. Now came for the time consuming part…..the set up.

What we bring with us depends on venue. Being this was an outdoor event, we had a lot of extra set up as we needed to protect our computer equipment from the elements. Not just rain, we had to worry about wind and dust as well. We set all our equipment under a 10×10 tent with a back wall. We hung a banner up at the front of our tent to let the parents know what we were doing. Then the tables, stools, main computer (with monitor keyboard and mouse), networking device (with 3 monitors, 3 keyboards, 3 mice), Epson R1900 Photo Printer, 1TB External Drive, Chargers, Card Reader, and of course our cork board with samples and prices.

This was our first official test of our Events Set-Up, and it did go very well. We were not really busy, but was hoping for that so we could iron out all the bugs before our bigger venues this summer. It looks like we will be at 3 baseball tournaments and 2 hockey tournaments that have been booked for this upcoming year.

All in all, we are very excited to offer this service and it gives us a chance to network in other markets as well. We also try to give a little back to the host organization in the hopes of being able to come back the following year.

If you have any questions about our Event Photography, you can either call us at 519-322-2105, or email us at impressionsphotography@sympatico.ca.

Tagged: action, action photography, action pictures, Events, onsite printing, Photography, Sports, sports pictures

A Second Look at that Great Wedding Photography Deal

bigimp77 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:49:13 +0000

I’m starting to get a little frustrated at these people that claim the be Photographers while working with entry level DSLR’s or even point an shoot cameras. As a Bride or Groom, if you do not know this before your big day don’t you get a little nervous that you know the pictures won’t turn out the way you had hoped? Most of these people that are offering Wedding Day packages for $200.00 to $350.00 are not legitimate, and quite frankly, not worth the risk. The old saying goes, You get what you pay for, and in this industry, it’s true.
Photographers put out a lot of money for top of the line equipment and software, having multiple backups for DSLR’s, Lenses, Memory Cards, Hard Drives for image archival, Computers, Editing Software, and the list goes on. Ontop of this, after a Wedding they have to pay for the printing of pictures, Albums, Photo-Books, and Framing, and that is not including a wage for the photographer. A typical Professional Photographer will spend 8-10 hours capturing your Wedding Day. This means over 1000 images to look through and decide which of these are the best ones and worthy of editing. Then comes the creative editing process which will see the pictures go through different avenues of processing to create images that are black and white, sepia, soft focus and the list goes on. This stage can be anywhere from 20-40 hours and even longer in cases of very large weddings. Most of the general public like to have their wages from $15.00 and more, and the average photographer after paying out all the expenses would like a decent wage as well.
All I’m saying is look into what is offered, look at the price and if it is too good to be true, it has a catch. It’s your Wedding Day we are talking about, do you want to be disapointed? No. Then don’t skimp on something that you want to remember for years to come.

…….Until Next Time……..

Tagged: Discount Photography, Legitimate Photographer, Photographer, Photography, Wedding Photography

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bigimp77 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:58:28 +0000

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Tagged: Impressions Photography

A good day for marketing

bigimp77 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:28:23 +0000

It’s a very overcast day here in Southern Ontario, so I have decided to sit down and come up with some marketing materials, as well as to think about some new specials to extent to my clients.
I am awaiting my new pc tower so that I can go through with a dry run of my Event Photography and On-site Print Station set-up. I am very excited to start to offer this service to my clients, especially during Sporting Events and Tournaments.

…..until next time……

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bigimp77 — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:40:03 +0000

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