STAYING PRODUCTIVE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

We are in unprecedented times in our world with Covid-19, but I want to share my tips for staying productive during the pandemic. Most of us have never experienced anything like this in our lifetimes and we likely won’t again. Entire countries and states have turned into ghost towns and with that has come the stop of weddings. For many wedding photographers, this can be a scary time, I’m right there with you. But I’ve thought on this diligently over the past few days and decided I will use this time in my life to prepare my business for the future. Here are just some of the things I’m doing while not being able to shoot weddings to stay productive and hopefully even grow my business.

Staying active on social media.

It took me a few days to get over the initial shock but I have a renewed energy for staying active on social media. I’m sharing photos from past weddings, advice for couples who are still in the planning process and the occasional silly survey on Facebook or my IG stories. My advice though; make a “formal-ish” statement about the current state of affairs. Many people are noticing what companies are taking this seriously and who’s not. Make a non-biased, neutral statement about how you’re planning to be there for your couples before moving on to sharing “normal” social media posts. I’m also reaching out and making connections. I’m leaving genuine comments on others posts and building my community. Remember, don’t just be an emoji commentator. Leave a genuine comment of at least 4 words.

Another often over looked but useful social media platform is Pinterest. This is a great time to update your pinterest boards. Pin your own images to organized boards and make connections with others on pinterest.

Sharing past galleries with vendors.

I don’t know about you guys, but sharing the gallery with vendors is something that falls apart in my workflow during a busy wedding season. I spent the better part of yesterday and today going back through ALL of my 2019 weddings and sending every vendor the link to that weddings gallery. All wedding vendors are finding themselves with a little more time on their hands, so they’ve all been so appreciative to have new content for their websites and social media. This is also helping me build my vendor relationships. Win, win.

Taking care of my equipment and office.

Us photographers have a lot of equipment, and that equipment needs regular maintenance like cleaning, lens calibration, etc. There are tons of videos on Youtube showing you how to calibrate your lenses at home, and I promise it’s fairly easy. If you have a printer and some cardboard laying around, you’re golden. I also went through all of my SD and Compact Flash cards; formatted those that were ready and organized them in their cases.

Another thing we often push off because we don’t have the time are mundane office tasks. Here are just a few I’ve been working on and are on my to-do list.

• Organizing my desktop, document folders and hard drive folders.
• Updating all my adobe programs.
• Ensuring all my important files are backed up to my hard drives and cloud backups.
• Organizing my emails and email folders.
• Updating email signatures, contracts and templates

Updating my website & writing blog posts.

Take the time to review your website for errors and update your portfolio. Find a friend; either another photographer or someone with a good eye to give your website a once over. They can be helpful in finding errors you missed. They can also help you decide if there are any images in your portfolio that aren’t doing your talents justice.

I’m also working on blog posts, lots and lots of blog posts. Some of the things I’m blogging about; advice for couples and wedding inspiration. I’m also working on tons of free education for photographers. Photographer friends, don’t miss out. Sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss out. I’m also going back through all of my old blog posts and ensuring they are optimized for SEO.

I hope these ideas and tips helped you and gave you ideas of your own. Even though we can not physically be out with clients photographing their weddings, their families and their new babies we can still serve them. We can still work our businesses and plan for a better and brighter future.

I love you all. Please stay safe, healthy and happy.