Alan Khan Wedding Photography And Video
Working as a media student who wants to be a journalist, I interned with Alan Khan, a commercial wedding photographer, who gave me the opportunity to learn media skills, and I gained practical experience that related to my academic studies. In this paper, I will discuss the role of social media as it relates to my internship.
Did I See A Vision?
In my placement essay, I spoke about seeing a vision, and I am realizing now that the role of social media can help small business like Alan Khan reach a wider audience. As I mentioned before the work of documenting weddings is now so much more digital than it ever was, and people want a variety of ways to share their moments that go beyond a set of photos in a book.
I really saw how the work of photography has changed, even in the past few years. Some things are different even from a few years ago. While Photoshop skills are still very useful, there are more and more tools now available like Google Plus for editing photos, and even apps on your phone that can make anyone into a photography and video editor. I think I learned more about how to stay on top of the market by leveraging the almost ubiquitous nature of the web by giving clients not only awesome photos but a way to tell the story of their wedding day in the way that they want to tell it. It is hard to pin down the power of social media.
I saw a vision where everything counts, from the titles you give to the photos that have to be 25 characters or less, to the perils of finding a perfect way to get the bride and groom assembled into one room for a group shot, to thinking out of the box by using Facebook and social media for advertising that is not stale and filled with marketing junk language. In my research I learned that successful boutique wedding and photography companies are now getting 60 to 80 percent of their bookings from social media clients.
It takes a lot of work to get 158,830 likes on Facebook. And it is hard to market a company when the market is saturated. The good thing about social media is that anyone can make a Facebook or Twitter page. The hard thing is to make it last and to consistently add good content to the site. People like me who use the web we are not looking very carefully. We go from one page to the other and when we land on a page we like the content has to pop out at us to engage our minds. Otherwise we will go on to the next thing. When people are looking for weddings they are most likely doing it very quickly and they will call the company based on how it is perceived on the internet. The marketing scheme Khan uses is to say he is a “public figure,” which signals to people who go to the site that the wedding photography company cares about the community. As I mentioned in my placement essay, we are targeting wedding clients, but I am thinking we are also targeting the friends of the bride and the groom, and those who are interested in the wedding and want to see pictures from the great day.
Social Media
- Facebook Page
- Twitter
- Instagram
- Wordpress
Social media gives the company a chance to show off its work to a wider audience. But I think the most powerful thing we can do is to encourage sharing of content. People like to share what they see online, and I think making our Instagram page more shareable would be good for business. People like to share content that reflects they identities and the culture of the area, so I noticed people share more from noticeable areas in an around the city, more than they share of generic looking photographs.
I am keeping track of comments. The company makes comments based on contact information, but people make comments based on feelings. One instagram users says about a photograph, “beautiful bride, absolutely gorgeous.” So it would make sense to keep that language in the marketing. Maybe we could blend the two and instead of just listing the contact information on every photo we post on Instagram, make it personal. And say “Contact us for gorgeous photographs of your wedding,” rather than just a boring “call us blah blah blah.”
I mentioned in my placement essay similar thoughts and I think it is working. People do comment about location, their own thoughts about the beauty of the bride, and sometimes, but not as much, how they were feeling at the event.
Did We Improve for Success?:
- I think Instagram is a great obvious choice for social media marketing for photographers. I noticed that we used area architecture in our branding, and really tried to show the beauty of the Sydney brand for both local Marsfield client and others.
- While the business is branching out into the international market, there has to be consideration of costs, and how to market properly for both brands.
- Media coverage has not been a priority, and the results online are more generated in-house rather than coverage from local papers. If Alan Khan makes friends on Twitter or on Facebook with other leading wedding photographers he admires, it could help him leverage his local brand to broader coverage.
- If I were to start my own small business I would expand the market to Home photography, as I mentioned in my placement essay, because I still think it is growing as a viable market and people want professional photographic records of their home.
Continued Training In Wedding Photography
As an intern, I learned valuable technical skills— more than I initially thought I would learn.
- The mechanics of using a DSLR camera and its settings, and how to use the camera we used for cinema weddings.
- Different types of shots for cinema weddings and choosing a soundtrack for the wedding video.
- Editing photos in Photoshop and printing photos for clients
But most importantly, I learned the art of communicating with customers and teaching them to how to act natural for the camera, whether it is in the studio or outside in a park, or inside a house of worship, the art of photographing people is getting to know people. For photographers, their art is to capture moments. At the right time. It is not possible to stop the wedding, or to ask the couple to do the wedding vows again. The photographers I worked with during my internship taught me how to capture these personal moments better, and I realized that what I learned from Alan Khan’s teaching me, is that what he does is not just a science, but an art.
Conclusion
As I mentioned in my placement paper, I took on working with a wedding photographer so I could learn additional skills and to get involved in a business that I enjoy. In doing this job I have seen the value of social media and how it is important. I have learned Photoshop and I have become proficient at cropping images, resizing images, and getting photos ready for clients on a CD or on a thumb drive. Working with clients has been a great learning experience for me, and I can tell that clients really value the trust they place in you to document their wedding. When giving feedback it is important to have that initial trust because clients will then listen to you.
I also learned so much about video editing as well, and the use of editing techniques to make quality “Hollywood” like wedding videos. Even the basic stuff like printing photos and choosing the right music for the soundtrack are all valuable skills I learned. Finally, being a wedding photographer exposes you to so many experiences, different kinds of weddings, and I learned so much about culture, and was able to I try great food and learned different dance moves.
The art of photography is something that I would love to do in the future, and I think as we move forward social media will certainly play more of a role in how people conceive of their weddings. I originally wanted to be a news reporter, but work in photography is my plan “B.” By choosing a photography internship instead of one with a news reporting internship like the one I did for SBS differentiates my skill set and shows that I am willing to try different things.
What social media shows is that we can interact with a larger number of people, using images, videos, stories. On the web even journalists have to know the importance of including images with their writing. People want the image to speak a thousand words. By allowing people to post on their Facebook, or on Youtube, and giving people who are not technical with the Web the tools they need to distribute their wedding is an exciting project. In working as a wedding photographer, I have learned that the art of capturing the important moments of people’s lives can be enhanced by strategic use of social media, and my career, and my academic work, has allowed me to integrate media concepts to further these ideas into my own professional development.
