Secrets

Some secrets are meant to be shared. Like the really juicy ones you just can't help telling at least one other person so you both can share in the fun of it. My greatest secret is having an amazing album company redgarterweddingbooks.com. Red Garter offers the best albums with truly wonderful customer service and has made me a customer for life. As if Red Garter Wedding Books isn't enough of a juicy secret, I have another one for you. This one is aimed at photographers just starting up there business and really need some freebies to help move things along.

First, you got to have training. I know a few self taught photographers that are amazing and can turn out a photo that is pure brilliance. I also know more often than not, photographers need training. There is just so much to learn. Technology and equipment changes so often that it is a great idea to stay on top of your game with a little training. Any great artist is a well trained artist. A trained artist knows all the rules and when and how to break them, creating a drop dead gorgeous piece.

Here's my secret:
http://creativetechs.com/training/category/6-month-photoshop-course/

Creativetechs are a group based in Seattle starting a revolution as far as I am concerned. They are offering FREE training on Photography, History of Photography (Coming soon), almost all Adobe applications:

Flash
Dreamweaver
Photoshop
InDesign
Lightroom
Illustrator

They also offer free weekly retouch demonstrations and have truly talented guest speakers. They do it all for FREE (as long as you can get to the webinar on time.) After that they do have to make some money for all their wonderful hard work, but at their prices, it's still a steal of a deal.

I can't believe I just gave blogged one of my best kept secrets. I might as well keep spilling the beans...

Next, marketing is one of those things I though just kind of came as I began my adventure from Amateur to Advanced Amateur. In my mind, you figure everything out along the way, right? WRONG! Marketing and branding yourself can be done at anytime, but is most beneficial if well thought out before you doing anything else. Here's my secret to a FREE starting point. Sarah Petty has specific to photographers marketing strategies and wonderful advice. Sign up for her 10 days of free emails and get some great ideas and information to springboard your marketing. Of course if you want to go all out and set yourself up for marketing greatness, she has a few things for sale to help with that too.

http://www.thejoyofmarketing.com/free

I loved my ten days of emails. It really got my creative juices flowing!

Lastly, as scrap booking takes over the world and this is a album company website, I feel l should let everyone know about Jessica Spargue. She is a very talented woman who I found when she offered a FREE course on Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects. I was feeling a little bored with my images and decided it would be fun to see what she was teaching other to do with theirs. I easily could build 10 albums that all would be fun and unique from the things I learned in her FREE course.

http://www.jessicasprague.com

Looking for more? This site has a ton of great things being offered for really reasonable prices. The things you learn there can definitely help the albums you build here be a real work of art.

Now it's your turn. I told you some of my secrets, I want to know some of yours :)