F8 Creates open for business

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Im abusing my membership doing this no doubt ... but i dont care... ;)

this is my company www.f8creates.com

we 3 offer a service that covers 3 major areas within the creative industry as it stands - Web design, Graphic design and Photography.

we have started doing work within the hifi industry ... taking photos for mark grant, neils "adventures in hifi audio" and 3 other projects im not able to discuss just yet (works in progress)
we would like to do more within the hifi industry... so here i am plugging my self :)
that said, we are certainly not limited to hifi, we have between us quite a lot of experience working on projects from promoting snooker halls to websites for a local Abbey, to hill climb promotional material... all sorts... not to mention more personal services like wedding photography! we all love what we do, and working together we have found to be beneficial to our clients in terms of producing comprehensive a service that is less hassle, less time consuming and less costly. and we are all bloody ace at what we do... and pretty good people too :) (well im bloody ace anyway!)

[retro]

Pretty innovative site.Like it.:)
But you must work something on your hair (hat).I am accidentally co-owner of hairdressing salon :lolsign:
Think that Marco will not mind

Regards,

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Don't care if he does... I have put over 4000 posts into this place ... I deserve some privileges .... ;) :lol:
This is ok right marco?

[Mike]

I've added you to my "favorites"... it may come in handy if my plan comes together. ;)

Probably later rather than sooner though...

[AlanS]

Best for the venture Hamish.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Good stuff Mike! Later or sooner is no prob, just let us know

Cheers Alan!

[The Grand Wazoo]

All the best with it, mateyboy!

[Alex_UK]

Same from me, all the best with your new venture Hamish.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Cheers :)

[Beechwoods]

Good luck with it all Hamish!

[Techno Commander]

I am sure you will be much better than this chap.

http://www.wimp.com/photographymishap/

[Haselsh1]

I wish you all the best Hamish. I've been trying to do something with my photography for five years now and it is painfully slow. Some days people are interested, other days there's not one response. Most people just keep their money in their pockets. I hate the thought of having to go back to wedding photography, I hate it with a vengeance.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I have seen that loads of times, and it makes me laugh every time... Poor bugger!

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I wish you all the best Hamish. I've been trying to do something with my photography for five years now and it is painfully slow. Some days people are interested, other days there's not one response. Most people just keep their money in their pockets. I hate the thought of having to go back to wedding photography, I hate it with a vengeance.

Cheers Shaun .. It's why I teamed up with the other 2... The photography was going just about ok with the weddings, but I wanted more interesting work... It seems to be paying off.... Through doing web sites I'm learning another trade and finding my eye for design.... I'm really enjoying it!
We are actualy going out tonight to celebrate how successful it's been...
I'm just lucky I think to have found 2 people to work with who are so good within thier fields ....
I'm a very happy man with it all at the moment!

[The Vinyl Adventure]

These are our business cards ... A bit of fun, but efective I think

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/36423_141061662572124_1399695360146.jpg

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/36423_141061665905457_1399695360146.jpg

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww282/hamish_gill/35412_141070919237865_1399695360146.jpg

We give them out as a set of three .... What do you think?

[Techno Commander]

Excellent, I dont think I could bear doing wedding photos for very long. Hopefully you will find plenty to keep you busy without having a brain melt down.

[Haselsh1]

You know, back in 2003/2004, I worked for Asda in one of their photo centres operating all of their Fuji Frontier processing machines and Fuji Smartpix digital terminals. The number of professional wedding photographers who brought their work to us was alarming. All of their work was digital and printed to seven by five inches at five pence a copy. This involved around one hundred prints. Now you have to remember that there is also an outlay of around three hundred pounds for a quality leather album and lots of computer work to get these images right but they would have been charging around fifteen hundred pounds for their services as a pro wedding photographer for a weekends work. This just has to be a seriously easy way to make money.

I have only shot around four weddings and these were back in the days of film only. The work involved and the expense involved was considerable but I notice that since the advent of digital, no one appears to have reduced their charges accordingly. In fact, if anything, wedding photography charges have rocketed. I used to use Verka albums and shot everything on Kodak Portra NC160 film. The results were glorious if I say so myself. Digital has reduced everything to mere convenience and there is very little in the way of true quality anymore.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I agree, I often refer to my self as a fraud... And i dont do what most wedding photographers do...
I'd feel guilty if I did what most photographers do when it comes to weddings... I just charge by the hour. I don't force people to have wedding albums, I do any printing through a high end printers that I hand picked based on the quality of the images, a company in Brighton 250 miles from me - a pain in the ass for me - but good for my customers. I also provide all my customers with an online gallery, and high rez files so they can just print them them selves if they like... And I'm about the cheapest pro in Worcester.... And I still get twice the money per hour for wedding photography than I do for anything else...
Its a crazy business te wedding business...

[The Vinyl Adventure]

For anyone who isn't aware, most wedding photographers talk thier customers into highly over priced "packages" that include a over priced wedding album, and then still try and make more money by selling ferther images than the 40 they offer as part of the package (a legacy from the days o film) ... It's fairly shameless profiteering for photography often infirior to even my wedding stuff that I charge probably a 3rd of what they do

[Barry]

You know, back in 2003/2004, I worked for Asda in one of their photo centres operating all of their Fuji Frontier processing machines and Fuji Smartpix digital terminals. The number of professional wedding photographers who brought their work to us was alarming. All of their work was digital and printed to seven by five inches at five pence a copy. This involved around one hundred prints. Now you have to remember that there is also an outlay of around three hundred pounds for a quality leather album and lots of computer work to get these images right but they would have been charging around fifteen hundred pounds for their services as a pro wedding photographer for a weekends work. This just has to be a seriously easy way to make money.

I have only shot around four weddings and these were back in the days of film only. The work involved and the expense involved was considerable but I notice that since the advent of digital, no one appears to have reduced their charges accordingly. In fact, if anything, wedding photography charges have rocketed. I used to use Verka albums and shot everything on Kodak Portra NC160 film. The results were glorious if I say so myself. Digital has reduced everything to mere convenience and there is very little in the way of true quality anymore.

Goodness I was definitely in the wrong business! What would be the profit after you have subtracted costs, fair wear and tear on the (presumably medium format) cameras and the all important insurance for lost or damaged film?

Regards

[Haselsh1]

Barry, sadly no one uses film anymore for commercial photography unless you have the expense account of Lancome or similar who still use 10 by 8 sheet film.
For wedding photography you leave nothing to chance so you never send your images off in the post preferring to take them in person to the printer. Everything is done using your own PC and Photoshop or Lightroom with the final printing being done at your local Asda store because their Fuji machines produce real photographs processed in the way of a vintage colour print. The Fuji machines use RGB lasers to write the image onto the light sensitive paper which is then developed and bleach/fixed in the traditional way. These images do not fade the way dodgy digital images fade.
For margins, I would suggest you look at close to 6k a month turnover with expenses at around 2.4k a month. The drawback is that you would have to spend around four days a week sat at your PC working on digital images and you would have to shoot four weddings a month, every month.

[Jason P]

And having done a few myself, you really have to be a people person and a diplomat. Coping with some fat drunken ar*e of a guest who insists on being photo'd leering at one of the bridesmaids - or being ignored and looked at as if you're something they've just stepped in... but on the upside, it can be good too. Glad I don't do many now though - and I think sometimes the stills are a little easier than the video side of it (as I've done in the past)

Oh, and BTW Hamish - the site and all the design looks great (or should that be GR8?) and I wish you every success - it aint easy, but if you deliver on time, on budget and what you've promised you'll have people queueing up at your door.

Jason

[Barry]

Barry, sadly no one uses film anymore for commercial photography unless you have the expense account of Lancome or similar who still use 10 by 8 sheet film.
For wedding photography you leave nothing to chance so you never send your images off in the post preferring to take them in person to the printer. Everything is done using your own PC and Photoshop or Lightroom with the final printing being done at your local Asda store because their Fuji machines produce real photographs processed in the way of a vintage colour print. The Fuji machines use RGB lasers to write the image onto the light sensitive paper which is then developed and bleach/fixed in the traditional way. These images do not fade the way dodgy digital images fade.
For margins, I would suggest you look at close to 6k a month turnover with expenses at around 2.4k a month. The drawback is that you would have to spend around four days a week sat at your PC working on digital images and you would have to shoot four weddings a month, every month.

Thanks Shaun,

I was just curious - I have no intention in going into the photography business, even with a pre-tax profit of £3.6k a month; I have neither the necessary skill, patience nor 'bedside' manner to do it.

Regards

[The Vinyl Adventure]

where does the £2.k a month expenses come from?

[Haselsh1]

where does the £2.k a month expenses come from?

The Verka albums I used cost me between 400-800 each. On average that's around 2k a month just for albums inlays and overlays. The 3k I made was for all of the bloody time I had to put in that I wanted paying for.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Ah I see, I just offer albums as an extra after the day ... I shoot my self in the foot really as few people go for them unless you talk the into a wedding "package"... But I'm not into that... It's not my main source of income and I just prefer to be easy going... I could, I'm sure, with the right marketing make a lot of money out of wedding photography... But my goals are elsewhere, and to a certain extent I have to leave my morals at the door!

[The Vinyl Adventure]

That said, maybe it's not about morals... I think I just don't value my wedding photography high enough to make a living out of it....

[The Vinyl Adventure]

Oh, and BTW Hamish - the site and all the design looks great (or should that be GR8?) and I wish you every success - it aint easy, but if you deliver on time, on budget and what you've promised you'll have people queueing up at your door.

Jason

The "F8" as in "fate" inst the intention, its F8 as in f/8 ...
but we liked the idea it could be take as fate if thats how it was seen... as we were sorta brought together through a means that someone who might belive in such things would call fate...