Our friends at Alta Moda are at it again–their once-yearly sample sale of the most beautiful bridal gowns around. These are gorgeous couture gowns from top designers, available at 50-80% off retail. The sale is just one day, Saturday, December 10 from 10 am sharp until 3 pm. My advice: dress warm and arrive early, and then, when they open their doors at 10, prepare to be welcomed into the shop by the most friendly, professional and capable bridal consultants who will help you, individually, find the dress of your dreams at one heck of a deal.

Here’s owner Hilary Anderson’s post about the Alta Moda Sample Sale. Be sure to keep an eye on her blog for more details.

Let’s review.
Step one – Go get yourself at fancy dress at Alta Moda
Step two – Call me and let’s talk about your wedding photography
Step three – Live happily ever after

Here’s how it starts. You buy a camera, take some pictures, and really start to like the process. It’s addicting and plus, your friends start to tell you they like what they see. You post some on your new blog and the next thing you know, a friend asks you to shoot her wedding. You’re reluctant, but you think, well how hard can it be. It’s hard. You discover that. But, you make it through and end up with some great images and your friend is happy and she tells her friends. A few more calls come in for wedding photography and you think, well, now, this just might be a good way to make some money. You shoot a few more weddings, and quickly realize that learning to run a business is an entirely separate skill from taking great photographs. Pricing, networking, vendor relations, blogging, providing clients excellent service and the list goes on and on.

So where do you learn that separate skill of being a wedding professional? Thank goodness for Wedsmith. Now, in its second year, the owner of Alta Moda (so you know this will be high class up the ying-yang) have gathered a group of speakers to help wedding professionals ramp up and fine tune their business acumen.

I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but where I live, there are so many people that are in this industry, and while I love to look at the glass half full and say there’s plenty of work to go around, it’s clear that the kind of people that take their jobs seriously, are looking to improve their ability, and want to outsmart the competition, are the people that will attend Wedsmith this year, but they are also the same people that will still be in business next year and beyond.

So at this point you might be asking, what is it? It’s an “inspiring day of seminars, from the wedding industry’s brightest minds, designed to help you find and magnify your success.”

And now another question you might have is, is it just for photographers. Nope. This will benefit anyone in the wedding industry. Last year I met wedding planners, florists, videographers, and invitation designers,  but you should also consider going if you are a cake designers, calligrapher, wedding venue coordinator, media site owner, wedding and event blogger, DJ, photobooth company owner.

Still want more info? Ready to sign up? It’s all here on the Wedsmith site. www.wedsmith.com

Hope to see you there.

Lara Casey from Southern Weddings Magazine at Wedsmith 2010

A couple days ago I moved to my brand new space. Well, brand new to me. The building is over 100 years old. It’s the same building and same 2nd floor where I’ve been for nearly four years. I just moved a couple doors down to a bigger, more versatile space. I do hope you’ll come by and let me photograph you with the one you love, or you can even just drop by to say hi some time. Don’t forget to ask for a mint truffle. The new address: 1 East Center Street, SUITE 207, Provo, UT.

Goodbye suite 214. Many good things happened here.

The previous occupant to the new studio, suite 207, was the very charming Diana Palmer with Yan Photography. She let me use the studio once before and I took some maternity pictures of Stephmodo. She also let me use it as a little lounge area for Mindy Gledhill last winter when Mindy played a private house concert for our clients from 2010. And, I used it on another occasion when I photographed Diana and her family.

Diana Palmer from Yan Photography

Diana and Martin

So just hold on to your hats, and I’ll have plenty of pictures in the coming months to show what kinds of images I’ll make in here. I’ve already had a couple of portrait sessions and am in love with what the light does in this place. It used to be all white and I’ve painted the walls light gray on three sides and dark gray on one wall to make the light more directional and dramatic.

Note to photographers: Diana used to rent the studio to other photographers and I’m going to do the same. If you’re looking for a beautiful shooting space at a very affordable rate, let me know.

I am hiring.

Big things are happening around this place and we are looking forward to a busy and exciting year.

What we’re looking for: I could write a big, long description of all the things I’m looking for, but let me make this easy. If you are bright, confident, very well organized, dependable, love life and have a positive attitude, then that’s a good start. But it’s just a start. We’re pretty picky around here (but we’re fun, too).

We are looking for the right person for for a part-time employee that can start right away.

Tasks: Just some of the things you will do include:
Edit images
Make phone calls
Send emails
Run errands
Assist on photo shoots
Graphic design from time to time
Place print orders
Shipping
…you get the idea.

Skills: To be considered, you must be confident with Photoshop and you absolutely must be easy to work with, both in the office as well as with clients.

Schedule: It’s not necessary for you to be a photographer to be considered. The schedule is somewhat flexible, but will most likely be in the afternoon and some Saturdays.

Hot tip: Please send your resumes to justin@justinhackworth.com. And let me give you a tip. If you say in your email that you’d love to work here because you love photography so much, that line will not do you any favors. Honestly, who doesn’t like photography?

High Bar: And just to give you a little more info about who we’re looking for, the last person that had this job impressed us every day she was here. Every damn day she came in here and dazzled us. Always asking what else she could do, always offering to do more. Cheery as can be. Came in every day dressed to the nines. Clients loved her. I’m telling you what, she really raised the bar, and that’s the sort of person we have in mind.

If that’s you, we can’t wait to meet you.

Oh, and I hope you’ll understand that I may not respond to every applicant.

Here’s what I’ve been up to this week, or, links up the ying-yang.

Met with Courtney Kendrick (you probably know her as CJane), Sue Bradford, and Sarah Wiley yesterday about the Rooftop concert series coming up in Provo (on a roof!). It’s coming together. You’ll hear more about this very soon.

Helped Mindy Gledhill move a 700 pound piano to her office then took some pictures of her playing that very piano.

Slept in a tent last night in the backyard with my boys. It’s a trial run for this weekend.

Getting ready to head to New York City next week to photograph the BlogHer convention and Trevor Christensen is coming to shoot it with me.

Invited Jaimie to my office yesterday to view her wedding pictures.

Enjoying the crud out of my new phone.

Georgia brought me a newspaper article in the Daily Universe about the 30 Strangers exhibit that took place earlier this month.

Lucky me, Nat the Fat Rat came to say hello! I can’t get over what a joy she is.

Working on my life creed with help from Leo Weidner.

Did some test printing with a new photo lab – ProDPI – that I’ve been meaning to try. I think I may have found a new lab.

This is sort of old news. I have a brand new website. And by new, I mean that it’s now been up for about a month or so. (My blog is still the same as you can see). I must have been so busy knitting sweaters for Christmas that I forgot to mention it. In any case, I thought you should know.

So if you haven’t visited my main site in a while, you have a fun treat waiting for you. It’s lovely as can be. New pictures, new design. All new!

www.justinhackworth.com

In case you’re curios, I’m using BigFolio. Love those guys.

Amy and I are leaving for Vegas today. We’re going to be attending WPPI. It’s a big convention for wedding and portrait photographers.

See you in a while. Don’t wait up.

Here’s where Justin Hackworth Photography will be tomorrow, Saturday, January 3rd:

http://utahbridalshows.com/

If we’ve never met, now’s the perfect time to come say hello. Plus, we’re giving stuff away. Maybe you’ll be the winner.

First of all, thanks so much for everyone that came to the party on Friday. Throughout the night, we had about 100 people come see our space and say hello.

And I just can’t say enough good about the band that played: The Gatsbys. Thanks fella’s. You really spiced things up. I kept hoping they’d play this song and they did! Sweet.

And speaking of sweet, we had the most delicious cup cakes I’ve ever had, provided by Megan at the Sweet Tooth Fairy. I ate three. I’ll admit that now. Three cup cakes, snort snort. They were amazing.

We handed out raffle tickets and at a few times throughout the night we called out some winning numbers. (I actually used a megaphone, like I was a high school principal or something. You’ve got to get one). The winners were awarded gift certificates and products from the following places. Note: These are some of our favorite people in town and we love them and the businesses they run. They have our highest recommendations. We weren’t giving away stuff from just anyone.

Kaliedoscope Boutique
Shep Salon
Pizzeria 712
The Smokehouse
Metropolitan Salon
The Flower Basket
Mode Boutique
Applebees (just kidding about this one)

It’s so fun to have a party like that and see our good friends and make some new ones. I had a great time and really feel fortunate and blessed to know so many talented and interesting people. I love what I do for a living and it’s a good feeling to be able to share that with others. Thanks, friends, for coming to our little celebration. And now, some pictures.

This Friday, December 5th, we’re having an anniversary party at the studio. Although I’ve been in business for ten years or so, we’ve only been at this location for one year. We’d love to have you come say hi. If you’ve been reading the blog now and again and we’ve never met face to face, now’s the time.

The Gatsby’s will be playing and we’ll be giving away some gift certificates from some of our favorite locations in Utah County, including the Pizzeria 712–a place I wish I could dine every day.

Partygoers, do you believe in the power of sweets? Then you’ll be so glad to meet The Sweet Tooth Fairy and her cupcakes. Available in January at their retail location; available Friday at our party.

All the info can be found right here. We’d sure love to see you.

Advice for photographers:

Never think photography is easy. It’s like poetry in that it’s easy enough to make a few rhymes, but that’s not a good poem. –Chris Steele-Perkins

There’s so much more where that came from on Magnum’s blog.

Janet writes on internet marketing, affiliate marketing, business blogging, and social media. She came to my studio because she’s updating her blog and wanted a new portrait to go with it. Two things about Janet really impressed me. One – she knows so much about the convoluted world of SEO and business blogging. A true expert. At one point I found myself thinking it felt like I was at a seminar. She is so smart. The second thing that impressed me was how generous she was in answering all my questions. All 5,000 of them. She even gave me a tutorial on how to use Twitter. (I still don’t get it. Come back, Janet).

By the way, this isn’t my first time making pictures of her. I photographed her earlier this year when she got married.

To any photographers that may read my blog, I’m wondering if you are going to Photo Expo this year. If so, let me know and let’s meet up.

What is Photo Expo? Here it is from their website:
PDN PhotoPlus continues to be on the cutting edge of what’s happening in photography and imaging. Since 1983 we’ve put on the leading show in the industry – attracting all the exhibitors you want to see, and the industry names you want to network with!

Last Saturday, Amy and I exhibited at the LaCaille Bridal Show. It was the first of such things for us and we had a really great time. Big, big thanks to the Flower Basket for providing such gorgeous flower arrangements for us. And thanks to everyone that came by to say hello. We had such a pleasure meeting everyone and hearing all about your wedding plans and we’d love to be a part of making it a perfect day for you.

Instead of jamming our booth space with lots of different images, we picked one image and made it big to garner attention. We also ordered some fortune cookies (another one of Amy’s great ideas) with our own custom fortunes and handed those out to interested brides. What a great way to spend a Saturday.

Tonight I ran into a friend I haven’t seen in a long while. He’s a photographer. He told me that he hasn’t photographed any weddings in a year or two and he recently realized how relieved he felt about that. I’m so happy for him that he is now photographing only the kinds of jobs he wants, and I wanted to tell him I feel so privileged to be able to be a wedding photographer.

Like earlier today, when I took Lindsay a 13×19 print that I made her of the bridal pictures we did a couple days ago. It was a gorgeous print on Velvet Fine Art paper. I really wish you could see it. She was so excited, told me how much she loved the print an the rest of the pictures we made the other day and said, “Can I give you a hug”? That’s the sort of reaction I love, and it’s the reason I do what I do. She said, “when my mom sees this, she is going to cry.”

I’ve said it before, but really want to say it again, I love my job.

Here’s something else great that happened today. I recently ordered two, very large canvas prints. They are square and sized 38 inches. These big prints are really quite stunning and if you’d like to see them, it’s easy. They are now hanging in The Flower Basket in Provo. Go check them out and let me know what you think. I think they’re fantastic.

I was recently invited into the International Society of Wedding Photographers. Check out their site to learn more about the organization. Excellent photographers only.

Nearly every time I give someone my business card I hear, “I really love your card.” At least 9 out of 10 times I hear that. That’s because Ben at the Mandate Press made them and they are letterpressed on Mowhawk Superfine paper. If you want to make a great first impression but have always felt that letterpressed business cards were not in your budget, then have I got some good news for you. The Mandate Press has a great deal going on right now. A set of 250 cards will cost less than 100 bucks. You can order them through this link. And now you can look good for a low price.

PDN’s Top Knots contest winners are now online. I’m so excited! By the way, Jose Villa, who I’ve written about before, has the cover shot on the print edition of the magazine (available on news stands now). Also, as far as I can tell, there is only one other photographer from Utah other than myself that made it in the magazine. See if you can see who it is.

WPPI was really, really great/exhausting. There was so much info packed into three days. For me, hearing Denis Reggie speak was the most valuable part of WPPI this year. He was, by a long shot, the most inspiring speaker and the one with the most valuable and well thought out content. He was bright, informative, clever and very gracious with his time. I’d go hear him speak again in a heart beat.

Amy came with me and our main purpose for attending was to check out album companies. We’ve been using GraphiStudio and we’ll continue to use their Italian-made albums. We spent some time at the Cypress booth and fell in love with their stuff. We are excited to begin offering Cypress albums. With a world class brand that is Justin Hackworth Photography, only the finest albums will do.

While we were there, I was able to introduce Amy to the fabulous photographer and all around fantastic fellow Jose Villa. He introduced us to his cinematographer friend, Joel Serrato, whose work I really enjoy. We ended up talking to Jose for about 30 minutes.

We also ran into a couple great photographers from Provo and I finally got to meet Justin Lyon. Justin and his wife Amelia are photographers in Southern California but Justin is from my home town of Rexburg, Idaho. He knew me, and I knew him, but we’d never met face to face. We finally met and I think he’s great. So listen, if you’re getting married in Southern California, of course the first thing you’ll want to do is to call me. If I’m booked, however, I think you’d be wise to call them.

The convention

Jose Villa

Dena, the owner of Cypress (in the white shirt).

…

It just so happens that Amy and I had our 8 year wedding anniversary while we were in Vegas. We had a great time there and are looking forward to WPPI next year.

I’ve been in Vegas with 10,000 other wedding photographers for the past few days attending WPPI. It’s been really great and I’ve got some pictures to post soon, and a detailed list of why it’s been so good to be here. All that will come shortly. But right now, sleep.