tappa tribune - october 2015

The TAPPA Tribune Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association

October, 2015

In this Issue:

Krystal Radlinski

Twitter for Photographers

Print of the Month Winners

Candidates for the Board of Directors

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ContentsPresidents Message 3

Candidates for the Board of Directors 6

Krystal Radlinski 9

This Months Program 9

Michael Joseph 24

Next Months Program 24

Upcoming Events 25

Print of the Month Rules 25

Print of the Month - Portrait 26

Print of the Month - Social Function 32

Print of the Month - Unclassified 35

Twitter for Photographers 38

Photos from the meeting 46

Board of Directors 48

On the cover: Photo by Terri Daunic

Visit TAPPA on FaceBook

Photo: Constance Avellino

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Presidents Message

When we check the rear view mirror of 2015, summer has faded into the distance. Up ahead we sniff the slight shift of lowering temperatures and humidity that signal fall. Isolated trees here and there offer a hit of color change, but most leaves simply turn brown and drop, littering our yards with a fresh batch each day.

October also offers a crop of orange and black signs beckoning us to buy costumes and candy for the annual procession of parties, theme park festivities, and parade of children with bags for goodies.

Trick or treat! This years annual celebration lands on Saturday, guaranteeing a hefty turnout of kids.

As you prepare to fill their bags, consider whats in your photography bag. Dump it out, just like youngsters do after a night in the neighborhood. They discover many treasures and a few things to discard. To identify what you want to keep and what you need to dispose of, upend yours and find out what youre carrying around.

Photographers sweets are the things we put our faith in for satisfaction and success. Skills. Equipment. Clients. A network of professionals and friends. A positive outlook.

What have you done this year to fine tune your skills?

Is your equipment realistically up-to-date?

How strong is your base and your outreach to clients?

Who is actively in your network?

What motivates you?

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We try to stay abreast of equipment and techniques through conferences and classes, learning ways to perfect our art. Well-directed and disciplined practice pushes us to new heights of expertise.

Within reason we check out new products and invest appropriately. Daily and weekly we touch base with former and potential clients, keeping our business fresh in their minds. At times we offer specials. At other times we simply connect through informational posts.

The treasure of professional friends cannot be overestimated. We support each other in tangible ways with knowledge and intangible ways, through friendship.

Finally, we each have music, books, and people that lift us up, help us refashion goals and outlooks and keep us going. We need balance and input from all of these.

The tricks we discover weigh us down. We need to toss out the mistakes weve made. Dwelling on the past can bring us down. We also need to reduce contact with people and posts that stifle our creativity or sap our energy with dour perspectives. A well-equipped bag has an eject feature for these. Use it whenever needed.

Face each day as a fresh opportunity to fill your bag with treats. Try these:

Hope Apply what you know Punctuality Persistence Yes, I can approach to challenges Help someone else Ask for advice Love your work Laugh each day Open the door to new opportunities Wisk away your fears Encourage yourself and others Expect good outcomes Never give up!

Use October to fill your bag with treats that will sweeten your life.

Well be looking forward to seeing you at our next TAPPA meeting on Tuesday, October 13th. Have a delightful month!

Many Blessings,

Susan

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Candidates for the Board of DirectorsAt the October meeting, members of TAPPA will vote to fill board positions. Here are some of the candidates:

Karen Barnett has worked as a photographer for over 20 years and owns a full service studio in Port Richey, FL specializing in Wedding, Bridal, Portrait, Commercial, and Professional Sports.

Awarded the Florida Education Degree (FED) from Florida Professional Photographers

Nearing achievement of the Florida Service Award (FSA)

Serves on the advisory board for the Pinellas Technical College photography department

Long term professional memberships include: Professional Photographers of America (PPA), Florida Professional Photographers (FPP), Southeast Professional Photographers (SEPPA), Tampa Area Professional Photographers (TAPPA), & National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)

FPP Sign Committee Chairperson (Convention & Florida School) past 5 years. Also currently serves on the sunday devotions, welcome, props, flea market, & equipment committees (past 2 years), and has served on the photography committee.

Volunteer Work:

Big Brothers/Big Sisters (recently named Big Sister of the Year by Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Tampa Bay) Heart Gallery

Habitat for Humanity Volunteer rescue and rehabilitation of wild and domestic animals (currently 68 of them)

Sponsors anti bullying & self confidence program for teenage girls Christian outreach programs

A major concern is rebuilding membership levels and promotion of TAPPA within the local community. A large membership allows for increased and more diverse training opportunities, and the ability to draw top level speakers to share their knowledge with the group. Seeing TAPPA return to the large and vibrant group that it was a decade ago is a primary goal. The tampa bay area has a wealth of talented and skilled photographers. By interacting on a professional level, photographers learn and grow, which is essential for continued success.

Terri Daunic, the founderand owner of Ballast Point Fine Art Portraiture Studio in Tampa, FL, brings several years of experience in the art and science of photography. She has completed numerous courses, workshops, and programs in the art of modern digital photography,

including the use and application of Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. Her principal areas of work and study have been in Family Portraiture and ExecutivePortraits.

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Robert Sargent CPP, FDPE, FED Professional Photographer for over twenty years. I am considered by many, to be a master at my trade and regarded as a true digital artist.

I have mentored other professional photographers in the

art of lighting and posing techniques.

I am a truly passionate photographer with an eye for beauty, capturing cherished moments in life.

Some of my achievements include:

Founding Member, Past Officer, Past Board Member of Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association (TAPPA)

Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) by Professional Photographers of America (PPA) Since 1998

Florida Education Degree for Photography (FED)

Florida Degree of Professional Excellence (FDPE)

Internationally Published (Goldwell Magazine, Focus Magazine, Inspire

Quarterly, Luxury Home Magazine, Digital Capture Magazine)

Former Canon Freelancer for Canon Camera Corp.

Terri has served for three years on the Scholarship Committee inTAPPA (Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association). She is also a member of FPP (Florida Professional Photographers), PPA (Professional Photographers of America), and SEPPA (South Eastern Professional Photographers of America

Gerardo Luna Born and raised in beautiful Central America Gerardo has always had the soul of an artist and a travelers passion. Years spent at University studying Economics, Politics and Law could not keep his wanderlust at bay.

After many adventures in several different countries Gerardo finally decided to settle down and make Tampa Bay his home. Now, his adventures always have him combing Central Florida for the best restaurant, the most inviting neighborhoods and the most breathtaking sunsets.

Gerardo loves to share his passion of the Tampa Bay area with his clients. When his nose isnt firmly set on the grindstone, Gerardo flexes his artistic muscles with his passion love of photography. Hes always searching for a good book and you might even find him climbing volcanoes in his native Guatemala.

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Benjamin Todd I am Benjamin Todd. I own BW Todd Photography studio . I was President of TAPPA in 2014 and my goal for that year was to raise enough money to award a record number of scholarships to FL School. I am an active participant in TAPPA, FPP, and

PPA activities. I am running for reelection to the TAPPA Board of Directors.

Glenn Nielsen I grew up on a farm in southwestern Utah. Every day I worked side by side with my father. From him I learned the value of hard work, resourcefulness, and most importantly, the value of a mans word. Contracts were made on a handshake. There was always

farm work to be done both before and after school. After high school, I graduated from the Air Force Academy and began to live my life long dream as a fighter pilot. I served 22 years during which I flew 200 combat missions in Vietnam. I have been in 30+ countries

In 2008 after 16 days visiting some of the most ancient sites in China, for which I had purchased my first digital camera, I had over 4000 images, most of which were good, a few of which were stunning. This was so exciting. Not only could I take great pictures, but I could see the results immediately. The more I learned, the more I realized I needed to know. I worked on my technical skills. Achieving the CPP was for me validation that I was good enough to call myself

a photographer. I also began to work on business skills with the same passion I had for photography. It would be necessary to develop a relationship with my clients. I realized I thrive on establishing a relationship with my clients so that I become a friend. I want them to be completely comfortable that my motivation is to give them the images that they want to proudly display on their living room wall for all of their friends to see. When they look at that image, I want them to remember how much fun it was, what a great experience they had when they took the image. In a perfect world, not only would the moment be etched into their memory forever, the experience would be something they would remember and talk about forever. It is the journey. The end product merely reminds one of how great the path to get there turned out to be.

Amanda Pratt I am a recent transplant to Florida from Michigan and just completed my first year in business in the area. I mainly photograph children, seniors and families. I enjoy being a photographer because I am challenged to get lost in creative vision. I began taking

photos as a way to use my creativity for the purpose of self care as a full time social worker working with at risk youth. In my creative work I tend to create images that portray great strength and power as well as images that feel calm and comforting. I have a background in black and white film photography which jump started my passion for creating and printing images. I am pursuing my CPP and have enjoyed every minute of my memberships with TAPPA, FPP, SEPPA and PPA,

Candidates for the Board of DirectorsContinued from previous page

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This Months Program

Krystal RadlinskiMaster Photog., Cr. FSA, FDPE, FED

Krystal got her start with a degree from University of Florida in photojournalism and as a photojournalist for the United States Army. They sent her to Bosnia, Kosovo, Ecuador, and other armpits of the planet. She figured, Hey, at least youre less likely to encounter sniper fire during a wedding. Lets do it!

Along with her husband Matt, and now a house full of wild babies, she runs a Gainesville area home-studio specializing in weddings and portraiture since 2001. During those years, Krystal has been awarded Floridas Top Ten Photographers three times, two Fuji Masterpiece Awards, a Kodak Gallery Award, and degreed a Master Photographer and Photographic Craftsman by the Professional Photographers of America, PPA Platinum Photographer of The Year twice and the Accolade of Photographic Mastery Medal by Wedding and Portrait Photographers International. Her mom also made her some yummy cookies.

You can see her image portfolio at www.vervestudio.com or for the most up-to-date imagery on their Verve Studio FaceBook page. http://www.facebook.com/VerveStudioPhotography

Meeting DetailsTuesday, October 13, 2015

Social 6:00 Dinner 6:30 Program 7:00

Register online at TAPPA.org

Doubletree Hotel 4500 W. Cypress St., Tampa

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Photo: Megan DiPiero

Photo: Krystal Radlinski

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TAPPA Tribune 17Photo: Krystal Radlinski

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Next Months Program

Michael JosephIts all about the lighting

Its all about the lighting.... lighting is everything.Michael Joseph has almost 30 years of experience of Photographing Pets with their People. Hell be sharing with you several different lighting techniques that he uses in the studio from soft boxes, hair lighting, kicker lights & reflectors. Then hell talk about some of his favorite outdoor lighting equipment that he uses with lightweight strobes and modifiers. Hell also share with you his 10 favorite gadgets and gizmos that he cant shoot without. He will also be ready to answer technical questions on lighting, posing, studio set up & sales. Have your questions ready! And, hell unveil his Top-Ten Secrets to Pet Photography.

Meeting DetailsTuesday, November 10, 2015

Social 6:00 Dinner 6:30 Program 7:00


Doubletree Hotel 4500 W. Cypress St., Tampa

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Upcoming Events

Saturday, October 10, 2015The Basics of Studio Lighting and Posing

Kevin Newsome

Tuesday, October 13, 2015Krystal Radinsky

Tuesday, November 10, 2015Pete Wright

Film Noir

Thursday, November 12, 2015Light Painting the Night Up

Randy Van Duinen

More information on all of these events can be found in this newsletter and at TAPPA.org

Print of the Month Rules- Prints are to be mounted.

- Size: 8x10.

- Electronic Imaging size can be two 8x10 taped together on the back and spread open for viewing.

- Three entries per member each month.

- There must be at least three entries in a category for that category to be included in the monthly competition.

- All entries MUST have your name and the category you wish to enter on the back of the print.

- Prints must be turned in before 6:25 pm. Prints received after 6:25 will not be accepted!

Winners:- Please send your winning files

to [email protected] for the newsletter as soon as Possi-ble. Deadline for publication is one week after the meeting.

- Name your files by your last name-place-category. For ex-ample Smith-1st-Portrait.jpg

- Any resolution 1000 pixels on the longest side or greater is acceptable. JPEG format is preferrable.

Print of the Month - Portrait

First place: Terri Duanic


Second place: Amanda Pratt


Third place: Michael Landes

Print of the Month - Commercial

First place: Michael Landes


Second place: Randy Van Duinen


Third place: Randy Van Duinen

Print of the Month - Social Function

First place: Constance Avellino


Second place: Booray Perry


Third place: Booray Perry

Print of the Month - Unclassified

First place: Randy Van Duinen


Second place: Amanda Pratt


Third place: Lisa OGeary

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So can professional photographers put those 140 characters to good use in their marketing and see a return on using Twitter for their business?

Until recently, I was on the fence about Twitter as a marketing tool, having experimented with it for several years with somewhat inconclusive results.

Sure, I managed to attract over 40,000 followers, but most of those turned out to be, shall we say, undesirable from my own marketing perspective.

In the end, I got fed up with talking to thin air so I set up a new account (@NigelMerrick) and am focusing a lot more on the quality of connections than on the quantity so far, its working out much better.

But this is about you, not me, so how can you get the best from Twitter?

First, the Twitter of today is quite different to what it was a few short years ago.

In addition to the normal 140-character text-based tweet, we can also tweet content-rich images, as well as videos and other content. Yes, weve been able to do this for a long time, but the subtle difference we see today is in the way those tweets are presented in a much more visible and accessible way in peoples timelines.

Folks are also getting the hang of the conversational side of Twitter, and I believe the signal-to-noise ratio has finally improved enough to make this a more worthwhile place for

photographers to be present and active.

But will you get clients directly by using Twitter for business?No, probably not, since all social media networks are about making connections instead of direct sales. Getting clients directly from social media, including Facebook, has never been the main goal of social marketing.

Its all about connecting with people who matter to you and your ideal photography clients, and then building long-term productive relationships so they do become clients at some point further down the road.

Social media marketing: Build relati onship s w/ people who matter to you & your ideal photo clientsNow thats something you can do with Twitter!

But how?

Optimizing Your Twitter ProfileBe sure to put your best face forward in your Twitter profile - dont be tempted to hide behind your camera!

It all starts with your Twitter profile, and there are some things you should do to make sure youre

Twitter for Photographers

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putting your best face forward.

Literally, starting with your actual face, of course!

Like all social media profiles, its important to have a professional-looking profile photograph one where people can clearly see all of your face, not just the half poking out from behind your camera! Where on Earth photographers got the idea from to ruin a perfectly good profile headshot by sticking a camera body and lens in front of their face is beyond me.

Your prospects are interested in YOU, not a face with the words Canon or Nikon in lieu of a forehead. They want to see your actual eyes, not the mechanical eye of your biggest lens.

Honestly, I feel like I shouldnt have to say this to working photographers, but a professional headshot of yourself is way more effective than a selfie taken with your iPhone, or an obviously-cropped group photo from your vacation.

Sadly, I see too many so-called professional photographers with profile photos that look, well, unprofessional.

I know you can do better than that, right?

It should go without saying, too, that all your social media profiles should be consistent, with the same headshot and blurb wherever you can.

On Twitter, of course, theres not a whole lot of space to write a lengthy bio, so make the best use of it by communicating your essential message,

which you can think of as the boiled down and concentrated version of who you are, how you help your photography clients, and why you do what you do.

You also have space for a link to your website, but most people default to using their home page.

Dont do that!

Instead, create a landing page dedicated to your Twitter visitors where you can talk with them in a personalized way that makes them feel at home and in the right place.

And dont forget your profile header image. Not only can you use your photography to great effect here, you can also superimpose text onto your image to convey a strong marketing message and expand on what you couldnt fit into your bio.

The Twitter Marketing Bandwagon: Follow You, Follow MeQuality beats quantity in your Twitter marketing when it comes to your followers...

Quality beats quantity in your Twitter marketing when it comes to your followersAt the risk of showing my age, the rock band Genesis, in their 1978 song Follow You, Follow Me, sounded an awful lot like a premonition of

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the world of Twitter long before the Internet ever came along!

Unfortunately, most Twitter users are under the mistaken impression that the number of followers is more important than the value of those followers, and they get all hung up over how many followers they have, or whether or not someone follows them back if they follow them to begin with.

Its the old clamoring for attention problem all over again, combined with the crippling belief that numbers matter most.

But theres a much better way.

First, seek out and follow your ideal clients.There are various ways you can find them on Twitter:

By using Twitters advanced search to find people in your service area.

By searching for specific words or hashtags that might indicate a need or interest in your chosen specialty.

By searching for the hashtags related to your service area.

You can also save your Twitter searches and use them again later.

Having found your ideal clients on Twitter, take a look at who they follow to identify people or businesses who might be influential to your audience, who you can also follow.

Next, find and follow the Twitter accounts of other local businesses who also serve your ideal clients, along with the appropriate people who follow those businesses.

Theres also another useful, but often overlooked, group of people to connect with who are active on Twitter, and these are the media people from your local TV and radio stations, and newspapers.

Its amazing how many of the anchors and reporters on your local news station, for example, are present and heavily-engaged on Twitter, so get to know them.

By now, you have a good start on the people to follow, and it might be a good idea to organize those into Twitter lists, which will make it a lot easier to see at a glance whos tweeting content you might want to share on your stream.

How To Get More Twitter FollowersThe Twitter followers you want are the people who matter most to you and your ideal clients...

The Twitter followers you want are the people who matter most to you and your ideal clients

Obviously, you also want people to follow you, otherwise no one will ever see any of your tweets, right?

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Youre going to feel a bit lonely following 1000 people with no one following you back, so what can you do?

Fortunately, many of the people you followed will follow you back, and youre also going to attract followers simply by being on Twitter to begin with.

Many of those people will be random folks outside your target audience, and some of them will undoubtedly be the uneducated marketing spammer-types, but you can safely block them, forget about them, and move on if they become too much of a problem.

The people you do want to follow you are your ideal photography clients, other businesses in your area, and local influencers namely, the people you already purposely followed.

But how can you get these people to follow you back without making a nuisance of yourself?

Its not easy, but it is simple, and certainly no big secret.The key is to build a relationship with them where you become seen as a valuable and helpful resource, and therefore someone worth following.

After all, if you only ever tweet about what you had to eat for lunch, no one will care too much, unless you happen to be Gordon Ramsey or Anthony Bourdain.

So heres what I would suggest you do:

Be on the lookout for interesting and valuable content being tweeted by the people you want to have a mutual following relationship with. Then reply to those tweets, re-tweet and share their content, ask intelligent questions, and show a genuine interest in what they have to say.

If you do this consistently, some of those people will follow you back, and may even share your content in the future.

Its important to understand this does take time, and involves patience and more than a bit of trial and error, but when it comes to building relationships on social media its very much a case of give first, ask later.

Building a Twitter following for your photography = time & patience: Give first, ask laterClick to tweet

You can (and obviously should) also tweet about things you know your target clients are interested in. Because your tweets are accessible to everyone on Twitter, not just your followers, you can add hashtags to your tweets based on your location and topic to catch the attention of people who are searching Twitter for those things.

What And When To TweetIn your Twitter marketing, be wise about what you

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tweet, and know when is the best time to reach your followers...

In your Twitter marketing, be wise about what you tweet, and know when is the best time to reach your followers

Having started to build your Twitter network, youre going to want to start sending out tweets, but what should you tweet about and when is the best time?

Here are some suggestions for the types of tweet you can send out:

Links to your own content, such as blog posts and resource articles

Individual photos or videos

Inspirational and motivational quotes these work well, especially if you create a graphic with the text of the quote on top of an image

You can ask your audience questions to get them to reply and engage with you

Tweets with your general observations of life, thoughts, and musings about photography

You should also tweet and share other peoples content, which your audience might find interesting and valuable

News items, especially those from your town or city, make interesting discussion topics

Also, be on the lookout for powerful human-interest stories that tap into peoples emotions

As you can see, theres no shortage of ideas, and you should easily be able to come up with useful content for tweets to keep your audience happy and engaged.

But what about timing?Despite the many articles youll see around the Internet, theres no hard and fast rule about when the best time to tweet is, and all of those articles boil down to one simple principle, which is to tweet when your target clients are most active.

Pretty obvious, right?

To make this a lot easier, the Buffer social media tool has a handy scheduling system that can automatically create a posting schedule based on the most active times of day for your Twitter followers.

One thing worth mentioning here is the average life-span of a tweet is quite short about 17 minutes at the last count.

Unlike Facebook, where the visibility of your updates is determined by a complex algorithm, Twitter streams are more like a gushing hosepipe, and people will see your tweets go by only if they happen to be logged in and viewing their home feed around the time you posted your tweet.

However, unlike Facebook, its totally acceptable

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to post multiple tweets for the same piece of content, for example your latest blog post, over an extended period of time and at different times of day.

So, for example, you might post an initial tweet when you publish a blog post, and then a different tweet to the same post a few hours later, followed by more over the next few days. Youll want to make each of your tweets unique by varying the text, but repeating your tweets makes it far more likely that more people will visit your blog posts.

Getting Your Own Content Shared By OthersOne of the biggest problems for photographers and other content creators is getting their visitors to share their posts and articles on social media.

Its apparently not enough to post a blog article and then expect every visitor to be so excited by it that they just have to share it with their friends and followers on average, you might expect to see only around 1-5% of your readers to share your posts if left to their own devices.

So what can you do?

First, you have to make sure the content is easily shareable and optimized for the different social networks. Because theres no standardization between Facebook, Twitter, and the other networks on things like image sizes and space allowed for text, this causes some logistical problems.

Fortunately, we have something called Open-Graph meta data to help make this go a little more smoothly.

Specifying the proper open-graph meta data for your blog posts is important, but it doesnt have to be difficult.

The Yoast SEO plugin, for example, is great for this if youre a WordPress user.

When you create a blog post or page, youll see a social tab in the Yoast SEO section where you can tell Twitter and the other social networks which image to use on social postings, and the text to go with it.

The next step is to make it easy for people to share!

This is as simple as making sure you place clear and obvious social sharing buttons at strategic locations in your content, usually at the top and bottom of the page, but dont overwhelm people with too many choices! Stick to the top 3 or 4 networks your audience use most, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

In some cases, you can also create incentives for people to share your blog posts.

For example, if you post about a recent portrait session you could encourage the people to help their friends share your post by offering them a bounty of some kind if they reach a certain number of tweets, Facebook shares, or comments.

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You can also embed what have come to be known as Tweetables in your actual content.

Check out the TweetDis plugin to easily add nicely-formatted tweetables to your contentTweetables are attractively-formatted blocks of text, conveniently built as pre-filled tweets, which your users can then tweet out at the click of a button.

Theyve have been shown to have a definite positive effect on increasing the spread of your content because theyre easy for people to use, and dont get in the way of them consuming the content.

If youre a WordPress user, theres a handy plugin TweetDis which makes doing this a snap because the formatting and styling is all taken care of for you. Its well worth the small investment in the convenience alone highly recommended!

Increase Engagement With Twitter Feedback LoopsOne neat tactic you can use to increase the engagement of your blog posts, for example, is to create what I call a feedback loop.

As far as I know theres no official name for this, so well stick with feedback loop for now, because thats exactly what this simple but little-used idea does.

Essentially, the goal is to give people a way they can easily spread your content on Twitter, as well

as to encourage a dialogue with you through mentions, comments, and re-tweets.

Heres what you do if youre using WordPress.

Create and publish your blog post, photography article, or other piece of content on your website, just as you normally would.

When published, share the link to the post on Twitter, together with an interesting title or message.

Next, go to your Twitter account in your web browser, and find your tweet in your timeline (obviously, it will be at or near the top of your stream of tweets). In the tweet header, youll see your name and Twitter handle with a time or date at the end of the line, which is actually a link.

Click the link and youll see your tweet presented on its own.

Copy the URL for your tweet from the browser address bar, head back to your content piece, and edit the post or page you shared. You can then paste the link you copied into your content wherever you want it to appear.

WordPress will automatically convert the URL you inserted into an embedded tweet, which your readers can then use to follow you, re-tweet to their own followers, or reply to you.

As an example, heres the feedback Tweet for this post:

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This can be a useful alternative to allowing comments on your blog, which often dont have any tangible benefit and create problems with spam, and you can do the same kind of thing with posts from your Facebook page as well.

Twitter Marketing Is All About RelationshipsThe basic intent with these ideas for Twitter marketing is to create and nurture relationships with your target audience and the people who influence them.

With repeated exposure and interaction over time, they will get to know, like, and trust you. At some point theyre going to take up your lead-magnet, identifying themselves to you as potential leads you can then follow up with and ultimately turn into clients.

Here are the main takeaways for today:Remember to put social first and foremost in your Twitter marketing

Twitter is a great tool for building relationships with other businesses, other photographers, and your ideal photography clients, but its not the place to get clients directly its not a broadcasting or sales platform

Your profile should be optimized for your audience and you should have a good-quality profile photo where people can properly see you

When it comes to Twitter followers, the quality is far more important than the quantity, and its unnecessary to go on a following rampage in the hopes of building a bigger audience. Just go after the people who matter to you and your business, and it will grow from there.

Dont just tweet about your blog posts and articles from your photography website. Share thoughts, quotes, questions, other peoples content, and human-interest stories to fully engage the people who follow you.

Make sure your content is easily shareable by your readers, and get creative about ways to increase the sharing activity on your blog posts and other articles.

I hope this has given you a great introduction to Twitter marketing for your photography business and I look forward to seeing your tweets.

You can also connect up with me on Twitter at @NigelMerrick, and (as promised) heres a special hashtag for you. Ill also happily retweet your best tweets if you include #zenologue in your tweets.

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Photos from the meeting

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The TAPPA Tribune is published monthly for the membership of the Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association. Its purpose is to share knowledge and insight with the photographic industry.

The deadline for submission of articles and ad changes is the 15th of the month.

Permission is hereby granted to reprint the contents of this newsletter, provided the authors and The TAPPA Tribune are recognized as the source. The ideas and views expressed do not necessarily reflect the policies of the Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association; they are solely those of the author.

Editor: Chuck Vosburgh 300 62nd Street North St. Petersburg, FL 33710 [email protected] 727.743.1740

Advertising:To advertise in the TAPPA Tribune, please contact the editor for rates and distribution information.

Meetings:TAPPA monthly meetings take place the second Tuesday of the month at:

Doubletree Hotel 4500 W. Cypress Street Tampa, FL (one block east of Westshore Blvd).

Networking 6:00 pm Dinner 6:30 pm Meeting 7:30 pm


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2015 O cersPresident Susan Black 813 230-6472 [email protected]

Vice President Constance Avellino 813 600-8152 [email protected]

Secretary Kevin Newsome 813 968-2810 [email protected]

Treasurer Melissa Sewell 813 230-7092 [email protected]

Past President Kevin Newsome 813 968-2810 [email protected]

Directors Carol Hackman 727 867-9254 [email protected]

Booray Perry 813 728-7110 [email protected]

Christine Reynolds 813 760-0831 [email protected]

Benjamin Todd 813 431-2873 [email protected]

Chuck Vosburgh 727 743-1740 [email protected]

CommitteesDelegate Julie Johnson

Membership Kevin Newsome 813 968-2810 [email protected]

Program Constance Avellino 813 600-8152 [email protected]

Salon Becky Jordan 727 577-5626 [email protected]

Door Prize Glenn Nielsen [email protected]

Scholarship Carol Hackman 727 867-9254 [email protected] Terri Daunic 813 839-2860 [email protected]

Audio Visual CJ Moment 813 244-6716 [email protected]

Newsletter Editor Chuck Vosburgh 727 743-1740 [email protected]

Photographers Booray Perry 813 728-7110 [email protected] Christine Reynolds 813 760-0831 [email protected]

Web Master Booray Perry 813 728-7110 [email protected]

Board of Directors

_GoBackPresidents MessageCandidates for the Board of DirectorsKrystal RadlinskiThis Months ProgramMichael JosephNext Months ProgramUpcoming EventsPrint of the Month RulesPrint of the Month - PortraitPrint of the Month - Social FunctionPrint of the Month - UnclassifiedTwitter for PhotographersPhotos from the meetingBoard of Directors

tappa tribune - october 2015

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