Photo of the month, January 2011

2011 Calendars! Available now.

The Alberta Skies calendar features landscape photos from close to home, and corners of the province, that show off the expansiveness of the Alberta sky line.

The paper and print quality of the calendars is stunning, and the turn around time was amazing as well.

I am working on two others: a collection of flora from my yard, and a set of seascapes. Stay tuned.

Alberta Highland Dance Provincial Championship 2010

A lovely weekend in Calgary, and a great competition. The photos from the weekend, both the Provincial Championship and the Open Competition,

are posted here.

Enjoy, spread the word, and email me with any questions that you have.

Ann McRae Photography is thrilled to be back as Official Photographer at the 2010 Highland Dance Provincial Championship and Open Competition. This year, we are offering three print packages at a 20% discount from the on line package price, if you pay for the package at the event.

The GOLD Package includes:
1 (10x15) print | 1 (8x12) print | 2 (5x7) prints | 4 (4x6) prints

The price for the individual prints totals $100. The Gold Package price for these same prints is $85.00 on line, and at the event an $85 print credit can be purchased for $70.

The SILVER Package includes:
1(8x12) print | 2 (5x7) prints | 2 (4x6) prints | 1 sheet of 8 wallets

The price for these prints is $60, when purchased individually. The package price, on line, is $50. At the event, purchase a $50 Print Credit for $42.00

The Highland Dance 10 pack includes 10 (4x6) prints, regular value of $50. The package price is $42.50 on line, and at the event a $42.50 print credit is available for $34.00.

Alberta Provincial Championship and Open Competition 2010 Galleries

SmugMugPro Coupons, Events, Packages

I love SmugMug. To paraphrase Victor Kiam, I love SmugMug so much I took a job with them!

I have used SmugMug to host my photos on line since January of 2004. I love the clean, beautiful display of my photos, I love the security of the on line back up and the ability to use password protection and watermarking for my photos. I love the customer service and responsiveness I experienced as a customer, and love being able to provide the same now that I am an employee.

But, in addition to being a SmugMug Support Hero, I am still a photographer trying to earn some income from this passion of mine! Do what you love and it won't feel like work, right?

Well, three new features released in the last few months have made it so much easier for me to do what I love and increase sales, so that I can keep doing what I love.

Coupons and Print Credits - a great way to encourage sales, for sure. Print Credits are a great tool for an event photographer to use. Pre-sell prints, or print packages at your event, provide the customer a print credit and then they are able to pick and choose the photos that they want from the convenience of their own home computer. As the photographer, you've made the sale. And you have made the customers life easier by eliminating the line up and wait for your on site displays.

Packages - a great tool to combine multiple print sizes into one price. Perfect for a sport photographer, to be able to give customers a predefined package at a great price, and simplify the customer's decision making process. With a SmugMug package, you can again presell it via a print credit, and then send your client a link to their proofs, for them to pick their favorite and make their purchase!

And speaking of customers picking favorites, well enter the event marketing tool and favorites. Give your customers special access to a gallery or group of galleries by creating an event for them. This will provide them with a tool to identify their favorite photos, place those into a virtual gallery to more easily compare and choose the right shots, and then let you know which choices they made! This is another tool to make your customers overall experience easier, better, less stressful and this will translate into more sales for you!

Bravo SmugMug on the release of these features. SmugMug Pro's - you must start using these features! You will be amazed by them, and how much nicer they make your customer experience!

SmugMug Easy Customizer

While I was lying awake last night, wanting to fall asleep, I planned out some changes to my SmugMug site. My site has needed a make over for a very long time, but when I was giving a tour of it to some other local photographers last night, this hit home very hard! I had different colors on different pages, different styles and overall a fairly unattractive mess.

I decided I wanted to maintain the color scheme I have always had, to keep some similarities with the old. I knew I needed consistency from page to page.

I work at helping people use their SmugMug sites, and have a pretty darned good knowledge of how things work. However, customization still scares the crapola out of me.

Easy Customizer to the rescue. This feature was released almost a year ago, but I had not used it, other than to be familiar enough with it to help folks on their sites! Well, let me tell you, it is amazing.

Once I knew the look that I wanted, I set about creating a background for my site in PS. I had already come up with a font for the logo when I made my last watermark, and of course wanted to keep my sunflower.

The rest was easy, and I have the basics accomplished in no time at all.

There will be some organizational changes to the galleries, and to what is public and what is not. But, I am most of the way there already - check it out:

http://www.annmcraephotography.ca/