On Thursday, December 10th we announced by email and blog, the New members course we are holding Sunday, February 7th.Here are the rest of the details as promised.
Marlene Fast has graciously agreed to host the event at her beautiful studio near Steinbach. The program will go like this. We will begin at 10 am with Marlene, who will guide us through all the ins and outs of association policies and benefits. How to work toward your degree designations and pretty much everything you should know about our association both Provincially and Nationally. This segment will go from 10 am til 12 noon.
After lunch, we will begin with another Master of Photography who will impart their knowledge of posing and lighting. This is not designed to be a full photography school but rather to help our newer members get a good base knowledge from which to work on. I will be able to announce the person who is teaching this segment next week. We expect this segment will also last roughly two hours.
I will host the final segment which will deal with the business of photography. There are obviously a very wide variety of business models in our profession that are valid. Nevertheless, if you want to be able to continue to be a photographer, you need to eventually make it financially viable. An old Chinese saying deals with the core principle of business, specifically contracts. Every job you do is basically a contract. Essentially it says that unless a contract is favorable to both the client and the provider of the service, it is invalid. In the long run, your business model has to look like this to be sustainable. We are not going to tell you how to run your business but rather point out some landmarks to help you establish policies and pricing that will be fair to you, so you can stay in business, and fair to the client, so they will want to be a repeat customer.
Finally on this subject, we are very happy to get this course off the ground after much discussion. I think it will be a great benefit to anyone who is a new member, but everyone is welcome to come. There will be no charge for this event. This kind of event has been held in Saskatchewan for the past ten years and in their province, attendance to this event for new members is actually mandatory. Although we will not force this issue this year, I think it is very important for all new members to make time to attend this event.
Marlene's address is 231 Highway 52, Mitchell, MB. The studio phone number is 204-326-1813 if you need further instructions. You can also email Marlene at mfast@wiband.ca
