Hi this is Vanessa here with AdoramaTV. Thank you so much for joining me in this
episode of Breathe Your Passion. As I mentioned, I am in Brazil taking six
weeks away from my studio and while that sounds shocking, what I want to do for
you in this episode is give you some tips that you can use to get out of your
studio and it might not be to take a mini retirement like I am, but it can be
just to take a family vacation or even just a long weekend. As photographers, as
business owners, I know it's so hard to pull us away from work and we feel that
we're only getting away from work to let everything pile up so that we just have
to come home to this massive pile of things that we procrastinated doing. So
what I want to do is help you learn to work a little bit more mobile so that
you can relax when you're away and still get work done but be away and outside of
the studio.
So here we go. Number one: Get help.
I'm not going to lie to you and say that you can do this all by yourself. If you know
anything about me, I'm going to tell you that outsourcing is key to pretty much
anything you do within your business.
So this is no exception. While I'm away, my assistant is coming to my home, where
my studio is, once a week to do things like get the mail, process payments and
other office tasks that she normally does.
So get help. It might just be a family member that comes in and checks in on
your house and checks your mail and things like that but whatever it is
you'll probably need somebody at home. Number two: Make sure you have access to
all of your images.
Personally, I like to use smugmug if you go to vanessajoy.smugmug.com, you will
see my online galleries but what you don't see there are all the hidden
private galleries where I store files for things like backups, project files
and anything I just want to access at any time from anywhere in the world.
My graphic designer, Andrea, will finish thank you cards or save the dates or
albums and she will upload them to smugmug so that
I can access them and then order them from the client, no matter where I am. I
love being able to access all my files for any of those reasons and that is
something that you should definitely do whether using smugmug or some other
online gallery service. You can even use something like Google Drive, though maybe
not in the type of organization that you're going to want for all of your
photography. Number three: Have some sort of remote access so that you can access the
files that are on your computer.
Personally, I like to use logmein.com. I can access and basically hack my
computer from anywhere around the world.
So for example I only keep my quickbooks, my accounting software on my computer in
my studio. I don't have the online version,
to be honest because I don't feel like paying for it. I only want to
pay for software once and not continually. I have everything stored for my quickbooks
on my office at home. So if I'm going to update that while I'm away for six weeks
and I update it regularly once a month,
I'm going to want to go onto my computer through logmein and access my files do
some accounting some data management there. You want to do as much as you
possibly can
via mobile. When you're away, you're not always guaranteed internet access that
you can just sit down with your computer and start working with. If you can try to
make sure that everything that you normally do on a day-to-day basis can be
done via mobile.
I like doing this anyway when I'm home, not even just when I'm away so that I
can go out to the grocery store and answer quick email from a client or be
at a party,
I know, I do check my phone at parties, but be had a party and be able to
respond to an inquiry right away.
One of my favorite tools for being able to answer emails mobile is text
expander. What it is, is it let's you keep all the templates for your emails
mobile on your phone so if an inquiry comes in I just have the copy and paste
that template, put it in the email and it's on its way. Nice and quick, mobile,
everything.
Number five: Plan for it. You getting away from your studio is not something that
is going to magically happen because you simply want it to. You have to plan for it.
You have to look at your calendar
and decide what are going to be the best days to get away.
It might be two weeks, it might be three days. Whatever it is, you have to
plan for it. You have to make sure you're not scheduling shoots and that you are
planning for it up until you are leaving the studio. Number six: Make rules while
you are away.
It's very easy by following all the tips that I just gave you to travel to some
beautiful exotic place in the world and then end up seeing nothing except for
your computer screen.
Make sure that you're making rules as to what is an acceptable work day /
vacation day or whatever you're doing when you're traveling, so that you don't
end up wasting the time away.
Personally I like to answer most of my emails and do projects and things like
that in the morning so that I have the afternoon and the evening to do what I
like, experiencing the culture and going from there.
Whatever your choices, make sure that you are creating rules for your time away so
that you are getting what you need to get done but enjoying where you are at the
same time and finally pack light.
There's nothing worse than packing a ton of heavy photo gear,
so for example, here in Brazil we are packing very light. Right now, we are
using a MeFOTO Tripod, which I love these tripods. They're super light, compact
and fold up
so tiny I don't even know how they get it done. It's really sturdy. It's perfect
for what we're doing. We're also using the Sony a7rII camera and a Metabones
booster, speed booster so that we can use our canon lenses because I am a Canon girl,
so we brought just the 50mm f/1.2 lens and a 24-70mm and that's it.
To be honest I probably would have been okay just bringing that 24 -70, it really
covers everything.
I'm not here taking professional wedding pictures so I don't need to carry a lot
of gear.
The Sony is super light, great quality, shoots 4k, love it.
Whatever you want to bring with you, if you are working, obviously you might need to
bring a little bit more gear but if you're not, pack light, make it easy.
Thank you so much for joining me in this episode of Breathe Your Passion here on
AdoramaTV. I will see you next time.