My Favorite Products and Services

I remember that when I first opened my photography business, I was overwhelmed with selecting the right products and services to help my business grow.

There is an abundance of products and services available for photography business professionals and sometimes, it is difficult knowing where to begin. Additionally, when first opening your business you may be unsure of what kind of help you even need. Like many business owners my experiences came with trial and error, but I eventually found some great companies to work with.

Whether you are in need of streamlining your editing workflow, updating your website or are seeking creative ways to show appreciation to your clients, selecting a vendor partner that is reliable and consistent is key.

As a photographer some of my greatest struggles have been with workflow efficiency and branding consistency. These are some of the products and services that have made a significantly positive impact on my business, and my life, as a business owner.

Web Hosting – Site Ground

What is it? SiteGround is a web hosting company that offers shared and cloud hosting on dedicated servers, along with other services such as email hosting and domain registration.

Why I love it: The support team at SiteGround is stellar. Hosting pricing is competitive, the user experience on their website is easy and efficient, and the support team responds and resolves tickets quickly. I have used a number of hosting providers and SiteGround is above and beyond the best I’ve worked with.

Website Themes – Flothemes

What is it? Flothemes creates beautifully designed, responsive WordPress themes for creatives.

Why I love it: I have been a happy Flothemes customer since 2016. Flothemes offers highly customizable templates that are intuitive and easy to use. Flothemes provides extensive written and video documentation for each of their themes as a reference point in building your website. With a dedicated support team and a user community group on Facebook to help with any technical issues, customizing is a breeze. If you like my website, you’ll love Flothemes.

Image Delivery – Pixieset

What is it? Pixieset is an aesthetically pleasing, modern platform for photographers to store, share, proof, deliver and sell images and products to clients.

Why I love it: I use Pixieset to store and deliver high resolution images to my clients. With Pixieset, I can create easy-to-navigate galleries where clients can view images, select their favorites, download images and even purchase prints directly through my printing lab. There are several levels of membership that offer varying levels of cloud-based storage space, among other features. Business owners are able to set print pricing, monitor gallery activity and so much more.

Powerful Image Compression – JPEGmini

What is it? JPEGmini is a powerful compression tool that reduces image file sizes without compromising image quality.

Why I love it: The day I started using JPEGmini my life changed. The complexities of resizing images for online sharing can be overwhelming and time consuming in programs like Photoshop. Ensuring that no detail is lost while compression is at a maximum is where JPEGmini shines.

Time-Saving Photo Blogging Tool – BlogStomp

What is it? BlogStomp is a powerful blogging tool that allows you to create photo collages and instantly resize images for social media.

Why I love it: Until JPEGmini came into my life, I used BlogStomp to resize my images for social media use. Now, I primarily use BlogStomp to create image collages. Their easy to use drag-and-drop feature allows you to select multiple photos for an image collage and set parameters for image dimensions and quality. The software will automatically create several different layouts for your collage based upon those parameters, and you can easily shuffle photos around. I cannot believe I used to do this manually, using countless layer masks in Photoshop!

Beautiful Slideshows – Pixellu SmartSlides

What is it? SmartSlides by Pixellu is a web-based slideshow creator. Simply select your music, upload images and publish to your website or share with your clients.

Why I love it: A major component of wedding photography is storytelling. I like to make slideshows for my clients, and SmartSlides makes that very easy. With a robust licensed music gallery, easy drag-and-drop features, music beat-matching and the ability to embed into my website or share online, SmartSlides is my go-to for making slideshow videos.

Layflat Backdrops – Bessie Bakes Backdrops

What is it? Layflat backdrops and surfaces are often used in staging product photography.

Why I love it: Bessie Bakes Backdrops are high-quality, beautiful surface replicas that I use when posting product images to my website or Instagram. Created by chef and food blogger Leslie of Bessie Bakes, these replica surfaces are lightweight, easy to clean and come in a wide variety of aesthetically pleasing styles to fit your branding and take your product photography to the next level.

Client Gifts – The Confetti Post and Greetabl

What is it? Gift giving is easy and fun with The Confetti Post and Greetabl. The Confetti Post offers customizable gift boxes filled with an assortment of products and edible items. Pre-designed themes or customized kits to celebrate weddings, birthdays, parties and more make gifting fun and exciting! Similarly, Greetabl offers fun, interactive gift boxes filled with an assortment of gift items and a highly customizable photo interior.

Why I love it: Creating a custom gift online has never been easier. Who doesn’t love receiving a surprise gift in the mail filled with sweet happiness? I use both services to welcome new wedding clients and congratulate friends and family for various occasions.