Right after Kelby Training (Kelby One) released the video “The Business Side of Glyn Dewis: Becoming a Successful Commercial Photographer,” I watched it and decided to take a step beyond just watching the video. That next step is really what this post is about.

Watching a video will do nothing for your photography career unless you take action. That action may be testing out what you learned from the video, making a connection with the person or persons in the video, some other form of action or all of the above. The key is to take some kind of new action based on watching the video assuming the video did not waste your time and is worthy of action.

When I watched the video of Glyn Dewis mentioned at the beginning of this post, I thought that it wold be interesting to reach out to Glyn on social media. So immediately after watching the video, I Tweeted to Glyn and got a personal response in less than an hour. Needless to say, I was a surprised and impressed. That Tweet lead to each of us liking the others business Facebook pages which eventually lead to Glyn and I connecting personally on Facebook which eventually ended up in each of us following the other on Instagram. 

It’s not realistic to think that every Tweet or social connection attempt will lead to everything in the previous paragraph, but that should not stop you in attempting to connect and/or communicate with someone that you respect in photography or any other industry.

Social media has lead me down a path that no other platform on the planet can offer. For example, Canon USA has commented numerous times on my Instagram posts. On Twitter, I’m followed by Manfrotto, ThinkTank, Savage Paper and more. On both Twitter and Instagram, I’m able to get in front of photography brands that otherwise would not be possible. In other words, if you want to make something happen or at least attempt to make it happen, then TAKE ACTION. Don’t be a woe is me photographer. Be a DOER, a GO-GETTER and be ACTIVE on social media.

There is NO GUARANTEE that everything you do will be a success or lead to a relationship with someone. However, if you don’t try and you don’t do, then you will never know. The key is to keep doing what you are doing in a way that doesn’t TICK SOMEONE OFF. For example, I don’t Tweet to Glyn 5 times a day everyday. Glyn is a connections just like anyone else and a valued one. I wouldn’t even Tweet (annoy) my best friend 5 times a day everyday.

Use social media in a professional manner. Don’t abuse social media. It’s a great way to make key connections and keep your brand in front of the world. GO FOR IT!!!

I own Glyn’s new book. Well, actually my wife, who edits my photography, owns the book:
The Photoshop Workbook: Professional Retouching and Compositing Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

Find Glyn Here:

Glyn’s Website and Glyn Dewis On Twitter

He has a fabulous YouTube Channel.

If you enjoyed this post, please use the social icons below to SHARE IT with the WORLD!!!

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Seasoned veterans should and likely do keep educating themselves on a regular basis. It’s even more critical for someone just starting out to learn as much as he or she can about being the best photographer possible with the equipment and skills he or she has. It’s true that someone can learn by doing: shoot refine, shoot refine, shoot refine. However, using online and offline resources beyond learning by doing is a great idea.

Here are 4 photography resources to get started, but by no means is it all inclusive.

1) KelbyOne

2) Creative Live

3) Karl Taylor Photography

4) Digital Photography School

Learning about Business and Marketing is very important as well which is even more for the new photographer to dive into. The biggest single piece of advice that I have here is to seek SOUND advice and avoid something that sounds to good to be true like “We’ll get you to the Top of Google for just $99.”

The post The K.E.Y. To Better Photography Is To Do This Often… first appeared on .

In this post, I will share 4 Websites and the You Tube Channels associated with those sites that can help you become a better photographer at any skill level.

QUICK THOUGHT: I am 100% fine with people getting into the photography business. However, I am not OK with people getting into photography simply because they bought a nice camera over the weekend (often high end consumer version), leaving it on auto to shoot everything (because they don’t understand any other settings) and using low prices as their core way of getting business (because that’s the only way they feel they can compete). I think that undermines the industry when those 3 things happen.

No matter what career path someone chooses, we all owe it to ourselves to invest in some level of education / learning / core understanding of that career choice. The 4 websites and the 4 YouTube Channels that go along with them below can make a huge difference if someone has chosen photography as their career.

Please note that NONE of these are affiliate links and that I have received no compensation for listing these sites.

Kelby Training

Kelby Training has a tremendous reputation in the industry.  The training is available as an annual subscription ( under $200 as of this post ) or as a monthly recurring fee.  You may also want to consider a NAPP Membership which is the National Association of Photoshop Professionals.  NAPP is tied to Kelby Training and can save you money on your Kelby Training membership.

Be sure to visit: The YouTube Channel for Kelby Training

Creative Live

Creative Live offers a lot more than just photography training, but since this post is about photography , I’ll stick to that topic.  With Creative Live, you can watch the event online for FREE on the day or days of the event.  You can purchase the event at a discounted rate prior to it starting through the end of the event. Shortly after the event is over, the price will likely go up.  The events are archived and you can purchase them individually at a later date.

Be sure to visit: The YouTube Channel for Creative Live

Karl Taylor Photography Masterclass

Karl Taylor is based in the UK. He has done an amazing job of putting together quality photography training. Karl Taylor offers photography training via DVD with worldwide shipping for Beginner, Advanced and Professional Photographers.  You can get several FREE online videos via email by simply providing your name and email address on this page of Karl’s website.

Be sure to visit: The YouTube Channel for Karl Taylor

Glyn Dewis Photographer, Retoucher, Trainer

Glyn Dewis is based out of the UK.  I am expecting Glyn to comment on this post once I let him know about it.  You see, my connection with Glyn shows how the power of the internet works.

I watched Glyn’s interview on Kelby Training and I highly recommend that you watch it as well once you sign up for Kelby Training.  After watching his interview which was the first time that I had ever heard of Glyn Dewis, I pinged him on Twitter, got a reply, then took that over to Facebook which Glyn and I have communicated on fairly regular since then.  Glyn even LIKED my Facebook page.

Now that my story with Glyn is out of the way, it’s time to talk more specifically about Glyn Dewis:  Based on what I remember from the interview, Glyn was doing retouching for other photographer’s who often asked him to work miracles on not so good photography.  Glyn decided to buy a camera and start doing photography himself.  Fast forward several years later and there you have it: Glyn Dewis Photographer, Retoucher, Trainer.

Speaking of Training, you should visit Glyn’s YouTube Channel.  Glyn conducts workshops in the UK and he has an online store on his website with some of his downloadable paid products.

Live Photography Workshops Around Raleigh NC Including Live One-to-One Photography Training

Now’s as good a time as any to put a quick plug in for my own photography training services.  I do teach live workshops as well as offer one-to-one photography training around the Raleigh NC area.  Travel is no problem either should you be interested in hosting a workshop in your city.  Be sure to visit my workshop page to learn more about the photography workshops that are offered or to contact me for one-to-one photography training.

Sometime in 2014, I hope to have several videos available including both FREE and paid versions.  Please be sure to join my list at the bottom of the workshops page to stay updated.

The post 4 Awesome Photography Websites and YouTube Channels That Will Help You Improve Your Skills first appeared on .

The two key points of this post are remembering to use text with your images/videos and making connections using social media.

1) Use text effectively when you post images or video:

A doggy daycare shows up in my Facebook account all the time with images and video but they are rarely using text.  When they do use text, it is not really descriptive. Grant it, search engines are getting smarter, but you should still use text especially descriptive text with keywords like this: “Look at Bandit, a beautiful Belgian Malinois, playing with Dakota, a 2 year old Black Lab, at XYZ Doggy Daycare in Raleigh, North Carolina.” Don’t just post the image or video without saying something about it especially keywords that could help the image or video get found easier.

2) Use Social Media to make connections with people by being genuinely interested in them:

Below is a video promo clip of Glyn Dewis in the UK that is on KelbyTraining.com.

I watched the complete interview which is awesome by the way. After watching it, I found his Facebook page and LIKED it. I then went to Twitter and found Glyn there and sent him an @ message on Twitter about watching the interview, liking his Facebook page and following him on Twitter. Guess What? Glyn replied within an hour on Twitter and ended up following me on Twitter.

There is no guarantee that everyone you take these steps with will respond back, so I don’t recommend doing this simply in hopes of getting someone to LIKE, Follow or Communicate with you. That was not my #1 motive for reaching out to Glyn. I truly enjoyed his interview on KelbyTraining.com.

My motive for posting this is to help you improve your own social media efforts not for Glyn Dewis to stay better connected with me by mentioning him in this post. If that happens, that’s an added bonus. The #1 thing that can come out of this post is you taking actions on your social media efforts that you may not have taken before reading this.

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