Zabrina and Jeremy from JeZa Photography are gaining a rock star status in the Asian destination wedding market in just a few years after picking up a camera. They have both quit their day jobs and travel the world with their own make up artist to photograph elaborate and simply beautiful wedding scenes in some of the most beautiful cities in the world.

In this interview, Zabrina shares the secrets to their fast success and how there is nothing stopping you from doing exactly the same. Based in the San Francisco Bay area and named one of the 30 rising stars of wedding photography in 2012 by Rangefinder magazine, these guys really do have an international calendar that includes yearly weddings in the USA, Hong Kong, Vietnam, France, Italy and China.

Much of their success, Zabrina says, is owed to their mentor and support group which we explore in the interview.

Here's some more of what we cover:

  • Starting an international wedding photography business from scratch
  • Zabrina and Jeremy didn't have a professional wedding photographer for their own wedding and use that as one of their marketing tools
  • How Zabrina found her “look” with wedding and portrait photography and are able to stand out from a crowded market as a result
  • Balancing a day job while trying to pursue a newfound passion in wedding photography then start and build a viable business at the same time
  • Learn how JeZa Photography identify their target market and how you can do the same for your niche
  • How Zabrina and Jeremy use their cultural background/ethnicity and their lifestyle to attract clients
  • How to gear your photography business towards the lifestyle that you've been wanting
  • The importance of having a unique selling proposition in the wedding photography niche
  • How Zabrina and Jeremy managed to shift from their regular day job to becoming full-time wedding photographers without a business plan
  • Learn what they could have done better before making the jump to full time photography
  • Marketing tactics to attract bookings for weddings around the world
  • How charging less when starting to build your career as a wedding photographer helps you gain experience faster
  • How to take a creative advantage from wedding clients with low expectations
  • How over-delivering helped boost Zabrina and Jeremy's photography career
  • Why you don't have to have a business plan or a vision to start a wedding photography business
  • How to attract bookings without spending much on marketing
  • Using your photography as your marketing edge
  • How pre-wedding sessions work for Asian wedding clientele
  • Utilising the wedding day as a marketing tool to showcase  your photography
  • Marketing to international clients and how to attract attention
  • Publish your travel schedules to attract destination wedding booking
  • File handling, labelling and tagging for success
  • How to increase your chances of landing in the Google search results page
  • How to easily share your Instagram posts to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Weibo
  • What you can do to tap into the Asian wedding photography market
  • How to save on accommodations costs when shooting over seas

Follow the interview, I emailed Zabrina a follow up question about her Chinese parents (and Jeremy's) thoughts about their decision to go full time and quitting stable day jobs, here's her reply:

As first child from the family who has attended and graduated from college from my family, my parents have high expectations for me to strive to do really well in life and to typically do a professional job. As many other typical Asian families, my parents expected us to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, accountant, banker, at least making a stable amount of money to buy a nice house living in San Francisco bay area.

So when I told my father about postponing our plan to buy a house to pursue a career as a photographer, also during the time of quitting my job as a system programmer in the heat of the tech boom, like all Asian parents would be, he was furious about my decision. Perhaps, part of me is wanting to prove my parents wrong, the only way to do it is to move forward and no turning back. As time goes on and we've built our reputation and are able to bring in a stable monthly income, my parents are less angry about us being a full time photographer.

JeZa Photography Podcast Interview

What's on Offer for Premium Members

If you're a premium member, you should have received an email about your version of this episode where you can hear lots more implementable content from where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed hard for that include:

  • Packing light for destination weddings
  • The importance of a support group and mentor for business and photography success
  • How to communicate and connect with your over seas wedding clients
  • Why Zabrina insists on bringing her own make up artist to destination weddings
  • Why it is essential to build your own team for your photography business
  • The advantage of giving your clients tangible sample of your work while they are shopping for a wedding photographer
  • Why Zabrina relies more on her photography skills than the business side of things
  • Where to find inspiration and drive to keep improving your photography
  • How to make your photographs unique and authentic for your couples

JeZa Photography Podcast Interview

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I'd love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you'd like to implement or learnt from what was shared? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you'd like to ask or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

If you'd like an easy way to show Zabrina your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically let him know you're listening: https://photobizx.com/tweet

JeZa Photography Podcast Interview

The Resources Page

Remember the ever expanding resources page that has a listing of products, programs, hardware, books and directories mentioned in each episode of the show. If you’re looking for something that a guest has mentioned on a previous episode but just can’t remember who or what it was – you’ll find it listed in order on the resources page.

iTunes ratings, reviews and Shout-Outs

Each week before recording the podcast I check iTunes for any reviews and each week I'm excited to see what you've had to say about the podcast. This week I was blown away to see five fantastic reviews! Thanks you so much to: Downunder Pom from the UK Sincerely, thanks so much for your ratings and reviews, I appreciate the time you've taken and it's a big help for the show. It's these iTunes reviews that make a big difference to the podcast being ranked well and found in the iTunes store. If you have the time and are happy to leave an honest rating and review, head over to iTunes.

PhotoBizX Photography Podcast Review

Don't feel your comments have to be long, involved or gushy, an honest opinion is all I ask. Don't be shy about leaving your business name in the review either – that way I can add a link in the show-notes and show my appreciation with a proper thanks and a Google loving back-link to your website.

Get in Touch or Leave a Voicemail Message

If you'd like to get in touch, ask a question or make a suggestion for the show, you can email me andrew@photobizx.com, find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewhellmich or on Facebook at https://photobizx.com/facebook – I'd love to hear from you!

JeZa Photography Podcast Interview

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

JeZa Photography

Smugmug

Zabrina Deng on Facebook

Jeremy Chan on Facebook

JeZa Photography on Facebook

JeZa on Vimeo

JeZa on Flickr

JeZa on Instagram

Twitter

Scott Robert Lim

Weibo

White House Custom Colour (WHCC)

Airbnb

House Trip

 

Equipment

Sony a7 Full-Frame 24.3 MP Interchangeable Digital Lens Camera – Body Only

Sony DSC-RX1/B Cyber-shot Full-frame Digital Camera

Sony 55mm F1.8 Sonnar T* FE ZA Full Frame Prime Lens

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS Interchangeable Full Frame Zoom Lens

Pelican Cases

JeZa Photography Podcast Interview

That's it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

If you've been enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to tell another photographer about it – it could be in a Facebook Group you're a part of, a photography forum, with a photographer friend or on twitter. If you do have a twitter account, simply click here: https://photobizx.com/tweet or use the share buttons below.

Thanks and speak soon Andrew