Todays interview features Kirk Mastin, a Seattle based photographer labelled a ‘hybrid shooter' but dedicated to film photography in a market and time saturated with digital images. Although Kirk does shoot some digital, and when he does, uses presets made by himself to look like film, his passion lays with film. Today's episode is focused on shooting weddings with film and succeeding in business.

Kirk says, “Film has soul. Film has feeling. Digital has it’s purpose but film satisfies me. That is why I shoot film at every wedding.”

Kirk has been featured in over a dozen of the worlds biggest and well known wedding blogs. He runs hybrid workshops that sell out fast and he builds Lightroom presets to get that film look from digital files.

Here’s some more of what we cover:

  • How Kirk stumbled into using film for his business and hasn't looked back
  • Shooting 75% film and 25% digital for weddings and why this mix
  • Why Kirk continues to shoot film even though he builds presets to make digital look like film
  • Is shooting film is a huge gamble for you
  • If wedding sessions are completely draining and difficult, why add film into the mix
  • Balancing your passion with personal life is one of the hardest struggles of a photographer
  • How Kirk takes big risks when he feels the need to make a change
  • Why Kirk believes in chasing the things that scares him the most
  • How Kirk's business turned around after increasing his prices
  • How to use print sales to increase your profitability
  • What to look out for when starting with film photography
  • The pitfalls of using film
  • Why you should consider using film for your photography business
  • What you're missing out when shooting digital
  • Why Kirk never markets himself as a film photographer
  • The importance creating relationships with communities in your area to network your business
  • The benefits of adding a quality video to your websites showing who you are and what your business is all about
  • Why you need to be consistent with your portfolio, blog and video to attract future clients
  • Why you should never give reasons for raising your prices
  • Know what kind of photos to shoot to target the clients you want

Kirk Mastin Photography Podcast

Special Presets Promo Code

If you'd like to purchase any of Kirk's film presets head to mastinlabs.com and use the discount code: PHOTOBIZ25 to save  25% off any purchase until Jan 1, 2015.

The scarier the risk is, probably the better it is to do it.

The presets are for both Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw to achieve a film look to both Fuji and Kodak colour films with Ilford B&W presets coming soon.

Kirk Mastin Photography Podcast

What’s on Offer for Premium Members

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

  • You owe nothing to anyone when you blog, be free to blog whatever you want
  • The biggest mistake photographers make when blogging
  • Film recommendations
  • Film exposure advice and tricks
  • How running an e-commerce site is a great way to learn about customers
  • The importance of creating a personal connection with your suppliers
  • How to maintain balance between work and normal life
  • Outsourcing
  • The importance of creating an attractive PDF Brochure
  • Kirk's film presets

In addition to the extra audio content, Kirk has made available his PDF brochure that we discussed in the premium half of the interview. Details are in your members area.

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 Kirk 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 Kirk your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically show you’re listening: https://photobizx.com/tweet

Kirk Mastin Photography Podcast

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 happy to see a five star rating and review from Ddjw from Australia.

I'm not entirely sure who Ddjw is but if you let me know, I'll happily add links to your website and feel like I'm giving a proper shout out – thanks though, either way.

iTunes Review

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.

Thanks for your recommendation

I often encourage listeners to suggest interview guests, topics you'd like to hear covered and other show suggestions. Today's interview came about because Kirk was suggested as a perfect guest for the show at the recommendation of both:

Chris & Shae of Owl Creek Photography and Timothy Ladamson. Thank you both (or all three) for your suggestion!

Do You Have a Question about Your Business or Marketing?

Yes, there's still time to have your questions answered.

I’m planning a Q&A episode over the Christmas and New Year period and would love your questions! Feel free to email me or use the voicemail option on this page. You can be as detailed and specific to your business or circumstances as you like. And, you can remain anonymous if you refer.

I think you can sacrifice talent for customer service

Alternatively, if you’d like to get in touch, ask a question about 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!

Kirk Mastin Photography Podcast

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

Kirk Mastin – Mastin Studio

Mastin Labs

Kirk's Personal Website

Kirk on Facebook

Kirk on Instagram

Kirk on Twitter

Kirk Mastin on Tumblr

Peak Beard Article

The Find Lab

UK Film Lab

Carmencita Film Lab

Raw Digital & Film Lab

Parker Fitzgerald

Shep Films

Peter Schwepker

Táve

Dropbox

Kristen Kalp interview on PhotoBizX

Brand Camp Blog

Jonathan Canlas Photography

Rebecca and Morgan Blog post with my ‘new' approach

 

Equipment

Kodak Portra 400 Professional ISO 400, 35mm, 36 Exposures, Color Negative Film (5 Roll per Pack )

Kodak 35mm Professional Portra Color Film (ISO 160) 6031959

Sekonic L-358 Flash Master Light Meter – 401-358

Fujifilm Fujicolor Pro 400H Color Negative Film ISO 400, 120mm, 5 Roll Pro Pack

Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Kirk Mastin Photography Podcast

Thank you!

Thank you again for listening to the show and thanks Kirk for being an awesome guest!

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

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

Thanks and speak soon

Andrew