Sandra Åberg is an acclaimed fashion and wedding photographer having had her photography featured in publications like, Vogue Japan, Vogue Brazil, Vogue Australia, Cosmopolitan Bride and Tape Magazine. In this interview, Sandra shares how she is creating a business from styled wedding shoots. Combined with her wedding photography business, the two approaches compliment each other and Sandra is living a terrific life as a result.

Based out of Copenhagen, Sandra works closely with her husband Perry shooting weddings all over Europe & the world. She swapped her marketing background for photography six years ago and hasn't looked back since.

Here’s some more of what we cover:

  • How you can use fashion work inspire and motivate you for other genres of photography
  • Why fashion photography is not for everyone
  • What made Sandra decide to quit her regular job to pursue photography
  • How it can seem things can only get better when they couldn't really get worse
  • Why keeping your day job may be a good idea when pursuing photography
  • The importance of feeling happy while working
  • The importance of being able to choose who you work with
  • Is going back to your day job really an option after leaving to work for yourself
  • How fashion photography let to becoming a wedding photographer
  • The appeal of working as a wedding photographer
  • How to customise your portfolio to attract the clients you want
  • How to set up and organise your first styled wedding shoots
  • Using mood boards to plan your wedding shoot and get other businesses onboard
  • Is working for free an option for a photographer
  • How Sandra approached and convinced her wedding collaborators to work for her for free
  • How to create a mood board for your styled shoots
  • How styled shoots can affect your business and shooting style
  • Post production for styled shoots versus real weddings
  • Bookings and sales
  • Where to attract the tight clients for your business
  • What Sandra does to make her business show up and be searchable online
  • How to market for a wedding destination shoot not having shot there before
  • How you should be naming your images before uploading to your website
  • Why you should not be intimidated with other photographers work
  • The importance of being happy for other photographers for your own growth and health
  • Why photographers tend to be on the ‘haters' side
  • Photography workshops

Sandra Aberg Podcast Interview

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:

  • What Sandra does to cope with the steep competition in the wedding industry
  • Who commissions Sandra's styled shoots and who should you target for similar shoots
  • How Sandra landed a job at Vogue Japan
  • Why Sandra will do whatever it takes for the sake of her business even if it doesn't bring her income
  • Who owns the copyright of the photos from a styled wedding shoot
  • Contracts and model release forms
  • What should be written into your photography contracts
  • Copyrights and Usage rights and what you need to discuss before the shoot
  • Post-processing work for styled shoots and real weddings
  • Why you need to be a little pushy if you really want something
  • The best thing that Sandra has done for her business
  • How working in a local area or community impacts your choice of vendors for styled shoots
  • What Sandra would do to get paid quickly if she decides to move to a different country
  • Sandra's current workflow

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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.

Doing your own thing is always really hard

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Sandra 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 Sandra 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

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iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs

Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple reasons. Firstly it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping listeners to improve their business. That's awesome!

Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find the PhotoBizX show. More listeners means more interviews and ultimately a better show.

If you have left a review in the past, thank you!

If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your site like I have with Angie below.

Andrew goes above and beyond.

In iTunes by Angie Connell of angieconnellphotography.com.au from Australia on April 15, 2015

This review has been a long time coming!

I've been listening to the podcast now (as a premium member) for several months and the learning curve has been huge!

At a minimum, I get exposed to someones unique business and experiences, successes and failures which I think is hugely generous of the guests and also reassuring as sometimes you can feel very alone when you are starting/running your own small business.

But much more commonly, there is a “take away” that speaks directly to me, which i have either instigated into my business or have written down to keep in mind for later.

Andrew is a very genuine and honest host who goes that extra mile for the listeners of his podcast. I look forward to each new episode on Mondays!!

Thanks Andrew 🙂

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New Website and Branding

I've been talking about my new website for Impact Images for a few months now and have finally taken delivery of the site and branding from Nikki and Shannon of Gimme That It.

In this episode, I discuss the procedure of building a new site and brand from start to finish. The costs, the time, what was involved and expected of me and was it all worth it.

I also share some big cost saving ideas if you don't have the budget to for the bells and whistles of a “done for you” service.

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

Sandra Aberg Website

Sandra Aberg Blog

Sandra Aberg on Facebook

Sandra Aberg on Google+

Sandra Aberg on Instagram

Sandra Aberg on Twitter

Modae Arte Workshop

Other workshops

Jannie Baltzer

KT Merry

Joy Proctor

Red Leaf Boutique

Pixieset

Pages

Imagenomic

Lightroom

Vimeo

SmugMug

Gimme That It

Kristen Kalp – Brand Camp Blog

Go Your Own Way – the ebook – get it by subscribing on Kristen's home page

Alex Vita of Foreground Web

Impact Images Website

Equipment

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

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Thank you!

Thank you again for listening to the show and thanks Sandra for being an awesome guests!

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