inspire boston Archives - Krista Photography Blog

Posted on March 15, 2012April 3, 2012 by Krista Guenin

Inspire 2012 is almost here!!

Inspire.

It started out as an idea… What if there was a conference that felt more like a community? What if instead of flying around the country to hear people from California talk about running their businesses, we gathered photographers from right here in New England and asked them instead? What if we did it ourselves? These are the questions that Matt & Enna Grazier asked a few of us, as we all looked at them as if they were nuts. Brilliant. But nuts… If it had been my idea, it probably would have stayed an idea, but the Grazier’s are people of action, and thank God for that!

What began as an idea, a question, grew into a real life conference we called Inspire Boston. What was an incredible and inspiring two days in Concord with 100 photographers, grew to something more the next year… Inspire Boston 2011. We added mentoring sessions, shooting workshops, and a vendor lounge and this time 125 people came from all over New England and beyond!

So, here we are, 3 years later, and it’s just 12 days until Inspire 2012 kicks off! This year, we’ve changed the name from Inspire Boston to Inspire Photo Seminars – since it’s really not just about Boston anymore. We’ve moved it to the Sturbridge Host so we could have a bit more space and be a little more centralized for our primarily MA/CT attendees. We’ve got 18 Speaking Sessions, 8 Special Classes (shooting session, portfolio reviews, etc.), a special pre-conference all-day Pictage + ShootQ Bootcamp, an even bigger Vendor Lounge, a mid-conference party with KARAOKE (clearly that was my idea!), one-on-one and roundtable mentoring sessions with the speakers and sponsors, and a killer Wrap-Party at the end! It is going to be a JAM-PACKED couple of days!!!

I’ll be speaking at Inspire this year on Facebook Marketing Strategies. If you follow my blog, you’ve probably liked my Facebook page as well (and if not, what’s stopping you?!). And if you follow both, you’ve probably noticed that I post on Facebook WAY more often than on here. Facebook just makes it so EASY for me! It has dramatically changed and grown my business over the last 3 years. Last year my weddings doubled from the year before, and this year I’m almost entirely booked up for the year already! I give most of that credit to how I share images and communicate via Facebook – but I guess I’ll give a little of the credit to my photographs too, yeah? ;) I’ve been super excited to share my Facebook strategies and theories with the Inspire community, and wouldn’t you know it, Facebook went and changed everything about their business pages three weeks before the conference! So, I’m reworking my talk and trying to learn as much about all the changes as possible, and now I’m even more excited :) I mean, what better time to talk about how to set up and use a Facebook page than right when everything about them has changed and everyone’s wondering what to do?! OK, so I’m excited and also a little overwhelmed, but I do think it’s an exciting time to be sharing about this and I’m hoping that it will be really beneficial to everyone to comes to my talk!

If you’re a photographer, and you aren’t signed up for Inspire yet, what are you waiting for?! It’s going to be FUN! You’re going to meet a TON of awesome local photographers who may just become your nearest and dearest friends (I’ve gone on vacation with ladies I met at Inspire, and don’t get me started on how much I love the Planning Team). You’re going to LEARN something new! You’re going to leave feeling INSPIRED and EMPOWERED to make some great changes in your business and maybe even in your life. It’s not too late to sign up and come be a part of it all!! I’ve got a $50 off discount code that is good for the first 3 people who use it! Go HERE and use the code KRISTAPHOTO2012 to get $50 off your registration! I hope you can come!!!

Posted on April 28, 2011April 28, 2011 by Krista Guenin · 1 Comment

Inspire Boston 2011

You may or may not know that for the last 2 years, I’ve been part of a small group of photographers who have planned, organized, and put on a local wedding photography conference called Inspire Boston. The first year was awesome, and this year’s was even better! The whole conference is based around the concept of peer-to-peer mentoring and the idea that as we build relationships with one another and our community grows stronger – we’ll all become better photographers and business owners. It was an intimate conference of just 125 people, and we held it at Concord’s Colonial Inn which gave the whole thing a very cozy and New Englandy vibe. There were a handful of great (mostly local) instructors for presentations, shooting workshops, and mentoring sessions. We also scheduled in tons of free time so that even more learning, inspiration, and encouragement could happen in between the formal class times. And this year we added in Vendor Lounge so that people could connect with some of the industry and the area’s best vendors. All in all, it was pretty fabulous!

Between preparing for my presentation and organizing all the logistics – I didn’t take too many photos for those three days! But here are a few of my favorites from the last day of the conference…

My fabulous assistant, CoCo Boardman shot a few images during & after my presentation with Enna Grazier. Our presentation was on Creating a Sustainable Brand. It went really well, which was exciting, and also a huge relief!

It was especially cool talking with people after the presentation, hearing their feedback – but also watching people talking and brainstorming together. People seemed really inspired to figure out who they really are, and what they want their business to be. Love it!

Later that night we had a Wrap Party at LensProToGo complete with pizza, raffle prizes and a very fun ring light to play with :) I loved this shot CoCo got of me!

Tabitha looks like she’s singing a sad song… I love her :)

that’s tougher than it looks, eh Larry?

dude, CoCo’s mean!

aw, Paul & Krystal :)

Here’s a shot of the whole crowd at the Wrap Party (courtesy of Raw Photo Design)

And the “Dream Team” who planned & organized the event: CoCo, me, Mark Higgins, Krystal & Paul McNerney, Carla Ten Eyk, Candice Coppola, Diana Chouinard, Matt & Enna Grazier (the masterminds behind the whole thing), and Richard Esposito. What a blessing it’s been to work with these lovely people!!

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After the wrap party, came the best part, really – the AFTER PARTY! A bunch of us went back to the Inn for a concert by Jimmy Mazzy & Friends – the most fabulous little old jazz band in the world. Oh, they were soooo fun!!! And they play every Wednesday night at the Colonial Inn, if you ever want to check them out!!

Gid. He’s my favorite!

The Incredible Mr. Jimmy Mazzy!

I had to show Gid how to use his camera on his phone, but once he figured it out, he couldn’t put it down!

see, he’s just delightful :)

Thanks again to everyone who participated in Inspire Boston 2011!!!! I had a great time, and am already excited for next year! We’ve already begun planning for 2012 so stay tuned for details coming in the next few months!!

If you’d like to view more of my images from Inspire Boston, check out the album on Facebook.

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Krista Guenin · 2 Comments

Inspire Boston 2011

In November of 2009, my friends Matt & Enna Grazier gathered some friends and asked us to if we’d be interested in helping them put together a conference for local New England photographers. Sounded great to me, and just 3 short months later, Inspire Boston was underway! It was such an awesome time of learning and networking – everyone had a blast. Check out this great video that Richard Esposito put together for it:

In fact, it went so great that we decided to do it all again this year! Fast forward a few months, and here I am today, sitting in the Colonial Inn in Concord, bracing myself for the start of Inspire Boston 2011! This year we’ve made it a little longer, added some more shooting workshops, improved our mentoring sessions, and added a Vendor Lounge. I’m so pumped! Plus, this year I’m actually speaking at the conference…gulp! Enna Grazier and I are speaking on Creating a Sustainable Brand, and I’m both excited and also nervous :) It’s going to be a great couple of days though! Hopefully I’ll be able to share some photos and such later in the week!

Posted on March 19, 2010March 19, 2010 by Krista Guenin

The “off” season

So, I realized yesterday that it’s been almost a month since I last blogged! WHOA! This is probably the longest I’ve ever neglected my darling little blog… poor thing! ;) The truth of the matter is that I haven’t been shooting so I’ve forgotten to blog. This is what we wedding photographers like to call the “off season.” It’s the “off” season because there aren’t many weddings in New England in the miserable winter time, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that we aren’t working this time of year! It’s actually been a fairly busy time! So, what does a wedding photographer actually DO this time of year??? I’ll tell you…

– Seminars, Workshops, and Conferences, oh my! I’m not kidding, there are so many to choose from it’s overwhelming! I finally settled on just a few that I thought would be really helpful. Justin & Mary Marantz’ Spread the Love workshop, Doug Levy’s Get Lit Workshop on off-camera flash, Inspire Boston which I helped my dear friends the Graziers organize, and the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in Dallas. Each was awesome for very different reasons, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to blog about them in the coming days to tell you all about them!

– Albums, albums, albums! This is the time of year when we finally have some time to sit down with my brides and help them choose images for their albums. And I’ve brought on a new album designer, Andrea, who’s doing an amazing job creating beautiful albums that tell the stories my brides hope to someday share with their kids and grandkids. I’ll try to blog a few designs for you, so you can see for yourself!

– Marketing… This is also the time of year when I go back to the drawing board on my website and decide it needs all new photos! So, I’m busy working on that and trying to narrow down my favorites, which is always the hardest part! It’s also when I need to sit down and rethink my marketing strategies, make sure I’m only advertising on the right websites, and reaching the right brides (i.e. the fabulous brides who want to work with me, and vice versa). This basically means a lot of decision making for me – and I can say without reservation that decision-making is not my strong suit ;)

– Taxes. ugh! ‘nough said.

– Reconnect. The best part of the off-season is that I actually get to spend some time hanging out with my friends – both in the industry and outside! So, each week my calendar seems ridiculously filled with lunches, dinners, karaoke nights, and all sorts of fun things! I’m not complaining :)

Oh, I’ve also finally gotten around to editing some of my personal photos from last year! Here are a few of my niece & nephews – because they’re the cutest and because a post without photos is lame!

Reilly

Caeden

Me & My Tristan

So, that’s what I’ve been up to! Now it’s time to get back to working on those other blog posts… I’ll talk to you soon! ;)