RESOURCES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
On this page you’ll find a selection of educational resources, software, products and tools for your photography business that I use and recommend. When you sign up using my links, some of them will send me a small commission. But rest assured I only recommend things that I actually love.
Fuel Your Photos is the best SEO resource out there. Honestly, don’t even look anywhere else. They have a free and thriving Facebook Group, the ever-updating SEO guide (which is also free), and for when you’re ready to take the next step, there’s a comprehensive SEO and Blogging course which I highly recommend, and it’s specifically designed for wedding and portrait photographers. Even if you think you know everything about SEO, it’s a constantly changing playing field and Corey and Dylan are staying on top of it so you don’t have to.
The Marketing Fix has been created by Melissa Love and is a monthly membership with a wealth of information for photographers on everything from SEO basics to Pinterest marketing and everything in-between.
ShortPixel is an image optimization tool and a WordPress plugin that reduces image size without compromising on quality – and without you having to add an extra step to your workflow. I have it running on my website and it’s quietly crunching through my huge image library retrospectively. There are free credits, or you can either buy a one-off image bundle or sign up for a monthly plan.
I use Pixieset for my client galleries and sales. There’s a free account that you can use forever, or for when you need more storage and better sales tools, you can upgrade or downgrade at any time. It’s simple to use with many useful options like watermarking of images, adding videos to the gallery header, and more. If you’re new to Pixieset, you can use my referral link to get a bonus 250 MB added to your free allowance.
Creative Market is a one-stop-shop for all your template needs. From logo templates to magazine templates to illustrations and fonts and business card templates, and even templates for Canva – you can find anything there. Word of caution – don’t buy EVERYTHING just because you fancy it. Use it wisely, and make sure whatever you buy goes well with your brand (or that you adjust it accordingly).
If you blog, you want to share you blog posts on social media. And not just once. Because let’s face it, not everyone sees everything you share. Sharing content consistently is time-consuming, so I use Missinglttr to take care of that for me. Now, whenever I publish a blog post, I get sent an email (within minutes of me hitting ‘publish’) inviting me to review a full 12-month social marketing campaign for the blog post I just published. All I need to do is review their suggestions (making edits if I need to) and that’s it. My blog post is then marketed across my social channels for the next year – driving traffic back to my site. You can use this link for 50% off any plan for the first 3 months to try it out.
Head over to my Amazon storefront to check out a curated collection of my favourite business books. I keep adding to it as I come across new books. You’ll also find separate lists for some of the photography gear that I use, as well as some of the photobooks I like.
For Instagram scheduling, I use Later. It’s all about batching tasks to save time! The free Later account is plenty as it gives you 30 posts per month, which you can visually plan and pre-write on an actual computer keyboard, and if you have a business account on Instagram it’ll even auto-publish for you, so you don’t have to get sucked into mindless scrolling. If you need more advanced tools, you can upgrade, but you don’t have to.
JPEGmini is a great little tool for optimising images and saving space, without compromising on quality. You can buy it as a standalone piece of software, or as a Lightroom plugin. I typically run images through JPEGmini before uploading them to a client’s Pixieset gallery to save on space and make it faster too.
I use Podia for my Business Intensive for Family Photographers course, and it’s a great alternative to other more expensive ones out there. It’s super easy to use, and its interface is not overwhelming at all, even for the technically challenged. You can use it to sell online courses and downloads, as well as create membership sites.
I’ve been using BlogStomp for years now to create blog-ready images and collages. They also have AlbumStomp, an easy-to-use album design software.
The Design Space offers gorgeous website templates for Divi, Showit and ProPhoto.
HELLO, I’M ANTONINA
After graduating with a law degree from one of the top law schools in Russia I’ve turned my life upside down and moved to the UK, where I studied arts management and worked in marketing before starting my own photography business.
I’ve been a professional photographer since 2009 and now enjoy working with many wonderful families from across the world.
Although my first passion will always be storytelling with my photography, I’m also a total marketing and business geek and I love helping other photographers figure the business side of things out. Seeing my students succeed and build their businesses on their own terms fills me with joy.
AS SEEN IN
