THE LATEST
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RUNNING A PHOTO BIZ
Mental Health, Physical Well-Being, and Racial Injustice as a Wedding Photographer in 2020 (with Jennifer Ryals)
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 407 [INTERVIEW] Jennifer Ryals began her wedding photography business just a few years ago and it took off a lot faster than she hoped or expected. So like many photographers, she...
Demystifying Post-Wedding Album Sales with Makayla Jade
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 406 [INTERVIEW] As a wedding or portrait photographer, its indisputable that selling physical products such as albums, wall art, and prints will not only serve your clients better...
How to Become an Elopement Photographer (with Maddie Mae)
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 405 [INTERVIEW] With the majority of big weddings either postponing to next year or pivoting to smaller celebrations in 2020, wedding photographers have had to learn how to pivot...
How to Use Block Scheduling to Get Things Done
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 404 [TRAINING] If you've hung around us Youngrens in 2020, then you've heard us talking about time management, specifically the block scheduling system that we've created and...
The Six Critical Email Templates Every Wedding Photographer Should Be Using
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 403 [TRAINING] For many many years in our business, controlling my email inbox was a battle that I fought nonstop. A full inbox would cause so much stress in my life, that it’s...
Tired of Instagram? Check Out this Amazing IG Strategy (that Nobody Teaches) with Devin Robinson
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 402 [INTERVIEW] If you've spent hours curating your Instagram feed and gotten little to no results for your business, you're not alone. Instagram easily sucks hours of valuable time from...
Our COVID Story: The Behind the Scenes Story of Fighting to Keep Our Wedding Photography Business Alive
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 401 [NARRATIVE] As a wedding photographer in 2020, how often do you get asked, "So how has COVID affected your business this year?" So often, there's the surface answer to that...
The Two Questions Your Website Needs to Answer with Davey Jones
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 312 (BONUS) [TRAINING] During this time of quarantine, one of the best things for you to focus on as a wedding photographer is to make sure your website is looking amazing. But what...
5 Daily Habits You Need to Win at Working from Home
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 311 (BONUS) [TRAINING] As this episode goes live, we're deep into quarantine life because of COVID-19 and while most of the world has had to figure out how to work from home,...
A Wedding Photographer’s Guide to Auditing Your Business During COVID-19
If you’re a wedding photographer, when the “off-season” rolls around, it’s time to audit your wedding photography business. This means that you need to take a deep dive into your business and find out what needs to be worked on to make it healthy and sustainable...
How to Routinely Dial in Your Photography Contract & Cash Flow
This is a crucial action-item in any off-season of your business: update your photography contract and dial in your cash flow. When we asked a crew of successful photographers what they are prioritizing during the COVID-19 crisis, this subject was TOP of...
The Off-Season Photographer Education You Should Dig Into Now
Oooo my friends, I’m SO excited to dive into this topic with you: off-season photographer education! We’ve spent the past three weeks of our blog series, How to Audit Your Business in the Off-Season, digging into how to complete a total Client Experience...
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HOW DO I GET MORE (AND BETTER) WEDDING INQUIRIES?
Every wedding photographer desperately wants to know the quick answer to this one question: “How in the world do I get more wedding inquiries???" So in this mega-post, I’m sharing how to build a solid marketing STRATEGY – the same one that has continually brought high quality wedding inquiries to our business for the past ten years.
SIX EMAIL TEMPLATES YOU SHOULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT
A full inbox causes so much stress in my life that it’s the #1 thing that pulls me away from important work. So what's my single most effective weapon against ‘email overwhelm’? EMAIL TEMPLATES. Here’s my pick for the six email templates that every wedding photographer should have in their business and why.
HOW TO SHOOT BEAUTIFUL PORTRAITS IN HARSH SUNLIGHT
When it comes to lighting, wedding days are totally against us as wedding photographers. Most of the time, we’re shooting the First Look, wedding party and family portraits ALL in the harsh afternoon sun. So how do Jeff and I handle the tough light to shoot soft, natural skin tones in super harsh sun? Check out my six technical tips…
CREATIVE RISING
the podcastA show about what it’s really like to run a PHOTOGRAPHY business
We teach photographers to build life-giving businesses that they absolutely love.
About Us
We're Jeff & Erin
We’re Jeff and Erin Youngren – and it’s our mission to help you thrive not just as a wedding photographer, but as a business owner. It’s time to set aside the stress and comparison of a hustle mindset, and build a life-giving business instead.
We met in college, got married, and started corporate jobs before we discovered (and fell in love with) wedding photography. But like many creative entrepreneurs, we were booking anything we could, strapped to our laptops and living dangerously close to burnout.
So we dug in and learned how to build a thriving business that supports our dream life – instead of a joyless business that runs a stressed-out life.
Today, we photograph only 10 Dreamie weddings per year, but we also run two other wedding brands plus a commercial studio in San Diego, CA. And we do it by only working the hours that fit into our life. The other hours? We spend those living a joyful life raising our two beautiful sons, James and Samuel.
hugs,
Jeff and Erin