Our next studio spotlight is dani. fine photography & image studio, located on the second level of the historic Thornes Marketplace in the heart of Northampton, Massachusetts. Dani graduated from the Hallmark Institute of Photography 18 years ago and a year later started her own studio. dani. fine photography & image studio specializes in weddings, lifestyle, commercial and boudoir photography, and portraiture. Her studio is made up of 7 (going on 8 soon!) creative and strong female photographers, and an amazing Studio Manager & Creative Director, Megan, who is in charge of marketing, media, and getting stuff done! Dani finds great joy in not only capturing beautiful images as owner and lead photographer, but also enjoys participating in and leading speaking engagements and business consultations. You may recognize her from recent speaking engagements at Inspire conferences, scrolling upon her book The Art and Business of Boudoir Photography on Amazon,  or as a featured entrepreneur on Huffington Post and Forbes. Outside of the studio walls, her studio works with many charities, such as United Way, Best Buddies, and local PTOs to find ways to give back and help and encourage others. She also feels great value in family time and every spare moment is spent with her husband (also co-owner of the company) and her two very cool and adorable children. Dani, what is your strategy for selling albums?

We address it after the shoot/wedding.  We view it as an add-on-sale.  We have found that offering it after the wedding is over, couples kind of ‘forget’ about the money they have already spent with our studio and the charge for the album seems more digest-able ☺  We charge $795 – $5600 for albums. After an event is done, what is your work flow from uploading the images from your card reader to delivering the album?

We are a full time, full service studio and our approach is non-traditional.  We actually bring a 3rd photographer to our weddings and at dinner time – she magically changes back into our post-production Manager, Philitha!  During dinner, and for the rest of the evening, Philtha downloads all that days’ wedding images to a laptop, sends them to back up on our cloud and immediately begins the edit process, she posts a ‘sneak peek’ on social media within a day or two and then sends the gallery via ShootProof to the happy couple!  Fast turnarounds without sacrificing quality is the name of our game! (Note: Dani Fine Photography does 2-3 weddings/weekend so they download the images and start editing the same evening to get a jump on the post-production) How do you find your customers? (expos, online advertising, print ads, referrals, high school advocates/models, etc.)

Instagram, word of mouth and TONS of in person networking! What is your favorite website/book for photo inspiration?

E News – celebrities know how to pose! What was your first camera? What do you shoot with now?

Mamiya 645 was the first. Now I shoot with the Nikon D800.  Do you prefer to shoot by yourself or with an assistant and why?

Second Shooter and an assistant/editor – for the ability to be EVERYWHERE! And have help with the super fast turnaround our DFP Brides expect! If you could go back in time and shoot one event in history, what would it be?

My own wedding – my pictures were awful!