We met John and Tammy Flaherty, of Diamond Photo Design, at a recent PPA-sponsored Super Monday workshop that they led. The topic of the one-day workshop was John and Tammy’’s photography workflow, including the use of Adobe Lightroom, LabPrints and Adobe Photoshop. John and Tammy also depend on PhotoOne to manage their studio.
We sat down with them to ask them a few questions about their thriving Billerica, Massachusetts wedding and portrait photography business.
a) Who or what do you photograph the most?
Tammy and I have been photographing weddings and children’s portraits since 1994. Our business is 90% weddings and 20% portraits. If you do the math it means we work 110% of the time. Weddings have been something that came naturally to us as a couple and we have found great success so we are happy to let other photographers do all the school photography as we enjoy the weddings and portraits.
b) Over the course of your career, who has influenced your vision?
We are seminar junkies. We love photography and we love photographers. We attend every WPPI, PPA and local convention. We learn so much from watching seminars that we pick and apply only pieces of techniques from every photographer we meet. The most influential photographer we have studied with would have to be Jerry Ghionis. While there are a hundred photographers that have helped me in my career, Jerry has helped us see things we never were able to capture in the past.
c) How has PhotoOne Software helped your business?
PhotoOne software has helped us keep our sanity! Back 12 years ago, we were a high volume studio with 10 people. Photographers and videographers all needed to be organized and calendars needed to be setup for everyone. PhotoOne was the answer. Now we have raised our prices and lowered our blood pressure with just us as the photographers. PhotoOne is great for small and large studios. We use the same PhotoOne processes to run our studio today. We organize all our wedding clients, orders, payments and schedules the same way we always have.
d) What other software apps do you use?
Our main photography software application is LabPrints. Most photographers would say Photoshop, but I think Photoshop is where I loose money! I hate Photoshop, no wait, I love Photoshop… I love Photoshop for my playtime but LabPrints makes us money! LabPrints is an all in one application that allows us to do presentation sales, design albums, connect with our professional lab and set up online storefronts all in one program. Once we make the sale with LabPrints, we go right to PhotoOne to keep track of the orders.
e)Â Tell us about one of your memorable photo shoots.
The most recent memorable photo shoot was a nice wedding in Boston. The whole day was going perfect until the limo broke down in the middle of the city. I just happened to be a few cars behind the limo and pulled over to check if all was OK. The bride and groom jumped into my car with champagne in hand and we drove them to the park for their portrait session. I was the hero of the day… lots to be said for being in the right place at the right time! We even received a$100 tip and a nice bottle of wine every time they visted us to finalize the albums and pickup prints.
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