Lin and Jirsa Photography is made up of three lead photographers and a group of talented associate photographers. Based in Southern California, the studio is influenced by fashion and fine-art wedding journalism and prides itself of providing innovative imagery. This week, Lin and Jirsa Partner Photographer, Chris Lin, shares his experience growing the business.
How did you get started in photography?
Like many photographers, we took a roundabout path in our journey to photography. All three of the founding partners of Lin and Jirsa are CPAs who quit their day jobs as public accountants and went into graphic design. From there, our clients also had photography needs so we branched into that and realized quickly that we loved it. After learning from some of the industry’s best, we decided to form our own business in 2007.
What has contributed to your success?
While many things contributed to our success, I believe three things stand out in particular: 1) happy clients, 2) a unique style, and 3) strong web marketing. A good client experience leads to word-of-mouth bookings as well as positive reviews around the web. Managing expectations, under promising while over delivering, understanding your clients’ needs and becoming actual friends are all important for creating happy clients.
Having a unique, differentiated and consistent style is the second key to success. We decided to focus our efforts on creating unique imagery through HDR photography, advanced flash photography and composites. Combined with our eye for capturing emotion, we created a style that many brides and grooms were attracted to.
The last key to our success is strong web marketing. We focused a lot of effort in developing SLR Lounge, a photography education website, which really boosted our presence on the web. We also put in a lot of time building up our rankings in search engines and developing our social media channels.
What is the most important thing for your continued success?
The most important thing going forward will be to continually evolve our style. We need to stay ahead of the curve by trying new things in terms of shooting, lighting and post production techniques. We also need to continue to keep clients happy and continue to nurture our relationships in the industry.
What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?
Always underpromise and overdeliver.
What is most important in your photography?
Many clients come to Lin and Jirsa initially for our “wowzers.” These might be some crazy composites or HDRs or advanced flash setups. But in the end, their favorite pictures end up being a random, unplanned shot, like a Dad crying or a friend doing something crazy at the reception. We fully realize this and know that, first and foremost, photojournalism comes first. This is why we rarely take breaks and we’re always working hard at weddings to be in the right position to capture these ephemeral moments.
What do you love most about your work?
I love our clients. It’s the best part about the job, and we’ve been blessed to become great friends with many of them.
If you’d like to learn more about Lin and Jirsa, visit their website, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter. They also offer a range of workshops on DVD including Natural Light Couples Photography, Newborn Photography and their best seller, Lightroom Workshop Collection.
