For some time now Denise and I have been talking about making our business more focused on the experience of shooting with US.  We thought, “How can we differentiate ourselves from the mass of people out there in our industry?”  In Seth Godin’s book The Purple Cow, he talks about making your product remarkable.  He writes,

“The old rule was this: Create safe, ordinary products and combine them with great marketing.

The new rule is: Create remarkable products that the right people seek out”

We have learned over the years that our “product” is not just our photos, albums and canvas prints.  It’s more than that.  It’s us.  So, how the heck can WE be remarkable?  We are just a happy couple that likes to shoot other happy couples.  (Thanks to our awesome former bride Lilia for summing us up so perfectly!)  There’s a reason we like to be BEHIND the camera.  We don’t always want to be the center of attention. It took some time to adjust to the idea, but when it all comes down to it, we came to the conclusion that it made sense to target clients that identified with us on a personal level. We want clients that want US – Ryan & Denise. The best part of the Simply Knot experience is building a relationship with our couples. That’s how we are able to tell their love story through our images.

Once we decided to move forward, we knew that the first thing we needed to change was our website and blog.  Our website is, most often, the first impression a potential bride has with us.  So, without further adieu, we are so incredibly excited to announce the launch of our new (much more personal) website! Not only does our new site show off our work, it also lets people really get to know “Ryan & Denise”. We’d love it if you would stop by and check it out.  (And if you’re reading this post, you’ve probably already notice many of the redesigned blog features.)

By the way, we are by no means claiming to be the inventor of this business philosophy, just an adopter. You can thank Seth Godin and a ton of other great photographers that paved the way for us.  We’ll close with one more quote from The Purple Cow:

“In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing.  In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”

What makes you standout and be remarkable?

-Ryan

Meet Becca & Danny!

Their Love Story . . .

“The VERY beginning – New Years Eve of 2005, they met. To say that it was love at first sight would be a gross embellishment. Danny and Becca both spent this night mingling with friends, laughing, and dancing, yet hardly a word was spoken to one another. This night was not a complete loss though, as there was one instance when Becca danced on a table to an ACDC cover band with Danny’s mom, little did she know the woman whom she was clearly not worried about impressing, would one day be her mother in law! (Side note – Becca doesn’t typically dance on tables, and doesn’t like ACDC. Danny may dance on tables, but only on special occasions.) They left the night with not so much as a goodbye. Becca went home to her boyfriend, and Danny moved to San Diego for Graduate School. Later, Danny would admit that he thought Becca was quite cute on this first New Years.

Fast forward two years to the day – New Years Eve of 2007, they met, again. At this point Becca had gotten rid of her lame boyfriend, and Danny was entering his last semester of Grad School. Becca was initially going to spend New Year’s Eve at a good friend’s house, but at a little past 11 her friend got a tad bit sick, and Becca decided to head south to another party. Danny, feeling a little under the weather, debated whether or not to go out on this fateful New Years Evening. Eventually he was coerced into going by a friend.

Within moments of walking into the party Becca gravitated towards Danny and then spent a large part of the evening strategically challenging him to guitar hero, and discussing random bands. When Danny left, Becca reminded herself that this cute fella lives in San Diego, and long distance relationships don’t work. Luckily, just prior to this revelation she confessed her crush to a friend, who unbeknownst to her was one of Danny’s best friends (and future groomsmen).

Within a day of meeting (again) Danny, with the knowledge of the crush, contacted Becca and asked if she would be interested in getting together before he headed back to school. Of course she said ABSOLUTELY . . . the butterflies went wild.

Over the next several months there were many 6 hour drives to and from San Diego, several trips to pizza port (our favorite restaurant), and countless playful hours outdoors. During this time Becca realized that Danny was one of the funniest, kindest, and all together wonderful people she had ever met, despite his baseball fixation. Danny realized that Becca was a total nerd, incredibly caring, and had become his rock, despite her obsession with a border collie named Burton.

After graduating, Danny came home to Becca.

Now 2 years later we are getting hitched!

We can’t wait to spend our lives together traveling, laughing, loving and being completely and totally ourselves.”

I think that last line says it all!  Congratulations to Becca & Danny!  We can’t wait to learn so much more about you guys and be a part of your wedding day!

A huge thank you again to every single couple that participated!

As our readers vote, their favorite images will be displayed in a gallery of thumbnails at the top of our blog based on their popularity.

Cool, right?  It’s probably not near as awesome to anyone else as it is to us, but we really like to hear what our readers love. We can’t wait to see what images people vote for! Thanks for reading and go “love” some images!  (P.S. This doesn’t excuse you from commenting so feel free to keep (or start) doing that too. LOL!)

We have a very special announcement to make!  You could have Simply Knot Photography shoot your wedding FOR FREE!  Yes, I said FREE!

So you’re probably wondering, why are we (Ryan & Denise) doing this?

We are two very lucky people :-)  We get to do something we really love (take photographs) and at the same time, we get to give our couples the gift of preserving their wedding memories forever.  We feel blessed by each and every couple that chooses us to document their day and 99% of the time, we walk away with two new friends in the process.  It’s pretty awesome.

Because we are so blessed, we want to spread the love to one very special couple by shooting their wedding FOR FREE!!!!

Here’s a little Q&A for everybody:

What will the lucky couple win?

The lucky winners will receive a wedding photography package valued at $3000.  It will include:

• 8 hours of wedding day coverage with Ryan & Denise
• an engagement session
• an online slideshow
• an online proof gallery with all their photos
• DVD of high resolution images

How do you enter?

Our ideal clients don’t just want  ”someone to take photos of their wedding”, they want someone to document who they are as a couple and what makes their love story uniquely them.  So that’s what we want to hear – YOUR love story!  Tell us your love story in 300 words or less and we will choose our favorite as the contest winners.

Here’s what you do:

• Fill out the quick and easy ENTRY FORM (Sorry everybody!  The contest is closed.  We’ll be announcing the winner at 9am tomorrow)
• Tell us your love story (in 500 words or less)
• Email us a digital photo of you which will be posted on the blog if you win ( studio@simplyknotphotos.com )

Are there any rules?

• One submission per couple
• Your wedding date must be available on our calendar (FYI: We are no longer accepting bookings for Sept. – Nov of 2010)
• Your wedding must take place in the Phoenix metro area (weddings in other locations are free to enter, but travel costs will not be covered as part of the prize package)
• You can’t be a relative, close friend or existing client of ours – we don’t want to be accused of favoritism!

Make sure to submit your entry on or before AUGUST 15th! We’ll announce the big winner on our blog the following week.

Can’t wait to meet all of you and read all about what makes you’re love story so special!

We’ve got all kinds of fun stuff in the works that we can’t wait to share with all of you!  In the coming weeks we’ll be introducing a whole different look and feel for Simply Knot Photography.  Ryan and I have been talking a lot lately about who we are as photographers and what our buisness is really all about and we’ve kinda come to the conclusion that we’ve outgrown a few things that we put in place when we first launched out buisness.  The first thing to go: our logo and color scheme.  It’s time to kiss the old black and white ”SK” goodbye and say hello to this this cute little number:

So much more FUN and FRIENDLY, right?  When it comes to working with our clients, we’re ALL ABOUT the fun and friendly so we thought that it was time for the look of our buisness to reflect that too!  We also wanted to get away from the more tradtional look of our old stuff and emphasize the modern look you see in our photographs.  No stuffy traditional stuff here!  There’s a lot more changes to come, inlcuding a brand new AMAZING website so I hope this little taste will hold you off for a while ;-)

Wanna hear a little secret about our new logo?  The four dots are not only a cool graphic element, but they represent the letter “G” in the braille alphabet . . . “G” for Gotcher :-)  I’m probably the only one who cares, but I think it’s really fun that it has another meaning.  Don’t forget to leave us lots of comments below to tell us what you think!

And the winner is . . . . (drumroll please) . . .

SHERRI LUCERO of Planned to Perfection! Her caption for the photo was, “Flexibility is key to a successful marriage.”

On top of being a highly creative photo caption writer, Sheri is a super talented wedding planner!  She does it all: she’s a full service bridal consultant, day of wedding coordinator, does invitations, favors and other wedding accessories.  If you’re looking for any (or all) of these services you should CHECK HER OUT!

Congratulations Sheri!  You win a $25 Best Buy Gift Card from Simply Knot Photography!

We hope that everybody enjoyed the contest – leave us a comment below if you have any other ideas for fun things we could do or give away.  Thanks for reading everybody!

Don’t bother asking how Gumby got involved because neither one of us remembers!  Since it’s such a strange image we decided to have a little fun with it.  So starting today we will be running a little contest for our blog readers! :-)  The goal is for YOU to come up with a CREATIVE CAPTION FOR THIS PHOTO.

Here’s how you enter:

1. Come up with a creative caption(s) for the photo
2. Leave a comment on this post with your idea (be sure and fill out the email field so we can contact you if you win)
3. On Tuesday, April 28th, we’ll pick our favorite and announce the winner! Good Luck!!!

The winner will recieve a special gift courtesy of Simply Knot Photography!

Ready . . . GET SET . . . GOOOOOO!

Oh and by the way, feel free to check out our newly updated website: SimplyKnotPhotos.com.  Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with :-)

• BIG BIG BIG photos!  Our previous blog only allowed us to post photos at 600 pixels wide, but now we get to post at 900 pixels wide!  YAY!  We like big photos :-)
• At the top left hand side of the blog you’ll see a Twitter Updates box where you can always see what we’re up to via the social messaging utility Twitter.  If you’re a Twitter user, feel free to follow both of our feeds by clicking on the menu links under “Simply Knot”.
• On top of the comment box at the end of each post you’ll see a few little icons with ways you can interact with our blog content.  My favorite is the Facebook post icon that lets you automatically post the entry on your Facebook or send it in a message to your Facebook friends!

Exciting stuff :-)  Let us know what you think of our new blog by leaving us lots of comment love below!  Thanks for reading.

Making our customers happy is really important to us.  Whether it’s out shooting together, working with us on an album design or even ordering prints of your wedding photos, we want you to walk away feeling like you had a great experience!  In an effort to make the proof gallery side of our service even better, we’ve decided to make the switch to a new proofing company called Pictage. Pictage is an awesome company that offers tons of great products and has the very best customer proofing interface on the market today.  Here are some of the ways that Pictage will make viewing and ordering your photos easier and better!

- You can create your own gallery of favorites to share with family and friends.

- Your wedding day will be categorized into different sections (ex: getting ready, ceremony, formal portraits, etc.) to make it fast and easy to get to the exact photo you want.

- You’ll have tons of great options to choose from every time you order a print.  The Pictage interface allows you to crop images to your liking, convert an image to black and white and even apply cool borders, all the while being able to view a preview of exactly what your print will look like.

- You’ll be offered great new products like canvas prints and photo cards that can be ordered directly from your gallery.

We’re very excited to make this change, but we also want to make the transition as easy as possible for our clients.  If you’re an existing client whose wedding date or portrait session has already been published in an online gallery, your gallery will remain as is until the expiration date 90 days after it was posted.  If you’re event or session has not yet been published to an online gallery, you’ll receive an email from us as soon as your photos are available using the new Pictage interface.

If you have any questions about our proof galleries or any of our other services please feel free to send us an email at Studio@ryananddenise.com.  Have a great week!

We were recently told by one of our blog readers that they were getting a weird error when they tried to leave us a comment on the blog.  So we ran a little test tonight and found out that there was a technical issue that had disabled the comment function.  If you’ve tried to leave a comment recently, we are SO sorry for the inconvenience!  PLEASE don’t stop leaving comments!  As of now the comment function is back up and running so we’re good to go.  We can’t tell you enough how much we enjoy hearing from our clients and other readers so please continue leaving us the comment love :-)

Ryan & Denise