This is a guest post by Dean Levitt, Mad Mimi‘s Chief of Culture. Based in Brooklyn, Dean spends altogether too much time thinking about email, people, music and hanging out in the park.

I've always been a huge fan of poetry, especially the sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay. I think that the “aha!” moment with poetry came to me at the Boston Museum of Fine Art while strolling through a photography exhibit. I saw some line somewhere about photography capturing a moment in emotion (or the other way around depending on your outlook) and it kinda hit me how similar the two arts are. Poetry (at least the kind of poetry I enjoy) is a wordy photograph.

No one understands better how one medium can be two things than photographers. There's a world of difference between a “photograph” and a snapshot, miles between prose and poetry and a gulf between an email that “markets” and an email that reaches out and connects. That's what we do! We connect… Think of your email marketing service as a way to share, touch, explore and exhibit. Whether your art form is expressed professionally as a portrait or wedding photographer or in purely aesthetic shots for the joy of it, you can utilize the available tools to stay visible and grow (as a business and as an artist).

Poetry is a wordy photograph.

Our entire culture has moved into a system of immediate sharing. Via Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and email, we're constantly sharing and updating. This only gets annoying when we're bombarded by advertising, marketing and spam. Anyone still use MySpace? It's like trying to add a slogan into a rhyming couplet! Take a step back and think about the beauty inherent in the social mediums rather than the possible benefit to yourself.

Building an email with Mad Mimi provides an easy way to share with hundreds (or thousands) of people in moments but it's only really sharing when it's personal and sincere. Take advantage of these tools in our lives to give a moment of your time to tell your friends, clients, customers and potential customers what's on your mind, what you're thinking and what is coming up professionally and personally. It makes receiving an email more like a coffee break with a good friend.

Emails provide a lovely way to exhibit your latest works by embedding images directly into the email accompanied by the story with it; whether is the story of a lifetime captured in a portrait, or the love shared at a wedding. Your email becomes a gallery. It's like a wormhole really – an gorgeous powerful email received at a desk whips the reader into a gallery where the photographs transport the viewers out of their moments into the moment captured by you.

So stop marketing and be a photographer, even when you're being an email marketer.

Please do email me and I'd be happy to help you with the boring technical bits of building lovely emails!

Dean and Mad Mimi have been instrumental in my launching MANTRA, a monthly e-newsletter about my wedding photography. While an in-depth review of the service and my experiences will be published soon here, I went ahead and became an affiliate of Mad Mimi. If you were to click the links or the image in this post, I do get a small commission. Thank you and thanks to Mad Mimi.

In 1999 Rick Wenner purchased his first digital SLR, a Canon 20D. After 6 years of shooting as a hobbyist, creating mainly landscapes and abstract images, he found that creating portraits was what he wanted for a career. Since that time Rick has been developing his skills as a photographer while continuing to work as a graphic designer. His future plans are to soon leave his graphic design job and go full time with his true creative passion in photography. Rick is specializing his work in entertainment and portrait photography on Long Island, NY.

Read his blog. This is his first guest blog post on Tiffinbox. Please be sure to comment below after you have read his article. Thank you!

How do I make the career change to become a full time photographer? Where do I start? Who do I work with and how do I get in touch with them? How much do I charge? Do I need a studio? What do I do?

These are some (definitely not all) of the questions I’ve asked myself in the past few years. I am currently a full time graphic designer who wants … no … who NEEDS to make a career change to what I really love, photography.

This used to be just a hobby to me 10 years ago. Every now and then I’d go out with camera in hand and create a few landscapes and abstract images, process the crap out of them in Photoshop and post it on Facebook and Myspace. Then I started photographing people and loved the connections I was making with my subjects.

After a few years I had two photos on display in a museum in the Hamptons. Got an editorial job from that exhibit. From that point on I knew that this is what I need to be doing with my life. Since then I’ve been working hard to make it happen and am FINALLY seeing some results from my efforts. More and more people are noticing my work and I’m getting meetings with potential clients and agencies. I know that there is still a lot more work to be done before I can drop the design gig and go full time with my photography though. It’s worth it.

So, how do I go about dropping graphic design and moving ahead with photography? I get inspired. I recently attended workshops that Zack Arias hosts (Photo 101 and OneLight) and left with my brain in a frenzy. Not only did I learn technical aspects of lighting, composition, gear, and business, I also had a fire lit under my ass that has got me heading in the right direction. Since Zack has been working with the same kind of clients that I would like to eventually be working with, I took his advice and ran with it as hard as I could.

People need to know that you are a photographer. They won’t have a clue of what you do if you’re just sitting in front of a computer reading blogs all day. Get in front of the people you want to be working with, show them what you do and build a relationship with them. If you want to be working with musicians, go to their shows. You’ll see that even the small “no name” bands are selling T-shirts, stickers, and CD’s. So, obviously they are willing to invest in themselves.

People won’t know who you are and what you do unless you put it in front of their faces. Use social media to get your work seen by friends and family. When you are creating high quality photos, people will talk about you when someone asks if they know a good photographer. Word-of-mouth is the best advertising for your photography business. The kind of work that I want is in the entertainment industry. Musicians, bands, actors, etc. I have always loved the portraits that I’ve seen by photographers such as Mark Seliger, Platon, Nigel Parry and David LaChapelle.

So, how do I create images that will one day be seen in the big magazines that are read by thousands? Practice, practice, practice and keep practicing. Ask any pro the same question and they’ll tell you the same. Photography is a learned skill with many aspects that need to be mastered. You can read hundreds of blogs, tutorials and magazines about photography but you won’t really learn a single thing without that camera in your hand. It’s great to get tips and tricks from all those resources but you’re not going to get better at creating images by sitting in front of a computer. When you’re done reading this blog post, go take a few pictures of something … anything! You are not gaining experience by reading what I have to say.

If this is what you really love, then go after it and don’t give up. You will make mistakes. Tons of them. But you will learn from those mistakes and become a better photographer from them. Go to workshops and learn from the masters of our craft. Read David duChemin's book, VisionMongers, and if you're not inspired by that book, then this probably isn't for you.

My advice: Step away from the blogs and pick up that camera!

You've got literally 7 seconds to capture your audience on your website. Do you hook 'em or do you flick 'em?

Tyler Garns heads up Think Big Art, a company that's sole goal is to help photographers like myself market our services better to our clients. He is currently developing a photography marketing course called OVER[Exposure].

To be fair and open, I must tell you that I have entered into a partnership with him because what he has developed so far is rock solid information that I have found to be very useful for my documentary wedding photography business. What I am about to present to you has affiliate links but let that not deter you into at least checking this out. I think it is amazing that Tyler has come up with a tool to assess your website.

The tool allows visitors to look at your site for 7 seconds only and then give you feedback on the message that you're conveying. I think you'll be shocked at the results! Try it now!

The 7-second Test

Every time someone takes the 7 Second Test and reviews your site, you'll get an email with their feedback (the emails will be slightly delayed). Review them carefully and consider changing your homepage so the message that is received is the message you want to convey.

You're missing out big time on capturing the attention of your visitors and getting them to engage if you don't nail the first 7 seconds of their visit. Use this tool to test your site. You can submit up to 3 websites if you desire.

Check out the 7 Second Test now.

You are a photographer and you have heard that social media sites can help you increase your business, but how, and which ones? Many of you are probably already using Twitter but have you heard of Squidoo, and how it can be beneficial to you and your business?

What is Squidoo and how can it help your Photography Business?

Megan Casey, Editor in Chief and one of the Founding Members of Squidoo states:

“Squidoo is the popular publishing platform and community that makes it easy for you to create “lenses” online. Lenses are pages, kind of like flyers or signposts or overview articles, that gather everything you know about your topic of interest–and snap it all into focus.”

Marketing your Photography Business with Squidoo

Since you've mastered your photography niche you know it was work. It took time and work to learn the artistic and technical aspects of photography, as well as how to market yourself and your skills.

Squidoo is the same thing, it will take work, but it is a great way to market yourself and your photography skills. You can get an idea of some of the Lenses written about photography here. How you use this great platform is up to you, but many people actually make money from the lenses they build.

How Squidoo can help you Market your Photography?

1. First you have to sign up

2. Write about what you have experience in and what your target market is interested in.

3. You can write specifically for your zip code –Google will find you, and so will your customers.

4. People go to Squidoo and use the Search Button to find lenses on the subject they are interested in; why not let them find you?

5. You can search for topics similar to yours, and by including that lens (article) you are giving your readers a variety of information which is good for business, and helps you get known in the community.

6. If you use Flickr to showcase your photos, then you can easily move sets, or individual photos onto your Squidoo Lens. (tag the pictures first for Google). Here is a good Squidoo Lens that explains Flickr, and an idea of how to use your knowledge to make a Lens.

7. Just as in blogging, original content works best. Write about what you know or are passionate about, from your perspective. Give people a reason to read your content and call you. You are building relationships which again can translate into business.

8. Use your Squidoo Lenses to link to your other sites, or photos – better Google Juice for you.

9. There are different Modules, like Amazon or Ebay, that allow you to monetize your lens. You can sell your own work, or others.

10. And last but not least is people do business with people that are like them, and that they trust. Participating in the Squidoo community helps you let people know more about you, and vice versa.

Here again is the link to sign up for Squidoo. Go ahead, what do you have to lose?

This post was guest authored by Kathy McGraw. Visit her blog. Follow her on Twitter. She is an awesome resource on all thing Squidoo.