{"id":21,"date":"2012-05-09T06:53:45","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T06:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firstlighters.com\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2013-03-11T04:40:19","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T04:40:19","slug":"phocus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/firstlighters.com\/","title":{"rendered":"Effective Strategies for Getting Ahead in Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re trying to extend your reach, recognition, become a socially connected photographer or make income as a photographer, then there are a multitude of things to keep up with \u2013 clients, marketing, websites, social media, editors, competition \u2013 the list goes on (and that\u2019s before you\u2019ve even started to worry about what you got into the game for \u2013 great photography!) What\u2019s worse is that various studies have shown that these things are almost necessary to get ahead in such a competitive field.<\/p>\n

And when you start actually getting down to the business of shooting, it seems that technology has a jump on you again. Backups, copyright, post-production software \u2013 every month there is something new and you can\u2019t even know what\u2019s worthwhile without testing it and potentially wasting even more time.<\/p>\n

At Light Stalking, we go through a lot of this!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three years ago, we were a one-person operation out of a lounge-room and now we have a stable of photographers writing for us, a thriving community and we have been mentioned on sites everywhere from National Geographic, through to Digital Photo Magazine, Adobe, Discover Magazine and even Scott Kelby (editor of Layers Magazine) gave us a plug! Nikon got in touch asking us to help judge their \u201cI am Nikon\u201d competition and we\u2019re even being referenced in photography books!<\/p>\n

Just some of the folks who have referenced Light Stalking:<\/p>\n

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\nIn the meantime we got over 394,000 Twitter followers, over 63,900 Facebook fans and over 75,700 newsletter subscribers!<\/p>\n

We’re even a top 10 influencer in photography in the world according to Klout!<\/strong> – Check us out in the list with folks like Chase Jarvis, David Hobby and the famous Magnum Photo agency!<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been a wild ride and we have learned a lot.<\/p>\n

We have grown this business by keeping things very simple. Light Stalking revolves around the core of photography and we understand that if we\u2019re not working on that, then we\u2019re not really doing what we love. The same thing goes for any photographer, but as we see every day, a lot of folks have real trouble with this, their business suffers and they get side-tracked.<\/p>\n

That is why we decided to develop \u201cFirst Lighters\u201d \u2013 a newsletter for photographers that has three core concepts:<\/p>\n