How to Support Photographers During Covid19 Crisis

Hi friends!

We are all facing difficult times right now whether it be financial, mental, physical or otherwise. I am so thankful we live in the country that we do and have resources to help us get through this all together. And I’m so thankful for all the frontline workers keeping us safe and providing for us!

People have been wondering how I am doing within the photography and small business community. So, I wanted to create this post to shed some light on how we can support each other at this time.

This is not totally specific to photographers, these things can be translated to other small business as well. Here are a list of 10 things I have come up with that we can all do to help photographers and others while physical distancing:

1. Purchase a gift card! Book a future session for yourself, family or friends. I will make a very sanitized gift card delivery or we can keep it fully online as well. Send me an email HERE if you would like to purchase one from me. I can customize the gift card to say whatever you like “Happy Mother’s Day!” “Happy Birthday!” etc.

2. Order prints! This can be from your own online galleries or some photographers have print shops as well. Visit my little shop HERE (the photo below is from my time in Arizona visiting the slot canyons). I will be adding more photos, mostly of my travels, to it soon. The shipping may take a little longer than usual, but print shops are still running. So, now is the time to finally order those prints or canvases you have always been meaning to! 

3. Order albums! One of my clients personally reminded me of this (shout out to Mareina!). Have you been meaning to order your wedding or family portrait album for years now? Let’s take this time to finally get that done! Just send me an email HERE to get started. I can’t wait to design your gorgeous album. My album company is currently offering 15% off orders til April 30, 2020 and are waiving drop shipping fees, so I can send the albums straight to you! Please take advantage of this deal, this never happens!!! You may view album samples HERE.

4. Mentor sessions! Although we can’t be together in person I am currently offering a discount on online mentorship sessions and am doing a GIVEAWAY for 3 FREE mentorship sessions on my Instagram right now! Enter HERE before April 15th, 2020 for your chance to win. Learn anything you want from DSLR camera basics to lighting, composition, posing/interacting with clients, etc. I am an open book and am here to share what I know. Find out more HERE! 

5. Make a trade. Let’s help each other out! If you are a small business, send me a product of yours – I will photograph it for you and send you the images. Simple as that. Decoy and I can model for you if it’s clothing or accessory or pet related haha. Here is a photo of myself in Hunni’s clothing and some photos of Decoy and I in my little studio for fun:

6. Leave a positive review on our social media pages, website, Google reviews, Yelp, etc. This will help for bookings in the future. I encourage everyone to do this for the small businesses they love. I am going to write some more reviews for my favourite local restaurants, coffee shop, my wedding photographer, my contractor, my custom furniture builder, etc. If you would like to leave me a review you may do so on: Facebook.

7. Along the same lines as above; give a small business a nice shoutout by video or message on Instagram or other social media outlet. Say something nice about the order you made with them or your previous experiences with them. If it’s a photographer you could talk about their style, personality and the experience you had working with them.

8. Re-post some of my work or other photographers work that you especially love OR even better, re-post photos they have taken of you! Woo! Remember to tag them in the post: @marieskerlphoto for Instagram. @Marie Skerl Photography for Facebook. Thank you to my clients who have been doing this already.

9. Be active on their social media; like and comment on their new posts. It really does help us a lot.

10. Be kind. I think at this time especially we have to remember to give grace to ourselves and to others. To not take this time to slow down for granted and to not judge others because they may be doing things differently than us. Lead with kindness. Lead with love.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope I can be of service to you at this time <3 Contact me HERE.

Love, Marie