Summary: Elan of RPL: tell us a little bit about yourself, your story, how you got started all that good stuff Sylvie Gil: It was a pure accident, how did that happen again. I was a fashion photographer in San Francisco and i shot a wedding for a friend and the wedding got published in a magazine in Canada and I don’t know if it exists still, I think it does Elan of RPL: What is the name of the magazine? Sylvie Gil: Brides something rather no it was called brides its Canadian magazine, but anyways after that the phone started ringing, I was like no am a fashion photographer just don’t know much about wedding but I was also pregnant and if anybody can name me a fashion photographer and made a career out of it while they had children. I will give you the rest of the [1:16] because it simply doesn’t exist like when you a fashion photographer it’s really difficult you have a family that make you work 20 hours per day they can’t sense you are pregnancy they think you gonna hurt yourself, it’s a very difficult career to have as a parent so I thought maybe the weddings is the thing to do as a mum. Then I went and trained with a bunch of local photographers enough to 3 years of training and I let the word out and first year I shot fifteen weddings Elan of RPL: What year was that? A long time ago, over thirty years don’t wanna talk numbers. Elan of RPL: Am over thirty years Stop talking numbers that was a while ago I can’t remember Elan of RPL: So you mentioned briefly that you were a fashion photographer, how do you get started in photography like what sparked the passion that you wanted to be a photographer. That was another accident, I was actually in college for business I started marketing in business in college in Paris and came to America to travel around and I loved California I mean who doesn’t like California and I picked up my camera actually my… okay. Any parents here raise your hand. This is something you gonna remember, when I was fourteen my dad told me you should be a photographer and I was like are you crazy that am gonna be starving for the rest of my life that am gonna be an artist will just never work. He even had me visit a photography college in Paris and I was like there is no way I was gonna be a wedding photographer so guess what whatever you think your kids are gonna be its gonna turn out that way because the parents know better, they do. Elan of RPL: It’s interesting coz actually the parents are always trying to talk you out of a career in photography. Sylvie Gil: No Elan of RPL: Like get an education and then you can try this Sylvie Gil: No they are crazy in my family we are all artist so we are not, so I came here with a business degree and my father snuck a camera in my pockets and I took a tonne of photos while travelling across the USA and then I actually ended up at [3:14] with a black and white picture I took somewhere in US as most promising female photographer and I could barely speak English. It was really interesting so then I thought maybe I should pursue this photography thing and then I took a few classes am pretty much self-taught. I didn’t take a lot of classes I didn’t go to a lot of photography schools am pretty much self-taught Elan of RPL: So how did that kind of work your way into the fashion? Sylvie Gil: So I started knocking around in san Francisco on fashion studios because I love fashion and then this woman had me started sweeping floors and ordering lunches and was really using chilling and then I worked really hard at that position so I could climb up the ladders. When it comes to work and career I really believe in taking your time. Elan of RPL: Sure Sylvie Gil: I know now it’s a whole lots of concepts. So basically I went to auction in a lot of studios in san fransisco and started at the bottom like didn’t know much about anything. I really started sweeping floors and ordering lunches and then I became the fifth assistant and then the fourth assistant and then climb my way up to first assistant and we were doing a lot of catalog work and I got the opportunity to do this wedding then I quit fashion and went into weddings. I think 555 weddings is what I counted Elan of RPL: Are there any campaign you shot in fashion where they kind or stick out to you? Sylvie Gil: Yes, I did lots of catalog work Elan of RPL: And you started getting clients based on that so that leads into the next question. What is the value of been featured in a magazine, how did that help your business grow? Sylvie Gil: It definitely did help my business right away and then after that one I got onto here comes the guide I think they are still around right. I think I did four covers right away with that. So it helped in the industry for the people in the industry back in the days, it was like oh who is that French girl like she is taking great pictures so they will refer me work. It helped with price a little bit also it was good I mean getting featured I think is a very important thing but it’s getting harder not as easy as it used to be but it’s possible Elan of RPL: What goes into submitting your work to different publications? Sylvie Gil: Okay, are u actually - am gonna start backwards. I actually did a lot of research when I was on a play on my way here and I called a lot of editor friend and these are the numbers I came up with in US every year there are-Last year 2015 they were 2,173,000 weddings Elan of RPL: Wow Sylvie Gil: [6:26] Featured 42 weddings on print out of 2 million, online dating featured 55 Elan of RPL: So we still under like 99 right now Sylvie Gil: Yeah, they are not because they have all these regional magazines which are I think one per state, so it’s like they have like 50 regional magazines in one national one [6:47] featured 550 weddings which is pretty amazing so we have about 600 and I didn’t get a text from a brides but I would assume the brides only have a national magazine so it’s about 50 right there. So let’s say 800 tops out of 2 million weddings that happen every year. So there is a lot of photographers that come to me and go like oh my weddings are not getting accepted and am like it’s not that easy. I mean if you think about it there are so many choices these editors that it’s really hard for them to actually hire me, it’s really hard for them to pick through it. So when they pick through the weddings there is a couple different that they are generally looking for and one of the things I call it the WOW factor like the wedding has to be different if you open the magazine and you see six seven ten blush weddings and you submit another blush wedding guess what that’s not catching the eye of the editor and it simply not catching the eye of the editor coz they have been looking at all this wedding in blush all day long for 2 years already so when you go through the weddings or when I go through my weddings I really try to find the weddings that are just like interesting. If the couple has a cool story to tell its important too like it’s not just the details and the color that makes the difference it could be I don’t know a whole wedding that happened on white horses, it’s not in season anymore not in trend anymore it’s the whole story that’s interesting that’s what they looking for so ones you know that you have an interesting wedding then you go for the top magazine on their list. Which one is your dream magazine? and you submit to them and then you wait and then you get an answer and you submit to the other one and you wait for the answer and you trickle down until you finally get accepted but generally it’s not because your photography is bad its more about like what’s interesting about this wedding coz if it looks like any other it’s not gonna work another thing to remember always is that when they accept wedding magazine they will print it like six month to a year later so they also want it to be a little [9:00] like 2015 was all about wedding blush but think about what will 2016 gonna be like coz the bride in 2016 will open the magazine then she is gonna be bored with wedding blush you know the transformed 2015 so that’s all the factors that they really take into account and I think it’s wonderful to be able to say out of 700 weddings that were featured I got one of them. I think it’s a wonderful thing to put on your website it’s a wonderful thing to remind yourself of and when you do it, when it happens give a word to everyone in your family and your team coz it’s pretty cool Elan of RPL: How has the submission process changed in the last like 15 years? It’s the same. Yeah I there are company like two bright light can make it easy on you but I guess so it’s pretty much the same Elan of RPL: So anybody has any question so far? So okay we can move on. Okay we talked about how you decide to submit and what you look for in a submission. Are you submitting in styled shoots? Well some magazines do not ever really am yet to see one feature style shoot because they wanna give the bride a prospect that its real so If they feature style shoot it’s a style shoot they all directed themselves you know they have a whole team and they put it together. The style shoot are good for girls one thing to remember is that there is another thing I heard from my business person is that a bride will pick the phone when she see your name seven times on average and this is why you wanna get featured anywhere and everywhere you can go in prints or go in blog if you go in blog you can go on other blogs and keep on going until as far as you can coz that’s what the bride is looking for she is looking for a photographer where she see her name a bunch of time and go like oh wow they must be really professional at this point Elan of RPL: So basically it’s submit submit submit until you get published somewhere, that’s the goal right Sylvie Gil: Yeah Elan of RPL: So blogs and magazine do you prefer and which one brings you more traffic of business? Sylvie Gil: It’s a very good question actually because when you have to think about when you are submitting to a magazine is that this wedding is gonna be under your bed in a lock for six month or a year with matter it can be a year and half and nobody can look at this images, nobody can use them, nobody can do anything with them so you kind of stuck. If that was the killer wedding that year that really wanna show everybody to grow your business you gotta think like can you wait a year and a half or do you want it out now, so if you trickling out a lot of wedding on a regular basis and you can wait a year and half that’s fine but most magazine is a minimum of six month then when you have that down they have the [12:03] for 2-3 months and then you can submit it to blogs [12:09] Are on specific contract when they pick your wedding you cant show it to anybody they are the only ones. All the other blogs will take your magazine even if it in [12:17] whatever but you have to wait a long time so I personally I feel like for getting traffic to your website, the blogs are better but for name recognition and brand recognition and brand association the magazines might be better. So you gotta pick through your batch of wedding and which one are you gonna like hang to [12:42] stores it’s really like they make you wait 2 years sometimes it’s been a long time you know it’s great to be there but you gotta have a lot patience so I mean I would like to have a wedding going up on some wedding blogs every two weeks so obviously you will have to shoot a lot to be able to do that you know something comes out every two weeks so then this way it’s a name recognition I was talking about the bride will see all and like oh that girl is coming back again I better call her now that’s kinda how it works Elan of RPL: How do you establish and maintain the relationships with these different publications that you submit to and get published by? Sylvie Gil: By sending them a lot of words and a lot of sweet notes like thank you thank you thank you, you know what they use to pay us actually now they don’t pay any more but they really are helping you with your advertising your promotion your business your branding so I know it’s always like I wish I was getting money you get magazine all using free material all day long and it’s through. It’s kind of a bomb; I see some familiar faces here. It’s kind of a bomer that they are using your work and actually you just said okay next year am doing some hot models wedding and his like telling me what if you gonna feature this wedding you gonna be using my image my body to promote yourself and am like wait wait wait lets back out am not making any money on this so I could say the same things to you my killer photos is not in any of it but suppose we promoting you. You know on the day of your wedding you gotta be careful of clients like that too but yeah it’s good to have your work out there so asking for money from the magazine I wish they paid they should they should. Should we have a rebellion, a revolution? It will be fun. Elan of RPL: Question over here how do you attract the brides that you really connect with? Interviewee: Oh that’s where I think all about branding, it’s like your weak side should kind of tell who you are, it should be unique it should be different from anybody else and have your family member your friends go through your website you read me in there also maybe have people that you don’t know and ask them to go through your website you know there are lots of photographers out there and it’s a hard market to break through and I really think that been unique is important am gonna admit it for ten years I refuse to embrace my Frenchness and I was so like French inside but I was like keeping it as a secret Elan of RPL: Why Sylvie Gil: I was afraid of trump back then already. I don’t know I don’t know why but I really wasn’t and one day someone told me like just be French and am so French I have no idea then finally I let it out and it kinda helped with my business and my brand because finally I am myself. Elan of RPL: What is been French? Sylvie Gil: This food am right, if you follow me on instagram you gonna be so sick of my food post so right be yourself and try to create your own personality and then you gonna get a part that you really getting it I think. Elan of RPL: Do you do the submitting yourself? Sylvie Gil: My team does everything but that I have someone who does editing, production, post-production with albums and prints but the submission is me. Why because the photos that are gonna be out there are gonna be my favorite images so nobody can know where those are except they are in my eye or mind and when I don’t love an image am not gonna show it I wanna love it I look it like 2 or 3 times in a row and am like do I love it and there is a little tiny thing I don’t love about it and then boom it comes off you know the dropbox before I send it to the editor. So it’s just a personal thing I think to show your work out there and really if you have a hard time figuring out what your photography style is or what you love I can tell you after all these years of experience. Just listen to your heart it’s not really much like Trans or anything like that. I mean let me tell you the way I shoot now back in 2000 it was not it. Back in 2000 it was always black and white but now you show black and white pictures too bright she is like can you make it colored. It’s like it was all black and white back in the days so I embraced the colors because I love it and now the color is really the thing so just do what you really love to do and what speaks to you forget the rest of it I think Elan: What are the other mistakes that photographers makes that keep them from been published? Sylvie Gil: Doing this thing that has been already done. It really a problem it’s like editors like when I was having a talk with an editor she is like I see so many wedding that just looks like so many weddings have seen before. So when they go through like 30, 40, 50 weddings a day imagine that’s how many they go through. Imagine how boring to just see the same wedding over and over again so even if you do style shoot do something different. The one I did last year we hanged a dead chicken in a tree. Isn’t that what we did at the workshop last year? Yeah we did we hanged a dead chicken just to get people attention and yes it worked. Yeah there are lots of nasty years from [18:44] to vegetarians. Actually, I was partially joking but really wanna do something different you know whatever comes to your mind you know a factor in a negative way and in a positive way alwaysI think that’s how it works in an art gallery Elan: So rather than hanging dead chicken in windows what are things people should expect from the workshop you have coming up in April? Sylvie Gil: The workshop in April is gonna be amazing Elan: So tell us a little bit about it Sylvie Gil: The workshop in april, you know it’s in France I open a workshop a year in France because I wanna share my passion with you which is France food and photography not necessarily in that order depends on that day but [19:13] which is be real while in country not [19:38] the other you know the other one in country and then we have chefs that come and cooks for us and we have this amazing styling team that comes from America and put this gorgeous shoot together we got a very big [19:51] that just got accepted a couple of days ago so they are shipping it which is wonderful and in terms of classes it’s me doing this and a whole lot bunch of various subject and there is a whole lot of speakers coming more showing our [20:07] is amazing at doing business. She can she will take your business to a whole new level. There is editors that are coming in and what else you are coming you don’t know that. Elan: Nobody told me Sylvie Gil: There is a whole bunch of different speakers, so we talk about business we talk about how to shoot and it’s not if you wanna bring a camera on my part for a couple of hours but you can do it we have a couples of girls last year with digital camera, I bring extra context and force them to shoot a role or two and guess what it always worked. After the workshop, they are converted and then we talk a lot about shooting film. So it’s really fun it’s like a family retreat we all stay [20:53] with the teams, the stars the models and the chefs, it’s like a family emergence for five days and we talk weddings all days long that’s all it is. Sylvie Gil: So we talk about, this is one thing that is very important also is what kind of business do you want be like Brandon who use shoots 60 weddings you want to be like hussain who shoots 40 -50 weddings or you wanna be like me with just 25 weddings or who else [21:45] with just 12. It’s like what do you wanna do how much money do you wanna make in this industry. Is it a part time job or a full time job you know where are you stepping in your business right now is it like a steady thing or is it like bringing your name out there you I asked you at the beginning of the workshop you know i asked everybody what’s your main obstacle right now and let’s talk about how to get through the next level and at your level not everybody is the same so that’s really what we try to do.
