The economy is horrible. The United States has unprecedented unemployment. Not since the depression has it been this bad. Businesses are closing; homes are being left empty, people are cutting costs the best way they know how so they can survive.

I know of a guy who was laid off from his former job. He decides he'll take portraits of people for a living and work out of his home to save money and make ends meet. He also questions himself repeatedly if this was a wise decision to become a photographer because it is so difficult to make ends meet. He tells me it’s hard to find clients and when he does, most don't want to spend much money on photography. He tries different ways to get clients. Most fail.

Does this sound familiar to any of you? This photographer is at his wits end. What should he do? What advice would you give him?

Well that guy we just described is me, Bruce Berg. In 1983 during the last recession I started my photography business and 27 years later, I have a solid business, with 2 ½ employees. Though I'm not rich financially, I'm doing fairly well, with income averaging near six digits. Photography has given me a good life and hopefully will continue to do so for another 10 years.

My program: The Art of Photographing Children and Families is not a lecture of how to's.

It is discussing life and priorities. How to be more profitable. How to effectively capture a market segment that is still alive and willing to spend even in this economic downturn.

This program will discuss the when and where to market, as well as how to sell and use the new and social media. Afterall, how do you build your business if you are new? How do you rebuild your business if it’s been in business for 20 years? How do you stay in business and keep up with all the trends of the future?

Yet, building your business applies to all of us, no matter how long we have been photographers. The market has changed, have we changed with it? The styles, perspective,and language has changed, have we kept up?

If not, we are struggling more than we need to. There ARE better ways to do things. “Work smarter, not harder” was one of my dad's many true maxims. This program will discuss how you can work smarter, not harder as well.

I may be Oregon's most award-winning photographer, but the blue ribbons don't turn green . I know of plenty of incredible photographers who are out of business. I don't want you to become one of them.

In this program, I will share some unique marketing tools you can employ to bring clients in your door. How I get kids (and babies) to smile. An easy way that took my facebook fans from 180 to 1500 in 4 weeks. Some pitfalls you should avoid in pricing your work. How to increase your sales averages. And we'll discover: Why children and family portraits are still a great market segment in this economy. I invite you to join me September 22nd, 2010 at the Hilton Mystic.

Bruce Berg is a Master-Craftsman with over 10 PPA loan collections to his credit, a PPA AN-NE award winner, a 2009 WPPI platform speaker, and has had articles recently published in Rangefinder and Professional Photographer.