For those who don’t know, please explain what Two Bright Lights does.

Two Bright Lights is a collaborative network where spectacular images are simply sourced and globally published.   Our system makes it easy for over 11,000 photographers to submit their work to be featured in magazines, blogs and newspapers around the world.  We also offer a robust sharing service for photographers to distribute images to other businesses whose work was featured in their images.  Our membership includes over 400 editors and 30,000 businesses in 83 countries.  To date, our platform has enabled more than 30,000 features to be published.

How can Two Bright Lights benefit a photographer?

Two Bright Lights benefits photographers in a variety of ways. We make it simple and fast to get published. Our tools make it easy to find the right publications and to create a perfect submission. And getting published helps photography businesses grow.  In our Marketing Effectiveness Report, we found that photographers who get published earn 73% more on average than photographers who don’t! We wrote a post recently on our blog that provides more detail on why getting published helps photographers’ businesses grow. Check it out here. Two Bright Lights helps photographers more effectively organize and distribute their images to prospective clients and businesses featured in their work, which increases their exposure.  Photographers already have intensive demands on their time between shooting, editing and marketing their business to find new clients.  Two Bright Lights saves photographers valuable time by streamlining their marketing and PR efforts.

Can filmmakers be involved too?

Absolutely! Filmmakers use Two Bright Lights to access images of events they filmed. They are also able to add their video links to albums so their films can be considered for editorial features.

Do you have to shoot weddings?

Not at all.  While Two Bright Lights does have a tremendous amount of wedding related content, we also support many other lifestyle categories including family, portraits, travel, fashion, sports, culinary and more.  Many of our members use Two Bright Lights to promote their work across several categories.

How does the process work?

First, photographers create albums of their images and identify associated businesses such as venues, designers and florists.  Then, the photographers determine which publications best suit their work.  To aid in discovery, we have bio pages for each of our publications.  With a few clicks, the submissions are sent to the publications of the photographer’s choice.  Once the work has been published, it’s time to spread the word using social media tools.  The businesses added to the albums can also access the images shared with them to use in marketing materials. An automatic photo credit is added to all of the images too. Submitting and sharing is like having a personal sales force out there promoting your work!

Does Two Bright Lights cost anything?

It is free to upload and share images.  Our submission platform does require a subscription payable either annually or monthly.  Currently the premium service is $14.95 per month or $149.95 per year.  We do offer 30-day trial at no charge so photographers can try out the submission platform risk free.

Are images protected?

We ardently protect photographer copyright.  With Two Bright Lights, the photographer always controls who has access to his or her images.   All of our publication partners apply to be a part of the community and agree upon acceptance to provide photo credit for usage.  Any misuse of copyright is explicitly prohibited under our terms of service and violators will be removed from our community.

Who are some of the publishers you have on board?

We have amazing publishers in all sorts of categories. Some of the publications we work with in the wedding industry include Green Wedding Shoes, Brides.com, WeddingChannel, WeddingWire, Southern Weddings Magazine and Ruffled.  Examples of publications outside of the wedding industry include: Emma Magazine, Occasions Magazine, Here Comes Baby, Senior Style Guide and Styled Sweets Living.

How successful are photographers and filmmakers in getting their work published?

Incredibly successful! In fact, we have connected publishers with premier content from photographers resulting in over 30,000 editorial features.   Photographers get published through Two Bright Lights multiple times everyday.  You can see who was just recently featured on our home page at twobrightlights.com.

Photography by: Jessica Claire Photography

So…ready to get started? Two Bright Lights is offering all of you 10% OFF A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION for the next two weeks! Valid until May 20, 2013, use the code LensProToGo10 to receive this special offer! Head there now!

The videos are now officially all available for purchase on the Focus Point Central site. With options to purchase single presentations (8 total) at $39/ea or all 8 presentations for $279! You’ll be able to watch intros with the option to then purchase the entire presentation.

Available are videos from the following presenters:

Sarah Pendergraft – Editing
Matt Scott – Coloring
Jet Kaiser – Working with Clients
Jessica Ringor – Branding
Jeff and Amanda – Same Day Edits
Eugene and Heather – Social Media Marketing
Dave Williams – Team Building
Brett Culp – Vision

The Music Bed App from The Music Bed on Vimeo.

Stay inspired anywhere with access to The Music Bed catalog right at your fingertips! As new music is released, you’ll be able to effortlessly keep up to date with their most recent library additions right on the app. Instantly update your wish lists with the newest hand-picked tracks.

To celebrate the release of your new favorite app, they’ve got 30 Days of Giveaways where you could win $1,500 in song licenses + an iPad Retina from TMB, PLUS tons of insane prizes from the likes of LensProToGo, Kessler, Rode, Zacuto and MORE worth thousands of dollars! It’s too good… but it’s so true.

Click HERE to enter for your chance at 30 Days of Giveaways!

Click HERE for your very own download of The Music Bed App in the App Store!

About The Music Bed

The Music Bed licenses relevant music for your media projects — Empowering you to tell your story as the visual creative and properly supporting the musicians who make your art what it is. You can use their music in corporate productions, promo videos, slideshows, non-profit media, and more! Find us at www.themusicbed.com

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER IN THIS SITE IF YOU ARE NOT LOCATED IN THE UNITED STATES. ENTRANTS MUST BE EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS OR OLDER AS OF THE DATE OF ENTRY. PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE CHANCES OF WINNING.

1. ELIGIBILITY: All entrants must be at least eighteen (18) years of age or older as of the date of entry, legal residents of the 50 United States (including the District of Columbia). Employees of LensProToGo and Lensbaby, advertising agencies and/or promotional partners and members of their immediate family (defined as parents, children, siblings, and husband or wife) together with those with whom such employees are domiciled, are not eligible to enter. This LensProToGo (“Contest”) is void in all United States territories and military installations including Puerto Rico and where prohibited or restricted by law and where subject to licensing or registration by any national, state, local or other political division or subdivision.

2. TIMING: The Contest entry period begins at 12:00:00 A.M. (EST) on March 4 2013 and ends at 11:59:00 P.M. (EST) on March 8 2013 (“Contest Entry Period”). All online entries must be received during the Contest Period

3. HOW TO ENTER: To enter, complete and submit the online Contest entry form located at HERE . All fields are required. The first and last name provided by online entrants will be the identity of the entrant and, if selected and qualified for a prize, the identity of the winner. The use of a fake name or e-mail address will disqualify an entrant. Mailing address and contact information will only be used if entrant is chosen to receive a Lensbaby. When you register for the Contest, LenProToGo will collect your personal information and store it for the purpose of contacting you in the future about new promotions and products. LensProToGo will share your personal information with the entities supplying the prizes for the LensProToGo Contest (“Partners”), for the purpose of our Partners contacting you in the future about new promotion and products. There is a limit of one (1) entry per e-mail address, per person and/or per family or household. Use of agencies or robotic, repetitive, programmed or similar entry methods is prohibited. Any duplicate entries, after the first entry, will be void. All entrants agree to abide by these Official Rules for the LensProToGo Contest (the “Official Rules”) and waive any right to claim ambiguity in this Contest or these Official Rules and to conform to all federal, state, and local laws. All entries become the property of LensProToGo and will not be acknowledged or returned. In the event of a dispute, the “entrant” for e-mail entries is the person in whose name the e-mail account is held. LensProToGo is not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, altered, postage due or misdirected entries, for failed, partial or garbled computer transmissions, or for technical failures of any kind, including, but not limited to electronic malfunctioning of any network, hardware, or software which may limit an entrant’s ability to participate in this Contest.

4. PRIZES: 32 Potential winners will be selected by a random drawing on or about March 11 2013, from all online entries received during the Contest. The odds of winning depend on the total number of eligible entries received. The administration of the Contest and the drawing will be overseen by LensProToGo, whose decisions are final and binding in all respects related to the administration of the Contest and the selection of potential and qualified winners. Four (4) Grand Prizes will be awarded. The Grand Prize is a Lensbaby Composer Pro with Sweet 35 Optic OR a Lensbaby Composer Pro with Edge 80 Optic and a Pelican 1150-colored Case (MAX ARV: U.S. $420). Winners will not have a choice of lens won. Winners are solely responsible to be available to sign for the UPS package when sent. All winners will be notified ahead of time on date of delivery.

5. NOTIFICATION OF WINNER: A representative of LensProToGo will notify a potential winner on or about May 22, 2013 via e-mail only. The potential winner must comply with all terms and conditions of these Official Rules. Winning is contingent on meeting all requirements. The potential winner will be given seven (7) calendar days from the first time/day of attempted notification to respond to LensProToGo via e-mail, in order to claim his/her prize. To qualify for a prize, the potential winner must sign and return a release of liability, declaration of eligibility, and where lawful, a Publicity Consent Agreement, within seven (7) days of notification. If the potential winner has not responded to LensProToGo within the specified seven (7) day period, the potential winner will be disqualified and an alternate will be selected from the pool of entries. If an entrant is found to be ineligible, he/she will be disqualified and an alternate winner will be selected from the pool of entries. Prizes are non-transferable and must be accepted as awarded. No cash alternative or other substitution allowed. Except where prohibited, winner consents to LensProToGo’s use of his/her name, city, state, or county, likeness, photograph, statements made by the winner about the Contest, LensProToGo, and/or prize information for promotional and advertising purposes in any media without further payment or consideration. LensProToGo reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to substitute a prize of equal or greater value, whether in cash or otherwise, if the prize cannot be awarded as described for any reason. All taxes on prizes and incidental expenses associated with claiming the prize are the sole responsibility of the winner. The winner agrees that the prize is “AS IS” and “WITHOUT WARRANTY” except for any warranty that is expressly provided by the manufacturer or supplier of the prize, and each winner is subject to all restrictions imposed by the manufacturer or supplier of the prize. LensProToGo has not made and/or is not responsible for any representation or warranty, express or implied, related to the prize.

6. DISQUALIFICATION: LensProToGo, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to disqualify any individual who attempts to undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest by tampering with any website mechanism, acts in a disruptive manner, or violates these Official Rules. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY AN ENTRANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION OF SUCH ENTRANT. SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, LENSPROTOGO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK REMEDIES AND DAMAGES (INCLUDING ATTORNEY’S FEES) FROM ANY SUCH PARTICIPANT TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, INCLUDING CRIMINAL PROSECUTION. LENSPROTOGO’S FAILURE TO ENFORCE ANY TERMS OF THESE OFFICIAL RULES SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE A WAIVER OF THAT LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: LensProToGo excludes all liability for any personal injury, loss, or damage of whatever kind (including loss of data) caused directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from downloading any material from LensProToGo’s website, regardless of whether the material was prepared by LensProToGo or a third party, and regardless of whether the material is connected to LensProToGo’s website by a hypertext link. LensProToGo takes no responsibility for the content of third party websites which may be linked to LensProToGo’s website by a hypertext link. LensProToGo reserves the right to cancel, suspend or modify the Contest if fraud, technical failures, or any other factor beyond LensProToGo’s reasonable control impairs the administration or integrity of the Contest, as determined by LensProToGo’s in its sole discretion. In the event of such impairment, LensProToGo may choose potential winners from all entries received as of the time of online pharmacy impairment. By participation in the Contest, the entrant agrees to release and hold harmless LensProToGo, and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agents from any liability for damage, injury, death, loss, cancellation or other liability arising from the entrant’s acceptance or use of any prize or substitute prize or their participation in this Contest, including without limitation, personal injury, death, and property damage, and claims based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy or from any misuse or malfunction of such prize or substitute prize. Nothing in these rules shall be taken to exclude any liability for death or personal injury caused by the negligence of LensProToGo. LensProToGo and its affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agents assume no liability for losses incurred as a result of cancellation of the Contest or for any reason whatsoever or through the acts or defaults of any company or person providing any prize or for events occurring after the award of such prize. All such losses or expenses will have to be borne by the individual Contest winner. The Contest is subject to all federal, state, and local laws and may be void where prohibited by the law of the entrant’s place of residence.

8. GOVERNING LAW AND DISPUTES: Except where prohibited, entrant agrees that: (a) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with the Contest or any prize awarded, other than the administration of the Contest or the determination of winners, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the appropriate court located in the State of Massachusetts; (b) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering the Contest, but in no event attorneys’ fees; and (c) under no circumstances will entrant be permitted to obtain awards for and entrant hereby waives all rights to claim punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages, other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the entrant and LensProToGo in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of State of Massachusetts, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the State of Massachusetts or any other jurisdiction), which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than the State of Massachusetts. LensProToGo reserves the right to modify the Official Rules of this Contest in any way or at any time.

9. OFFICIAL RULES: A copy of these Official Rules may be obtained by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: LensProToGo Contest 130B Baker Ave Ext, Concord MA, 01742. Vermont residents may omit return postage.

10. LensProToGo ADDRESS: LensProToGo is located at 130B Baker Ave Ext, Concord MA, 01742, United States of America. Official Rules for LensProToGo Contest, Copyright 2013. All rights reserved.

By providing your email address, LensProToGo and Lensbaby may e-mail you company updates and announcements. You can unsubscribe at any time.

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY.

This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to LensProToGo and not to Facebook. The information you provide will only be used for sending subscriber’s company updates and announcements.

Do you love photography?  Do you love dinosaurs?  How about photographing dinosaurs???  If you said YES to any of those, boy are you in luck!  We’re teaming up with our incredible friends at Lensbaby to bring you a super fun and creative contest, with a chance to win your very own Lensbaby!  Register using the handy form below between Monday March 4th and Friday March 8th for a chance to win one of 32 finalist spots.  If you are chosen as a finalist, we will be sending you a dinosaur (don’t worry, they’re little and don’t eat much) and either a Sweet 35 or Edge 80 optic on a Composer Pro Lensbaby.  Spend the weekend with your new friends and use that lens to make that dino come to life!!  Pick your favorite photo and email it to beth@lensprotogo.com, we’ll post all the finalist shots on our facebook page.  The FOUR MOST REALISTIC SHOTS, as chosen by LensProToGo and Lensbaby staff, will be our grand prize winners, and those people will win a Lensbaby to keep forever!!!  The dinosaurs will be released back into the wild.  :)

Click here for the complete rules and legal mumbo jumbo.  As stated above, registration is from 3/4/13 – 3/8/13.  Packages with dinosaurs and Lensbabies will begin to ship on 3/11/13.  Finalists will receive the package on a Friday and return everything to us the following Monday.  Contest ends on 5/13 and grand prize winners will be viagra online announced on 5/22.

Sign Up Here!

To login to your account follow these steps:

1.) Access your account by clicking “Login” at the top right of LensProToGo.com. If you are already logged in, click “My Account” in the top header.

2.) The next page will ask for your E-mail and Password. You’re e-mail is the one you get confirmation notices and tracking information to. If you do not remember your password OR are a first time customer and need to reset your password click on “Forgot your Password?” 

3.) To reset your password, enter your e-mail address and we’ll send you a link to set a new one.

4.) Follow the link provided in the e-mail sent to you.

5.) When

your password is reset you’ll be taken to a confirmation screen where you can no login to you account by clicking “Log in” 

6.) Once in your account, you have access to view tons of information. Click on any of the tabs along the header to view them.

If you have any troubles at all, please feel free to contact us through e-mail (service@lensprotogo.com) or by phone (877.578.4777) and we’ll be more than happy to help you out! – Meg

1.) If you aren’t currently logged into your account, click “Login” at the top right of LensProToGo.com and type in your user name and password. Your user name is your email address that confirmation notices and tracking numbers are sent to. If you don’t know your password, click “Forgot Your Password?” to reset it. To read our tutorial on how to reset your password, CLICK HERE.

2.) Once logged in you will see your information including shipping and billing addresses. Click on “Past Rentals”  to view a list of previous orders.

3.) While in the Past Rentals tab you will see any previous orders made under that account. *If you placed an order under the same name but different e-mail, those will not show in this account. Select which invoice you need and click “See Invoice” on the right hand side of the order.

4.) Once to the invoice page, to download a PDF simply click “Download as PDF”.

If you have any

questions or cannot access your account please either give us a call (877.578.4777) or e-mail our service team (service@lensprotogo.com) and we’ll be happy to help!  - Meg

The final weeks theme was “Choose Your Own Adventure”, I wanted it to be this way because I told you what to shoot every week all year, and it was about time you got to choose something for yourself! I think I’m going to add a few weeks throughout 2013 with this theme to give you a chance to do this each season. For those of you that don’t know, we ARE continuing this project into 2013, so invite your friends and get crackin’! The first 8 themes for 2013 are already posted in the discussion area in the Flickr group :)

So, without further delay, here are the week 52 wrap up images!

sumoetx

Aaron Leavitt

djb663

jsinon

MarathonMae

HJ Indy

PhotogbyDebCobb

Scott Allan Photography

robertpena

Darren Russinger

brobaey

danl_pa

This last photo by danl_pa sure did make me feel some pain, I’ve had to use a snow blower far too frequently over these last couple of weeks! Is winter over yet?!

Now, on to the 2013 project, please make sure you read the discussion about changes to the way we are running the group in 2013. This will be the last BLOG POST wrap up, we are simply changing the format in which we aggregate the picks. From now on we (Beth and I) will be creating a GALLERY each week to showcase the images we select for that particular theme and we will post the link to the gallery each week in the discussion area. Also, YOU MUST NOW TAG YOUR IMAGES!! This is important because when we go to make our selections each week we are going to do a search for the tag! For example, week 1′s tag is: #LPTG13WK1 week 2 is: #LPTG13WK2 and so on. Make sure you include the # symbol!

Are you seeing this post and aren’t part of the #LPTG52 project? Join us, it’s easy! Simply go to our Flickr group, join it (you have to sign up for Flickr if you don’t already have a username), take a photo each week that is representative of the theme we give you and submit it! I have already posted the first 8 weeks worth of themes so you can plan what you are going to shoot in advance, we found out in 2012 this was a huge help for everyone.

Let me know if you have any questions about the 2013 project, and don’t forget, those 2012 participants who submitted an image every single week will be acknowledged soon, hopefully next week! Stay tuned on Flickr for that!

-LPTG Keegan