Vancouver Meet-Ups

Here are some Vancouver-Area photgrapher meetings you may be interested in:

Vancouver PUG Meetings:
When I first moved out from Los Angeles to Vancouver, I wanted to meet other like-minded photographers, shooting the same stuff I was interested in. When I lived in Los Angeles, I attended the Los Angeles PUG meetings. However, when I arrived here in Vancouver, there wasn’t a PUG meeting for the area. So, I started one. We usually meet on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm.

What is A PUG Anyway?
PUG stands for Pictage Users Group. Pictage is a company that many wedding and portrait photographers use for online galleries for clients to see their images, as well as fulfillment (clients can order prints albums, canvases, etc right from the site). Pictage is a great company, and they started up the PUG meetings so that photographers could get together and discuss photography, and more importantly, the BUSINESS of photography. This isn’t a sales pitch meeting to “use our company”…far form it. They have created an opportunity for photographers to grow their businesses by networking with other photographers. There are a lot of things that need to happen in order to have a successful photography business. And the best way to get information is to talk to other photographers who are going through the same things you are..and the PUG meetings are the perfect forums to do so, meet face to face with other photographers, and build a network. They are lot of fun, and even more important, they are informative. Want to participate in a PUG meeting? Go to our Facebook Page, the Vancouver PUG info page or visit the PUG Directory.

Vancouver Wedding Photographers/Second Shooters
Another great way to meet other wedding photographers is to attend a Vancouver Wedding Photographers/Second Shooters meet-up. They occur every other Wednesday on Commercial Drive at Waves Coffee Shop. Feel free to drop in, but you need to register first to get all of the information. The group is managed through Facebook by a woman named Tracey. Visit her Facebook page to get the scoop on the group.

SMUG Meetings
Sounds a lot like a PUG Meeting. Well, it is! SmugMug is a direct competitor of Pictage, and they have similar meetings to Pictage. They call them a SMUG (rather than a PUG). The good news is, even though SmugMug and Pictage are direct competitors, photographers aren’t. We are all one big happy family, and both companies know that. The meetings are not a sales pitch to use the companies services. It is just an opportunity to meet with other photographers. Don’t you wish all companies were like that. Want to check out a SMUG, visit the SmugMug meetup page.