Bruce Hudson has a passion for marketing. For the last 26 years in the photography business he has been on a journey to find the secrets of marketing – and he’s found them! It all has to do with the relationship you create and maintain with your clients. Did you know it takes 6 times the amount of time, energy and dollars to attract new clients than it does to keep old ones? What does it take to maintain and enhance the relationship of your clients that you’ve worked so hard to create?

Bruce found most of his secrets outside the photographic industry and has applied them to his own studio in Seattle, Washington.

Join Bruce, the “Relationographer” as he shares the systems and strategies of relationship marketing that will enhance your studio’s financial success now and in the future!

Seattle area native Bruce Hudson has led a colorful and diverse life. His photographic career started like many professionals, as a hobby in high school. Bruce’s major interests back in the early 70’s were playing trumpet in the nationally award-winning Kent Meridian high school jazz band, and his first love, Sue Crum, who inspired his artistic direction in photography, both in front of the camera and in the darkroom!

This changed when Bruce and Sue married in 1975 and Bruce began his junior year at Western Washington University. Music and music education was still the focus by day, but the love for photography and photographing people took up the evenings and weekends with weddings of fellow college students and friends. During those college years, he had the opportunity to play with such greats as Bob Hope, Oscar Peterson, and Kenny G. After graduating from college in 1978, Bruce started a career as a high school band director, not far from his childhood home in Maple Valley, Washington.

Even though teaching music was a full-time job, Bruce and Sue still embraced photography as a major part of their lives. They continued to photograph weddings and portraits on weekends for fun and to help supplement their income.

After working part-time out of their home for four years, Bruce decided to leave teaching and they opened their first “store-front” studio in 1982. The early studio years were challenging due to the recession in ’82 and ultra-high interest rates. Bruce and Sue photographed pretty much everything: pets, passports, dances, sports leagues, seniors, weddings, families, and children. During this time they also started a family with Josh being born in ’82 and McKenna in ’84. The Hudson’s also became serious students of marketing, reading every book on the subject and then utilizing the concepts in their growing business. All that study and hard work paid off big-time!

As the business, clientele, and income grew, so did the number of photographic awards locally, nationally and internationally. In 1993, Bruce and Sue won Wedding and Portrait Photographers International’s 1st wedding album competition and also the grand award print with WPPI’s first perfect 100 score.

The next 10 years took Bruce and Sue all over the country sharing their successful photographic and business strategies to thousands of studio owners at conventions, seminars, and workshops.

In 1994, during a routine exam a cancerous mole was found under Sue’s left arm. It was removed, but 22 months later on February 17, 1996, Sue Hudson passed away at the age of 41. Bruce and the kids established a memorial scholarship fund in Sue’s name. Each year the fund gives a number of scholarships to professional photography schools throughout the country.

Today, despite the loss of Sue, Bruce still holds a passion for business, marketing and the photographic profession. This actually lead Bruce to write and publish his first book on the subject called The Relationographer: The Art of Relationship Marketing!

Bruce holds a Mastercraftsman degree from the Professional Photographers of America and is one of the only 40 active members in the prestigious organization Camera Craftsmen of America. A much sought-after speaker to professional photography organizations, Bruce lectured on behalf of Fuji Film USA, H&H Color Lab, Mamiya Cameras, Capri Albums, Marathon Press, and Excel Frames throughout the United States, New Zealand, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Over the years he has produced and authored over 25 instructional videos/DVD programs dealing with portrait, wedding photography and marketing. It’s hard to believe he’s photographed more than a thousand weddings and tens of thousands of family, children, and high school senior portraits since 1982. He’s also had in front of his lens, President Bush (41), future Hall of Fame pitching great Randy Jackson, and night time radio celebrity Delilah and her family. Bruce has not only been named a Master Photographer, but also referred to as a Master Marketer that specializes in Relationship Marketing.

Bruce has recently begun a new chapter in his personal life, and the life of the studio. He was married October 2007 to Terri Arnold who joined the studio team July 2009.