Jul
18
I don’t need to be online
Filed Under online marketing | Leave a Comment
So you have a small studio and you don’t think you need to be online.
Think again.
There are very few industries that don’t need a web presence. It’s the most economical, easy and life-changing way to bring your business into a successful venture.
You can type anything - ANYTHING - into your favorite search engine and find something related to your search. Whether for research or for purchase, I can guarantee you someone is out there trying to find a way to build a business online.
Camel Photography - just trying to think obscure here
Strawberry Photography - a blog where a photographer mentioned strawberries
Island Photography - who wouldn’t love to attend a workshop in Greece
Try it for yourself. No matter what you can think of, or what words you can combine together, I’m sure you’ll find search results.
Now imagine if you were really trying for these search results!
Jul
17
“Do I photograph people out of my home?”
“Do I rent out a commercial location?”
“Is it possible to work entirely on location?”
Opening up a studio is a very personal choice. If you’re like us, we wanted to keep our clients and our home life completely separate. I work out of my home now and love it. But I just didn’t want cli
ents coming in and out of my home at any time of the day.
So for us, it was an automatic choice to open up a studio.
But what’s the best solution? Is there a right or wrong answer?
The only right answer is one that’s right for you. Start by reading and taking my studio choice quiz. Then start assessing your wants and needs.
When we did open up a studio, we also knew we didn’t want to be at the studio regular hours. And if you are in a strip center or mall, you have to be open when the customers are shopping in the area.
So we decided to open up a studio in an office building. May seem a little unusual. But we really enjoyed it because know one knew we were there unless we told them we were there. We could go in when we wanted, had access to meet people on weekends, and could close when we were traveling or simply out enjoying the day. And we didn’t have to pay grounds fees - we were in an office building. Plus we also photographed most of our work on location - so why dedicate rooms to backdrops and props?
No matter where you decide to run your studio, I would recommend a few things:
- Keep your front entry way neat, clean, and with a Wow factor. When you walk in, you should entice your clients to say Wow. I’ve walked into more than one studio where the owner apologized as we stepped over stacks of paperwork and boxes of photos just to make it into the meeting room.
- Create a separate sales room where you can display everything you have the desire to sell. You can’t sell what you can’t show. If you want to sell 30×40’s have them on the wall. If you want to sell multi-volume albums each with 72 pages in it, have them on display. You can only sell what a customer can see.
- Keep your production rooms away from clients eyes. They don’t need to see your stacks of photographs, piles of paperwork, and boxes of unfinished business. They should only see the best of what you do.
- Never have to apologize for where you’re at or what you do. Have total confidence in where you’re at and how you approach your photography. You are the expert - show only that side to your clients
And I guarantee you’ll see a boost in your business!
Jul
16
I surf online a lot. So I thought I’d share with you some of the things I look through - things you might find interesting too.
10. Film … or digital? I posted on this just a few days ago, and found this another interesting read on the same topic. Read Brian Auer’s Is Film Dead? I especially found his poll interesting - 57 percent (at the time I looked at the results) found using film to be a steady or growing trend. Wow.
9. As a photographer you have to put your photos online, right? Why not on a social site. (I’ll be there soon.) In the mean time, check out this photo of Dubai in the fog.
8. Do you worry about theft of your photos if you put them online? Start with this great post on How Every Flickr Photo Ended Up on Sale This Weekend.
7. If you haven’t had enough on the theft of photos topic, follow this continuing discussion by Photrade.
6. For an endless list of everything photography, head over to Alltop. Alltop helps you learn all you can about individual topics - like photography.
5. What do you do with all of your digital images while you’re on the road? Read Peter Carey’s advice for Digital Photo Storage On the Road. I’ll add one other tip. When we traveled for weddings, we would carry plenty of memory cards with us. But if we were going to travel for awhile, we would also burn a set of CD/DVD’s and mail them back to our office. You can also upload them to your backup system, via your laptop.
4. I know everyone has an opinion on Flickr, but you can’t deny you can find some incredible images there. Take a look at these photos of the Tour de France.
3. So you wanna be a studio photographer? Why not make your own backgrounds. We’ve made a few ourselves in the past, and still use them today for certain shoots. Take a look at How To Make a Background for Studio Photography.
2. If you haven’t seen the Red One, take a look. I’ve been talking about it with a few local photographers lately. (Check out their service policy at the bottom - I love it!)
1. A photo site used to help bring awareness to important issues around the world - how cool. Photography can be so powerful. Take a look at The Homeless Photographer. Then plan on some time browsing through the other images.
Jul
15
Come To The First Episode of Six Figure Photographer
Filed Under Photography Training, Six Figure Photographer | Leave a Comment
After months of talking about it, playing with podcasts and different Internet radio sites, and talking with “jillions” of people, I’ve finally scheduled my first episode of Six Figure Photographer.
We’ll be chatting about how to build up your photography studio and tips to turn it into a Six Figure success. Plan on joining us now - or listen in to the recording if you can’t make it to the show. And if you have any questions ahead of time, please email me. If I don’t get to all of your questions on the first episode, stay tuned to Episode 2!
Jul
14
Are you still based in film, or have you made the switch to digital?
I’m amazed almost daily at the number of photographers that are still film based. Digital has been such a big part of the consumer market for years, yet photographers still love their film.
We even have a niece who has taken a few courses in photography in college, and she’s still taught through film-based classes.
Yet the types of film that were once available are now quickly disappearing. Why? Because you can do so much more with digital. And it’s the way of the future.
If you are a professional, your whole goal should be to make money with your photography. (If not, there is no reason to start a business.) And one of the best ways to sell your photographs - at least from
a portrait standpoint - is to sell immediately on the emotion.
If a client comes in, has their photograph taken, they are excited about their portraits. With digital, you can sell immediately with projection (find out how) and double - even triple your sales. With film, you have to spend days developing and putting together your sales presentation before the customer comes back in for viewing. That’s a lot of time for something else to happen in her life - making her portrait not the most exciting thing in her life.
When we used film, we knew every click of the shutter meant we were spending about $1. With digital, there’s no cost. It makes you a more liberal shooter - getting many more saleable images. When we decided to convert to digital, we decided to run parallel for the first year. After the first month, we had several issues with film (lost in mail, ruined by lab, etc) and converted 100 percent over to digital, and have never looked back.
Because of technology, digital is here to stay. To run your business, you need to have a website and blog, and know about online marketing. And to continue competing with professionals you must learn the ins and outs of digital photography.
Agree … or disagree? I’d love to have your comments.
Jul
9
What makes a great photographer? Is it the camera and lenses they use? Or is it the photographer?
That was the question of the hour yesterday as Andrew and I poured over a selection of images we had recently taken.
The next time you’re out with friends that aren’t photographers, watch how they look at things around them. Do they notice the flowers surrounding the cafe patio? Do they notice the bird soaring in the sky? Do they notice the signs along 
the way?
As a photographer - especially coming from a photojournalistic style of photography - we see things in storyline fashion. We’re constantly looking for ways to tell the story with our photographs - and we pick up on ways to show that with each picture.
We focus on macro results, so the eye naturally picks up on what we focus on.
We show things in detail and put several images together to show the whole picture.
We use perspective to make a photograph better.
That comes from the education of being a professional photographer. It doesn’t come with the camera. I can get a great image from a point-and-shoot simply because I understand perspective and what to look for.
Of course the better the lens, the more I can get. But ultimately comes down to the photographer.
What do you think?
Jul
7
What Did You Do For The 4th of July?
Filed Under Just For Fun | Leave a Comment
The 4th of July has always been one of our very favorite holidays. Maybe it’s because it’s in the middle of summer, and who can resist celebrating with fireworks!
This year we thought we’d try something new, and headed off to La Veta, Colorado to experience a different part of the Rocky Mountains, and to check out the Great Sand Dunes National Park, as my daughter and I have never been there, and Andrew hasn’t been there since he was 7.
First I will tell you that we all fell in love with La Veta. If you ever want a getaway that’s all about hiking and enjoying nature, this is it. It has a lot of history, glorious hiking trails, and cooling afternoon showers. Don’t expect a lot of amenities - just a couple of restaurants and stores. But the La Veta Inn had nice large suites, and food that was amazing. [Try their tuna sandwich, or fried ravioli. Both are great.]
If you head up I-70 into the main valley of the Rockies, you’ll be in the heart of ski country - and in the heart of mega-traffic and people. That’s one of the reasons we decided to head south on I-25 to La Veta. Outside of a few locals and the people that have made the La Cuchara Valley their summertime home, there isn’t a lot of people. On one two hour hike, we only ran into one other family. There’s just something about hiking through a forest, seeing beautiful falls, and feeling like you’re the only person on earth to give you an energized perspective.
Want to see more photos? Check out my Flickr Gallery.
Jul
2
The Case of the Freebies
Filed Under Photography Marketing | Leave a Comment
We all like things for free. It makes us feel good when we know we got it for the bargain price of - nothing.
But does it have any value?
We recently attended a concert at a local botanical gardens. Every year they have a whole summer of concerts, and every Sunday night you can attend a different concert. They have local talent, and even bring in some big names from the past (we saw Firefall the other night).
For most of the series they charge a small fee for the tickets, anywhere from $10 to $30 a ticket. But for the Father’s day concert, the concert was free. The only catch was you had to have a ticket.
So I went and got my free tickets, along with paying for a couple of the other nights.
Guess what? The free concert was their biggest “sell out” yet. Meaning they had given away more tickets than ever before. Yet from 
past years I know it was a fairly small crowd.
Is free good? Did people consider the tickets to be of value?
If something else came up, the people didn’t come. The tickets were free, so it didn’t matter if they used them or not. In essence, they had no value.
But if you paid $20 a piece for the tickets, I bet you would make an effort to attend.
Now let’s swing this around to what I’m seeing with the photography industry.
Photographers love to pile on the stuff in their “package” deals. For one small fee, we’ll give you everything.
Does that put any value on what you do?
The real value comes from what you do that other’s don’t do.
If everyone does a quick shoot and hands over the files on a CD, that’s your competition.
How can you be different?
By providing an entire service, from beginning to end.
People don’t want a CD with 100 photos on it. They want one beautiful portrait of their baby daughter, printed on the finest canvas, retouched to perfection, matted perfectly, and framed in a way that matches their home decor. They want the nail and the hammer to be attached to the frame - less to think about when they bring it home. Maybe they would even appreciate a photographer that hangs the portrait on the wall! What service!
You can’t hang a CD on the wall.
There is a difference.
Jul
1
A New Way To Welcome Baby
Filed Under Just For Fun | Leave a Comment
In order to be an exceptional baby photographer, you have to offer things that say Wow!
Want a new idea? I just ran across this site as I was going through my latest Trends enewsletter. Every month they put out a newsletter with the hottest things across the globe. I usually peruse the content just to see what’s new.
And this month is a perfect idea for photographers. 5StarBaby.com
does a special design for baby announcements - nothing boring and traditional here. You can specialize your poster announcements as much as you desire - and have a truly unique product to offer your clients.
Are they a little more expensive than something your client could hand make herself? Probably. But where else can she get something that says Wow.
And if you’re going to be ordering numerous times, you may want to contact them directly and explain you’re a professional. They may work with you even more on the pricing.
Jun
30
Last week I ran a photography survey to find out what your biggest concerns were for building your business this year. Thanks for your answers.
I thought I’d let you in on the answers so far - so you can find out
if other’s are facing the same issues as you.
1. What is the biggest thing you need help with right now?
Your biggest challenge is to find more clients - this is the definite clear winner. Next in line is to learn more about running the business.
2. If you were to invest in training during 2008, where would you most likely spend your money?
The big winner here is to learn more about marketing a photography business, leading almost 50 percent over the next highest task of learning more about photo manipulation.
3. What’s your biggest challenge in 2008?
Again the clear winner here is learning how to create a steady stream of income.
Thanks so much - I see a trend here. Though I know from talking with many of you that marketing your business and building up a strong clientele base is your toughest challenge, I really enjoy hearing directly from you how you’re currently feeling about your business. Your answers to my 4th question - What question would you ask a successful business coach right now? - has also provided me with a lot of insight.
Watch my future posts to answer some of your most pressing issues. Thanks!
Blog Updates
To stay up with the news, click the RSS feed logo button.
-
-
Blogroll
-
