Sell Your Photography With What’s Really Important

It’s that time of year. You drive down the street and see

Garage Sale

On every street corner. Today I drove by one sign with lots of text, written lightly in pen or pencil. I’m sure it was for a garage sale, but I couldn’t read one word as I drove by at 20 miles per hour.

And it got me thinking. If people want to shop at a garage sale, what’s the most important way to let them know you’re having one?

A simple sign that says Garage Sale with an arrow pointing the way. When you’re quickly driving by, you don’t have the time to read long copy, or decipher hidden meanings. You’re just looking for the location, and following the arrows is the easiest way.

Seems pretty simple and straightforward. So why do we make marketing our photography businesses so difficult?

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Photography Survey – How Do You Match Up?

I love surveys and statistics. I love discovering how people are thinking, what matters most to them, and what drives them for the future.

So a few days I found a new survey tool and decided to give it a try – and thanks to the dozens of you who have participated so far (yes, you can still add your ideas if you have two minutes to spare).

So let’s go over a couple of the survey results.

Is taking a great picture more of an accident for you, or can you take an image knowing you’ve got a great image every time? A lot of that comes down to lighting, and knowing exactly what to do in every situation. And it looks like a ton of photographers struggle with that on a daily basis.

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Finding Photographers With A Niche

After three days off, and a whirlwind of fun activities, I’m back at my desk. Long weekends are great for rejuvenating, and for finding something to inspire you.

In my last post on Fine Art Photography I mentioned we were off to the Downtown Denver Arts Festival over the weekend. Despite the looming clouds and rain, we spent several hours there on Saturday enjoying the artists and the overall atmosphere (the Nuggets were playing that night, so Downtown Denver was wild!)

As we strolled through the streets visiting the booths, I noticed something that made me realize there is always a way to survive in business. If you differentiate yourself, you’ll draw in the crowd. And you’ll make the sale.

While I loved all of the photographers work, several really stood out to me.

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Fine Art Photography – An Easy Way To Find Your Next Festival

One of the things I love about the summertime in the Rockies is the arts festivals. I know I’m not alone in loving to hit the great outdoors, and walk through some amazing artwork at the same time.

Andrew and I also have a new interest as our future goal is to start building up our own fine art photography business.

So this weekend, we’ll be heading out to Downtown Denver Arts Festival, featuring Colorado artists, and 18 Colorado photographers.

I went to their site just to learn more about the festival, the submission process, and a few other details. And in the process found a great resource to share with you.

The Downtown Denver Arts Festival (and as it turns out hundreds of other arts festivals) use a program called Zapplication.

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Where will photography take you this year survey

What are you doing with your photography this year? Are you enjoying shooting for fun? Or are you looking at turning it into an income stream? Take this two minute survey, and let us know what you’re doing in 2009.

Thanks for your input – we appreciate it. We’ll update you on the results here in the next few days.

10 Ways To Help Break Photographer’s Block

As a writer, I understand writers block very well. When you sit down and start at the computer, wondering what your first sentence should be, nothing can be more frustrating.

The same can happen with photography. What do you do when your facing a new portrait session, and you can’t think of a single thing new to do with your client?

Let’s look at 10 ways to help you break photographer’s block.

1. Just shoot.
Instead of sitting around waiting for an idea to hit you, spend the next 30 minutes shooting. Shoot at least 30 images in that 30 minutes, and look for things around you that can build into the photograph.

image source Noel Zia Lee

2. Start surfing.
Head over to Flickr and browse through other images. With millions of photographs online, you’re sure to find something that sparks your interest. Use that as your model for shooting.

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Photography Tools – 21 Firefox Add-ons For Photographers

Firefox is my favorite browser! With so many great features to use, how can it help photographers? We put together a list of our favorite Photography Firefox add-ons to help with your daily tasks.

Cooliris – Full-Screen, 3D — Cooliris is simply the fastest and most stunning way to browse photos and videos from the Web or your desktop. Effortlessly scroll a “3D Wall” of your content from Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, and hundreds more.

ColorZilla – Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.
With ColorZilla you can get a color reading from any point in your browser, quickly adjust this color and paste it into another program. You can Zoom the page you are viewing and measure distances between any two points on the page. The built-in palette browser allows choosing colors from pre-defined color sets and saving the most used colors in custom palettes. DOM spying features allow getting various information about DOM elements quickly and easily.

FoxSaver – Turns Idle FireFox into a ScreenSaver and Photo Viewer! Nice non-offensive pictures updated daily! Or your own pictures. FullScreen. Works great on Linux or dual monitors! Resouce Efficient! Support Media RSS. Recommend your own favorite pictures! Read more

Photoshop Tutorial – Depth Of Field Blur

Adding depth of field to your image can alter the look dramatically. In this video, instructor Richard Harrington from Photoshop from Video, will show you how to use depth of field blur to create backdrops for use in chroma keying. Check out this video: Read more

7 Photography Tips for Better Children’s Portraits

How do you approach portraiture for children so that you get great images AND make a ton of money doing it?

1. Treat the child as your client. Your first task is to create a great rapport with the child. They won’t work with you if you don’t talk to them in their mannerism. Find what they like and share in their excitement. Get down to their level. You don’t want them to see you as an adult. You want them to see you as a friend.

image source Tina Keller

2. Treat the mom (dad, grandparent, or whoever is there and paying for the portrait) as your client. Yes, this is the person paying for the portrait session, and any packages and prints they purchase in the future. But remember, they will be happy if their child stays happy, and if the child has a smile on his or her face as they are leaving your studio.

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Use Fotomoto To Sell Your Photographs

Do you sell your photography online? How difficult is it to set up?

A new entry to the photography world is Fotomoto, an e-commerce system specifically designed for photos. No matter how large or small your photograph database is, Fotomoto lets you sell your work directly from your own website or blog. And it’s a free service to start – you only pay a fee after you create the sale.

While many systems out there are linked directly to your professional lab, or require you to take on a monthly fee, Fotomoto makes it easy. With a couple lines of code dropped onto your site or blog, you can begin selling your images immediately right from your own community.

Some of the things I really like about this service:

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