Professionals: You’re Not a Photographer, You Promote & Sell Photography |  |
- Professionals: You’re Not a Photographer, You Promote & Sell Photography
- The Dangers of Using Docks for Wedding Photography
- Interesting Photo of the Day: A Parliament of Burrowing Owls
- Parkour Running Photography Lighting Techniques
| Professionals: You’re Not a Photographer, You Promote & Sell Photography Posted: 03 Jun 2013 04:21 PM PDT Can you imagine hiring the services of a lawyer who had never read a book about law? Yet millions of people start a photography business without knowing anything about marketing, selling, pricing or merchandising. The trap many photographers fall into is they love the photography so much that they simply focus on that and forget the rest of the business. Instead, think like a business owner, not a photographer.  “Blue To White Falls” captured by Mitch Johanson. Click image to see more from Mitch Johanson. Try to think of yourself more like a clothing store manager. You’re not designing the clothes; you’re just marketing and selling them. Now I realize that you actually are creating the photos, while the clothing store manager isn’t designing the clothes, but using this analogy is important for several reasons:
Are you one of the shrewd 10%?Research by Dun and Bradstreet showed that 90% of small businesses that failed did so due to a lack of skills and knowledge on the part of the owner. Obvious? Maybe. But a lot of people feel that hard work is enough, or that a good product is enough. Nope. You need knowledge like I provide on this website. Because you are reading this, I know you study too – or maybe you’re desperate, I’m not sure. The only reason I’m able to give you these ideas is the same reason you are reading them. I study. I’ve been a marketing professional since 1997 and before that I studied it at university. You’d be shocked at how little most people in the marketing profession actually study. I study almost every day, year after year. After all, I believe marketing is the subject of success, not matter what industry you’re in. The next time you hear business advice from a photographer on a forum consider whether they have studied what they’re preaching. More importantly, have they tested it and measured it and compared it with other techniques?  “Paris on fire” captured by Bastien Milanese (Click Image to See More From Bastien Milanese) It is madness to spend years learning through trial and error without studying and testing your results. With the right information you can pick up what you need in a few weeks from people who have invested lifetimes and billions learning what you need to know. Billions? Sure, I take lots of ideas from other industries and successful businesses. Simply reading the newspaper or magazine covers will give you plenty of ideas for writing headlines for your copy. These industries invest millions into studying effective headlines and you can steal their techniques. A word of warningIt’s not enough to have lots of marketing ideas. This can be almost as dangerous as not having any ideas. Why? Because you can end up with so many tasks and tactics that you have no focus. You’re fiddling around on Twitter and Facebook, writing a blog, writing an email newsletter, printing direct mail, designing adverts, setting up joint partnerships and so on. You end up taking on too many tasks and not doing any of them particularly well. There’s no defined strategy behind each one. Focus on the marketing tactics that perform best for you by measuring and testing them. Then, have the strength to ditch the others. About the Author: For Further Training, PictureCorrect Suggests:Two in-depth eBooks on growing a photography business: Get Connecting and Going Pro Go to full article: Professionals: You’re Not a Photographer, You Promote & Sell Photography |
| The Dangers of Using Docks for Wedding Photography Posted: 03 Jun 2013 02:48 PM PDT Many people find it very important that their wedding day go exactly as planned and no mishaps occur. While some things can be entirely out of one’s control, it is the responsibility of the photographer to ensure that no accidents happen during the wedding photo shoot. A photo of the entire wedding party on a dock can be very elegant, as long as the dock can handle the weight of that many people at one time. If it doesn’t, it can be quite hazardous to the wedding party (for those of you reading this by email, the videos can be seen here): There have been several other documented occurrences of this. The dock breaks under pressure, and the entire wedding party falls into a large body of water. With a strong sense of humor, it can be taken lightly. But for some this would be deemed a wedding disaster.
If you or your clients insist on photos being taken on a dock, make sure the dock is very sturdy, that the number of people on the dock is kept to a minimum, and that the ceremony has already taken place, so the wedding doesn’t have to go on with the entire wedding party drenched (Via Resource Mag and Petapixel) It’s also a good idea to warn your clients ahead of time that such accidents have happened to others, and very well could happen to them. In this other example, The wedding party fell into Gun Lake in Shelbyville, Michigan after the dock that they were standing on broke while posing for photos: Any dock that looks like it is rotting should definitely not be used: Best to keep the wedding party away from old docks so they can stay dry at the wedding reception! Go to full article: The Dangers of Using Docks for Wedding Photography |
| Interesting Photo of the Day: A Parliament of Burrowing Owls Posted: 03 Jun 2013 01:52 PM PDT Owls are equal parts creepy and cute. Photographer Mac Stone describes them as neurotic. I imagine getting close to them can be difficult because if you aren't already transfixed by those beady yellow eyes, you should know that owls can be incredibly territorial and don't take kindly to shutterbugs poking around. So how did Stone capture this image of owls burrowing outside their tunnel? He hid his camera inside a road cone of course:  Owls Outside Their Tunnel (Click Image to See Full Size, Imgur) His first setup wasn't as successful, evidenced by the fact that the owls did not go anywhere near his camera to get a decent shot. As you may have already gathered, owls or wild birds in general, aren't too comfortable in front of the camera, so Stone had to regroup. He hit the jackpot with a road cone he modified to hold his camera with the lens partially exposed. This image is actually part of a timelapse video Stone created to show "how much character these beautiful birds have." (for those of you reading this by email, the video can be seen here):
Go to full article: Interesting Photo of the Day: A Parliament of Burrowing Owls |
| Parkour Running Photography Lighting Techniques Posted: 03 Jun 2013 12:52 PM PDT Parkour is the art of moving from one place to another most efficiently. It has been widely popularized via YouTube videos and video games using the fluid movement techniques for characters. Parkour also gives photographers an opportunity to capture compelling action shots and experiment with motion control. In the following video, photographer Von Wong demonstrates lighting techniques for parkour photography (for those of you reading this by email, the behind the scenes can be seen here): Because so many models were involved in each shot, Von Wong shot each photo keeping in mind that he may use them to create composite images in post-processing. This meant that each photo that was meant for a composite image had to include the same types of lighting. Once he had captured photos of each subject with the same camera and lighting positions, he moved the camera and lighting for a new set up and potential composite image.  The alleyway in which the images were shot didn’t have much natural light, so light sources were positioned to illuminate the subjects from multiple directions. To ensure proper lighting, two Elinchrom Ranger RXs were placed on either side of the models, with two Elinchrom Ranger Quadras lighting them from above. Elinchrom Rotalux Octa and Deep Octa softboxes were used to evenly distribute the lighting. Having the subjects illuminated from all three directions freed the photographer to focus on the composition and timing of each photograph. Go to full article: Parkour Running Photography Lighting Techniques |
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