I was looking at this photo as a possible magazine submission the other day and thought - I should just share it. I love the contrast between traditional and modern.
Contrasts: A dani man wears traditional body paint and decorations along with his sunglasses at the Baliem Festival. Held every August in the Papuan highlands, the festival is a celebration of dani culture involving dances, competitions, and mock battles.
If you’re an advanced enthusiast serious about making it as a pro, here are nine practical steps you can take to start the transition. These steps will help you break inertia, make your first sales, and establish a solid foundation on which to build.
1. Find your niche and start shooting in it.
Most enthusiasts shoot what they want, where there at, without any overarching logic. They produce a haphazard collection of different images. Then they try to sell the resulting images. Shoot first and then find a market. Pros do just the opposite: they know their market, and then shoot for it. They specialize, get to know buyers in their niches, and shoot deliberately and strategically to deepen their portfolio in their chosen areas. Starting tomorrow, spend some time figuring out where you want to specialize, and from now on spend your precious shooting time in those areas. Unless you live in Kansas and are determined to have your niche be Central American travel photography, it’s not that hard to build a solid portfolio. Just give yourself a highly targeted list of assignments. Do some at-home product shoots, or portrait or engagement sessions with family or friends. Assign yourself to cover at least 10 mammal species at the local zoo, or spend some time at some local wild areas. Take it seriously - learn about the animals or natural areas you’re covering. As long as your niche is something close to home, you can build a portfolio relatively quickly.
2. Develop your website.
In the digital age, you must have a website and it must be a good one. A website is your online portfolio and your most effective marketing tool. A well-designed site gives you credibility and provide a point of interaction with clients and buyers. Like a storefront, it is a place to which you can direct people, and a way for others to stumble into you while searching the web. Indeed, many people today find photographers today by doing Google searches. If you don’t have a website, you won’t even be found or considered. Beyond that, web sites provide a platform for selling prints and stock photos directly, and for offering blogs, reviews, and other important content that adds value for your potential clients. Over the next week, either develop your site yourself, or find someone to develop it for you. Read my best photography website template series for reviews of photography website templates you can use to create great sites fast. Continue reading
Since readers of this blog are obviously interested in what makes a successful photography business, I thought I’d share what I consider to be some of the best photography business blogs on the web. Of course, the DSLRBlog Photography Business Blog would make the list, as would the business section of Photocrati’s photography blog. But since I run both of those, I can’t very well include them here, can I :).
Outside of these, here is a list of great blogs that I regularly read and find to have the excellent information for aspiring professionals thinking about building their businesses. Continue reading
Unlike my usual posts, this is an off-the-cuff post spurred by a recent experience with some clients. We did a shoot with a young lady, an equestrian, along with her horse. We worked hard to make it not just a photo shoot, but an experience. They loved it, and loved the photos, and never blinked about the price. In interacting with the clients afterward, I realized what a unique and special experience it was for them.
Pricing is often one of the hardest areas of the business for photographers. New photographers are sensitive about their lack of experience, afraid they don’t merit a large fee and can’t compete with more established professionals. But even for established professionals, a certain sense of guilt is common when it comes to talking price. Many professionals are almost apologetic when quoting a price, and are much to willing to come down. Continue reading
Second article in a series on finding the best photography website templates for photographers. This series reviews the major template providers and gives photographers a more systematic basis for comparing and choosing. See also:
The Best Photography Website Templates: Introducing a New Series
***UPDATE: Below I say that I ultimately chose Photobiz as my solution. I did for my wedding site. But I’ve recently converted my phojournalism site (as well as this site) to the new Photocrati WordPress themes. You can check out the themes here: Photocrati’s Photography WordPress Themes.
Since I chose Photobiz, that should mean I think it’s the best choice out there, right? Perhaps, but not necessarily. Photobiz, like all template-style solutions has it’s own limitations. For some users, lack of flexibility, high cost, or search engine optimization challenges might mean trying another solution.
OVERVIEW
Photobiz is an all in one web solution for photographers. For a mixture of one time fees (to buy a template, set up shoppting carts etc) and monthly fees (for hosting), they handle everything: flash templates, hosting (in fact, you HAVE to host there, which is a limitation), online proofing and sales functionality so you can sell prints directly to clients, and a range of other functions and services. Continue reading
Short answer: Yes, but not in the way you think.
For most photographers, the word “portfolio” evokes images of a physical “portfolio” of images, often in a big black portfolio case, that represents who you are as a photographer. There are still a few situations when such classic portfolios are relevant—for example, if you are applying for a prestigious art gallery, going to visit a high-dollar commercial photography client, or meeting in person with prospective wedding clients.
But for most photographers most of the time, the traditional “portfolio” has always been of limited value. That’s not to say most photographers don’t use portfolios. Indeed, every time a photographer sends a submission to a magazine, stock agency, or other prospective buyer—whether slides, prints, or an email with digital images—that photographer is sending a portfolio. In this case, each portfolio is different, depending on the client.
Today, however, the portfolio concept is taking on yet another connotation. In the digital era, your website is your portfolio. Continue reading
I noted in my last post that work on Photocrati’s photography blog and photography WordPress themes have been keeping me from posting regularly on DSLRBlog.
In addition to Photocrati, I’ve been working on another great project with a great group of wedding photographers. Some of the best and best-known wedding photographers in the world are working together to launch a new, invitation-only membership group for wedding photographers called Best of Wedding Photography. This will be the most selective group of wedding photographers in the world.
Membership invitations are based on peer-review. We’ve created an independent board including Crash Taylor, David Beckstead, David Ziser, Anna Kuperberg, Glen Johnson, Ben Chrisman, and Matt Adcock / Sol Tamargo from Del Sol Photography. If you pay attention to the world of wedding photography, you should recognize many of these names. Beckstead and Chrisman have both been named as the WPJA’s Photographer of the Year in various years. Five of these member have been named among the Top Ten Wedding Photographers in the World by American Photo in various years. Johnson has a best selling book on wedding photography and David Ziser, of course, runs a well-known workshop series in the US.
We believe this organization will change the landscape of the wedding photography industry and become one of the most sought after invitations among wedding photographers worldwide. Look for the launch some time in November.
I’ve been very busy on Photocrati over the last few months, which largely explains my infrequent posts here on good old DSLRBlog. Just seven months old, Photocrati is now doing about 150,000 page views per month, which is great to see.
I just wanted to let readers here know that Peter Burian (co-author of the National Geographic Photography Field Guide and author of many of the Magic Lantern DSLR guides) has just published a review of the Sony A850. That’s one newsworthy camera. It’s the most affordable full-frame digital SLR on the marketing now, yet offers the highest available resolution on the market at 24.6 megapixels. Compare that to the D3X, which offers the same resolution but costs about $5000 more.
In any case, Peter’s review is one of the first full field test of the A850 out there. There are a few others, and you can see some at TestFreak’s Sony A850 page. It’s clear that Sony has made some dramatic advancements in it’s offerings for digital SLR enthusiasts over the last year or two. It makes me wonder if and when it would ever be possible for manufacturers like Sony, Olympus, or Pentax to challenge the behemoths, Nikon and Canon, in the digital SLR market.
In the process of launching Best of Wedding Photography, we’ve had the chance to review thousands of the best wedding photographers in the world. I’ve personally looked at over 3000 wedding photography websites in the last three months, and as part of our invitation process (in the middle of that now), I’ve had the chance to trade emails with over 300 of the very best in the world.
It’s been an educational experience, and it’s given me a great feel for the landscape of the wedding photography industry. One of the most insightful aspects of this is seeing what kind of things separate the best from the rest.
The best wedding photographers are those who produce awesome, modern, artistic imagery. They combine great composition and lighting with incredible post processing to produce breath-taking imagery. But more than that, they are the ones who build distinctive, bold brands for their work that separate them from the rest. They participate in groups like the WPJA, ISPWP, Modern Photographers, Photographik, and now Best of Wedding Photography, and they use their participation in those groups to enhance their credibility and reputations among brides and prospective clients. They position themselves at the top of the market, shooting premium and destination weddings. These people shoot 30-200 weddings per year, at prices averaging between $3,000-$6,000 per year. If you multiply those numbers out, you’ll see that they really add up. For many of these photographers, it’s not uncommon to shoot destination weddings in Europe or the Caribbean for $10,000 or more. Many of these photographers share their knowledge, and add a lot to their bottom lines, by launching their own workshop series in which they’ll teach everything they know to you and a dozen others over a weekend for $850.
These are the people who don’t just scrape by as photographers, they thrive and prosper.
So how do you get there?
I’m not primarily a wedding photographer. My background is in photojournalism in Asia, and now I spend most of my time bringing photographers together for big projects like Photocrati or Best of Wedding Photography. But I have a good business mind, and exposure to the greats in wedding photography has given me a sense for exactly the steps I WOULD take if I wanted to join these photographers at the pinnacle of the industry.
I don’t plan to go that route, but rather than let the knowledge go to waste, I thought I’d go ahead and share my thoughts with any of you who think you’d like to try it. So here are the steps. I honestly believe that someone who did these with focused energy could establish themselves at among top in the field within about 2 years. The key point here is that you need to know what they know and do what they do. That means that you will need to invest in training, resources, branding and advertising. Many would-be photographers balk at such investments, but keep in mind that this is business, not a hobby. Every business requires investment - nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Photocrati Announces $5000 Grants for Photographers
Earlier this week Photocrati announced a new program giving $5000 grants to photographers working on social, environmental, and humanitarian projects. From the grant page:
Check It Out:
Announcing $5000 Photocrati Fund Grants