Posted on June 5th, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 7 Comments »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 24th, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 3 Comments »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 12th, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 6 Comments »
Today, pro photographer and fellow Photocrati contributor Steve Buchanan offers some advice on marketing plans for your photography business. Steve is a commercial photographer in Maryland. His work can be seen at www.buchanan-studios.com.
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When is the last time you updated your marketing plan?
This is of course assuming you have a marketing plan. If you do - good for you. If not - get on it. I certainly don’t want to hold myself up as a model of small business marketing. I have definitely made my share of mistakes (and will hopefully continue to do so) but I have invested a lot of effort, time and even some money into learning about what works and what doesn’t.
I’m not here to tell you what will work for you and what won’t because those will be different for each photographer. Your particular market, the type of work you do and your geographic location all come into play when determining the right mix. The point I want to make is that all successful marketing campaigns have a few things in common. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 1st, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 7 Comments »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 27th, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 3 Comments »
This is the third article in a series on the best photography website templates. Also see:
The Best Photography Website Templates: Introducing a New Series
Review of Photobiz Website Templates
Overview of Printroom.com Online Storefronts
Printroom.com offers online storefronts for photographers. Although still in the realm of website templates, Printroom.com is an entirely kind of solution from Photobiz-style templates. After setting up an account, you upload images to your Printroom site. They offer very few choices regarding the appearance of your “homepage” or galleries, and very little flexibility. The major advantage of Printroom and similar sites like Smugmug is the integration of galleries, shopping carts, and order fulfillment. In a Printroom store, your clients can browse images, select what they want in terms of print sizes and styles, speciality items, even digital downloads. They checkout and pay, and Printroom alerts you to the order. If you have not done so already, they will ask you to upload high resolution versions of the relevant images. And that’s it. Printroom handles all order fulfillment - printing, packaging, shipping.
I’d like to emphasize something up front. In some sense, comparing Printroom or other “pro storefronts” to full-blown website solutions like Photobiz is unfair. I can’t imagine any pro photographer using a Printroom store front as their sole or even primary online presence. Printroom just doesn’t offer the kind of attractive templates or customization options that allow photographers to present their online portfolios in all their glory. Usually, Printroom is a secondary site, one used to store client images after a shoot and give clients the ability to browse and, most important, order prints. That’s the best use of Printroom.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 27th, 2009 by Erick Danzer | No Comments »
Dear readers, sorry for the temporary absence. It’s been over ten days since the last post. I’ve been busy working on my other site, Photocrati. If you haven’t been there yet, check it out: Photocrati Photography Blog and Digital SLR Camera Reviews. We’ve recently added a gear review section and brought on Peter Burian (co-author of the National Geographic Photography Field Guide and author of numerous Magic Lantern guides to digital SLRs) as a reviewer. We’re also about to add Jack Neubart, author of the Photographer’s Exposure Handbook and at least three other books on photographic lighting, as a reviewer. They join a team of 7 other pro photographers working in diverse fields. We’ve added a Twitter account - you can follow us at www.twitter.com/photocrati - which something I’ll be doing soon on DSLR Blog as well. And we’ll be launching a forum and major photo contest sometime in the next two months.
Anyways, now that the flurry of changes is done on Photocrati, I can get back to sharing some business tips here. Up shortly: a review of Printroom.com online storefronts.
Thanks for the patience, Erick
Posted on April 15th, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 4 Comments »
This article is about one of the most effective and precise ways to promote your business and find clients. Google Adwords makes advertising easier, faster, and more cost effective than ever before. If you want to, in a couple of hours, you can send a veritable flood of traffic to your site. And if you design your campaign correctly, the vast majority of those visitors will be people who are specifically looking for a photographer doing your kind of work.
So here are some tips on how to get started with Google Adwords and how to make sure you get the biggest bang for your advertising dollars. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 6th, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 4 Comments »
I’m going to try to bring simplicity to a complex question. Here’s a comprehensive legal answer in two sentences.
The General Rule: If a photo of a person, or of copyrighted or trademarked property, is used to advertise something, then the publisher of the photo needs a release.
The Privacy Exception: If you are hired to take photos of someone (say a wedding or studio shot), those photos cannot be published, even editorially, without a release.
If you really understand those sentences, then you know almost all you need to know about the legal requirements of model releases. Most of this article elaborates on these sentences above to make sure each part of it is clear. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on April 6th, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 1 Comment »
This post is especially for regular readers. As I’m sure you may have noticed, in the past, all 800+ articles on DSLR Blog were placed in just five categories, each with hundreds of articles. Needless to say, that made finding information or specific articles on the site a bit difficult.
We are now in the process of going through ALL our articles and reorganzing them into sensible, easy-to-find categories. All the content should be reorganized within the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, please pardon the dust on the sidebar!
Thanks.
Erick
Posted on April 3rd, 2009 by Erick Danzer | 6 Comments »
I’ve noted elsewhere here that having a website is no longer optional for photographers. Clients will expect you to have one. Indeed, many potential clients will never even find you if you don’t have one. At minimum, you need a site that presents an impressive portfolio of your work, and provides a bio and contact information for potential clients.
But I’d push you to move beyond simple site design and think creatively about all the other content you might add to attract people to your site, enhance your reputation, and increase your income. While the types of content you might add are limited only by your imagination, you might start by considering things like blogs, reviews, or advice. Blogs, especially, are becoming almost standard for many pro photographers. Read the rest of this entry »
