Taking A Personal Day

[by Paul Bartholomew]

I tend to feel guilty on non-shoot days if I’m not in the studio working on something.  Maybe I’m afraid of missing that important call or email, but then again that’s what an iPhone is for isn’t it?  On the other hand, maybe I’m missing the point if I’m not concentrating on my personal work and checking my messages all the time?  Probably.

So how can a photographer finally put time aside and forget about business for a short while?  I think it comes down to just doing it and getting used to it.  Set time aside in your schedule and try to stick to it.  If a photo shoot comes up then reschedule your personal day but don’t cancel it.  You don’t need an agenda and it doesn’t have to be related to your professional work.  Perhaps you may want to pursue another specialty or work with video?

My personal days have been about food photography yet most people know that I’m an architectural photographer.  I find it as a nice balance and different way of thinking.  It’s refreshing and keeps me in touch with my passion for the culinary arts.  What would you like to pursue as personal work?  Don’t worry if you don’t know yet because these things take time.  The important thing is starting somewhere and finding your way.

Robert Frank Tweeting?

[by Sean Kernan]

Living in this blizzard of Tweets, I have to remind myself that doing really creative work requires a certain amount of silence, even boredom. There has to be space in which things can occur, and if you are constantly talking about what you are doing, you can’t really listen, at least not as much as you need to do deep work.  (Which is maybe why my earliest work was so lose and prolific. After all no one was chasing me to do other projects then. They didn’t know I was alive. Which was more desirable than I knew at the time.)

The first question that seems to pop up around about any creative idea seems to be, How can I support/sell this? It’s a fair question, but perhaps it shouldn’t be the first question.

Although it seems a bit cloudy just now, photography is an amazing mirror, and it can reflect the most subtle and broad phenomena. It still amazes me when a single still image, resonates it a way that takes one into other lives, other worlds, atmospheres, things that can’t be said any other way. Take a look at Roy deCarava’s Hallway. Try to say something about it. The closest I got was when I tried to write a poem about it, but believe me it wasn’t as powerful as the picture. It is a kind of photograph that I think can you can only get to by first being quiet. That’s how it works on the viewer too.

There’s a time to show, to promote, to “monetize”, but it’s not all the time, and it’s not the creative time.
Think of that old Zen koan. It may be that if a tree falls in the forest it makes no sound, but the tree sure knows things have changed.

The Business of Video Production

[by Gail Mooney]

The “business” of video production encompasses a lot of things – one being good paperwork.  From the initial estimate on a job, through the final invoice along with obtaining the necessary releases – good paperwork is essential for a profitable business.

I keep a database of past SOWs (Statement of Work) to use as references. While every job is different, I use these archived SOWs as a starting point. Another great starting point when putting together an estimate is to use the estimating form online at the AICP (American Independent Commercial Producers) website.

In addition to estimating the costs of crew, equipment, location needs, pre-production and post-production, I include clearly payment and licensing terms as well as a schedule of workflow and completion dates.

Terms – Here is where I state rights and  “usage” of the finished product – where will it be used and for how long.  I also clearly spell out payment terms, cancellations and provide an accurate description of exactly what I’m going to deliver.

For Example:

• 5 minute web video.
• One day shoot on location at………….includes 2 interviews and b-roll.
• Post production – edit will include x amount of still images, voiceover narrative track and music. Logos and graphics to be provided by client.
• Payment – one third upon signed SOW (Statement of Work)  – one third after shoot –balance due upon delivery of final product.
• Cancellation terms and change fees.
• One rough cut and final cut included. Additional changes are billed hourly at $………
• Licensing and usage terms. Web usage for 2 years. No Broadcast rights.
• Schedule – This is extremely important in video production – a schedule where the client signs off on each phase of the project. This is critical so if the client delays things on their end – it’s clearly understood that the rest of the schedule gets extended in terms of deadline dates.  Otherwise if your client’s boss has an unexpected out of town trip come up and you need to wait for his/her approval – you won’t be left with half the time you need on your end to deliver the final product.

New ASMP Resource for Video

[by Susan Carr]

ASMP has a new online resource designed for the still photographer who is moving into motion.  Gail Mooney is chair of the newly formed Motion/Video Committee and she embraced this role with the same gusto she uses in her own work. Gail interviewed fourteen members who have successfully incorporated video into their businesses. The results of this work are now available as the first step of ASMP’s new tutorial on video.

Topics covered include – definitions of the common roles involved in video production, technical concerns, insurance and business issues and how to get started. Here are some sample questions included in this resource:

• What are the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of positioning yourself as a shooter, a director or a producer?
• What markets do you work in when shooting video?
• Do you market yourself as one “production company” or separately as a still photographer and media producer/videographer?
• What are some standards in video? What is considered the pixel threshold for HD?
• Do you edit your own material? What platform and software do you use?
• How do you copyright a body of work that is comprised of video and stills and music?

ASMP is dedicated to making sure you have the tools you need to reach new markets with your work. So, check this out and give yourself a leg up before you move into motion!

Digital Video: Lessons Learned

[by Judy Herrmann]

A couple of weeks ago, my partner, Mike Starke, and I finished our very first digital video project.  We made our deadline with about 15 minutes to spare and only pulled one all-nighter; two facts I take inordinate pride in.  In the process we discovered a lot that we’ll do differently the next time.  Here’s what we learned:

1) Shooting – get tight, get loose, get high, get low, go wide, go long – just mix it up!  Once we were editing the footage, we noticed that even if each segment is showing different people or activities, too many shots from the same distance with the same lens or from the same camera height get boring fast.

2) Editing – I haven’t yet figured out the organizational system that we’ll use in the future but I know we need a better one!  I can’t tell you how much time we lost searching for a particular clip that we had tagged but couldn’t remember which bin it was in.  About halfway through the project, we wound up creating an Expressions Media catalog for our clips.  There’s probably a better way but this let us use a tool we already knew really well to visually scan key stills from each clip instead of trying to remember what we’d named it and where we’d stashed it.

3) Set up – Video editing applications are monitor hogs.  You don’t just need two monitors – you need two big monitors.  We got by with a 21″ and a 23″ display hooked to our tower but would have happily used more space.

4) Time away – After watching our footage over and over and over (and over) it got really hard to figure out how long someone who’d never seen the shots before would need to see a clip before moving onto the next thing.  Every few hours, we really needed to get away from the project for a few hours so we could refine our edits with fresh eyes.  As we work out the deadlines for future projects, we’ll take this into account.

5) Rejuvenation rocks!  One really great side effect of doing this project was experiencing the excitement (and fear) of doing something we’d never done before.  We’re not just learning new software, we’re learning a new way of seeing and a new way of thinking as visual communicators. I’m feeling more excited, more creative and well, frankly, more hopeful than I have for awhile.  It’s been a good reminder of how important it is to keep pushing myself creatively.  As Miles Davis once said “If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be about change.”  After 21 years as a still photographer, I’m ready.

Factors in Pricing Multimedia Projects

[by Paula Lerner]

Pricing a multimedia project is not unlike pricing a still photography shoot:  usage is the key factor.  As a parallel example for a stills only assignment, I would price a shoot for photo usage in a hospital brochure or a university view book quite differently than I would price a print ad shoot for a consumer product — different usage requirements fall into different pricing categories.

When writing a project proposal for multimedia, take the usage into consideration when you come up with a base price for the project.  Your Assignment Agreement should spell out what usage is included, along with specifics of how many hours of production time, how many iterations of the feature are included, out-of-pocket expenses, and so on.  Anything above or beyond that agreement incurs additional charges, and this should be discussed with the client up front.  That way if they keep sending you back to tinker with the audio or images, they know that they will incur additional costs and you will be compensated.

Keeping good time logs to track the work you do is important.  I use a simple excel spread sheet to log the total hours I’m spending, and what I spend them doing.  This serves two purposes:

1.    I have records to use to make sure I will bill the client for anything over and above the original agreement;
2.    I have good records to use to estimate the next project.

If you are doing your first project and don’t know how long things will take you, go out and produce a project on your own to get a sense of it.  Yes, there will be a learning curve and hopefully you will get faster as you get more experience (just like with stills), but at least you will have a starting point.

In addition, it is a good idea to find out what it costs in your neighborhood to job out any piece of the project.  This is basic research:  make some calls to production houses or independent producers and see what it would cost to hire someone.  This will educate you as to what the market will bear in your region, and will help you develop a network of contacts should you need help.  Whether you do the production work yourself or hire someone else to do it, you want to make sure there is enough money in your budget to cover it.

Why Multimedia Is the Future of Photography

[by Jay Kinghorn]

As the mobile phone begins to replace the television and personal computer as the primary screen for interfacing with the Internet, and print continues to decline in popularity, this shift will impact the way photographers create photographs. While a two-page magazine spread can contain a rich array of subtle tones and fine details, the relatively low resolution screen of a computer or a mobile device cannot. To have impact on a small screen, a photograph must be tightly composed, cleanly lit and catch the viewer’s attention immediately.

Unfortunately, these small screens remove much of the subtlety that makes photography such a powerful medium. To bypass the limitations of the small screen, my guess is photographers will adapt to the technological limitations of mobile screens by using a series of images to tell a story, instead of relying on a single, all-encompassing photo.

Photographers who take time to rethink their compositions, lighting and visual storytelling options will be better suited to succeed in all mediums, regardless of the twists and turns technology throws at us.

Professionalism Counts

[by Judy Herrmann]

Living in a house that’s undergoing major renovations has taught me a lot about professionalism.  Our contractors, José Batista and José Salamanca, take responsibility for every detail.  They’re careful about the sub-contractors they hire, they stand behind the work that’s done, they listen carefully when we explain what we want and take our concerns very seriously.   They offer suggestions to improve the project but always acknowledge that it’s our call, our choice.  They make our problems their problems.  And they solve them.  José Batista said to me the other day, “You know, every job we do, it has my name on it. My name matters to me.”

The carpenters they brought in, Milton and Antonio, sweep up every night.  They take the time to reseal the plastic sheeting between the work zone and our living space every single time they go in or out so our space stays warm and dust-free.  They bring our empty garbage cans up from the street, answer our 3-year-old’s endless questions, and work incredibly hard with amazing efficiency.  They inform us of any problems they encounter but always give us solutions and options at the same time.  They gracefully accept our input even when it means more work for them.  They treat our home with the same respect as they would their own. From big decisions to small niceties, they do the right thing, and they do it consistently.

For the first time in my life, I’m the client on a major project where I’m spending a lot of money and have a lot at stake.  In other words, I’m in the place that my clients live just about every time they hire my studio.  As I write this post, I can hear the plumbers debating the best way to run the radiant flooring to make sure that a room with 8 large windows stays warm.  The roofers are busily pounding nails, the wall guys are mixing cement and the dog’s barking wildly as yet another workman carries stuff up our front stairs.  It’s total chaos but my stress levels are well under control simply because I know my project’s in the hands of professionals.

Fake It

[by Leslie Burns]

One of the biggest problems many, many photographers face in their businesses is being and acting confident. Just today I was speaking with a client who said, essentially, that he’d rather have scalding coffee poured in his lap than have to talk about himself. That’s pretty typical.

Most photographers (and all creatives) are terribly insecure. And yet we see some who appear totally confident, if not downright proud and even egotistical! How do they do that?

For most, they are faking it.

At least at first. They’re scared someone is going to say “I don’t know how you’ve gotten this far!” or “Who do you think you are?!” or the like (we pretty much all fear that), but they just don’t show it. They act confident, regardless of how they really feel. That is the trick.

Just look up “fear” and “courage” on any of the quote sites. You’ll see that generals like Patton have said that everyone is afraid, including the most courageous. Your normal to be afraid. But you can appear confident and courageous on the outside.

When I speak to groups, people talk about how confident I am. Really, I’m scared out of my shoes, every time. But I chose early in my professional life, actively chose, to act like I was having a great time when speaking publicly and, guess what, now I have a great time. That fear has become like the thrill some people get from bungee jumping or riding roller coasters.

So, what I suggest is the well-worn advice of “fake it until you make it.” Imagine what a confident photographer would do in a similar situation and play the part of that photographer. Wear the clothes (costumes really help, so invest in some great outfits), practice things you might say when you’re alone, and next time you have a big meeting, or show your book, or whatever, fake it.

Afterwards, when your heart stops racing and you are alone, review what worked. Think about how you did it. Don’t focus on any mistakes, but instead celebrate the success. And the next time, it will be a little easier, and the next, and the next.

Are You Communicating With Your Key Business Partners?

[by Jim Cavanaugh]

Most photographers spend countless hours developing and implementing marketing programs, direct mail campaigns, e-mail, web communications and social networking all designed to make clients aware of them and their work.

But clients are only part of your business. What about other key support people like your banker  or your CPA? What about your insurance agent, internet service provider, camera shop, printer, design firm and delivery service? All of these key partners play an important role in your business by providing service and advice. Are you keeping them informed? Are they on your e-mail list? Do they receive your promo pieces? Are they linked to you on social networks?

Make sure they are and let them know what your business is doing. If they understand your business, they will be better poised to advise and help you in their areas of expertise.

Free?

Recently there has been a lot of buzz about Chris Anderson’s new book “Free”.   Malcolm Gladwell’s review of “Free” makes the point that even free comes at a cost. Most photographers can certainly attest to that.  Marketing guru Seth Godin makes the point that the paradigm is changing and that all the whining in the world won’t bring back “the old days.”  Mark Cuban chimes in as well to provide more perspective and perhaps the most balanced of the lot. While no one has a crystal ball to predict the future, this new paradigm of “free” has already changed the lives of  photographers and all content creators.

It has been stated numerous times by others that “content” must be unique and such that it is not found anywhere else.  The drop in what stock images are being licensed for can attest to that.  In addition, technology changes means a photographer can no longer just be a technician.

Put these challenges together and I think that photographers need to position themselves as being more than just the content producer.  Unless of course what you do is so unique or great that a buyer can go nowhere else.  Certainly one way is to partner with others or position yourself further up the ladder or both.  What I have learned so far about social media marketing is that really anyone can position themselves to whomever and however they want – at little or no cost.  It’s free right?  Well, to a certain extent.  It is, or can be, a demand on one’s time and could be a waste of time if not done strategically.

Technology is and always has been a double edge sword – just like a bad economy.  If one chooses to look in the rear view mirror and lament the past – they’ll drive by all the opportunities.

Free Isn’t New

Does the concept of free economy mean anything to you? What if we replaced the word free with low-risk? Is the concept of low-risk economy easier to understand?

One of the most powerful companies in the world, Google, offers its core services for free. There is no risk involved in Google. There is no risk when you click on the ads that feed their coffers. Software developers have been using the low-risk economy concept for years. The idea is to allow you to try the product for free or use a “lite” version in the hope that you see the value and want to purchase the full software package later.

Unfortunately, many companies have used this concept poorly. As a result, they have devalued their product or service. They failed to present the product’s value up front. The impression is that the service isn’t worth the price.

If you offer free services to attract clients, make sure the true value is stated or implied. Retail portrait photographers have used this technique for years by waiving the sitting fee in order to reap the value of their work through reprints.

When implemented properly, the Internet’s free economy works the same way. Offering free products or services can increase visibility, attracts fans and create buzz. Often, only a small percentage of new prospects may be willing to upgrade. But, if the product or service offers value, quality sales will result from the low-risk offer.

Free As A Part of Your Business Model

As Gail Mooney pointed out, Chris Anderson’s new book “Free” is causing quite a stir. Evidenced by the lasting effect Anderson’s observations and predictions in “The Long Tail” have had on business and culture, it is likely “Free,” the idea that businesses need to think about giving things away for free via the Internet in order to make money,  is a concept that is here to stay. What is uncertain is how photographers can adapt to, and take advantage of the “Free” model. Musicians, using MySpace and other online tools, give away streaming music tracks to cultivate a larger following and sell more tickets at their next concert. Mr. Anderson provided free access to “Free” online for a limited time to generate more speaking engagements and sell more books. While these techniques are effective for their respective businesses, they do not correlate well for most photographers who are selling business to business instead of business to consumer. And, in an age where photographers are still working to communicate the value of professional photography, what would giving it away for free communicate to businesses?

Here’s an idea. I think we can all agree that giving away a photo as free stock is generally a bad idea. So, instead, give away free e-books of your latest photo project to sell limited edition copies of the book,  fine-art prints, or to serve as a powerful, yet inexpensive marketing tool. Can this “free” strategy also be successful in generating one-on-one relationships with clients—most photographers’ ultimate goal?

It remains to be seen if photojournalists and fine-art photographers will be able to use the tools of “Free” to galvanize followers of a cause or patrons of the arts to fund a book project, documentary film or traveling exhibition. Certainly the concept of “Free” will challenge the business models of not only photographers, but also the businesses comprising their primary client base.

Charlie Rose is Free!

For those of you who know me, you probably know that Charlie Rose is my favorite show on TV. As a curious person, I find the guests on the Charlie Rose show peak my interest even if I know nothing about the subject or topic. The number of books I have read based on the CR Interviews, actually fill a library.

Recently a series of interviews involved two interesting people, the first was Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine , author of the article  Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business  and the book, Free, The Future of a Radical Price. It is an interesting perspective on the “economics of abundance” and  the FREE concept, go here to watch the interview – it’s free! 

The second interview was with Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu.com. Mister Kiler explains better than anyone, the Premise of FREE economics as well as what it really means to media companies and to the consumer. He uses real world examples like the New York Times as well as Hulu.com. Mister Kiler also give prime examples of how new media and social media companies may monetize themselves using the FREE and FREEMIUM models. This interview is online here.

 As a creative services business owner, not everything they advocate will apply to my business, but I think Mr. Kilar and Mr. Anderson lay out a series of models that our clients will be using to make money, from FREE.

Developing a Social Media Plan

Social media does not replace what already works in your marketing plan. It’s an addition. The key word is planning.

Many people mistakenly approach social media like it’s direct marketing. They look for the ROI with every action. In the world of social media, ROI represents Return On Influence. It’s about becoming an expert and developing a community of people around you who admire your work and tell other people. It’s more like public relations.

If you’ve been in sales long enough, and we are all in sales, you understand the power of good people who refer your work. They can direct a lot of business your way. One of the foundations of social media for business is to attract, encourage, and champion your evangelists. Reach out to them and give them the ammunition they need to send more opportunities your way.

I like to think of the development of a social media plan as a solar system.

In the center of your solar system is your sun or your Web site. The Web site is your brochure. Nearby, your blog orbits like a moon. Your blog is designed as a center point for your community to gather and develop a deeper understanding of you and your work. Your Web site is where you sell.

Next are the inner planets. These are hybrid sites such as YouTube and Flickr. Share and connect ideas on these sites. Since they are hybrid sites, you can also blog, comment and share deeper insights into who you are as a photographer.

Finally, there are the outer planets. Sites such as Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn cultivate and develop your community. While all of your sites should attract new community members, your outer plants are your front line for engagement.

The goal is to use the outer planets to direct people to your inner planets, moon and sun. As people travel deeper within your solar system, they likely will become fans or evangelists of you and your work.

What Web sites do you develop and place within your solar system? The answer is it all depends on your target market. Many of the standard sites mentioned above are a good start, but look deeper for Web sites, communities and forums where your target market actually hangs out.

Talking shop with other photographers is the slow way to develop a community of new prospects and clients – unless your target market is photographers.

Develop a plan, earn trust, and grow your business through engagement with people who care about you in your personal solar system.

Using Social Media for your Photographer Makeover

Most of you know me as a stock guy.  And rightly so.  Since that’s where I’ve spent the last couple of decades.  Shooting commercial, travel and lifestyle imagery for every major stock house in the business.  I saw record highs in 2005-2006.  Then record lows in the beginning of 2007 to the present.  Because of this decline in return-per-image (better known as RPI), I began exploring other potential revenue streams.  To not just survive…but thrive.  Enter social media.

I’m flat out making my business more web 2.0 centric.  For me, that means migrating my role from photographer to publisher. From production to education. From stills-only to multi-media content.  From word-of-mouth to word-of-mouse.  From narrow marketing to viewing the world as my oyster. From stock-only income to a wide range of products and services – including photo tours, international shootouts, webinars, blogsites, eBooks, and consulting.  All geared to this new connected generation of customers: photographers, producers and storytellers.

The amazing thing about virally making-over your core business is, while painstakingly tedious, once in place, it will allow you the luxury of focusing on what you’re best at.  And perhaps shooting the sort of pictures that brought you to the dance in the first place.

Plunging into a photographic makeover of your business, so it’s more web 2.0 saavy and compliant, means taking all of those experiences, brand equity, good will, personas that you have painstakingly, over time, developed offline and creating the same – online.

I’m starting to be convinced that survivability no longer depends on ‘offline’ value only. You need both. Off and online equity and value. Working in concert with each other.

Invest the time now and the rewards will not only be immediate, but potentially lucratiave. It’s time for photographers to make-over their brand and business.

Social Media – One Step at a Time

[By Jack Hollingsworth]

A lot of photographers seem to focus more on the risks of change. But I would argue that the risk of not making-over your business is far, far greater.

The rules have changed. Almost overnight. A totally different mind set to shooting and selling photography is required. Whether it’s assignment or stock, advertising or editorial, portraiture or wedding – it doesn’t really matter.  Those that are nimble and agile enough to make these changes…will flourish. Those that don’t, won’t, or can’t…flirt with obsolescence.

And while this industry metamorphosizes, at break-neck speed, retooling and redefining your brand and business will not and should not happen as rapidly.

Take a deep breath. One step at a time here.

Make a goal to set aside one hour a day for your social media makeover. Dive in. Join a few online forums. RSS feed a few sites. Read a few books. Set up profile pages in FaceBook, LinkeIn, Flickr, Twitter. Develop multiple online personas.  Join the conversation that is going on all around you.

I think you will be surprised at not only how easy it is, but how exhilarting it is as well. The process itself could be enough to kick start your thinking in a whole new direction, as it has done for me. Doing things in the same old way, will generally net you the same old results. Change your tune. Walk to the beat of a new drummer.

Don’t Be A Spectator Be Social

[By Paul Bartholomew]

Social media is the hot topic lately. Some think it’s great and some think it wastes valuable time. Yes, it can be both and it may not be for everyone. However, don’t expect the world to come right to you without some dedication on your end. It won’t work if it’s not routine and it won’t work if you don’t push yourself a little into trying new things.

So many social media sites out there and so little time. First of all, don’t try to jump into every single one. I suggest gradually checking them out and getting a feel for what you like best. I have my favorite sites, but it took me a while to feel comfortable with the daily routine and this new way of communicating.

Daily routine? Communicating? You mean we have to actually do something? The word social is in there for a reason and we have to remember that this is all about a new way of interacting with people. Text, video, audio and images all come into play and best of all we are communicating internationally. It’s the new version of pen pals but on a much higher and complex level.

You may want to be a spectator and just observe and that’s fine at first, but how will people take notice of what you do? If your intent is to promote then get out there and mingle! Share ideas, your photography and whatever else you have to say. There is an audience for everyone but you need to get yourself out into the social media world. This may be your best investment in a long while.

The NFL and Social Media

[By Ed McDonald]

Leave it to big business and old thinking to try and control Social Media. In a report released this week the NFL has revealed their plan for a Social Media Policy. One of the new rules of the policy would prohibit players or anyone representing them from posting to social media networks during a prohibited block of time spanning from 90 minutes prior to kick off to 90 minutes after game time. This new rule applies not only to players but also to coaches, team personnel, and officials. The media has also been put on notice.

I understand the idea of protecting the leagues lucrative TV contracts, but social media hardly serves as any threat to the NFL league broadcasted games. I doubt seriously that any fan would opt out of either attending a game in person or watching it on TV, just to read tweets about it instead. Quite the contrary, many fans that might not be able to attend or be near a television might be well served by the fact they can follow the NFL via their twitter accounts. What the NFL does not say in the report is how they intend to stop the other 75 thousand plus people in the stadiums from posting and tweeting their thoughts and photos of the game. Meaning anyone with a cell phone will have a leg up on any professional news gathering agency. It is unfortunate that the NFL seems to be missing a golden opportunity here to involve the fan on a much deeper level with their product. This would only serve to improve the game and the overall fan experience. Now I’m not advocating wide-outs tweeting from the end zone after their latest T.D., no, far from it. The missed opportunity here is, to join the conversation, have a voice, and take part in the direction of the fan perception of the league.

I can think of at least a dozen ideas on how the league could use twitter to enrich the overall fan experience. Here are my favorites:
1. Encourage players to tweet to their followers right up to game time. Give the fan the locker room experience.
2. Encourage fans to tweet about favorite teams using hash tags for following, trending and better SEO.
3. Open a direct dialog with fans to tweet about their product.
4. Show tweets during the NFL network reports.
5. Run contests trough twitter using trending and search tools.

Trying to control the conversation won’t work for the NFL and it won’t work for your business. You can build your brand awareness and credibility by using Social Media, but you have to genuinely participate and you have to be willing to give up control.

It’s Quick Tip Week – Pick Up Your Camera

[By Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

Go shoot for yourself. This is always the best thing you can do for your marketing — making your own images. Your work will define your vision and your vision is your marketing starting point.

Resurrect Your Blog

[By Paul S. Bartholomew]

Did you jump on the blog bandwagon and fall off? So many blogs are out there and some are getting stale. Consider keeping a regular schedule for updates such as weekly or monthly. Whatever you do, get to it! It not a good thing when someone visits your blog with the most recent post dated 6 months ago. What incentive do they have to revisit?

Take Some Me-Time

[By Judy Herrmann]

Keep your business moving forward and your perspective clear by scheduling an hour or two each week for reflection and planning.  Use this time to think about what’s working, what isn’t and what needs to change.

Lightroom Tip: Save Your Metadata

[By Jay Kinghorn]

Save Lightroom’s metadata back into the original files by selecting images, then, from the Metadata menu, select Save Metadata to File. Alternatively you can use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+S (Mac) or CTRL-S (Win). This writes metadata into JPEG, TIFF, DNG and PSD files and writes metadata into XMP sidecar files for Camera Raw files. This helps to ensure your metadata always travels with your photos and helps you recover quickly should your Lightroom Catalog becomes corrupted.

The Problem with Hybrids and the New Business Model

[By Gail Mooney]

I can’t tell you how many phone calls I have received in the last month from photographers complaining that their clients are asking if they shoot video and their frustration in having to say “no.” A sign of the times as the demand for video increases.

But what’s most disturbing to me are the still photographers who tell me that they’re going to buy one of the “hybrid” cameras that shoot video to be able to accommodate their client’s video needs.  And worse yet, the common thought process is to “throw in” the “video clips” that they shot with the same camera they create the stills with instead of establishing the value in that video footage and pricing it accordingly. Add to this the fact that there are currently no pricing or usage standards for video in terms of the still photographic industry.  So while we have a “convergence” taking place with the “tools,” too many are not considering  how to make this viable in business.

It reminds me of when photographers first went digital – throwing in the postproduction and setting the “new standard”.  Dumb move but a precedent was set. The problem is when you do that with video; you are missing the opportunity to create value with a new skill set that also includes the pre and postproduction. And with video – it’s the postproduction end of things that can either be costly for you or an area you can make additional revenue. If you just hand over the “clips,” you’ll be leaving dollars on the table.

I see a poorly thought out business model of shooting “video” being driven by the tool and the still camera manufacturers and I see it as a quick way to the poor house. The manufacturers are playing to the prosumer market, but as a professional you cannot afford to do this. Right now you may think – it’s no big deal – I’ll just throw the camera in “video” mode and shoot a few seconds.  But what will happen when your client expects you to then do something with that footage – like edit it?  Be prepared to hire an editor or invest in expensive editing software and a learning curve to go with it.

So, don’t be a short-term thinker and “just” throw in or discount the video clips – because you will soon be replaced by the next latest greatest technology instead of adding a new skill set and real value to your business. Keep a keen eye on the future and create a new business model along with buying your new camera.

What Camera Should I Buy?

[By Gail Mooney]

If I had a dollar for everytime someone asked me what camera they should buy – I could retire.  These days I get a lot of “what video camera should I buy?”  That question is almost impossible to answer without more information.  So I usually reply with my own onslaught of questions “What are you going to be shooting?”, “What editing software will you be using?,” “Are you concerned about getting natural sound” or will you be using the “video” and not the “audio” from the camera?” And, of course the big question. “What’s your budget?”

One thing that complicates making a choice in video cameras is that unlike still cameras – video cameras shoot different types of files – mpeg2, native quicktime, HDV, AVCHD.  In addition some shoot to tape, some shoot to cards and some shoot to discs.  Then of course there’s the basic consideration of SD or HD.  And not all HD files are alike.  Sounds confusing and overwhelming doesn’t it?  And it can be so my advice is always to work backwards.

Start by identifying the type of shoots you’ll be doing – corporate interviews or beautiful imagery intended to be shown to a music track.  Where will it be shown?  Broadcast? Web? DVD’s?  And how will you edit it? What platform? What editing software? To help guide you with selecting the right camera for the editing software you have or intend to purchase I have come across some great links to compatablity charts. Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro. This is a great place to start to see if that reasonably priced prosumer camera that outputs AVCHD files will work with the prosumer version of the editing program you have or will you have to purchase the full pro program.  I have seen lots of posts on listservs with people who need help editing files from the camera they just bought and loosing a lot of time in the process, not to mention the frustration they put themselves through.

My advice is to make a pros and cons list before you even look at cameras.  That way you won’t be overwhelmed by the tools – but will choose the tool that is the right tool and the “means to your end.”

Mindmovies

[By Sean Kernan]

When I was 23 I did a film script for Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales. It was easy. I just sat down with the words, and watched the visuals that unreeled in my mind. Then I wrote them down. (Getting it produced was another matter, and ultimately I did not, but I didn’t care.)

Recently I started working with multimedia and video. The piece was about African boxers, and it came out OK. At least, people said they liked it.

Then I showed it to a friend who is an Academy Award winning producer and director. Different response. He asked me things like, “What did you feel in the middle of this work? These people? How did you feel when you were with them?” (In fact it had been a bit scary, I said.) “That’s interesting. Where is that in your video?”

This response was much better than praise. So now I’m re-cutting it. In this new form it is a bit jumpy, kind of like I was when I did the work.

For the first version I had let myself be driven by my idea of what a video should look like, which was kind of fluid and bland. (Maybe I’ve been working in advertising too long.) And the software took me to that very easily.

Now I have begun a new project, and this time I’ve started by playing it out in my mind’s eye, working with what was there rather than smoothing it into something that looks like a well-made video.

I’m reminded that, in spite of what my second grade teacher thought, gazing into space is a great way to start creative projects.

Still Only Still?

[By Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

Do you shoot motion or have you already decided to define yourself only as a still photographer?

If you aren’t doing motion, why aren’t you? Self-defining as still only, without even trying on the new medium, seems like stifling your creativity. It’s a new world and the technological barriers are dropping. You can shoot video with an iPhone now, and the “real” equipment is totally accessible. And targets are eating it up when still photographers use it in their marketing, even if they aren’t hiring a ton of still photographers to shoot motion, yet.

Yet.*

This is your chance to play with the medium. It’s a new tool for you and that frees you up to experiment. There are no expectations on you. So make some art. Make lots of really, incredibly, painfully bad motion stuff and don’t worry about it. Remember some of the totally pretentious and/or self-absorbed, well, crap you made in art school? Sure, now you think back to some of those projects and groan, but remember how incredibly exciting it was to make that stuff? Find that place again. Laugh at yourself and get self-absorbed and pretentious a bit. Try it all on and see if you want to wear the new title: motion photographer.

That excitement you felt as an art student was your young creative soul trying to find its way out. You can do that again. You will find your visual voice somewhere in all that, if you open yourself up to it.

But the only way to get there is to do it. And just like any medium, you may play and work and curse and labor  and laugh and wonder and make some good stuff, and then realize it just isn’t the right tool for you. And that is fine.

But when you get the chance to explore a new medium that is a natural fit to what you are already doing in so many ways, it doesn’t make any sense not at least to give it a shot.

At the worst, you will learn how to make better “behind the scenes” vids to promote your business. At best, you will find that all this time you were really a motion photographer who was just waiting to come out.

______

*More and more are getting work in both media, however. I expect this will only increase in the near future.

In Multimedia, Audio Comes Before Pictures

[by Paula Lerner]

One thing that many still photographers may not realize when creating a narrative audio slide show is that the audio comes before the pictures.  I recently had the opportunity to spend time with friends and colleagues at the annual meeting of Aurora Photos, my agency, where I had many interesting conversations about multimedia.  I noticed that some photographers new to multimedia didn’t realize the importance of audio, and that this is in fact where you start the workflow, not end it.

Unless I am creating a simple slideshow accompanied by music, or am doing something non-narrative that uses ambient sound together with images, when developing a narrative multimedia piece I start with the audio.  I cannot emphasize this strongly enough:   the audio drives the story, not the pictures.  This doesn’t mean that the photos are unimportant.  But it does mean that you must start with the audio to create the narrative script.

When I am developing a 2-3 minute profile feature, the first thing I do is record an audio interview with the subject, which typically lasts about an hour.  I have that interview transcribed for reference, and then edit that hour down to 2-3 minutes.  Once that is completed, I send it off to the client for approval.  If needed at that point I will do additional iterations, but only after the audio line is approved do I begin to photograph.  Once the audio track is laid down, I know exactly what scenes and topics I need to visually illustrate.  Trying to photograph before I have this completed is a much less efficient way of working, and usually results in much more time wasted producing photos that will end up on the proverbial cutting room floor.

There have been occasions when the logistics of a project required me to photograph before the edited audio was completed, but even in those situations I always tried to at least do the interview prior to photographing.  That way I knew the overall content of the subject’s story, and thus knew what I would need to illustrate.  So just because we are photographers and are focused on the visuals, we can’t forget that the audio is critical.  Get the audio first, and then go get some killer pictures to bring it to life.

Email Marketing

[by Carolyn Potts]

To get high email promo delivery rates, you have to consider many variables.

You’re probably already aware that without doing your email marketing homework, you’re more susceptible
falling back on the all-too-common, mass-blast strategy, nick-named “spray and pray”   Do that, and you’re inadvertently adding to the delivery problem.

If enough people persist in doing un-researched mailings, soon entire ad agencies will disappear off the
roster names available on valid list providers such as Agency Access and ADBASE.

Emails that don’t include a super-easy-to-use “opt-out” link, also add to the delivery problem as they’ll mark a promo as spam in an attempt to get off a list. They may not hate you, it’s that many prospects are just desperately trying to control their volume of email.

Spend some time reviewing email marketing research reports and/or using a reputable email-delivery service. A reputable service’s emails always get delivered. The major ISPs know who the good players are;
they won’t do business with anyone who behaves in a spam-y way. Those delivery services with higher barriers to entry, end up filtering out all but the most serious email marketers.

Because email spammers are highly-motivated individuals (or companies!) who work 24/7 to get past the filters, ISPs and email delivery services must CONSTANTLY adjust their filtering and formatting rules to combat a spammer’s strategy du jour.

If too-restrictive filters are employed, then too many legitimate messages get quarantined; if too lax,
customer’s in-boxes can become spam smorgasbords.  In either case, clients can become disgruntled and
move to another service provider that does a better job of filtering/delivering.

The formatting of a spam message sent last year (copy as well as image content), probably isn’t the same format as this year’s spam. Creating an CAN-SPAM compliant email promo is not a one-time event that is never reviewed or revised again.

The bottom line? The all-time best guarantee of message delivery still remains: employ a strategy to
make sure your recipient adds you to their address book.

A Personal Presence – Taking the Extra Step

[by Paul Bartholomew]

Photographers are always are thinking about ways to get that extra edge. Sometimes it’s difficult to seal the deal especially during slower times.

Think about the process you go through when a potential client contacts you. What can you do to get that edge and be remembered? How about setting up a face to face meeting with the client? In many cases we don’t get a chance to see the client early during the selection process. Taking time to meet shows that you’re a professional and take the project seriously. This can reinforce confidence in your abilities and understanding of the project. Best of all, the potential client will have a face to remember.

Of course people don’t always have time to meet but it’s something to offer that demonstrates your enthusiasm. If the meeting isn’t possible, think through the project to develop more questions and email for a convenient time to call. Once again this shows how much you care about the project. Asking questions will show that you’re engaging in the creative process and that you’re not just throwing an estimate out there.

I’m sure there are many other ways of taking that extra step and I look forward to hearing some ideas. Send some comments!

It’s Not You, It’s Me…

[by Judy Herrmann]

Anyone who’s ever been on either side of that line knows it’s a lie.  It’s never really ME, it’s always really YOU, right?

Colleen Wainwright, aka The Communicatrix, has identified one arena where this hackneyed saw actually becomes the truth: marketing communications.  A former actress, copywriter and designer, Colleen has worked in pretty much every aspect of communications.  She now focuses on helping solo- and duo-preneurs define or refine their communications strategy.

For years, we’ve been told that marketing is all about telling the world how great we are, but Colleen points out that people – even people who are looking to buy the services you sell – well, to put it bluntly, they’re just not that into you.  What they’re really interested in, what really gets their attention is…you guessed it…themselves!

Colleen’s developed a formula for marketing communications that puts the emphasis squarely where it belongs. And, honey, it’s not YOU, the provider, it’s ME, the buyer.  Best of all, she’s giving it away for free along with a bunch of other great advice in this video seminar.  Just scroll down to the bottom of the page at:

http://www.communicatrix.com/speaking

I highly recommend watching the whole thing but if you just can’t wait to learn the secret formula, you can skip to the 5 min 33 second mark and hit play.

Multi-Faceted Marketing

[by Gail Mooney]

Marketing has taken on a much broader meaning these days, mostly because of social media.  A few years ago, my marketing may have consisted of an ad in a source book, a mailer every other month and an emailer.

I’ve pretty much cut back on any print marketing – meaning source book ads and postcard mailings.  I still send out an email promo every 4-6 weeks of so to a targeted audience that has “opted in”. But the big difference is that I don’t stop there.  I include lots of links to my blog, website and any press mention in any emailers I do.

But more importantly I use my blog as a marketing tool to drive people to my website.  And I use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin to direct people to my latest blog.  So it kind of becomes a roundtrip marketing approach.  Tweets driving people to my blog and my blog driving traffic to my website etc.

Another “soft” marketing tactic is to take part in discussions on Linkedin and make comments on Facebook (when relevant) because all that is “viral” and for the most part indexed so that in itself gets your name out there on a regular basis.  In addition, on my email correspondence with clients I include my Facebook URL along with my Linkedin and Twitter URL’s.

It has never been easier to market yourself because of so many viral platforms.  But the thing to remember with all of this is to come up with a plan that is strategic and consistent with your brand and vision.  Otherwise you may end up sending out a lot of mixed messages and in the process doing more harm than good.

The One Thing

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

I love to ask this question of successful photographers: What one marketing thing has contributed the most to your success? I ask it because I know it is what other photographers want to know and expect me to ask, but I also know what the answer will be. Successful photographers always answer something to the effect of “everything” and usually it will settle down to that “everything” being a consistent & cohesive image of the photographer him/herself via multiple tools.

I recently asked Therese Gietler who works with her husband, Portland OR-based photographer Andy Batt, to answer this question. Andy has been featured in Communication Arts and has shot for clients like VW. Therese answered “Marketing is a strange beast. The ROI is so subtle and hard to miss. For us, it has rarely led directly to a job. It has been more circuitous.” This is accurate for most. It is the combination of all the different tools that somehow, almost magically, combine into a whole presence that reaches and touches your targets.

That being said, Therese did emphasize personal meetings in their toolbox. Andy has a great personality and it makes a big impact. Too many photographers underemphasize their appearance and personability as factors in their marketing, but if you can get a target to say (quoting Therese who was quoting a target speaking about Andy) “He was just here, he’s awesome, can’t wait to work with him…” well, you just can’t promo your way to that!  Everything they do in their marketing is reflective of Andy’s personality as a photographer, and then he puts the icing on the cake with his meetings by showing up in great clothes and with his open, up-beat personality. Targets like him and targets want to work with people they like.

David Zaitz is an LA-based photographer who has shot for clients like BP Solar and Esquire. He came into photography after having been a rep and his marketing approach is also about the whole package, personality, and consistency. He puts an important special emphasis on appearances beyond the images (although as he notes, the images are the first concern, always) when he answers my question: “Presentation, presentation, presentation:  I’ve always had a keen interest in graphic design and advertising so I’m innately aware of how things are presented as I believe that people (ESPECIALLY those in advertising) respond well to good, thoughtful presentation.” He also pointed out that like most photographers he has an interest in design, but he is not a designer and so he hires a designer to create all his materials.

David addresses what to do before you get those important meetings by making sure all his materials and especially his website are honestly reflective of who he is as a photographer, “I want to give art buyers and art directors an idea of what it’s like to work with me, even if they haven’t met me.” Being consistent and cohesive in all his materials strengthens that message, and he uses a lot of tools including direct mail, email, and web sourcebooks like workbook.com, altpick.com and at-edge.com. Finally, his choices for his portfolio clearly emphasize his vision as the core of all this, “My portfolio consists of primarily personal and self-promotion imagery in order to attract the kind of assignment work that I want to shoot, versus pandering to my audience by showing them what I think they want to see.”

So just what is the one thing you can rely on as being the most effective for your marketing? Being the best, most creative you you can be and putting that out to your targets consistently.

Quick Tip for Creativity

[by Paul Bartholomew]

Most of us heard about getting outside opinions when it comes to our portfolios. What about our creative ideas and notes we keep? Try finding a creative partner to share your ideas. You never know what someone else can bring to the table and perhaps you can help them too.

Change Order Forms

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

Make sure you always have blank Change Orders in your kit and use them. A change to a project during the shoot absolutely requires new numbers, but some clients try to get more for nothing by changing the project while on-set. Make sure also that the person signing it has the authority to approve additional fees/expenses!

Video Editing Tips

[by Gail Mooney]

• Be organized – gather and import all your assets (video, audio, stills, logos and other graphics) into editing system before you start the actual edit.
• Make transcripts of the interviews.  I like exacting paper transcripts with all the “ums” and “you knows” included.  That way if I’m looking at the paper transcript I get the “true” picture of what was said.
• Choose your soundbites from the actual video – not the from the paper transcript.  It may look good on paper but might not have been delivered well.
• Start and end with your strongest visuals.
• Don’t always tell the story in a chronological or linear way.
• Avoid “jump cuts” – For example: If you cut a “talking head” clip – and put them back to back in the editing timeline without covering the “cut” up with b-roll (other video) then the “talking head” will “jump” where the cuts were made.
• Cut on the action.
• Feel the pace – editing is all about pacing and that’s just something you have to feel. Like a musical composition with highs and lows.
• Don’t use the same clips more than once.
• Always keep your focus on the story – take out anything that’s not relevant to telling that story.  And that may mean some footage that’s near and dear to your heart because of what you went through to get it.

Quick Tip: Automate your social media

[By Ed McDonald]

Unless you have unlimited amounts of time on your hands, you should automate as many steps of your social media as possible. Like cross-posting all content in multiple social media outlets. Take some time to set up a few steps to automate the process. Here are a few good tools for sharing and automating content through social media outlets : Hootsuite, Ping.fm, Involver, Tweet later, Social too. These are just a few. Make sure to keep it in your own voice and keep it personal.

Do Your Know Your Trackpad?

[by Peter Krogh]

On Mac 10.5 and above, you can get a right-click by double-tapping your trackpad with two fingers.  Go ahead and try. (If you’re not already using a multi-button mouse, you literally don’t know what you’re missing.) There is all kind of functionality hidden in these “contextual menus”.  Clicking nearly any onscreen item pulls up a new menu. Make sure that you have “Tap Trackpad using two fingers…” checked in the Trackpad section of System Preferences.

Your Blog As A Client Resource

[By Paul S. Bartholomew]

Blogs are a great extension to a website. They keep people updated on recent activities and are a great way to bring up some constructive discussion. Another great way to use a blog is to educate and inform.

For me it comes down to the topic of the week and what’s on my mind. If I have a great photo shoot or personal project, I may share some images and talk about the challenges involved. If I run into an interesting situation that catches my attention, I may post an informative topic that can be used as a resource. Not just for other photographers but also to clients.

I had a nice conversation with not just one but two clients this past week. Both enjoy reading my blog and seeing what I’m up to. One client found my informative topics interesting and said he reads them during his lunch break.

Placing a blog link on your website is one of the usual ways to drive clients your site, but what about using it as a resource? I occasionally post topics that are inspired by client interactions. A common question I’m asked is about post-production fees, so I created a blog post explaining the process along with images for examples. Not only does this reinforce the explanation but it also attracts future visits for other topics. It’s a great way to keep your name in mind.

Don’t Blog

[By Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua]

Here’s the thing about blogs: I don’t think you should do one.

Don’t do one if it is a chore. Don’t do one if you have nothing of yourself to offer to others. Don’t do one if you wont update it. Don’t do one if it is nothing more than links to others. Don’t do one if you have anger management issues. Don’t do one if you don’t make work regularly for yourself (and others) that you are willing to share. Don’t do one only if you think you are supposed to (same for any social media tool).

But, if you have things you are willing to and want to share with the world and you are willing to commit to updating regularly, then a blog can be a great tool in your marketing belt.

A blog can be a great alternative creative outlet for photographers. It’s a great space to share experimental work, things you are just playing with or giving a try, but aren’t yet fully committed to adding to your services. You can put videos on it. You can write about your process or share funny stories about how you saved the shoot when everything that could go wrong did go wrong. You can talk about how grateful you are to do what you do. You can talk about how fun it was to work with a particular client. There is a lot of good you can do with a blog.

Keep in mind that while a blog is a more “open” space, where you can get away with showing less-than-perfect work, and while other people who blog, especially non-photographers, often post rants and political diatribes on their blogs, for your purposes you should keep your blog mostly positive. People are more attracted to humor, helpful information, and interesting creative work of all kinds. Giving is much better than asking when it comes to your blog (in fact, selling on your blog is a quick road to alienating readers). And you must keep it updated regularly–that is, you must commit to a schedule of updates of at least once a week.

Blogs are fantastic tools to humanize your business. There you can reveal more about who you are and what it is like to be a part of your world. Being open and honest is important (but be careful of “over-sharing,” there are boundaries) so that your readers can connect with you. Offer your inner creative self to the world and you can touch targets and build a tribe of followers. All of which is not only good for your business, it’s good for you as an artist.Do

Top Ten Blogs I Read and Recommend

[by Gail Mooney]

• Copyblogger – great tips on writing
• WSJ.com: The Middle Seat Terminal – Wall Street Journal’s blog on travel
• Philip Bloom’s blog about video and filmmaking
• CNet Digital Media News – blog about digital media
• Guy LeCharles Gonzalez – marketing blog
• Seth Godin’s blog about marketing
• Mac Video News – current news in the video world
• Fresh DV – all about digital video
• Your Life is a Trip – travel and life

Attracting Readers to Your Blog

[By Rosh Sillars]

Attracting new readers is a big part of the blogging game.

Many people keep blogs for their own satisfaction. It’s a place to share their thoughts or show off their creative efforts. But deep down inside most bloggers want more readers and subscribers. They want their blogs to be successful.

In order to be a successful blogger, you need a plan. You need to develop a theme and focus on the type of audience you want to attract. Here are a few suggestions that will help you grow your reader base:

First, comment on other blogs. Be authentic and engaging. Don’t make the comments all about you; develop a voice that will attract your audience.

Second, make sure your headlines and posts contain key words related to your blog and theme. We live in a key-word world. If you have a Twitter account, use the same key words on Twitter to help drive traffic to your blog. Don’t be afraid to share relevant older posts with your social media followers. In many cases, the posts are still new to them.

Third, create a group related to the theme of your blog. You can use Facebook, Linkedin, Yahoo, Google or Flickr to attract your target audience. In some cases, you should create a related forum under your blog domain or use a site such as Ning.com to develop a community.

Some people prefer to receive blog updates via e-mail. Make sure you have an easy-to-find RSS (Real Simple Syndication) subscription button and an e-mail subscription invite box. Do do this, you can use services such as FeedBurner.com or Feedblitz.com.

The most important action you can take is to reward and champion the followers who support you. These are the people who will help make your blog a success.

Blog Smart

[by Judy Herrmann]

In the past few months, I’ve worked with a number of photographers who are struggling with their blogs.  Their technology is fine – they’ve been successfully managing their blogs for several years and have worked out the kinks.  They post regularly and have a rhythm down.  Their site analytics reveal lots of unique visitors who leave lots of nice comments. Their blogs are perfect in every way except one.

The community they’ve spent all this time cultivating will probably never spend a dime supporting their families.  Why?  Because instead of posting information of interest to the client side, they’ve focused on what interests them. As a result, they’ve built a strong, vibrant community ofŠcompetitors.

Now, I’m not saying that everything you do has to be rooted in a profit motive.  If the compensation you’re getting takes another form (like giving you a platform to push yourself creatively) that still counts.  These photographers would tell you, though, that after awhile the novelty wears thin and as much as they’ve enjoyed the ego strokes, the effort they’ve put into building this community has used up a lot of time, energy and elbow grease that could have been tapped more profitably.

In times like these, few of us can afford the luxury of investing time or money in places where the return on investment is low to none.  These photographers now have a tough choice to make. They can come up with a way to generate income from the community they’ve built or start over and focus on building a new community of people who’ll pay cash money for what they already sell.  Either way, they’ve got a lot more time to invest before they’ll see much return.

If you’re gonna blog, blog smart.  Make your blog interesting and useful to the people who need what you sell.  Show them your value.  Show them how you can help them.  If doing this consistently seems overwhelming, consider guest blogging as a way of reaching the right audience.  As these photographers have learned, blogs can be a powerful marketing tool but that marketing doesn’t help you much unless it’s reaching the right people.Blgo

The Executive

[by Sean Kernan]

Someone once said that executive portraiture is basically a still life problem. Still, crabby execs do things like turning up for their portraits early while you’re still setting up and insisting that you shoot right away because they have a meeting. On one annual report shoot an angry VP of Something-Or-Other walked into the setup and said, “I don’t have time for this crap!” I replied that I understood completely, but that it was his company’s project, not mine, and could he tell the chairman that he was too busy to do it. Otherwise I would tell him if he didn’t have time. He relented, and I got my picture of my guy…a little graceless and angry, but there it was.

Most people are not like that. What they are is a bit afraid, unsure of what they are supposed to look like. The best approach is to behave as an equal, which you are, of course, and let them know that they are supposed to look like who they are.

You can’t think of everything that might dislocate your location plans, but then preplanning is not the solution to the more baroque problems that come up. Best to just be present and let solutions arise from the situation.

Dealing With Security

[by Paul Bartholomew]

This is one of those situations you can never be too prepared for. I often do commercial architectural photography projects that involve public locations. Security or police may be notified or notice photography going on and may become suspicious. People tend to feel uneasy when someone is photographing certain areas. I wish I had an answer to why but it depends on the situation.

Here is my advice to help make things less painful. First of all be prepared. I always have my client’s name on hand with contact info. A letter from the client also helps but none of this matters if your client or you didn’t notify the proper people for permission. Have this permission info on hand and ready to reach for.

Prevention is key. When I photograph a building in New York that is owned by a certain company I try to stop by the front desk and let them know who I am. Don’t be surprised if stopped by other security people even though you cleared things upon arrival. Not everyone gets the memo.

Here is another very important point. Security and police are just doing their job so don’t over react and act outraged. This is sure way to end up with problems. When you see security approaching don’t try to avoid them or give them a nasty look. Try to give a smile and have your info ready. I mention who my client is and why I’m photographing the location. Of course mention right away that you have permission.

Normally I have to give my name and info related to the project. This may take 5 minutes of your time unless security wants to call the people you mention. Usually a report or note has to be filed and that’s it.

Like I said earlier, just have a positive attitude and usually things go fine. Of course I can’t be 100% on this because you never know but be prepared and that’s all you can do.

Tips for Shooting on Location

[by Gail Mooney]

I’ve been shooting “on location” for over 30 years.  That’s all I do – location shoots.  Each job and location vary greatly, and that is the challenge of location shooting. So the key is to be prepared for a variety of issues, problems and challenges that you may encounter on location.

Here’s a typical pre-production list of needs that I work from:

• Travel arrangements – Arranging for flights, rental cars, hotel rooms, carnets, visas
• Crew – finding and lining up assistants, sound guys, additional shooters, stylists, hair/makeup
• Talent – casting
• Special Job needs – rental equipment, backgrounds, generators
• Permits – many times a location requires a permit like shooting on the streets of NYC
• Insurance – I always call the building management prior to a shoot to ask them if I need to name them on my insurance policy.  Many times I need to add them to the policy for that time period and add additional coverage.
• Talk to my client and/or subjects in advance and prepare them for what we’ll be doing – what equipment we’ll be bringing in – how long our setup will take
• Prepare a solid shoot list – this helps make the shoot efficient as well as keeps you on track so that you get all the shots you need
• If shooting outside – find your location geographically and what may be around it – which way does it face etc.
• If shooting inside – find out about any shortcomings they may have as far as power supply or lack of.  I’ve actually shot in fairly new commercial skyscrapers in NYC where we thought we were covering ourselves as far as plugging into different circuits – only to find out that we weren’t – after the circuit blew and left the Board standing in the dark!  So now I always have a building electrician standing by.

Ultimately I try to think of everything I may need on location before I ever get there.  A client once said to me “the more I see you worry about the details – the more I know that I don’t have to and that you’ve got it covered.”

Gear to Go

[by Judy Herrmann]

About 8 years ago, after 12 years of being strictly studio photographers, we shot on location professionally for the very first time.  Preparations were stressful, to say the least.  We were so nervous about not having something we’d need that we practically brought the entire studio along.  We got through the shoot without using half the stuff we brought and decided there had to be a better way.
As we unloaded from the shoot, we launched my favorite outlining application and created a master list of everything we’d brought. Before a given shoot, we save a copy of our master gear list and edit it based on the needs for that job. We keep our lists organized by container – each case gets its own category and the items it contains are nested within.  If we edit the gear down to where some of the cases are partially empty, it’s easy enough to drag and drop items into a new “container category” so we’re bringing the minimum number of cases needed and all are full.
As we pack up, we tick off the items so we know when each case is ready to load.  Then, we tick each case off when it’s loaded into the car.

What I love about outlining apps is that they let you create broad categories, nest items within them and track what’s already been done.  They’re a perfect way of organizing location gear lists, especially if you’re not the only person packing up!  Unfortunately, my favorite app for this, Omni Outliner (shown below) is only available for the Mac but PC users have told me that VIP Simple To Do List offers similar functionality.

Triangles let you toggle categories open and shut, hiding or revealing nested items. A click in the box creates or deletes the check mark. You can drag and drop items from one category to another. Tab and shift+tab let you indent or un-indent items.

Tagging Images with GPS

[by Peter Krogh]

When I’m looking for one of my images, one of the most valuable tools I can use is the location list in Lightroom or Expression Media.  My awareness of where a picture was taken is deeply tied to my memory of that image. By using Country. State, City and Location tags, I can organize my images in a really useful way. (Add date information to this, and it’s even better.)

But adding that information can take some time. Furthermore, some locations are impossible to pin down with any specificity.  “Okavango Delta” is a pretty generalized location.  So how do you pinpoint images more accurately.  And even more important, how do you add the location names without endless retyping.

Enter GPS – Global Positioning Satellite. It’s possible to add GPS tags to your images, and it’s even possible to use those tags to fill out the IPTC location fields, so that the Country, State, City and Location tags show up in the program of your choice. Take a look at this movie to see a bit more about how this is done.

ASMP at Photo Plus Expo – This Week!

Many ASMP members, staff and leaders are traveling to New York City this week attending the 2009 Photo Plus Expo.

ASMP has a packed schedule of events.

Find us at booth #478 on the trade show floor.

• Representatives from the copyright office will be on hand to answer registration questions.
• Representatives from the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS) will also be with us at the booth.
• Free consultations, at our booth, for members. SOLD OUT

Annual Member Meeting, Friday, October 23, 6pm to 8pm, Room 1E12, Jacob Javits Center

• All annual member meeting attendees will receive free tickets (value $105) for Saturday morning’s Copyright Education Seminar by Attorney Nancy Wolff and a representative of the Copyright Office.
• Jack Hollingsworth is our Annual Meeting keynote speaker, “Leveraging Social Media for Your Business”
• This meeting will be availabe on-line for those members who can’t join us. Look for details tomorrow.

The following PPE seminars will be sponsored by ASMP:

• Multimedia and Video / Gail Mooney & Paula Lerner — Thurs, 8:45-11:45
  also sponsored by
• Is Your Website Making You Money? / Blake Discher — Thurs, 1:15-3:15;
  also sponsored by and
• What Do I Charge? / Susan Carr — Thurs, 3:30-5:30
• Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover / Steve Mallon & Frank Rocco — Fri, 3:30-5:30
• Breaking into the Biz / Judy Herrmann & Mike Starke — Sat, 3:30-5:30
  also sponsored by

If you are coming to Photo Plus Expo, please stop by ASMP Booth #478 and say hello. We look forward to seeing you there!

I want my ASMP Video….

For as long as I have been on the ASMP board, first as Education chair and now as President, I have heard from members and chapter presidents that we need to know more about video / motion, that we should use video for our education programming and that video should be utilized on our ASMP website.

During the SB2 seminars we utilized video both in the live seminars and later to capture some of the key presentations. They are available on our SB blog as well as a free download at iTunes Podcasts; see link to the right or search ASMP at the iTunes Store.

I have been researching possible solutions for both video podcast and live streaming meeting options. I discovered one possible solution literally below my studio, Vivolive, a local Pittsburgh startup, had just launched a consumer / soho live streaming service at the Consumer Electronic Show. I have been experimenting with the service for a few months now and ASMP will use the service to broadcast for the first time, our ASMP Annual Meeting to members, wherever they are. Members will receive an e-mail link to attend this meeting online.

The broadcast will include a segment featuring ASMP’s Executive Director, Eugene Mopsik, discussing our current education and advocacy efforts. I will speak about some ASMP policy initiatives moving to the future. We will then invite ASMP member Jack Hollingsworth for our Keynote presentation, “Leveraging Social Media for Your Business.”

This ASMP Member Meeting Live Stream is a good test for a very affordable and simple solution for ASMP and our chapters who desire to broadcast their meetings.

One of the initiatives that I will be discussing at the Annual Member Meeting is the creation of a “Motion Study Group” to look at the business practices that we may need to address regarding the business side of Motion Production, as well how ASMP can use video more effectively in our communications and education platforms.

Registration ©ounts!

[by Susan Carr]

The copyright office tells us that only 5% of photographers register their images. ASMP wants to change that and this week at Photo Plus Expo ASMP will launch a new initiative called Registration ©ounts to create awareness of copyright issues, to encourage all photographers to register their work, and to provide the tools and information needed for registration.

Representatives from the copyright office will be at the ASMP booth (#478) to answer your registration questions. ASMP now offers recommended best practices for registering your work and a workshop to help photographers get registered.

ASMP has designated the week of April 19-23, 2010 to highlight the issue of copyright and will lead a number of activities and events for photographers and other visual artists. On Wednesday, April 21st, ASMP will host a symposium entitled The Current State of Copyright from an Artist’s Perspective to explore views on significant issues, challenges and trends in copyright. Experts from leading organizations including Columbia University, PLUS and Public Knowledge will participate.

Join with ASMP to create a powerful voice for the defense of copyright law.

Free Offer for Photo Plus Expo Seminar with Peter Krogh

ASMP and Microsoft are offering 20 tickets to Peter Krogh’s presentation on “Tagging Photos with GPS information.” The first 20 ASMP members to email Peter at krogh@asmp.org can attend this seminar for free! Tickets can be picked up at the ASMP booth (#478) on Thursday or at the seminar door on Friday am.

Friday, Oct. 23,  8:45am to 11:45am
Photo Plus Expo
“Tagging Photos with GPS information”

First Day at PPE

[by Rosh Sillars]

Why am I so excited about Photo Plus Expo?

While I’ve photographed many trade shows in my professional career, I have never attended a major photographic industry show.

This is an opportunity to learn from some of the top people in our field and to see some of the latest equipment and technology, which will keep me on top of my game.

Based on experience, I also understand that one of the greatest benefits of a show like this exists outside of the exhibition hall and classrooms. The chance to meet new people in the hallways and at social events can lead to new information, education and opportunities.

If you are attending Photo Plus Expo, take the opportunity to say hello to as many people as possible. Ask questions. Remember, you can learn from people at all levels of photography.

PhotoPlus 09 / Arnold Newman

[By Ed McDonald]

Last night I had the great pleasure of attending the Arnold Newman impact and influence presentation given by Greg Heisler, by the Arnold and Augusta Newman foundation and the Maine Media workshops, Sponsored by PDN and the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP).  Greg Heisler told wonderful, touching, and humorous stories of his time with Arnold in his early days of his assisting career and paid homage to the late Arnold Newman and his intriguing and captivating portrait work. The evening also included a video of Newman at age 71 photographing Heisler in his NY apartment, which was poignant and humorous. Newman commented that many photographers have lost their sense of humor and need to take things and themselves a lot less seriously. Heisler wrapped the evening by fielding questions from the audience. It was an amazing display of a true pioneer of our industry and we are all better for the gifts Arnold left with us.

Go to our ASMP Facebook Page to see photos of the event.

It is Quick Tip Week …

[by Gail Mooney]

Make sure that when you take a class – like Final Cut Pro – that you have a project to work on. Even if it’s a project that’s self proposed – it will let you immediately apply your new knowledge in a real way.  Otherwise, the information you hear tends to go in one ear and out the other very quickly.

Get Out of Your Routine

[by Thomas Werner]

Take 6 friends, drive into the forest, desert, to the ocean, a lake, and just photograph each other all day….feed off the energy, creativity and community, and do not worry about the outcome of the shoot.

Use an RSS Reader for Easy News Gathering

[by Jay Kinghorn]

Blogs are a tremendous source for information, ideas and insights. However, they can also be a tremendous drain on your time and productivity. If you subscribe to more than a handful of blogs or news feeds, an RSS reader like Net News Wire (Mac), FeedDemon (Windows) or Google Reader is essential to quickly sift through a large number of blogs and find the valuable posts hidden within.

An RSS reader aggregates all the unread blog posts from your favorite blogs into a single window. This allows you to quickly skim the headline of each post and read only the articles you’re most interested in. If you’re really tight for time you can flag articles, or pull them into a clippings folder for later reading.

Here are a few links to get you started:
Newsgator
Google Reader
Best RSS Readers

Start Pounding the Pavement

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

Jump start your marketing by calling three targets every day for the next two weeks. Not the same three, of course. If local, try to get a meeting. If not, ask if you can send your book.

(you can keep doing this after two weeks, but commit to that time to start)

If you don’t have a book, don’t do this. Instead, your assignment is to draw up a plan to produce a great book. Several, in fact. Priority.

Remember, personal meetings are the most effective way of getting work. You have to have a real book to do that. And you have to make the calls.

A Week Focused on Creative Thinking

[by Thomas Werner]

This is an artists statement from an exhibition at my gallery a few years ago. The only time that I used an artists statement in promoting an exhibition was this one. I came across it again the other day and think that it addresses something essential about our work and wanted to share with with you.

Artist Statement – Gabriela Maj

There once existed an idea that articulated the human capacity for a particular type of transcendental experience. An experience in which nature, at its most fierce, most violent and most monumental would allow for a brief glimpse of the divine. It was an idea that offered the possibility of the most utterly private experience. It was about enlightenment, about the soul and about beauty in its most painful of definitions.

Today we are left with residue. Dead philosophers, old poems.

Nature is harnessed, we are irreverent. These images were created in quiet homage to an old idea.

What If ?

[by Sean Kernan]

In your wildest dreams, what would you do, you stopped take pictures, starting today,?
What would you do your thoughts didn’t have to express as photos, or even be visible?
What if they could be verbal or sonic, or could just streak through consciousness like shooting stars, like those peak experiences we’ve all had that have nothing to do with photography?
What would you do if no one else could see what it was you were doing or knew what you were thinking?
If it didn’t have to “come out?”
If you could sing images, or just make words or sounds or colors?
If it didn’t have to somehow make money?
Or add to some definition of yourself?
What if you just got off alone and thought of a list of things to do that would knock you out, surprise you, even scare you a bit?
What if you somehow isolated yourself and did that, for a week or two, or however it took to interrupt your habits of thinking, seeing, and doing.
Then if you even took pictures…what might they look like?

Make It Your Own

[by Paul Bartholomew]

I think most photographers struggle with direction and style from time to time especially when starting out. It’s a never ending process, at least in my opinion because I think artists are constantly striving and moving in different directions. This constant striving is very fluid, you may try to predict where you’ll be 10 years from now but if you hold on to that idea in your head too much, it may also hold you back.

What do I mean by being held back? Sometimes we tend to get tunnel vision as we become inspired. This is fine and it’s good to experiment with new styles but also take that influence and make it your own. I guess it’s a part of evolving, but what I’m trying get at is developing your own style and not trying to replicate someone else’s style. I’m constantly looking at the work of photographers from the past and present. Of course I have my favorite photographers and gravitate toward them but I also try to find more. Other incredible influences may come from many kinds of artists such as master painters from all kinds of styles. A trip to an art museum once in a while will help and also buying books. I’m an addict when it comes to books and I tend to have them all over the place because I’m always looking through them for ideas.

We are a product of all artists before us. We take influences and integrate them into our own work. Making mistakes and going through the pains are part of growing. Making mistakes shouldn’t be thought of as negative but a part of progression. If you think of it, not making mistakes may be worse because you may not be pushing your limits enough. Perhaps staying in the safe zone.

Just some thoughts.

Lessons from Childhood

[by Judy Herrmann]

My daughter, Julia, judges books by their covers.  At 2 ½ she walks through the library and says “I want the baby blue one” or “That one, with the dog.”

She recently checked out a story called Franklin Goes To the Hospital in which a young turtle with a cracked shell is afraid the x-ray will show how scared he is on the inside.  Dr. Bear assures him that bravery isn’t about fearlessness, but rather “doing what you have to do, no matter how scared you feel.”

As children we all heard variations on this theme in countless books, stories and movies.  As adults, though, fear often paralyses us – stopping us from being able to clearly see what we have to do, let alone actually doing it.

Producing creative work that comes from deep within you is scary.  Putting that work out for the world to see and respond to is scary.  Being self-employed is scary.  Taking risks is scary.  Adapting to change is scary.  Doing none of those things, though, is even scarier.

My partner, Mike and I, are in the process of reinventing our visual style for the 5^th time in 20 years.  I don’t mind telling you that I’m scared.  Will anyone like it? Will they point and laugh? Are we tapping into something new and cool and wonderful or have we completely lost it?

So I’m taking Dr. Bear’s advice and doing what I have to do even thought it’s scary.  And, you know what?  Now that I’ve made that commitment, there’s a growing bubble of excitement and exhilaration that’s slowly but surely drowning out the doubts.

And in doing this process again, and again, and again, I’ve come to recognize that the one begets the other – you don’t get that excitement and exhilaration without pushing yourself through the fear.  I’ve also grown to understand that it’s when we’re NOT scared that we’re in real trouble.

Work Begets Work

[by Susan Carr]

I had the privilege a few years back of hearing photographer Ken Josephson speak at the  Society for Photographic Education Midwest Regional conference. While discussing his own struggle with blocks in creativity or direction, he clearly stated his own mantra, “work begets work.” These three simple words have hung with me and continue to ring true.

The most difficult times for me, as an artist, are those periods between projects. It frequently takes me a while to know when a given personal project is complete, thus, the creating new work slows gradually, the emphasis shifts to exhibitions or other outlets for the project and my lack of producing new work sort of creeps in unexpectedly.  Ideas for new projects start brewing, but the day-to-day work of making a living and getting my existing images seen takes over. Then, what feels like all of sudden, it will hit me that the real love of my life, making photographs, is being neglected.

I moved to Chicago four years ago. Relocating my home after 25 years was a daunting task and my move coincided with the completion of a significant personal photography project. Between actively exhibiting this body of work – a documentary project of home interiors – and settling into a new home and business community, I didn’t think about photographing beyond my commercial client work. Fast forward to this year, I acknowledged that my own photography needed to become a priority again. I simply feel lost without it.

My idea is to photograph my new home, the Chicago neighborhood of Rogers Park. I struggled with how to get started. I predictably tried to answer the why and how of the project before I initiated the work. Then I remembered Ken Josephson’s lecture. Work begets work. The process of creating work is the process of discovering the why and how. I wasn’t going to solve anything unless I simply walked the neighborhood camera in hand.

I am happy to say that this past spring and summer were productive. I walked miles, shot many rolls of film (yes, film for this work) and slowly the project is taking form. My advice for anyone struggling with their own vision is to simply get to work, pick up a camera and stop asking yourself so many questions.

Read These!

[by Blake Discher]

Non photo-centric blogs that get my nod:  Photographer Bruce DeBoer (@brucedeboer) writes an absolutely superb blog about creativity.   Marketing guru Seth Godin’s blog at is read by just about every member of ASMP’s National board.  And for the latest in technology, both current and speculative, check out www.gizmodo.com.

It’s hard to not be inspired to greatness as you view any of the TEDTalks.  The TED folks have a blog that I read just so I know when a new recording is posted to the site for viewing.  If you’re after some immediate creative inspiration, check out this TED talk.

dpBestflow – Join Us Tonight!

[by Judy Herrmann]

On December 3, 2002, Dave Harp, the president of ASMP at the time, asked Richard Anderson, Peter Krogh and me to meet with him and Gene Mopsik in Baltimore. The ASMP Digital Standards Committee was born that afternoon and I don’t think any of us remotely imagined the full import of what we began that day.

Today, it is my great honor to invite you to celebrate the launch of a unique and powerful information resource: dpBestflow. The culmination of years of research and hard-won knowledge, dpBestflow provides best practices and workflows for photographers.

Now, best practices and workflows may not sound like the most glamorous topic in the world but if you’re like me, you’re dying to just put the constant time-suck of keeping up with technological change behind you and focus on making great images.  dpBestflow helps you do just that.

Efficient workflows lead to more productive use of your time.  They increase your profitability and give you more time to focus on important things like diversifying your skill-set, marketing your work, achieving your goals or even just having dinner with your family.   Best practices preserve your visual legacy.  They ensure that your data is protected and interpreted exactly how you intended – today and in the future.  Until now, figuring out how to achieve efficient workflows and embrace best practices has been a real challenge for photographers.

The dpBestflow team has done the homework for you.  Instead of culling through countless books and websites, trying to piece information together.  You now have a one-stop-shop for all things workflow related.  Got a burning question about a single topic like sharpening or storage media? You’ll find a distillation of exactly what you need to know.  Searching for guidance on a broad category like how to organize your files or keep your data safe?  On the dpBestflow website, you’ll find concrete answers including informative how-to tutorials and movies.

I invite you to join us tonight to celebrate the launch of this exciting new initiative.

7pm
Navy Memorial Auditorium
701 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington DC

Be a Professional with dpBestflow

[by Jay Kinghorn]

Today, many photographers find themselves having to justify their creative fees and post-processing fees to clients. After all, it seems everybody these days has a digital SLR and a copy of Photoshop and thinks they can do it themselves. The truth is, your relationship with the client only begins with creating a compelling image. It is complete when the image is successfully reproduced in its final format.

Clients rely on you to know how to provide them with digital files that meet their technical needs and are delivered on time. With how quickly our industry is changing, you must make sure to use best practices for your digital workflow to stay organized, maximize image quality and keep clients happy.

The dpBestflow project, is a great guide to what works in digital photography workflows. Whether you need a high-level overview of best practices to compare your current system against or detailed info on a given topic like file-naming or backup systems strategies, dpBestflow puts this information right at your fingertips. Now it’s easier than ever to optimize your workflow so you can deliver creative projects to clients that meet both their creative and technical needs. Here are a few tips from dpBestflow that you can apply today.

3, 2, 1 backup strategy
Losing your images due to fire, flood, malfunction or theft would be catastrophic. Ensure  the safety of your files by storing them in at least three locations, on two different types of media with at least one copy stored off-site.

Raw Power
Use your raw image editing software to perform as many of your image corrections as possible. This gives you the best image quality and eliminates much of the need for destructive pixel editing.

Special Delivery
When delivering files to clients, be sure to include a Read Me file; a text file explaining the processes used in creating the file, including the color mode, ICC color profile, file size and image resolution, along with licensing rights and usage information.

Introducing dpBestflow

[by Richard Anderson]

dpBestflow is short for Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow.

In August of 2007, the Library of Congress, through its National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), awarded eight private-sector organizations funds to conduct research into the preservation of commercial digital artwork. The American Society of Media Photographers received a major award to fund a three-year project, dpBestflow.

There are three components to the dpBestflow project.

1.)  A book, I co-authored with Patricia Russotti, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology called Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook, (Focal Press, 2009).

2.)  A web site called dpBestflow.org , which is filled with information from the dpBestflow Handbook, and Peter Krogh’s The DAM Book (O’Reilly Media, 2009).

3.)   A traveling seminar series designed to enhance your workflow and provide you with the tools for proper preservation of your images.

The dpBestflow.org site will be going live on November 11. Everyone on the project team is excited and proud to bring this important resource to completion. We have high hopes that the information in dpBestflow will make your workflow easier and more efficient, lead to better cooperation within the larger graphic arts community, as well as, help the Library of Congress achieve its goal of preserving our digital cultural heritage far into the future.

dpBestflow is a Multimedia Learning Environment

[by Peter Krogh]

As Richard points out in yesterday’s blog, the dpBestflow project is a muti-dimensional, multi-media effort.  We know you are visual people, and for some subjects, a movie makes the point better than text. You’ll find quite a bit of content on the site that walks you through some workflow by actually showing it in action.

This six minute video outlines the creation of metadata templates in Photoshop CS4.

Using the dpBestflow Website

[by Peter Krogh]

We’ve packed quite a bit of information in the website, so we thought we’d make a movie to show you how to navigate. We suggest you spend a few minutes looking over the video before you dive in.

We’re looking forward to hearing what you think.

It’s Not Rocket Science

[by Judy Herrmann]

For decades, my Dad, a real live Rocket Scientist, has been telling me I’ll be more productive if I work fewer hours and solve problems faster if I take more breaks. But did I listen? Of course not! Until, that is, I heard it from someone else…

The “Entrepreneurial Time Management System” by Dan Sullivan turns my Dad’s approach to life and work into a simple and effective formula.

The concept is to divide your time into 3 types of days:

Free Days – 24 hour periods during which you don’t think about your business or do any business related stuff.

Focus Days – 24 hour periods during which you spend the majority of your time focused on productive activities for your business including planning, dreaming, thinking, strategizing and producing.

Buffer Days – 24 hour periods where you deal with all the petty details that have to get taken care of for you to be able to schedule your Focus Days and Free Days.

As much as I recognize the value intellectually, I’m still not capable of dedicating entire DAYS to anything (Sorry, Pops!). But I have started scheduling chunks of time along these lines. I try to make sure that each week I have a chunk where I don’t check email, am not available for calls and am doing some kind of growth activity – brainstorming, reading, researching, writing, thinking, forecasting, etc.

Obviously that chunk gets sandwiched between chunks of “buffer” time. As for Free Days…well, going 24 hours straight without thinking about my business? Um yeah, probably not in this lifetime but I am forcing myself to take some big chunks of time, mostly on weekends, where I disengage from everything related to work and try to be as loose and free and relaxed as I’m capable of being.

Ok, so at this rate, I may never conquer space but I am making a good dent on time. As much as I hate to admit Dad was right, even my limited adoption of the “do more with less” strategy is working.

Time Saving Tips For Shooting and Editing Video

[by Gail Mooney]

The Shoot

• Have a plan – When I first started learning video at the Platypus Workshop, we weren’t even allowed near the camera until we could articulate our “commitment” or our story in a concise, one paragraph statement.
• Make a shot list if appropriate – If you go into a shoot with a list of shots that you want to walk away with, you will work more efficiently as well as make sure you’ve covered what you need to.  But always allow room for the unexpected by letting serendipity happen.
• Shoot tighter – this will happen naturally if you have a shot list
• Avoid lengthy interviews – you’ll be glad you did in the editing room.
• Have the edit in mind when shooting – you’ll shoot more efficiently and you’ll already be laying out the story for the edit.

The Edit

• Gather all assets before you start – I make sure that I prep and import all the content I will be using in my edit – still photos, logs, graphics, music, media. That way I don’t have to leave my editing application once I begin the edit. This helps me stay focused on the story.
• Organize your media – I separate my interview clips, b-roll, music, still photos etc. into separate bins.
• Make good log notes when capturing or importing your video clips – this will help you quickly find and select the clips you need.
• Edit your best clips and place them on separate tracks – I usually scrub through my material, selecting the best interviews, b-roll and live action and put them on different tracks.  Then I can pick the clips appropriate to that point in the story when working on the overall story track.
• Determine the length of the piece and set in and out points – I frequently will create my “start” and my “finish” and then work on the middle of the piece.
• Lay down the narrative or voiceover first – I generally lay down my audio track whether it is a voiceover narrative or interviews.  This is what drives my story.  Then I lay down the visuals.
• Get your rough cut down first – I lay down my story first – before I even begin to color correct, adjust exposure, sweeten the audio or move still images.
• Feel the piece – Every piece has it’s own feel and pace that drives it.  Make sure that you achieve what you’re after in telling the story before polishing for the final cut.
• Get away from the computer – Sometimes we need to take a break in an effort to ultimately save time.  I find when I walk away from the technology and let the story move in my head and then go back to the edit – I ultimately save time in the long run because I don’t get bogged down in the technical details.

Routines Keep Me More Productive

[by Rosh Sillars]

If you are an independent photographer, routine may not be in your vocabulary.  I enjoy my freedom. To me, the word routine conjures up images of restrictive cubicles, repetitive tasks and stressful commutes.

But, in order to keep my life on target I employ what I call my mini-routine.  It contains specific action items I do every business day.  Each of these actions only takes 10-20 minutes. My goal is to accomplish these tasks in the morning.

Each day is different and I need to be flexible. My only personal mandate is that each item in my routine be completed by end of day.  My list contains the same six to eight things every day. Every few months I reevaluate the mini-routine and make adjustments where they are necessary.

What is on my routine list? Everything that I traditionally don’t like or let slip away as a best practice: exercise, accounting, sending thank you notes and home repairs.

The idea is to prevent small things from turning into big problems or projects. In the past I’ve left my accounting unreconciled for months. By spending just minutes each day on minimal tasks I stay on top of the game.

If you like exercise and find it to be a favorite pastime, then it doesn’t belong on your list. If you’re really good at keeping on top of your accounting — find something else to put in your routine.

I know that if I don’t eat a good breakfast each morning I’m not as productive during the day.  Sometimes I need to put eating in my routine just to keep on the right path.

What are five or six things you don’t like or avoid that affects your business success or quality of life? If you create a mini-routine you will find it ultimately relieves stress, improves productivity and life harmony.

Five Boosts for your Photoshop Workflow

[by Jay Kinghorn]

Much of my consulting and training work with clients results in a faster, more consistent workflow and more time in my clients’ days. Below is a list of seven things you can do to speed up your image processing and take control of your workflow.

1) Actions: If you perform a step more than twice, automate it. Actions are simple to learn, quick to create and highly efficient. I frequently make job-specific actions to ensure consistency from file to file or job to job. Even small tasks like flattening layers or opening specific dialog boxes is faster when you assign a function key to an action. There’s nothing like processing an entire job by pressing a few keys and having Photoshop do the work for you.

2) A graphics tablet for retouching: If you perform your own retouching you owe it to yourself to invest in a graphics tablet. Not only will your retouching be more accurate, but you’ll save boatloads of time on your retouching.

3) Camera Raw Presets: Many photographers perform the same set of corrections for every camera raw file. Add five points of contrast, seven points of saturation and so forth. Save this information as either a preset or the default for each of your cameras. Better still is to create a DNG profile for your camera. These steps will apply a series of baseline changes to each raw file as they’re loaded into Adobe Camera Raw. You will likely need to perform shoot-or-scene specific corrections on top of the baseline correction, but you’re starting from a better baseline than the default settings in ACR.

4) Metadata templates: With the specter of Orphan Works legislation perpetually looming over the horizon, it pays to make sure your copyright information is stored in the metadata of every photograph in your collection. The best strategy is to enter this information early and do it automatically. Whether you use PhotoMechanic, Bridge or Lightroom for your initial edit, be sure to build, and apply, a metadata template to insert your contact and copyright photo in every image as it is downloaded to your computer.

5) Productivity plug-ins: Plug-ins can be a productivity black hole. “Hmm, should I use the mossy rock or brilliant sunrise filter on this image?” That said, productivity plugins can often remove noise, improve sharpness, enlarge images or eliminate backgrounds faster, and with better quality than doing it by hand. Here are a few of my favorites:
Noise:
- Noise Ninja

Upsizing/Enlarging:
- Genuine Fractals
- Blow Up

Cut-out/Background Removal:
- Fluid Mask

Sharpening:
- Sharpener Pro
- Photo Kit Sharpener

No Time to Lose

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

A common complaint I hear from photographers is that they do not have the time to do everything. Welcome to modern life. We all are over-committed… but you can manage it if you do two things: use a schedule and say “no.”

The schedule is simply required. Find a calendar tool you like and use it. No excuses. Don’t over-think it– just find an app you like (and if you don’t know which that is, test drive one a week until you find it) and use it. You’re a grown-up and you know how this works. Successful people of all kinds schedule their lives and you need to as well. It stops sucking after a while, I promise.

Besides having “preached” this for years in business, I have put the whole scheduling and saying “no” thing to the test lately through experience. These days, I am a full-time law student as well as still running my consulting business. I have no “free” time. There is always more studying to do or another blog post or Manual to be written, etc. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get done what I need to, as well as do some things just for me (that’s important too). It does mean I have to schedule and to say “no” to some things I used to say “yes” to.

We all want to be liked, want to be helpful, and don’t want to do anything that may run the risk of not getting work. Lots of admirable traits there, but it’s unsustainable when you add up being a photographer, a small businessperson, and your personal/family role. You must start saying “no” to some things or you are going to burn out.

No, though appearing scary, is a liberator. The brother-in-law who wants your help with a project? No. The cheap client who wants you to do one for free? No. The extended family complaining that you don’t visit? No. The really demanding friend who is usually a downer and a drag and who shows up late for everything? No. At first it may feel a bit brutal, but really, after doing it a few times, with permission not to feel guilty, well, it’s almost fun.

Moreover, people are amazingly understanding and usually don’t care half as much as you think about whatever it is they are asking of you. If you say “no” they’ll get over it, and quickly, too. You don’t need to make excuses, either. Just say “No, I can’t help/do that/be there” and shut up.

Now, of course there are some things you cannot say “no” to. You’ve got to pay your taxes and do your marketing, for example. But by cutting out the crap you don’t have time for or don’t really want to do, you will have more time to do the necessary things and to schedule things you want to do. Make Tuesday afternoons into creative rejuvenation periods and go museums, etc., for example.

The biggest thing you can do, however, is to stop beating yourself up about not getting everything done. It is never done. As long as you are breathing, there is stuff to be done. You are in control, though, don’t forget. Choose to do what you want and need to, schedule those tasks, and do them as best you can. Things you don’t do you reschedule. For the things you do, pat yourself on the back.

Web Design Essentials

[by Carolyn Potts]

What’s the business objective of my web site? As visual artists we’re primarily drawn to the play of
light, shadow, color and contrast as they often serve as the basis of our sheer delight. We’re also easily distracted by bright, shiny, and pretty things.

A marketing trap that one can fall into is to simply emulate the web design of a photographer whose photos and web site we admire. Award-winning web sites with lots of stunning visuals suck us right in and lead us to ‘be inspired” (i.e., copy them) when creating our own site; often there’s  little if no attention paid to asking if the design is resonant with our own branding and the needs of the people we want to attract.

An ironic liability of a too-over-the-top web design, is that it risks alienating a market segment who you could have served; they can end up thinking “they can no longer afford you.” (Yes, that’s actually happened).

Your best site design strategy is one that reflects both YOUR brand and what YOUR target audience needs. The photographer you admire may be serving a completely different market.

You must define who your “ideal client” is before you can build a site that will appeal to them.
Here are some questions to help you define your “ideal client.”

What do I know about my target customer’s needs when they first arrive on my site?
E.g. If you’re targeting ad agencies, your site must have features that serve the needs of the time-pressed and collaborative work environment. Some way of displaying thumbnails are a must.

The timeline in wedding photography is usually a lot less deadline-driven (shotgun weddings not withstanding..;-) and therefore the wedding market visitor arrives at a more leisurely pace often looking for an experience (usually romantic) from your imagery E.g. they might respond favorably to interactive and experiential features (e.g. music)–ironically the same ones which usually alienate business clients.

The corporate market customer may require more copy to about your services to gain purchasing approval from colleagues outside of the creative department. Some features (e.g. light-boxes) also might require more instructional copy in one market than another.

But what if either by geography or economic necessity you’re trying to reach several markets with one site?
You can. Just don’t try to be all things to all people all the time.
Develop a targeted web strategy to drive different market segments to specific areas of your site or to sub-domains.

You are essentially a service business. So are your insurance company and your bank; they have different marketing plans–and related web pages– to reach both the sports car driver and the soccer mom. Their marketing strategies are different based on the different needs of each market. You can do that too. Unless your target market is other photographers, design your web strategy accordingly.

Gaining the admiration of your fellow photographers–while it sure feels nice–might not be the best business goal for your bottom line.

Good Data Supports Good Choices

[by Rosh Sillars]

Your opinion can cost you money.  The colors you choose for your Web site, the words you use, and the images you select all pay a role in the success of your site.  It is important to use good data to help you construct a Web site that attracts and retains your target market.

One of the most common methods of creating and tracking data is to install Google Analytics. Use Analytics to follow traffic sources to and bounce rates from your Web site. If you have not yet installed this, you are doing yourself a disservice.

There are additional services available on the Web that may answer questions you have not even thought to ask, such as:

How are your competitors doing? You can find the answer at www.compete.com.

What are the demographics of the people visiting your Web site? Are you attracting your target market? www.quantcast.com can help answer these questions.

If you are interested in one of the most current Internet analytic applications that offers a rich user interface and real-time data, you can sign up as a beta tester for www.woopra.com.

Be careful; don’t overwhelm yourself with useless data. Ask yourself questions first, then use the best tools available to gather quality data to help you make good decisions.

Here’s a question for you: How many clients do you need?

[by Judy Herrmann]

No, really – 1,000?  500? 50? 10?

If you’re like me, the number’s a lot closer to the right than the left.  In fact, what I really need, what I really want is a core group of repeat clients who I like and respect and who like and respect my work.

If you’re dying to be EVERYBODY’s photographer, read no further.  But if you, like me, are looking to build relationships with like-minded people with whom you can produce creatively satisfying work then I’ve got a crazy idea for you.

What if we stop scattering seeds to the wind in the hopes they’ll land on fertile ground?

What if we stop the mass mailings and emailers and broadcast marketing blasts that go to faceless, anonymous people who are already receiving thousands of these things from a multitude of faceless, anonymous photographers?

What if we take the time to find those individuals whose aesthetics and visual communications needs really resonate with what we love to do.

What if we took that common ground, mixed it with a little creativity, ingenuity and good-old fashioned chutzpah and used it to build relationships with those individuals instead of marketing to them?

Maybe, just maybe, we’d actually get what we want.

Navigating the Gift-giving Minefield

[by Charles Gupton]

This time of the year between Thanksgiving and Christmas draws our attention to not only giving thanks for the rich blessings in our lives, but saying “thank you” to people who’ve helped us make progress in our lives during the year. But it can be a very awkward time because of the potential implications that can accompany the gift-giving process. Where company guidelines don’t set clear boundaries, what seems like a simple act of saying “I appreciate you!” can become a minefield.

While reading “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman many years ago, I quickly realized that understanding how to show someone that they are appreciated had implications far beyond trying to improve my own marriage. The premise of the book is that everybody has a primary means of “hearing” that they are loved or appreciated, and that they tend to use their primary language as they communicate their feelings to others, as well.  The five languages are:
•    Words of affirmation
•    Receiving gifts
•    Acts of service
•    Quality time
•    Physical touch

Although it takes some observation, learning how to communicate to the people around us that they are appreciated can help build a deeper, trusting relationship with them. For example, if a client you want to say “thanks” to values quality time with her spouse, she may appreciate a gift card to a quiet restaurant more than a beautiful vase of flowers or a signed print. For someone who values acts of service, a gift of ten hours from an errand service would probably mean more than a case of wine.

This may seem to be a no-brainer, but in our rush to get something done, we often look at the solution based on what we value rather than what the receiver might deem most significant. What do you think?

Great Idea for Your Holiday Promo

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

As we head into the holidays, photographers are trying to think of holiday promos. I have the perfect solution: next year plan ahead and decide what to do in, say, July or August.

Sorry. I know that sounds harsh, but the reality is, if you haven’t planned out your promo by now, you are throwing something together and it will likely not be very successful. If you are lucky, you may get a little bump in web activity, but it is unlikely that you’ll get the payoff you could get from a well planned promo.

The pressure to think up something this late is an extra roadblock you just do not need. Also, if you do come up with a good idea, the short time frame for execution is another hurdle. So often, when you make last-minute promo plans, you will get so busy with work-work (not a bad thing in many ways, of course) that you won’t have the time to execute your promo plan correctly.

So, here is what I suggest: if you don’t have a promo ready to go, take the ideas you are getting now and write them in your calendar as a tickler to pop up in July of next year. Instead, make this holiday one where you just give and don’t try to make anything marketing-ish out of it. Contribute to your favorite (non-religious) charity and shoot your list an email letting them know that is what you are doing this year. Thank your clients for making such gifting possible.

In fact, you can make that your traditional promo for each year instead of spending on self-promotion. Not to toot my own horn, but this is what my company does every year. I  buy a big pile of toys (mostly games) and contribute them to Toys for Tots. Doing so helps those who would otherwise not have a very happy holiday season and, honestly, the response I get from my list is always incredibly positive. No one misses getting another holiday promo.

But doing a great holiday promo can be fun, your targets can love it, and it can help your business. So next year, plan on doing something fabulous. Maybe a motion photography holiday “card.” Maybe have a party for your local targets where you also can gather contributions for the local food bank. Maybe make great t-shirts or develop a holiday app. But if you don’t have plans yet this year, don’t panic, and help others instead.

Make it Personal or It Isn’t a Gift

[by Thomas Werner]

When giving a gift to client don’t give something that is too expensive and don’t give something that is a self promotion. Expensive may make a client nervous, and self promotion really isn’t a gift.

Try a small ten or twelve dollar book of photography. It feels more personal, can be tailored to each client’s personal taste, and relates to your business without saying “business.”  The goal is to say thank you and connect in a way that your self promotion does not.

Good luck, and the best to all over the holidays!

‘Tis the Season …

[by Gail Mooney]

When my daughter was a young child she always used to draw a picture for our Christmas card.  Most times they were quite abstract and if we hadn’t titled her illustrations and written a Christmas greeting, the receiver might not have known it was a holiday card at all.  As she got older and her artistic ability improved, the cards became less abstract but still had the charm and the whimsy of a child.

Putting together these cards used to take a lot of time and wasn’t cheap.  We had to bring the original drawings to a prepress house for scanning and printing.  These days it’s a snap and I could get them done in house in less than a day’s time.

My daughter just graduated from college and is on her own now so we’ve had to come up with new ideas for holiday cards but to this day I still get comments from art directors who received those holiday cards so many years ago.

Three tips for Holiday Promos & Gifts

[by Judy Herrmann]

1) Don’t get lost in the “Holiday” shuffle – this time of year, everyone’s getting way too much stuff from way too many people.  Do something simple for the Holiday-with-a-capital-H season then pick a different date to show your clients how much you value and appreciate them.  You can use a smaller holiday or even just pick a random date.  A thank you gift when you’re not expecting it or another box in the pile of stuff on your desk in December, which would you remember more?

2) Research gift policies before sending – many corporations, educational institutions and government agencies have strict policies prohibiting employees from accepting anything worth more than $25.00.  Be sure that your clients can accept your gift before placing them in the awkward position of having to send it back.

3) Make it personal – if all you’re sending is a preprinted card with your name scrawled somewhere, well, all I can say is when I get those cards, I don’t think “Wow, this person really values their relationship with me.”  Instead, address the envelope by hand, write a personalized message, pick an image you know they’ll really love – do something to let them know they matter enough for you to spend a moment thinking about what matters to them.

Insurance?

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

When was the last time you updated your insurance? I mean sat down with your agent and looked to see what you really need, and planned for the future, too? Don’t keep putting it off.

It is Quick Tip Week …

[by Paul Bartholomew]

With so many online accounts these days we become very vulnerable to hackers. I had my blog hacked this past year and decided on an easy solution. I created a much longer password that’s easy to remember by combining two passwords together. So far it’s been working.

Are You Thinking About a Video Camera Purchase?

[by Gail Mooney]

Before you decide on which video camera to buy, work backwards and make sure your editing software and platform will be compatible.  Check out these compatibility charts from Adobe and Apple.

What About Flickr?

[by Thomas Werner]

Art buyers and art directors look for photos in the places they are most familiar and comfortable with. Put your photos up on Flickr, a large number of art buyers and photo researchers look for, and purchase, images there.

Blu-ray Discs for Backup

[by Peter Krogh]

Consider Blu-ray disks as an way to backup your files. The dpBestflow project recommends that write-once media, such as CD, DVD or Blu-ray disk can provide needed protection for your valuable images. Many people feel that DVD is just too small, at 4 GB, to be worth the hassle. Blu-ray can hold 23 GB. Burners cost less than $200, and discs can be found for as little as $3 each. Read more here.

Social Media – Conversation or Bullhorn?

[by Charles Gupton]

For more than a year now, I’ve been wading into and through the murky waters of social media (SM). I have found the process challenging at best with a lot of frustrations in the process. All though I’ve learned a tremendous amount along the way, I still have a long way to go.

However, as I’ve slogged through, I’ve had more than a few “Aha” moments I’d like to share. Because all of the SM platforms are simply tools, each person using them is going to shape something different that fits his/her particular needs. I would love to have your feedback as to how you’re using these tools to shape your business and add value to the community.

First, I’ve come to see that all social media is either about conversation or the process of laying the groundwork for relationships so that one can have a conversation. Although many folks use SM as a bullhorn to shout their message, I believe we’ve reached such a level of noise that most people are just tuning most of it out. When I started exploring, I signed on to more than a dozen sites trying to figure out what the “buzz” was about. All I got was overwhelmed.

My second “Aha” came when I decided to pick one area at a time and explore it before moving to the next. Trying to get a better understanding of what other people used, how they used them and why, I forced myself to stop, reassess and develop a plan. I chose to begin with my blog.

Many people don’t see blogging as social media, per se. But I see it as a public commitment to have a voice and to contribute value to my community as it develops. Because I started with no readers, it was a means of developing my voice to prepare me for deeper involvement in public conversation. A successful blog requires consistency and if I was going to show a conversational partner that I was committed to being at the table, it seemed a good place to start with my own contribution. Now it’s up to my readers to decided if I’m giving enough return on their attention to come back and talk.

Although there are countless resources for what and how to blog to gain a large number of readers, the first question I asked is “What do I hope to accomplish? ” I doubt that my thoughts will ever attract a large following. However, I decided early on that my desire is to be more relational with people I already have a connection with while also allowing for potential clients to get a feel for who they might be investing their time with.

Because most of us serve different roles in various social and business circles, I saw my blog as a means of presenting my thoughts as I connected with people in the ones I’m involved with. I don’t receive many comments on my blog but get a surprising amount of feedback when I see folks at community activities or meetings. That’s where the conversation occurs.

Got Google Goggles?

[by Rosh Sillars]

For those still in doubt about the growing importance of social media, please consider the following ideas.

Approximately 80 percent of people with Internet access use search engines to find or review products and services. Google, the No. 1 search engine, recently announced that social media activity would be displayed along with the traditional site links in search results.

This means up-to-the-minute posts on blogs and popular social media platforms such as Twitter will be prominently displayed. This action, along with similar upgrades from the search engine Bing, will draw a larger audience to social media platforms and communities.

What about the offline world?

As smart phones continue to grow in popularity and applications become more powerful, social media will continue to impact traditionally offline businesses.

Smart phone applications such as Yelp allow users to photograph a row of businesses along a city street and within moments, obtain business names, social media ratings and reviews.

Google just released Google Goggles, a smart phone application that lets users photograph an object such as a book, logo, business card or landmark in order to obtain information about that object.

Additionally, Google Goggles can read easily accessible bar codes, which business owners can display in creative ways, such as placing them on street-side windows, packaging or marketing materials, to share additional information for smart phone users about their products or services.

People will continue to seek guidance and opinions from social media communities they trust. This includes searching for and hiring a photographer.

How I Learned to use Twitter without being Consumed

[by Charles Gupton]

At first blush, I found Twitter to be nothing but noise. Thousands of people (and companies) screaming “look at me, me, me!” A large number of them, when they run out of anything meaningful to say (which is fairly quickly) simply get a book of quotes and tweet their way through them.

I’ve started using it differently. As the first part of conversation, I’m mostly listening. By using particular tools (I use Hootsuite and Tweetdeck), you can group the people you’re following into different categories. I view it as pulling up a chair to join one table or another in a crowded bar rather than walking through and hearing nothing but meaningless snippets of dialogue. As a result, I’m learning what’s important to the people I want to know better. When I do speak, it can be to their needs, which are, after all, more important to them than mine.

One strategy I’ve found useful is to shine the spotlight on others using their “@twittername” and mention something good they’re doing to the Tweetterverse, as well as, taking the time to RT (re-tweet) the good posts I see. I see this as relational and not manipulative – who doesn’t enjoy getting a public pat on the back? I’m also using the direct message (DM) function to connect other people when I see that they can produce value for each other without my involvement. I see this act as a no-cost gift.

Using the advanced search feature at www.search.twitter.com, one can find people in a number of ways – including by certain words, names, places and even attitudes – that allow you to follow their thoughts on the things they value.

These are a couple of ways I am able to add meaning to the conversation without overtly drawing attention to myself or lurking in the shadows.

Blogs and Your Business

[by Jay Kinghorn]

About six months ago I began blogging regularly and I can safely say it has become one of my best business planning tools. When establishing an audience online, you are constantly striving to provide that audience with meaningful, thoughtful, useful information. In turn, you’re committing yourself to thinking deeply about your craft and staying ahead of the information curve. This thought process is incredibly valuable as it helps you clearly articulate what your business’ role is in your field and the value you bring to your clients.

Perhaps more important, it helps you constantly see your business from the client’s perspective, which can only help you provide better, more targeted services.

It’s helpful to answer these questions when planning your blog presence and the unique content you’ll bring to your clients.
- What information does my audience need?
- How can I provide that information?
- What is my true expertise and how can I use it to help clients?

If you haven’t already answered these questions about your business, then this is a better time than ever to start.

Some of the practices I employ when writing blogs:

1) Passing on an interesting news article or link: Don’t just recycle it and send it out just as it came in. Instead, reference the article and put it in a context that applies to my readers and what it means to them professionally.

2) Original works: Try to address challenges you know your audience faces. If you are writing about something of interest to you, tie in why it’s important to your readers.

3) Blog often. There are so many blogs out there. Don’t just expect your readers to stay with you just because you’re there. They will stay only if you regularly provide interesting, useful information.

4) Gather data on the success of your blog posts through analytics. This will give you insight into what your readers find interesting and helpful.

Writing your blog thoughtfully and with your clients in mind will reap big rewards. You’ll be able to clearly articulate your business purpose and produce better better work for your clients, because you’ll have a better handle on what your clients need and want.

For a great recent article on blog posts, read this from problogger.

Did You Know?

[by Ed McDonald]

You can find a review of the top six (Facebook, Photobucket, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter) Social Media Terms of Service agreements online at the ASMP website.  The report presents recommended best practices, considerations, common terms used, and hypothetical situations photographers may face when images are posted on social networking sites. Find this on the ASMP site by going to the home page left hand grey column down to “News” then fly-out to Social Media Terms of Service.

Feeling Overwhelmed?

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

Sometimes, when you feel completely overwhelmed and out of control, a day off is not only a good idea, it is absolutely necessary. The piles of things to be done will still be there, but you’ll be in a better place to deal with them.

Take a Look

[by Thomas Werner]

Some beautiful and interesting work. Take a look and allow yourself to see in a slightly different manner.

Action Trumps Inaction

[by Charles Gupton]

Although it’s against my perfectionist nature, I am finding that with today’s fast changing market conditions, I’m needing to make a huge number of decisions without first having all the information I’d like to have in hand.

However, as I look around, I’m seeing way too many people living in fear of making wrong decisions — a fear that even a small failure will be catastrophic. But I’m also seeing that time and again, the riskiest decision one can make is to do nothing. So, just make a decision and act on it.

Action trumps inaction.

Thank You and Happy New Year!

[by Susan Carr]

Dear Friends,
I want to take a moment and thank you, our readers, for making this blog a success. We launched this endeavor nine months ago and our community has been growing steadily ever since. I also want to express my gratitude to our talented contributors for sharing their insights on all aspects of the photography business. Together we are building a valuable resource for the trade.

As we end 2009, please share your blog topic suggestions with us by posting a comment here. What do you want us to talk about? Tell us what what type of information really hits home and what doesn’t? Share your ideas and feedback with us as we plan for the New Year.

The SB blog team is going to take a short vacation to enjoy the holiday season returning on January 4th refreshed and ready for 2010!

Wishing you an enjoyable holiday and prosperous New Year,
Susan Carr, SB Blog Editor

Mozart in the Barn

[by Sean Kernan]

I’m just back from doing a creativity seminar for photographers and art directors at General Mills. In gathering my thoughts for it, I considered how the kind of eye-opening and thought-provoking work I do with people might really be justified in business terms. Of course, I think the value is obvious, and so did the folks at General Mills, since I was going at their initiative. But I’m sure it would be tough arguing the point to the accounting side at a lot of companies, particularly in a downturn.

The day before the workshop I stopped in at the Minneapolis Art Institute and spent a few hours among their fantastic collections. And as I was leaving I noticed the donor list by the entrance. There at the top—General Mills.

I doubt that such philanthropy really generates enough revenue there in the company’s home town to cover the donation, and nothing at all outside of town. But there it was. Set against ROI is this idea that there are returns that can’t be measured in dollars, but that effect the community, which comes back to effect the donor. It’s a circle. (Or maybe it’s fractal, I’m not sure.)

I wanted to express this for my workshop wrap-up, but if you can’t measure it, it is also hard to express it in words. Then it came to me!

“Happy cows give more milk.”

It was a good laugh line for our group, but it is also a clear and quick analogy. The more rounded and balanced the rest of our life is, the more that we will be present and focused at work. Conversely, a whacked-out life will mess things up on the job.

It all weaves into a circle. True in the corporate setting, true for free-lancers as well. It adds up to a good argument for consciously making our lives rounder, more balanced. And who is that up to? Guess.

So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades

[by Richard Kelly]

No one predicting the future ever seems to get it right. So, I shouldn’t try either. Instead I am going to share what I am starting to see happen. 
 
Traditional “old media” Publishers are still trying to figure out how to survive the shift from print to pixels. One way would be to collaborate with creative contributors, like photographers and writers, as partners rather than just expenses, sharing both the creative process and the revenue. In the meantime, photographers are collaborating with editors and other creative partners to create new outlets.
 
Three examples of photographers collaborating with other creatives and creating channels delivering content to the consumer:

Consequences by NOOR
The photographers’ collective NOOR was founded in Amsterdam in 2007 with a mission to pool resources and interests to produce, exhibit and promote both individual and group projects by  its members.

Lonny Magazine
An online magazine created by a former magazine designer Michelle Adams and photographer Patrick Cline.

Demotix
A citizen-journalism website and photo agency. It takes user-generated content and photographs from freelance journalists and amateurs, and markets them to the mainstream media.

Future Success

[by Rosh Sillars]

The last decade brought the standardization of digital photography, an increased interest in the craft and the commoditization of photographic images.

Many of the bread-and-butter jobs that once fed our families are now gone. Let it go and don’t look back.

Change is constant. Turn around and face the future. Technology, which has taken our opportunities, now offers new possibilities.

Photographers can be more creative than ever with higher quality image capture, unbelievable post processing and multimedia opportunities.

The Internet and social media have eliminated the barriers to sharing your vision with an international audience.  Photographers are connecting with people in cities, states and countries not even on the radar just a few years ago.

Over the next year we will hear more about real-time applications and augmented reality. People will become more connected, social and mobile.

In the future, photographers will need more creativity, communication and marketing skills to succeed.  One thing that will not change: people and relationships. They are and will continue to be the foundation of a photographer’s success.

Computational Photography

[by Jay Kinghorn]

As we close the book on the first decade of the 21st century and look forward to the next 10 years, computational photography looks to make the greatest technological impact on the craft of photography as we know it.

Computational photography is a broad, if imprecise, term most often used for any imaging techniques that expand upon the normal capabilities of a digital camera. Common examples are High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos or panoramas, the outcomes of which are digital photographs that could not have been taken by a traditional camera. Less established technologies allow a photographer to set focus and depth of field on their computer instead of in-camera.

Most examples of computational photography use multiple images to enhance the quality, or flexibility of a single image. For example, when using a high ISO setting in low light, a camera will automatically capture a quick burst of images. The image processing software (either on-camera or on the computer) compares the content of the images, separating detail from image noise. The noise is discarded and the detail preserved. Other techniques still in the lab use still photos taken at regular points during a video clip to improve the detail, tonal range and quality of video footage, or allow an artist to relight a scene in post-processing to tease out hidden detail.

These technological improvements should be embraced as they come to light, because they will allow photographers to capture, create and publish photos in new and even more compelling ways. While the tools of the future of photography are important, ultimately it’s the creativity and artistry that’s applied to them that will help people tell stories that continue to move, engage and inform.

Looking forward, a photographer’s ability to exploit new opportunities and assimilate new technologies into their workflow will be a defining characteristic of the future of photography. The profession of photography will be less about being a technician and more about being a visual artist fluent in the language of color, shape line and light who communicates across mediums with greater facility than any technician ever could.

Continued Convergence

[by Gail Mooney]

My thoughts on the future – in a word convergence.  I see continued convergence with the tools we use as visual communicators – still cameras and video cameras becoming one and the same.  And with that, the convergence of the two industries – still photography becoming part of larger production companies that will facilitate the video/motion needs of a client, as well as their still photographic needs.  This may be done with one camera, a high-end video camera, fully capable of producing high quality “frame grabs” that will be delivered to clients for their still image needs. I think we’ve only begun to see hybrid cameras being developed by the manufacturers.

As society continues to move more and more to an electronic platform and away from print as a means for communication, we will expect more than static imagery.  We will expect sound and movement.  And as technology enables the electronic pipeline to deliver information faster and seamlessly, the Internet will become our primary source for information.

The good news is that the Internet is open to all – a conduit for the democratization of communication.  But is this really true?  Or, will the information that we get be ranked by entities like Google?  Will this ultimately effect the distribution of what information we get as a society?  Those are the questions that run through my head and should be in everyone’s psyche.  Because if or when the Internet becomes our primary means of communication we must be diligent in keeping it open. We must be the watchdogs now to make sure that control isn’t secured by the few who are making the rules in their favor.
You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

I think there will always be print, just like movies were still made when TV came along.  But it will be a niche in a greater array of visual platforms.  It may become something more high end, something that is meant to be kept, rather than be recycled at the end of the day.

My thoughts on the future are just that – thoughts and speculations.  It’s anybody’s guess really what the future holds.  But we are all creating the future now with the choices we make and let others make for us.

Memories of Futures Past

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

This term in law school, I am taking Entertainment Law, which will involve exploring many of the issues photographers face. My very first reading for that class was a series of articles about what might happen in the near future in movies, TV, music, and book publishing. The articles were fascinating–a series of insiders’ thoughts and well-reasoned predictions. They were also mostly very wrong. And they were all written between 1999-2001.

In other words, I read the predictions of future past and, like so many predictions, the industry experts missed more than they hit.

So, when I was asked to think about the future of our industry and write about it for this blog, my readings gave me pause. I thought about it, and here’s what I think about the future: it’s going to happen no matter what any of us say about it and to try and predict it is, at best, guess-work.

With that in mind, here is what I guess may happen in the relatively near future:

1) Technology is still on a wickedly steep upward curve for change. There are going to be more and more inventions and many of them will cause effects in our industry and our clients’ industries. It will be difficult, but important, to keep up.

2) Publishing is not going to die, but it is folding into its chrysalis and what the butterfly will be is still too amorphous to know. Best guess: some format of e-mags will take over for most print mags; books will move more into the e-world, but still be in print for a long time. Look to how the Apple tablet works to see what the future really holds there–let’s see if it’s an iPod or a Newton (bonus guess: I say “iPod”).

3) Images will be more, not less, important in the new publishing and in the advertising  and even corporate worlds. However, more of those images will be in motion. Still photography won’t disappear, but it will become more art and less commerce over time. For now, exploring motion is a good idea to see if you will be able to express your vision (and your clients’) with that medium.

The one thing I can say with a high degree of certainty is that no matter what the future holds, your success depends on you continuing to develop your own unique vision and to get that out to your targets.

Stretching Your Wings

[by Judy Herrmann]

A lot of photographers I’ve met recently are avidly searching for ways to expand their businesses and diversify their income streams.  Some are exploring new technologies like digital video, Computer Generated Imaging (CGI) or immersive environments.  Some are looking at education  – joining academic institutions, developing seminars and workshops or creating information products like webinars, podcasts or DVDs.  Others are offering a broader range of services by partnering – formally or informally – with others.

All of them, regardless of what direction they’re going in, are looking to expand beyond the core competency (still photography) that’s been the mainstay of their careers.

A 2006 Bain and Company study of US retailers expanding into adjacent businesses offers some valuable insights that anyone looking to diversify should consider. The study discovered three principles that dramatically increase the chances of successful expansion:
1) Look for new businesses that are close to your core business.
2) Concentrate on markets with larger profit margins than your core area.
3) Estimate the potential for growth in that market before entering it.

The companies Bain studied that didn’t follow any of these principles had just a 6% success rate.  Those that followed one principle increased their chances for success to 30% while those following at least two of these principles had a 60% or higher chance of success.

Go here for the full study.

Investing In Efficiency

[by Paul Bartholomew]

Most of us try to cut back on expenses, but when does it affect our productivity and time? We often decide on the bigger monitor, the faster computer, the better camera and the list goes on.  Sure, this all costs money but think positively about the investment if it saves you time.

Your time is valuable and it’s important to free yourself as much as possible. I thought about this a lot over the past year. Besides equipment upgrades, I no longer manage my own website and my marketing is now handled by someone who is more knowledgably and efficient. Does this cost me extra money? At first, but it becomes profitable rather quickly and I can concentrate on being a photographer.

Are You Planning for the Future?

[by Jim Cavanaugh]

In challenging economic times, our business focus often becomes one of survival. How will we pay the bills due at the end of this month?  How can I get that next job in the door? While getting work and paying current bills are urgent issues, they are not the most important issue.

The truly important issue and bigger challenge is the tremendous change taking place in our industry. We are seeing a massive shift from traditional print publication to web and other electronic delivery systems. While this shift has been going on for well more than a decade, the changes are accelerating at a remarkable rate with the growth of bandwidth and the flood of new digital devices to access content.

We are also seeing a rapid shift from the practice of simply placing an electronic version of a print publication on a web site. We are seeing the evolution of completely new forms of electronic publication designed for greater interactivity between the content provider and the viewer. Social network platforms have grown exponentially in importance for communication. Video and motion imagery are core components for these new forms of publication. And it’s not limited to editorial and advertising markets. A great untapped market is corporations’ web sites, e-commerce platforms and e-communications.

Are you planning for these changes? Does your business plan address the need for education and capital investment in new technologies? Are you exploring the concept of partnering with other creative people to offer more comprehensive services? Are you talking with your clients to learn how they see themselves becoming involved with these new technologies? Are you applying these new avenues of communication in your own marketing?

If you are only reacting to current economic pressures and not spending some time each week learning about and planning how to take advantage of these major changes, you may unexpectedly find yourself looking at a career change, even after the economy improves.

Building a Cash Reserve

[by Jim Cavanaugh]

Are you building a cash reserve to get you through future financial tough times? Seems like a crazy question to ask in a tight economy. But it’s something you need to do. It’s simple. Just set aside a small percentage of your fees in an interest bearing checking or money market account every time you receive a payment from your clients. Just 5% to 10%. It’s a small amount out of every job, but the amount will grow quickly. If you put away 10% and have $150,000 in fees in a year, you will have built a $15,000 reserve by the end of the year. Start today!

Spending Your Money Wisely on Digital Image Storage

[by Richard Anderson]

With every New Year, digital photographers, (which is pretty much all of us now), face decisions about how to make room for a new years worth of image files.

Most of us have been shooting digitally long enough to know approximately how many gigabytes we create in a year’s time. It has inched up as we traded up to higher megapixel cameras of course, but the good news is that hard drives have become larger and cheaper. So what is the least painful way to accommodate these growing collections?

There has always been a lot of buzz about RAID enclosures, but I would propose that buying the largest available drives and arranging them in JBOD enclosures is the easiest, cheapest, safest, and most workflow friendly arrangement for digital image storage.

I’ll make my case:

• Easiest—Each drive needs to be backed up. Take a 2 TB drive and fill it to approximately 75% capacity. Now do the same with a second 2 TB drive. Now your hard drive storage is properly backed up. Easy!

Take the backup drive offsite for maximum protection. If that isn’t an option, keep the backup drive disconnected and only connect it when you need to synchronize with the primary drive.

• Cheapest—In a JBOD setup- you get full value of the drive cost because you get to use the whole drive for storage. With any RAID other than RAID 0, you lose some portion of the drive space to redundancy. With RAID 5, you will lose the entire capacity of one of those 2 TB drives. On an energy saving note, RAID arrays keep all the drives running when they are on. A JBOD enclosure can have drives on or off independently of each other.

• Safest— If RAID 5 didn’t have to be backed up, you’d come out ahead moneywise, but unfortunately RAID 5 doesn’t protect you from data loss due to equipment failure, file corruption, Fire, theft, or other disasters, so you will still need to back up all the data on the RAID, the same as you would for JBOD. I have discovered that many people don’t back up their RAID 5 setups because they focus on the word “redundant” and figure they’ll take the risk. Since JBOD is cheaper, there is less temptation to “cheap out” and not make your setup truly redundant.

An important fact that impacts safety is that in a RAID 5 setup, when one disk fails, there is a high chance that a second one will fail.  The theory behind the error correction in RAID assumes that failures of drives are independent. It is often the case that the drives making up the RAID are the same ages. Since all drives are on when the RAID is on, this means that they all have the same number of hours of use. This means that the chances of failure of all the drives in a RAID are statistically correlated. Occasionally, manufacturers have a run of bad drives. Think about what happens if the RAID is made up of these drives.

• Workflow friendly—RAIDs are great until you run out of space. At that point, you will need to offload ALL of the data on the RAID, rebuild it with larger drives (or get a bigger box), and then restore ALL of the data back. It can take 6 to 8 hours to migrate each 2TB of data using a validated transfer utility. If you skip the verification, you will save some time, but you can never be sure that every “bit” of your data has transferred and is uncorrupted. With JBOD, you can migrate your data to larger drives on a less hectic schedule because you only have to do it one drive at a time.

Data Robotics DROBO enclosures relieve some of the pain of scaling up your storage capacity because you can mix and match different drive sizes. DROBO enclosures still consume more drive space than JBOD however, and the data contained on a DROBO still needs to be backed up.

My advice is to stay away from the fancy boxes. Get a sturdy multi-bay drive enclosure and a double set of 2 TB drives. It’s Easier, cheaper, safer, and more workflow friendly IMHO.

For more information on hard drive storage go here.

Follow the Lawyers

[by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua]

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in law school has been to look at both sides of every issue and to negotiate solutions–not as antagonists, but as two “sides” with a common goal. If lawyers can do this successfully, leaving the venom and aggression out of it, photographers and clients can.

Think Different

[by Thomas Werner]

Think of video as more than documentary or an interview; think about how you can use video to create physical and emotional space, architecture, think of ways to immerse people, control their experience. Begin to use video in more ways than just a moving version of your still imagery. Get one step ahead of the game in video instead of playing catch-up for the next ten years.

Organize Your Image Collection with a Catalog

[by Peter Krogh]

One of the most powerful tools that we have for making the most of our photographs is an image catalog. Catalogs allow you to organize vast numbers of images into groupings that make sense to you. dpBestflow recommends that all photographers make use of catalog software as a critical component of file management and workflow design. Read about it here at dpBestflow.org.

Jumpstart Your Business

[by Charles Gupton]

While presenting her program, “I Need to Jumpstart My Business,” during a recent visit to our chapter, Judy Herrmann emphasized the importance of developing deeper relationships in one’s approach to business development. More than ever, it’s critical to form alliances and collaborations that will expand opportunities you may have never had before. It can also open doors to your partners’ networks and make your creative vision available to potential clients who would have not known of you otherwise.

For those of us who were taught to bootstrap our success and to never ask for help, collaborations are a difficult practice to embrace. The image of the lone cowboy may have a glimmer of romance to it, but it’s no model for a successful business today.

What is a Professional?

[by Thomas Werner]

A lot of people with guitars can play guitar. The person who plays at the coffee shop is a professional to some, the person who plays at the wedding is a pro to others, the guy doing tours of local or national clubs is a pro to others, and then you have the rock star. The point being that what a Pro is, is often in the eyes of the client or the audience.

The client wants what they want, and in an increasing number of instances they don’t care where it comes from as long as the image works. This goes for editorial, advertising, fine art, video,  and other forms of what we do. This has always been the case, it is just that in the past clients had access to a smaller number of shooters and a different type of imagery was acceptable for public consumption.

So maybe the question isn’t what we think a professional is, that is easy, maybe the question is what does each client think a professional is, when do certain skill sets matter, or not, and what will be the definition of a professional photographer in the future.

Having Confidence

[by Paula Lerner]

There’s a story I sometimes tell about myself when I speak to student groups. Many years ago at the beginning of my career, my husband walked into the room we then shared as an office to find me under my desk. Surprised and bemused, he asked “What are you doing under there??”

I had been attempting to make cold calls to clients, and had gotten cold feet. Rather than face the prospect of talking to people and trying to sell myself to them, I indulged an urge to curl up in a ball and hide under my desk. Eventually I came out, plucked up my courage and started to make calls. When I trusted myself to speak in an articulate manner, I was fine and the people on the other end of the phone were interested in pursuing a business relationship.  The point is that in order to convince others that you’re worth their attention and the money you’re asking for your services, you first must convince yourself that you’re worth it. You will never convince someone else if you don’t believe it yourself, as they will pick up on your cues. It took time, patience and courage to get the rough spots of my presentation worked out, and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. But in the end I learned from my mistakes.  In the end, I was fine because I managed to trust myself, and that trust came through to others.

For what its worth, I have an undergraduate degree in philosophy from a famous ivy league institution (Harvard). Many of the very smart people with whom I went to college were very insecure under the surface (in some cases, extremely so). Some of the most famous, well-respected people I know still get butterflies in their stomachs before they have to present themselves, their work and their ideas to others. Take heart in this, and know that you’re not the only one. The longer you do it, the easier it becomes, even though many of us never get over it completely. Take a deep breath, steady your voice and remember that whoever it is you’re talking with is human too. After its all over you can go collapse in the corner somewhere….

« Older Entries