It’s almost summertime!  Warm weather means more shooting, and to fill up that calendar you’ll probably be marketing and creating promotional offers.

Let me give you three small pricing tweaks that will pull in more clients without sacrificing your profit margin.

1) The truth about the number 9:  It sells even better than LESS EXPENSIVE options.

You already know that $99 feels better than $100.

But did you know that $99 also feels better than $94?

Researchers looked at how well an article of women’s clothing sold at three price points:  $34, $39, and $44.  The clothing sold best at $39, even better than the $34 option.  Nines are pretty convincing, apparently.  So your promotions will probably sell the most at $499 rather than $486, for example, even if you think it’d be “nice” to kick back a few extra dollars.

In their experiment, the only thing that sold better than a price that ended in 9 was having a sale price that emphasized the original price point.  For example a price tag that said:

sold better than simply displaying:

However, by far the most convincing option was:

So, there’s not much of an excuse for not ending your prices in 9, particularly during promotion time.

Important Note:  I’m not suggesting that discounting your services is the best way to promote them; I share this research just to illustrate the power of 9.  For promotional ideas that don’t involve discounting, see this post.  Also, keep reading here!

2) Want people to buy your top package?  Try “Useless Pricing.”

Let’s step away from photography for a moment.  Say you’re looking to subscribe to a magazine.  You click to the subscription page, and see the following choices – which would you pick?

1. A web-only subscription for $59

2. A print-only subscription for $125

3. A print + web subscription for $125.

Dan Ariely found that 16% chose the web-only option, and 84% chose the web + print option.  Obviously, no one bought the print only option, because it’s “useless” – who would want print only when you could have both print and web for the same price?

So if the middle option is useless, then why have it at all?

Because Ariely tried taking out the “useless” option, and something interesting happened.

When he took out the “useless” option:

The $59 option went from 16% sales –> 68% sales.

The $125 option went from 84% sales –> 32% sales.

The popularity of each package flip-flopped.  If you sold 100 subscriptions, taking out that middle option would have meant losing $3,432 on that promotion.  Purely by deleting a single line.

So let’s say you’re doing mini sessions, and you were thinking about having a prints package and a digital files package.  But instead of just having two options, why not try having three?

1) Five gift prints – $299

2) Five digital files – $599

3) Five gift prints + Five digital files – $599

(You can fill in your own prices…this is just for illustration.)

It might feel ridiculous, but field research suggests you’d see a substantial increase in people buying your top package.

“Useless pricing” works because it changes discount-hunters into value-seekers.

When there are two options, people will try to talk themselves into buying the less expensive one.  They will find reasons why they don’t need the more expensive one, they’ll devalue it in their minds because they’re overly-focused on price.

Adding a “useless option” makes the top package look like a no-brainer great value, and makes the smaller package appear far less valuable.  It changes people’s focus to the content, not the price.  This is great, because:

3) People prefer increased value for the same price, rather than a discount.

You know those lotion bottles at the store that say “33% more free”?  That’s because it sells better than if they gave you a 33% discount on the existing bottle.  Even though a 33% discount is a far better deal because it makes the price-per-unit less expensive than getting 33% “more free,” people still like the idea of getting extra value for the same price.

Tying this back to #2, having the top package be the same price (or a negligible difference) as the “useless” point makes it look like they get “more free.”  This is better than if you framed it as a discount.

Take-home points about promotions:

Be sure to end a price in 9, particularly during a promotion.

When given a choice, people usually select added value over decreased price, even if decreased price would have been a better deal.

Additionally, for some promotions, consider offering a “useless” middle package to help clients focus on value instead of price.  You’ll likely see a dramatic increase in selling the top package.

Speaking of promotions, I’m running one May 23-25th (starting tonight at 10pm EST). 

My popular How To Build An Absolutely Irresistible Photography Website e-book will be $159 only $119.

(And yes, I used $119 instead of $120.  And look – see how I emphasized the struck-out original price point there, because that’s the best way to present a promotion?  Imagine what I can teach you in the e-book.) 

Click here to learn more!  Price will be automatically reduced at checkout starting late tonight.

Already own Irresistible Website? 

Many people have taken the information and run with it, building beautiful and fresh websites.  But some folks still enjoy sitting with someone one-on-one for added insight and assistance.

By popular demand, I’m offering 10 spots to have your website personally reviewed by me in June. 

Send me your dreamsheets and I will sit down with you via Skype and comb through your website.  We’ll talk about your goals, review past performance, and create your own page-by-page plan to create a more attractive offer and push your content to make it even more attention-grabbing, persuasive, and heart-catching for your ideal clients.

Interested?  Email me at jenika@psychologyforphotographers.com.  Book now to reserve your spot – when they’re gone, they’re gone!

So, after a gorgeous, well-lit, beautifully-styled session, you present your images…and are a bit bewildered by the client’s actual purchases.

The client spent hours preparing for the session, but they only buy a handful of 4x6s.  Or they opt for the 11×14 when they squealed over the 20×30 during your consultation.  Or they decided to get twelve 8x10s instead of the single, beautiful album that would have served them much better.

Why?  Because everything else was “too expensive.”

It’s tempting to chalk these things up to brazen cheapery, the vestiges of coupon and DIY culture, or plain old bargain-hunting.  And sometimes, that’s involved.

But there’s more to it than “cheap.”

Have you ever gone to a discount store and tossed several $1-$2 items in your cart, thinking “meh, what can it hurt?” only to be surprised with a $19 total at checkout?

Or won a few steal-of-a-deal eBay auctions, then gasped when you realize you just spent $52?

Yeah, me too.

It’s psychologically easier to make several small purchases than single large purchase.

Even if you end up spending the same amount.

There are at least two psychological effects that play into this.  One is called “the denomination effect” – our tendency to spend four quarters more easily than we do a dollar.  We hate breaking a bill, but will easily fritter away the same amount in change.

For example:  In one study, researchers gave participants a dollar as payment for doing a task.  They either handed them four quarters or a $1 bill.  Then, they asked each participant if they wanted to buy some candy.

Of the people that had been given quarters, 63% chose to buy candy.  Those that had been given the $1 bill?  Only 26% bought anything.

And of those that bought candy, the people who had quarters spent twice as much as those who had the $1 bill.

(Similar results were found when researchers have looked at larger amounts, like five $20 bills vs. one $100 bill.)

We hate giving up “big” bills, and can more easily give up smaller ones – even though it’s the same amount.  And once we give up a small bill, we sometimes say “what the heck” and end up spending more than we would have if we’d broken the large bill.

Professor Joydeep Srivastava of the University of Maryland told Time Magazine:  “We tend to isolate the cash in our minds. Each $20 is a separate, less valuable entity than that single $100 bill. So it’s easier to part with five of those twenties than with a single precious hundred in our pockets.”

Although the study was looking at spending rather than pricing, I suspect that five $20 prints are easier to swallow than a single $100 print.  It’s easier to keep buying than it is to swallow one lump sum.

This “I hate buying expensive things” attitude is also due to something called the total expenditure effect -

People are more sensitive to price when the amount in question makes up a larger percentage of their total income.

Suppose you have a client (say, a mom who does freelance work), and her monthly after-tax income is $1200.

And a session plus a nice package with you costs $1200.

She’ll probably look at that and say “WHAT?!  That’s an entire month’s pay!!”  And she’ll stomp off to find something cheaper.

However, maybe she’s also the kind of person who spends $100 a month (including tip) on a deluxe mani/pedi at a local salon.  Over the course of a year, she’s still spending a total of $1200 – one month’s income.

However, because she’s doling it out $100 at a time (8.3% of her monthly income each month), rather than a lump sum of $1200 (100% of her monthly income), she will probably have a lower threshold for indulging in a mani/pedi habit.

Even though it’s the same amount spent.

This idea recently spread through the photography community like wildfire.

In the viral blog post “A letter on my doorstep,” the author describes how she canceled a $500 portrait session, but then went on to spend $200+ on other things.  (Of course, other things besides photography make us feel good and are worthwhile!)  Much discussion arose about what we buy, relative merits, and lasting value.

And some of that boils down to the simple fact that it’s easier to spend money bit by bit than all at once.

So what do we do?

We can’t make custom photography inexpensive for our clients.  (Interestingly, neither can Wal-Mart these days.)

But maybe we can reframe spending decisions.

I experienced this just last month:  For my birthday, my sweet husband saved up, splurged, and gifted me an iPad mini.

Knowing my love for beautiful home decor, though, he also gave me the option of returning the iPad and spending the money at Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, or Restoration Hardware instead.

While still getting over the surprise (so generous of him!) I did browse those stores, but the whole time I was thinking in my mind:  Is this worth as much as an iPad to me?  Will I get as much enjoyment out of that $150 lamp and a couple $20 candles as I will out of an iPad?  For me, the conclusion was “no.”  I wouldn’t engage with a lamp as much as an iPad, and $20 candles will – literally – disappear.

When I compared an iPad directly to the other beautiful items, I ended up making a very different decision than if the choice had simply been “how do I spend $300.”  If he had simply handed me the money, I probably would have felt pressed to buy several less expensive items than one expensive one.

Even if the single expensive one was more valuable to me.

Given what we know about the “denomination effect” and the “total expenditure effect,” I wonder if we might challenge our clients to reframe how they think of spending money on photography.

Because if they DIY’d their mani-pedis for a year, they would have enough for a portrait session and small album.  If they substituted family walks for a monthly gym membership they never actually use, they’d have enough for your top package.

I wouldn’t advocate telling them “Hey, why are you wasting your money on that crap, my stuff is way better!!” – everything has value, and we don’t want to throw other business owners under the bus.

Rather, the point is that if they thought of a photo session as the equivalent of spending $99 a month to ensure they’d have art created from their life that year, they might make a different choice than if they thought of it as a $1200 decision.

At the very least, understanding the psychology of small purchases will help you approach selling.

Because it’s easy to become shaken or bitter about clients backing away from beautiful work and scrambling to find cheaper solutions.  It makes you, the service provider, feel undervalued when someone gasps at your pricing.  But it’s not about you being “too expensive” – part of it is that your work is an “all at once” expense.

You could use this knowledge to help them reframe the price.  For example, if they balk at the price of the 16×24 canvas, you could ask “Well, here’s another way to think of it:  Is it worth $24 a month to you to gaze at this photo every night while you go to sleep for the next year?  To fill that space above your dresser and feel happy when you see it?”  Maybe, maybe not.

But whatever you do, if they start scrambling on pricing, don’t start scrambling with them.  Stay firm on the value of your work, and remember that you’re often battling a person’s natural instincts, not their personality, when you encounter sticker shock.  Focus on meeting their needs, give them outstanding service, and where possible, help them put the pricing in a different perspective.

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No need for overwhelm.  Scale back and try what I like to call the “First-and-Next marketing technique.”

It goes like this:  Think about your clients, and ask yourself the following two questions -

1) Before they hire me, what will they do FIRST?

You know those evil grocery store managers who put a giant stack of Oreos right next to the milk?

Let’s think like them for a second.

The best time to sell a dog leash is right after someone gets a new dog.

The best time to sell a bookmark is right when someone’s purchasing a new book.

The best time to sell Band-Aids is right after someone buys their kids a new bike (they’re gonna need them):

 So, fill in the blank:

“The best time for someone to buy my services is right after ___________.”

Put another way:  What PRECEEDS my services, like a dog to a dog leash?  A book to a bookmark?  A bike to Band-Aids?

Now go to that “first step” place and market right there.

For example:  Ask a local boutique if you can put a small card in the dressing room during their spring sale that says something like -

“That looks great on you!  You should wear that to your next photo session…”

Same idea for the mirror of your favorite hairstylist:

“Don’t let that great hair go to waste!  Book a photo session to follow your next appointment…”

Find a place where the next logical step is to get pictures done, and make your pitch right then.  Let them know that it’d be foolish to do X without also doing Y….

(And by the way?  The boutique and hair stylist will love it, because it helps them make the sale and book a follow-up appointment, too!)

2) What will my client do NEXT?

Okay, so they’re looking at your services now.  But once they’ve got what you’re selling, what would happen next?

Quick story to illustrate:  So I’m at a large antique shop in Havre de Grace, Maryland, and I’m starting to feel dizzy because the place looks like a giant Room of Requirement. Booth after booth of interesting curiosities, many of them beautiful, but I’m faced with the same question:

Yeah this is cool, but what the heck would I do with it?

I mean really, what do you DO with a painted thimble or a rusty antique ladle?

Then I stumbled upon a bucket full of antique cookie cutters, and spied within it a brilliant marketing tactic:

A handwritten recipe tied to the cookie cutter.  Suddenly I wasn’t just looking at a cookie cutter, I was imagining making cookies.  (Mmmm…lemon meltaways!)  I could practically taste the frosting.

A simple recipe changed the item from one more thing in a jumble of stuff to something I could see myself leaving the shop and using.  That’s the difference between a sale and not.

The seller of cookie cutters asked themselves:  OK, if someone bought this, what would they do next?

Ask yourself the same question.

So someone buys a print – what do they do next?

Lure them with a Pinterest board showing ways to decorate a home with photography.  Throw in some beautiful blank handmade gift tags they can use when they gift these prints to aunts and uncles.

Show them what happens next. 

Stop freaking out about marketing.

Just ask yourself – what does the client do first?  Go put your marketing cards/posters there.  What happens after the client hires me?  Those ideas go on your blog and website.

First-and-Next is always a solid place to start.

Want more marketing ideas?  Including ones that involve real relationships, making new friends, becoming the star of the local business scene, and considerably less wasted time?

I recommend checking out Piece of Cake Marketing from Served Up Fresh. 

And because I love you guys and was late in getting this post up, I emailed Alicia and begged her to extend her 50% off sale one extra day – and she agreed!  All her products are half off until midnight on Thursday, May 9th.

You can read my reviews of these products and check them out now.

I found myself on the “wrong” end of the camera lens this past week.  Not the photographer end, but the photographed end.

And suddenly, a lot of things made sense.

I found myself doing some of the very things that have always bewildered me about clients.

I found myself realizing that some of those things have a good reason behind them, and some do not.

We should talk about that.

But first, a story:

Back when I worked in neuroscience labs, I participated in creating and executing brain imaging research.  One head researcher had a specific rule that had to be met before you could start running participants through your study.

The rule was simple:  If you’re going to stick someone in an MRI machine (which is basically a narrow tube with jackhammer-like noises thumping all around), you’d better know how it feels yourself.  You have to do a full MRI test run and actually participate in your own study.

Because pushing buttons with your hands strapped to boxes at your sides feels different than hitting buttons at your desk.  Because words on your office computer screen look very different than words projected through a mirror.  And because everything, in general, is weird and different when you’re lying in a tube.

All of those differences can affect your data, so you’d better put yourself through your own protocol to know how your participants feel.

You might be asking them to do something that’s hard or scary, but you wouldn’t know until you were lying down in their place.

This past week, Spencer Lum (of 5 West Studios and the industry blog Ground Glass) and I traded portrait shoots.  This was just for fun, more playdate than project.  I did need some images (because photographers are always the last ones to get their photo taken!), and he was gracious enough to agree to a swap.  I didn’t anticipate how much I’d learn about my own clients in the process.

Having your own photos taken is the equivalent of a full MRI test run.

Being behind the camera is completely different than being in front of the camera.  And being in front of the camera for two seconds at your friend’s birthday party is completely different than being the subject of a 90 minute photoshoot.

Here are five unexpected (yet predictable!) things that happened when I was photographed:

1) Upon scheduling the session, I was seized with the ridiculous urge to lose ten pounds.

Which was inconvenient, because the shoot was less than two weeks away.

And here was the surprise – it wasn’t garden-variety insecurity.  It wasn’t even about being “fat.”  It was far simpler than that.  I realized that my physical shape was going to be transfixed in images forever, and I wanted to look my best.  Mostly, though, I wanted to reduce the number of potentially unflattering angles.  To not have to constantly worry about my chin or stomach throughout the shoot.  That’s it.

And it occurred to me:  Me worrying about weight was me trying to do the photographer’s job for him.

In a normal point-and-shoot situation, it’s every man for himself.  You’ve got to pose yourself, so when your cousin hits the shutter, you’re happy with the result.  It’s YOUR job to look the way you want to be photographed, otherwise you might get caught off guard in a bad way.

But it’s not like this when you hire a photographer. 

It’s the photographer’s job to find flattering angles.  It’s the photographer’s job to redirect if you’re in an awkward pose.  It’s the photographer’s job to not publicly post a shot where you are not looking your best.

(This is tempting for photographers, sometimes we get shots with a killer composition but the subject looks slightly off.  We fall in love with the image overall and kinda forget that the whole thing is about the subject.  It’s the photographer’s job not to put their ego above the subject’s feelings).

The photographer, not you, is responsible for how you look.  This is entirely new territory.

Frantically trying to lose weight (or cut your hair or whatever) is really about not wanting to relinquish control over how you look to someone else. 

It’s about trying to manage everything you possibly can because you’re not so sure the other person will catch you when you leap.  Because in past experience, when you relinquished control to unpracticed hands, you disliked the results.  Frantic obsession with appearance is, at least in part, your “insurance” that even if this person sucks at their job, you still come out okay.

I didn’t want to get caught up in this.

Instead, I took a deep breath and decided to trust Spencer.

I didn’t change anything about my eating or exercise habits.  I trusted.  It doesn’t mean I’m immune from cultural conditioning or the pernicious idealized beauty standards that warp how women see themselves (after all, shouldn’t “looking your best” mean looking content, not looking 10 pounds thinner?  Yes, but that wasn’t my culturally-ingrained first instinct before a photoshoot, unfortunately).  I just decided to leap and let Spencer do his job.

In the past, I’ve told particularly frantic clients “It’s my job to think about how everything looks.  It’s your job to have fun.”  I recommitted to communicating that message.

2)  Then, I felt like I didn’t have anything to wear.

It used to drive me crazy when someone would schedule a shoot, then immediately say  “I don’t have anything to wear.”

I always thought, “Um, so you’ve been walking around naked?”

The lesson from last week:  Yes, I own clothes that I like.  But I wanted to dress up a little for my photos, without being too formal.  And in that particular niche – dressier than casual, but not quite cocktail wear – I really don’t own much.  What I do own was kind of worn out, or I already had photos of myself in because I’d worn it on previous photographable occasions.

So actually, in that target range – nice without being overly dressy that wasn’t worn out or already present in photographs?  That’s the golden snitch of photo-wear.  And I hadn’t caught it yet.

I guess I’ll stop thinking clients are overly fussy now.  Sometimes, you really don’t have what you want.

3) I was late to the shoot.

GASP.  Guys – I was LATE to the SHOOT.  I was THAT person!

I told him I thought my makeup would be done around 4:45 and I’d head over after that.  My makeup wasn’t done until about 5:10.  And then I had to make it from Manhattan to Brooklyn and change my clothes.

Spencer was completely unfazed.  Bless him.

But I realized something else:  I truly hadn’t meant to be late.  In fact, I’d scheduled my appointments that day to leave plenty of buffer room.  But I’m not an expert here – I never have my makeup done.  And even though I’d researched online for estimates, I still didn’t have an accurate concept of how long it could take.  So my lateness wasn’t lazy or intentional, it was merely uneducated.

All the more reason to keep a two-hundred dollar attitude around with our clients.  They usually aren’t purposely trying to screw up.

I typically tell people they have to be at the location 15-30 minutes before they actually do, and I’ll keep doing it.  Because they’re used to hurrying, but they’re not used to rushing out the door while simultaneously checking their hair, makeup, and kids’ hair and shirts and making sure they have the right lip gloss in their bag.  No amount of warning from me can truly prepare them for that.  So I’ll just give myself some slack time and keep a sweet smile.

4) On the shoot, I didn’t know what to do with my hands.

I basically became Jack Donaghy in that GE Product Integration video.  “It’s weird, what do I do with my arms?  I’ve never thought about that before.”

My clients are always asking me what to do with their hands.  I always thought it was an oddly specific question – you don’t hear people asking “what do I do with my knees?” for example.  But it’s true – in real life, your hands usually have a task.  But when your task is to stand there, it’s hard to know what to do that won’t look weird.

Happily, Spencer gave me a lot of direction.  Note to self: follow suit.

5) I carried my purse when it wasn’t needed for the images.

It’s usually a hassle when clients bring bags and purses along for the photoshoot when they’re not needed for the photos.  You constantly have to pick it up and take it with you, you set it down and realize it’s in your images and have to run move it – it’s more hassle than it’s worth.

And then.  I did it too.

I used a couple props during our shoot, which is my excuse for bringing a purse, but I would have been tempted either way.  It felt like a security blanket – if my lip color suddenly wore off, if a huge gust of wind messed up my hair, the purse meant I would have something nearby to fix it.  I think ultimately this goes along with realization #1 – I wanted to have control over how I looked, and it felt unnatural to relinquish that to chance or to the photographer.

I may not be able to part people with their security blankets, but I can perhaps explain better why they don’t need them.  Or at least empathize when someone brings one.

Take-home message:  Want to feel less annoyed with clients?  Participate in your own “study.”

I became the very hand-wringing, late-to-the-session, wardrobe-less, purse-carrying client that I’m always scratching my head at.  Well, I’m scratching my head no more.  I’m already rethinking how to prep clients for sessions based on what I learned.

What makes no sense on your side of the camera might make total sense on the client’s end. But you have to put yourself there.

Try it.  Let me know how it goes!

We all have random to-do items fluttering in the back of our heads, plinking against our minds like moths against a light bulb.

Like when you finally break free to scout out new locations with your camera, but then you see the bank and remember the pile of un-entered business receipts sitting on your desk.  Or you pass the grocery store and remember that you have to clean out the fridge because something is definitely going bad in the veggie drawer.

Sometimes this mental clutter is merely distracting.  We all have it, and we have to persist in creating in the face of it.

But sometimes, unfinished tasks actually induce paralysis.  That cycle goes something like this:

1) You say, resolutely, “I can’t go to the park with my camera until I finish organizing my office.”

2) You don’t really feel like organizing your office, so you sit and look at Facebook instead.

3) Then you’re bummed because you just spent an hour looking at Facebook, having neither gone to the park nor organized your office.

Sound familiar?  Here are three strategies for sweeping out those headspace-thieving little tasks:

Strategy A:  First, make a list of every single thing that you’ve been meaning to do. 

Business related or not.  Whether it be vacuuming under the living room furniture or holding a Skype meeting with the Etsy seller you want to partner with, write it down.

Next, estimate how long each item will take.  (I recommend giving them entertaining names.)

Living Room VacuumFest – 20 minutes, including furniture moving.
Skype MasterPlan Strategy Session – 1 hour, including clearing the clutter in your office beforehand.

After that, pull out your calendar or planner, and start scheduling them in.  If you have 20 minutes on Monday, that’s your vacuum time.  If you have an hour next Thursday, shoot an email to the Etsy seller.  Spread them thinly and be realistic about your energy level and other responsibilities on those days.

Done?  Good, now FORGET about everything that’s not on the current calendar day’s list.  Your ticket to Overwhelmville is to mentally pile on a week’s worth of work into one day.

Today, all you have to do is what’s on your schedule.  Then you can scout sessions to your heart’s content, because there’s an appointed time to take care of everything else.

Strategy B:  Declare an Un-Procrastination Day. 

When your to-do list is long, time to pull out the big guns.

Find one day in the next two weeks and designate it Un-Procrastination Day.

On that day, don’t accept calls, meetings, or avoidable/reschedule-able responsibilities.  Devote the entire workday to taking care of tasks you’ve been putting off, be it writing checks for estimated tax payments, dropping off stuff at Goodwill, refinishing thrift store treasures, or writing thank you notes to colleagues.

Spoiler Alert for Un-Procrastination Days:  You’ll quickly realize that you’ve been worrying about these tasks longer than it actually takes to do any of them.

If the Un-Procrastinated tasks are particularly onerous, make the final item on your to-unprocrastinate-list something fun, like getting a pedicure or spending an hour watching whatever the heck you want on YouTube.  You’ll enjoy it more when you’re sitting atop a pile of conquered tasks.

Strategy C:  Prune.  (No, not the dried fruit.)

Sometimes, you have to let go of good things to make room for the best things. (Side note:  Alicia Caine wrote a great post about this, highly recommended.)

If you have tasks that just won’t fit on your to-do schedule, time to make the tough choice:  Is this a good thing, or is it the best thing?

If it’s just “good,” let it go.  Or write yourself a permission slip to table it for a few months.

There’s a difference between procrastination and saying “If I do this now, I’ll barely do it just to get it off my plate.  If I put it on the calendar for three weeks from today, I’ll protect that time and have the head space to really work with it.”

You don’t have to abandon ship entirely.  Just give yourself permission to find a free summer morning to shoot that new video for your blog instead of freaking out this week.  Or decide to hire out your image editing (or your housecleaning!) so you can make room for video-making.

And by the way?

There is always a way to hire someone.  Let me say it again:  There is ALWAYS a way.

I truly didn’t think I had it in my budget to hire Suzanne, Psychology for Photographer’s Pen-Pal-In-Chief.  But I did.  And it freed up my time to write and connect and do things that bring in more income.  Sanity restored, productivity soared.  There is always a way.

When you hire someone to handle stuff that’s hogging your time or emotional energy, you may well find that your income goes up instead of down.  Unlike time, money is a renewable resource.  Be sure to spend your budget of time with as much scrutiny as you do your budget of money.

Before you shut out the idea of hiring someone because you think you “can’t afford it,” take twenty minutes and research the actual costs involved.  It might not be what you think.  Send a few exploratory emails.  Ask for quotes.  Consider what could be trimmed or increased to make room in the budget.  The answers may surprise you.

They surprised me.

Overall:  When you’re distracted by a thousand flitting thoughts, grab them and stamp a date on them.

If you can’t do that, then zap them from your list entirely, or hire them out.

Otherwise, they just hinder you from doing what you really want to be doing.  And really, do you want a pile of receipts or an unvacuumed floor to prevent you from changing your world?

Didn’t think so.

My college dining hall was a glorious, all-you-can-eat buffet.  Weekend brunches were a particular highlight, when pancakes and quiche and platters of bacon appeared, alongside a row of Belgian waffle makers and a bottomless supply of batter.  I was particularly fond of the waffle makers because they created a giant Yale “Y” in the middle of your waffle – stamping a little school spirit into your breakfast.

One Saturday, I was in a different dining hall than usual.  I spied a sign above a bank of waffle makers:  “DO NOT PUT CHOCOLATE CHIPS IN THE WAFFLE MAKER.”

Zzzzish – my brain connected the dots in a flash.  There was only one possible explanation for this aberrant, unexpected sign:  Students who ate in this dining hall regularly must have gotten in the widespread habit of snitching chocolate chips from the ice cream bar to bake them into their waffles.  This probably made a mess of the waffle makers, hence the sign.  But I couldn’t help but admire the resourceful geniuses who did it.  I wished I’d thought of it first.

And every Saturday for the rest of the semester, I was tempted to put chocolate chips in my waffles in my own dining hall.

You’ll notice that this sign had the opposite effect of what was intended: 

Instead of discouraging me from adding chocolate chips in my waffles, it planted the idea.  Other people were getting creative with their brunch, why shouldn’t I?

I started pondering other potential add-ins:  What about chocolate sprinkles?  Or strawberries?  Blueberries?  Of course, this would have just sparked an arms race between me and the kitchen staff – me adding stuff to waffles, them lengthening the list of prohibited items.  So I didn’t bother.  But I’m sure someone who came after me did.

You have to be careful about how you present a rule.

Because rules don’t just tell you what’s bad – they tell you what’s bad that a lot of other people have been doing.

And if you recall the principle of social proof, we tend to do what we see other people doing.

If you walk down the street and see a group of people is staring at the sky, you’ll probably stop and stare at the sky, too.

If you’re in the grocery store and you see everyone rushing to the back, you’ll probably start running there too.

If other people are doing it, it’s probably a good thing for you to do.

So if you implement a rule in a way that makes it clear that lots of people have been doing it, social proof can make that rule backfire.

Example:  When the IRS announced it was increasing penalties for tax evasion because so many people were cheating on their tax returns, tax fraud went up the following year.  Instead of being deterred by the penalties, people thought hey – clearly everyone else is doing it, I should jump on that train!

Social scientists noticed this too.  When the Petrified Forest National Park was having problems with people stealing petrified wood, some researchers decided to do a little test.  They put up two kinds of signs:  One set showing silhouettes of several thieves all taking petrified wood (illustrating it as a widespread problem), the other set showing just one lone thief taking wood.

People who passed the signs showing multiple thieves were twice as likely to steal petrified wood.  Because although those signs were saying thievery was bad, they also showed that everyone is doing it.

And if everyone is doing it, people assume it’s a good thing to do.

In sum:  If you present a rule in a way that suggests a lot of people have been doing Thing X, be mindful that you might actually see an increase in people doing Thing X. 

Let’s say you’re a newborn photographer who has been having a problem with some clients waiting until after the baby is born to book, instead of booking while they’re still pregnant.

Posting a frustrated post on Facebook saying “People keep booking me after the baby is born and it’s too short of notice!  Call me as soon as you know you’re pregnant!” might actually worsen the problem, because you’re demonstrating that socially, people normally wait.

Instead, don’t make the annoying behavior seem common (it probably isn’t anyway).  Try showing the norm you want:

“Most clients book me as soon as they know they’re pregnant – that way they’re much more likely to secure their preferred session date.”

Now they not only what normally happens, but they also see how that benefits them.  A one-two punch that makes your life easier.  Yes!!

What about our pet peeve violation – posting scanned or un-watermarked images on Facebook? 

Consider the social proof results for posting a policy that says:

“Do NOT post images online without a watermark”

vs.

“All clients receive a set of watermarked images that they’re welcome to share on Facebook.  The watermark helps ensure their privacy by discouraging thieves from using the images without their permission.”

Framing desired behavior as the norm will probably go a lot farther in ensuring compliance.

Of course, there will always be rule-breakers.  People will steal petrified wood, cheat on their taxes, add chocolate chips to waffles, and post un-watermarked images.  That’s why in business, you have a signed contract and friendly reminders at the ready.

But since the words you use can worsen or lessen the problem, choose them wisely.

P.S.  My heart and prayers are with the people of Boston right now.  Sending love to you from Baltimore!

You’re sitting at your computer and suddenly you hear a strange “whooshing” sound.

You follow the noise into the hall and your feet start squishing the carpet.  Dread grows, and then you see it – a burst pipe underneath your bathroom sink.  Your brain starts pumping red-alert adrenaline and you slosh into action, dialing a number on your cell phone with one hand while trying to stop the flow with the other, yelling at the top of your lungs for the other household occupants to grab towels.

Your mind flashes back to 24 hours earlier.  You were sitting at your computer, and the doorbell rang.  Behind the screen door you saw a cheerful salesman.

“Did you know that pipes can burst without warning?” he said cheerfully. “My Flood Prevention pipe system is easy to install and includes a free inspection to make sure…

“Not interested, thanks” you recited without thinking and closed the door, rolling your eyes.  Man, just when you were getting comfortable, he interrupted your train of thought, these people shouldn’t be allowed to sell door-to-door, grumble grumble.

Now as you sit there getting sprayed in the face with rusty pipe water, you wonder:  Maybe listening would have been a good idea.

Here’s the problem we face in business:

People are more motivated to solve problems than to prevent problems.

We leap into action to deal with a broken pipe NOW.

But preventing a broken pipe?  Pssssh…..why pay $500 for a problem you don’t have yet?  The pipe didn’t break yesterday, why would it break tomorrow?

This is Flood Prevention guy’s main sales problem.

You, dear photographer, are also selling prevention.

While memories, relationships, and love are the highest prizes of all, their preservation tends to matter most years down the road.

You’re asking someone to do something expensive today that they’ll probably be really happy about later.  That’s a tough sales position to start from.

Clients say they’ll “do it later” because they’re counting on there being a later.  You and I know that NOW is the time to do it to prevent a regrettable “later.”  But they don’t.  They’ve already got problems today, like that bill that just came or those beautiful shoes that are only on sale for another 24 hours.  They want to deal with that first.

So what you need to ask yourself is:  How can I also solve a problem my client has today?

If you can combine prevention with a serious dose of “plus it helps you right now solve this burning problem,” you’ll have more success.

Two questions to find an answer for:

1) What are the biggest problems on my clients’ mind right now?

If you don’t know, find out.  Interview past clients.  Hang out on message boards where your target clients congregate and see what people complain about.  Pay close attention to what your client is talking about when she gets out of the car at a photoshoot, and what her mind immediately turns to when the shoot is over and it’s time to go home.

How can you align your services with solutions to those problems?  How can you re-frame what you’re doing to go along with another solution they’re already willing to pay for?  If you can answer those questions, you’ve struck marketing gold.

2) How can I show my client problems I’ve solved or prevented for people just like him/her?

Maybe you would have listened to the Flood Prevention guy if your neighbor or best friend had just had a pipe burst. Because then, the possibility of having a problem is at the forefront of your mind.  Suddenly, prevention doesn’t sound like that bad of an idea.

What if you gave your potential clients the chance to hear from people who had crises averted by your services?

Flip back to your client list from 6-12 months ago (or better yet, 12-24 months ago).  Send them a quick email and ask something like:

“Hey Janie!  I’ve been thinking about you!  How is little Johnny?  Still afraid of ladybugs?    He must be getting so tall!

I was looking at your images today (still remembering that animal noise contest that ended in a major giggle fest) and I was wondering something.  I find a lot of potential clients hesitate to have photos taken because it seems like a lot of money to spend now for something that’s most valuable later.  So I’m wondering, now that it’s “later” for you – how do you feel about your photos?  Are you glad you took them?  How do you use them now?  I’m just asking because hearing how other people feel about their photos a year from now can help them feel more confident in making a decision.”

Boom.  Not only is that an instant blog post (that someone else writes!  just get their permission to share it first!), but you’re helping clients peer into their own future more concretely.

People are generally terrible at guessing what will matter to them in the future.  So SHOW them.

You have to be careful here.  I’ve seen many photographers write well-meaning but ranty, preachy, and judgmental posts about having photos taken, or about hiring real photographers instead of those other guys who will ruin your wedding and you’ll regret it so much that you might as well have not gotten married at all.  These posts may be true (or partially true), but they don’t market particularly well.

If people feel like you’re judging their choices, they will resent you and probably not buy from you.  Brazen fear-mongering rarely works the way you want it to, even if you’re right (just ask anyone with teenagers).  Show them the future, but don’t threaten them with it, okay?

No need to abandon the prevention angle altogether.

Our strongest argument for photography usually is, indeed, a message of “you’ll be so glad you did this.”  Just swirl it in with some ideas about how it helps them today, not twenty years from now, throw in a little social proof from past clients, and they’ll find the cocktail far more irresistible.

P.S.  I need your help!  Have you answered my burning-questions survey yet?  I’m in the process of creating a new freebie (yay!) and need YOU to tell me what’s irking you right now so I can help solve it!  Please take 3 minutes and answer a few questions now, right here!

The blog post you just finished reading was directly inspired by someone’s answer about their biggest frustration.  Yours could be next.  

When Egypt gifted the United States with the Temple of Dendur,

an ancient sandstone structure that would otherwise have been destroyed by the construction of a dam on the Nile river, the US wasn’t really sure where to put it.

People suggested reconstructing it on the banks of the Potomac or Charles rivers, but the sandstone would have deteriorated.  Eventually, the Metropolitan Museum of Art became its home.  Today it sits in an airy, spacious wing of the Met, surrounded by a reflecting pool and places to sit.

And it attracts attention like a starlet on the red carpet.

When you walk in the door on a busy day, you’re immediately confronted by a line of people waiting to have their picture taken in front of it.  It’s impossible to walk around without getting in someone else’s picture, so the polite among us walk around mumble-chanting “excusemesorryscuseme.”

The first time I visited the Temple of Dendur, I assumed it had some great historical significance.  After all, it has an entire gallery all to itself, and people treat it with the same photo-snapping excitement as the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum.  But when I read the nearby plaque, I was a little mystified.

The temple was old, but not uniquely so.  It was a gift, but Egypt also gave two other temples from the same exact area and time period to the Netherlands and Spain.  It was built, as hundreds of monuments were, at the request of a Roman ruler, not an Egyptian or Nubian one.

Of course, it’s amazing - walking through an exotic monument in real life without jumping on a plane to Egypt! – but from a purely historical perspective, and to a junkie of ancient things like myself, the monument itself seemed a little run-of-the-mill.

It didn’t appear to be the center of any particular historical event, unveil any major findings about the time period, or stand out in any particular way from contemporary structures.  Except for the fact that all ancient things are inherently priceless, and that it was brought to the USA and reconstructed for our enjoyment -

There was no obvious reason why it should have been attracting more flashbulbs than George Clooney at the Golden Globes.

Seeking refuge from the Dendur crowds, I ducked into a smaller room nearby and was surprised by two things.

First, the room was chock full of astonishing artifacts – full-color coffin sets, reliefs, and assorted treasures taken from tombs.  A fascinating trove of human culture, passed from ancient hands to ours.

Second, the room was entirely empty of visitors:

All the priceless artifacts were crowded together behind glass cases, above worn carpet and beneath a shabby dropped ceiling.  The display was also half-finished, with some empty spaces indicating things were being rearranged.  And something hit me like a pile of sandstone:

Yes, the Temple of Dendur is an amazing sight.

It’s beautiful and fun to see.

But I’d bet a thousand dollars that if you removed the Temple of Dendur and placed one single coffin set in the middle of a giant, spacious room, people would still line up to have their pictures taken in front of it.

Why?

I’ve started thinking of it as The Dendur Effect:

Because we treat things as important when they look important.

Because when you surround something with an impressive, spacious, beautiful presentation, then people assume what is being presented must be precious and valuable.  (Why else would you take the time?)

And if you cram something alongside many others into a low-ceilinged room with stained carpet, people assume it is less important.  (Plus, who wants to hang out there?)

I don’t believe that the Temple of Dendur is inherently more valuable than any of those artifacts lined up in the glass cases. 

But no one was getting their pictures taken next to these items, no one was excited and thrilled to be in that room.  And I think mere presentation had a lot to do with that.

The Temple of Dendur was an entire experience – you got to feel like you were a part of the ancient world.

In the smaller room, you just felt like you were in a museum.

What if instead of the small, deteriorating room, the Met had re-created an ancient tomb, and placed all the artifacts in it as though you had just walked in and discovered the untouched burial room?

I bet people would be lined up with their cameras.

Two lessons for business here:

1) If you want others to respect something, treat it like it’s special.

We shouldn’t worship packaging or surface showy-ness.  Yet, we can’t underestimate these things either.

When we see something presented beautifully, we often assume it’s higher quality, even if we don’t mean to.

While I’d never advocate investing in window dressing over actual quality, it’s also the case that people can dismiss beautiful things if they’re not presented well.

This week, take time to walk through your client’s experience of your business.  Start to finish.

Is what people see going to affect their assumptions about your work’s quality or importance?

Small things can make a big difference: Fixing broken links.  De-cluttering your welcome packet and adding some elegance to your contract.  Getting rid of that “pricing under construction, email me for current rates” announcement on your site and making up your mind already.  Arriving on time to sessions with surprise treats in your bag.  Delivering products in beautiful wrapping.

The condition of the ceiling and carpet shouldn’t affect someone’s experience of ancient artifacts in a museum – but it does.  It’s no different in business.

When you take time to create a special, sensory experience, it changes how important people think the actual product is.

2)  Keep it simple.

“Sensory experience” doesn’t mean fireworks and neon signs and whistling kazoos all at once.  Half of what’s impressive about the Temple of Dendur is that there’s a big, soaring, light-filled room – just for that one thing.  (There are other things in the room, but their purpose is to set the scene for the structure itself.)

I see so many photography product catalogs and website home pages crammed with all kinds of goodies – all competing for your attention.  It kind of reminds me of all those mummy cases all lined up in a case.  There’s so much to look at that you don’t look at any one thing for very long.  All of it is important, and each is calling for your attention – but there’s so much, none of it individually looks important.

When everything is emphasized, nothing is.

Prune it back.  Narrow it down.  Ten blogged images can be more powerful than sixty.  Two options can be more enticing than twenty.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.  – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Don’t let your business sit unnoticed in a glass case, crammed alongside dozens of others.

Luckily, taking advantage of the Dendur Effect yourself is simple: 

Present yourself well. Think about the appearance of everything your clients interact with – make it special by setting it apart.  Presentation is not everything, but it’s not nothing.  You probably already know what you’ve been meaning to do on this front – get to it!

                                                                         ~

P.S.  Unrelated News Flash (but while we’re talking about stuff you’ve been meaning to do…):

Kristen Kalp’s Change The World e-book (free chapter right here) launches Thursday, April 4th.  A beautiful guide to creating, planning, and funding a heart-soaked project that uses your business as a vehicle to do more good.  (Also?  Clients support and love to get on board with special causes, something we talked about in depth last fall.)

The launch price is $129, but the code ABUNDANCE will get you $10 off.

I heart-fully recommend this for your investigation, since I’ll be working through it myself:

OK, so the groundhog lied.

Here in Baltimore, I spent the day vacuuming with a YouTube playlist blasting, attacking the living room with a duster in each hand, washing sheets and scrubbing crannies.  Spring cleaning at its finest….and it snowed the whole day.

Spring isn’t exactly here yet.  But it’s time to clean house.

Not just your actual house, your business house, so to speak.  Get things in order.  Because when the warmer weather finally arrives and shooting season is in full bloom, you’ll be so glad you had the following things sorted out first.

Here’s your Business Spring Cleaning checklist:

1) Drop the windex and fill a marketing calendar with activities that you actually LOOK FORWARD to doing.  Gasp.

Here’s a little “a-ha!” I recently had:

I know I would rather be creating stuff than marketing it.

BUT if I plan marketing in advance, it feels less like marketing and more like creating.  Heh, sneaky.

I like making plans and dreaming up swirly ways to make things interesting and beautiful.  So if I can stop thinking of marketing as a business chore, and more as a chance to be creative and do stuff I rarely get to do (like meeting the owner of the local pet store, or compiling shots that illustrate why summer childhood photos are so important), then marketing feels relaxed and fun instead.

So do me a favor:  Pull out a calendar and look at April through September.  What are six (or fewer!) creative marketing ideas you can do, one per month, that you’d truly look forward to doing?

Have you been meaning to host Mother’s Day mini sessions every year at the local petting zoo, but keep forgetting to get organized until it’s too late?  Have you been wanting to ask the local candle shop if they’d be willing to shoot a co-promotional video with you that you send out to both your email lists?  (I did this last year – total blast).  Dream it up, put it on the calendar, and revel in how ahead-of-the-game you feel.

A lot of photographers resent marketing because they always feel behind, doing things spur of the moment, and hovering in a cloud of guilt.  Having a calendar full of fun ideas and neat people makes you feel on top of things and excited to actually do them.

If you’ve been struggling with creating sustainable marketing ideas and building real relationships with other business owners, I highly recommend you check out the Piece of Cake marketing guide.  The sale price of $169 ends tomorrow, March 26th, and jumps to $349.

2) Get your computer backups in order.

Since data loss is pretty much inevitable (even if it hasn’t happened to you yet), take time to get your backup system in working order now before the warmer shooting months bury you in work.  Speaking as someone who watched her Yale roommate lose her entire senior thesis to a tech glitch, I implore you – save yourself the tears.

First, evaluate your hardware – is your data backed up in more than one place?  Are those hard drives getting full?

Your backup system need not be complicated.  You can purchase 2+ external hard drives (I use Seagate) and back up to both of them, preferably keeping one offsite.  You can also snag a sleek Drobo that will automagically mirror the same data on multiple hard drives that you slide in and out of the device.  (It’s basically a magical backup toaster.)

Both Mac and PC have capabilities that let you back up automatically, so even if you forget the computer takes care of it for you.  Spend a few minutes setting up your preferences, and you will breathe a little easier.

Although I’m militant about backing up photography files, until this past year, I slacked off when it came to backing up personal files. 

At the recommendation of several photographer friends, I signed up for BackBlaze – an automatic, continuous cloud backup system.  For less than $5 a month, BackBlaze backs up my entire computer and external hard drives and saves it all securely online.  Not only are my professional files safe, but also the education I’ve paid for, personal documents, etc.  Unlimited storage space, military-grade encryption, and if someone breaks into my house or a meteor strikes, absolutely nothing will be lost.  And frankly, it’s just silly cheap.

You can try out BackBlaze free for 30 days.  I’m really happy with how inexpensive and worry-lifting it’s been for me.

3) Back up your blog, too.

Quick:  What would you do if someone hacked your blog or WordPress had a glitch, and you lost everything?

Hopefully the answer is:  “Go to my email, dig out my latest backup file, and start restoring.”

Take three minutes to install a free WordPress plugin (like Online Backup for WordPress) to make sure you don’t lose your posts.  I have my backups emailed to me once a week.

4) Purge or archive unnecessary files.

Try scheduling a 45-min computer date with yourself to go through your computer and get rid of old files.  Those free photoshop brushes you downloaded three years ago and never used?  That freebie program you used once and forgot was still there?  Delete them.  Rejected RAW files that you know you’ll never use?  Time to send them to the big recycling bin in the sky.

It’s not even so much about the space they take up – a cascade of unused data just clutters your life.  Clear it out.

Bonus:  Every time I clean up my computer, I always find fun stuff I forgot I still had. 

5) Update your contract.  (If you don’t have one – GET ONE.)

Contracts are NOT just about avoiding legal trouble.  I firmly believe that good customer service starts with a good contract.  A contract ensures your client gets the chance to see how you work and what is expected of them.  They aren’t experts at what you do, so you need to show them how things work up front.

Once you have a contract, keep it aligned with your growing business.  Sit down and make a list of any frustrating things that happened with clients in the past year.  Were people consistently late to sessions?  Did people crop your photos before putting them on Facebook?  Did anyone demand services that were outside of what your fees cover?  Go through your contract to make sure all of these frustrations are covered in your contract.

If you don’t have a contract, I suggest you take advantage of Rachel Brenke’s upcoming 50% off sale over at The Law Tog.  The code FAN50 will get you half off all her fabulous products.  Her sale runs tomorrow, March 26th, through April 2nd.  And she’s giving away a MacBook Air, so…there’s that.

6) Create an education folder, and make a plan for finishing all that good learnin’.

Raise your hand if you’ve got education on our computer you’ve paid good money for, but never finished going through. Or maybe you’ve gone through it, but didn’t complete the requisite work, and now you’ve kinda forgotten about it.

Don’t let that good stuff go to waste!

My advice:  Create a single folder called “Education.”  Take a half an hour and hunt down all the instructional videos, e-books, and other educational downloads you’ve got on your computer.  You may need to go back to your email and search for old download links and PDFs, or log in to CreativeLive to claim your videos.  Throw it all into your educational folder.  Back up this folder.

While it’s backing up, look at your calendar.  Where are some holes you can fill?  Start scheduling in the unexplored education.  Maybe this week you’ll finish those podcasts while waiting to pick the kiddos up from violin practice.  Maybe every morning you’ll spend 15-30 minutes filling out worksheets or testing out a single flash setup, then rewarding yourself with an equal amount of Pinterest-ogling time.

Get education on your to-do list.  Break it into small pieces.  Put it on the calendar.  Even 15 minutes a day adds up.

7) Do a little mental “spring cleaning.”

This may seem a little non-sequitur in a practical post about backups and calendars.  But it isn’t.

There are so many tasks required to keep a business (and household) afloat that sometimes you lose track of why you’re doing it in the first place.

So let’s try a different kind of spring cleaning:

Strip away all the to-do lists and tasks, and pretend for a minute like a magical army of assistants have appeared to take care of these things for you. 

Would you keep your business as is?  Or would you take it in a slightly different direction?

I recently spent awhile with this free chapter hot off Kristen Kalp’s press.  I read about her wanting more for her already-successful business.  I read about her dreams.  Her failures along the way.  Her persistence.  Her success. And as I started scribbling in some of the lines, writing about my own dreams, I had to stop and wipe away some tears.  I was so overwhelmed, I had to put it down and come back later.

The truth is, there is a slightly different direction I’d rather be heading in.  A purpose to why I’m doing all this.  And I haven’t been doing it.  (This is why Kristen drives me crazy – always reminding me of painful truths.  She’s been doing it for years!  When will she stop?). 

So at the end of all my spring cleaning this week, my calendar-ing, my data-protecting, I’m going to be doing a different kind of Spring Cleaning.  Taking inventory on the inside.  Sweeping out the old and finding what I really want to be doing with the next six months. Because besides Kristen, I’ve got Mary Oliver (the poet) in the back of my head, asking me:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

That question has been haunting me, and I intent to spend some time this spring answering it.  I encourage you to do the same.  (Maybe Kristen’s chapter will help you, too.)

P.S.  Congratulations to Staci for completing last weekend’s blog challenge and winning some Skype time with me.  Hugs to everyone who sent me photos…please keep them coming!

P.P.S.  Disclosure-y goodness:  This post contains affiliate links, because I love and endorse all the stuff I mentioned. 

I’ve re-learned a few things this week.

That the most important things are rarely urgent.

That they don’t bang down your door and demand immediate attention the way bills, taxes, and errands do.

But it’s important to make important things urgent.

You have to do this yourself.  No one will do it for you.

A few years ago, I was home for Christmas break, and I wanted to take some photos of my grandmother.  But life happened.  The holiday got busy, the photos got neglected, and truth be told she wasn’t really on board with the idea of having photos taken anyway, so there was nothing pushing me to make them happen.

But one afternoon I bit the bullet.  I put my gear on my back and walked to her house, a quiet place that sits on a big piece of land just up the road from my childhood home.  I’d ridden my pink bike along that stretch of sidewalk as a kid many times, usually returning home with a bag slung over my handlebars, a grocery sack full of fresh tomatoes or raspberries or whatever was in season in her garden.

I walked into her house and found her in the living room, sitting as she often did by the window.  I took several photos of her, surrounded by a few beloved possessions – her spinning wheel, her books, her scriptures, a photo from her wedding.  The images weren’t perfect, I didn’t have “the right gear” with me, and I was in a hurry.

But these images still brought tears to our eyes as we celebrated her life at her funeral this past weekend.  

Even in their imperfection, even though she hadn’t liked the way her hair looked, even though I had been flustered and rushed when I took them, feeling guilty each time I pressed the shutter that I didn’t have the time to “do it right.”  None of that mattered – I have the images now, and as far as I’m concerned, they are perfect.  And I can guarantee you, whatever it was that I rushed off to after that photoshoot was not nearly as significant or memorable, no matter how urgent it seemed at the time.  I couldn’t even tell you now what it was.

Most of all, I can’t describe to you how grateful I was this past weekend that I TOOK TIME to take these photos two years ago.  It was like discovering a big fat savings account I forgot I had, one that had been sitting there gathering interest and gaining value the whole time.  Or teetering on a tightrope and suddenly remembering – oh yeah, I took the time to set up a net beneath it, so everything’s going to be okay.

Pick your metaphor – I was just glad the photos were there when I craved these memories the most.

I blogged about this photoshoot shortly after it happened over on my photography blog.  Here’s part of what I wrote:

We don’t have to pull out the camera every single day, or call long-lost friends every single day, or blog, or bake, or write postcards, or any other good thing every single day.  The point is, rather, that we need to take time to do such things.  “Take” implies that it’s intentional, you’re doing it on purpose, not just “waiting until you have the time” or seeing if life leads you around to doing it.  The urgent will always crowd out the important, and unfortunately, urgent things aren’t usually scrapbookable….

Urgent stuff doesn’t care about what you’ll want in five years, it cares about NOW.  Urgent things bully us into neglecting friendships, foregoing happy afternoons, not creating something that will be best enjoyed later.  Urgent things convince us that because we didn’t have time to do that important thing yesterday, there’s no sense in bothering with it today, either.  Meanwhile, important things wait, but eventually slip away.  Some stories we only get one chance to write.

Today, I ask you:

If there’s someone in your life that you’ve been meaning to take photos of – a grandparent, an aging aunt, a dear friend, or even your spouse – please take time to do it this weekend.  Yes, THIS weekend.

And I’ll even make it urgent for you:  The first person to do this, blog about it, and post a link to their blog post in the comments on this post, will get a 30-min one-on-one Skype session with me.  (I’ll want to hear all about it).

But I hope that even if someone “beats you to it,” you’ll recognize that the urgency is still there.  Even if your world or calendar won’t crumble immediately if it doesn’t happen, it’s still there, and it’s still pressingly important.  It’s up to you to make that important thing urgent.  Some stories we only have a short window to write.  If you can’t take the actual photos this weekend, sit down with them or call them and make an appointment you both know you will honor.  Whatever it is, do it this weekend.

Hugs from my hometown (Boise, Idaho!!),

Jenika

P.S.  Please share this post with fellow photographers.  Because we all need reminders to take pictures of our own family and document our own lives.  We can’t expect clients to act like photos are critically important if we habitually neglect them ourselves.  This week, let’s practice what we believe.