Here’s a compiled list of links to the full Part Time Photographer Startup Series:

Part 1: How to make money as a part time portrait photographer

Part 2: What you need to start a part time photography business

Part 3: The legalities of starting a part time photography business

Part 4: What does a successful part time photographer look like?

These articles get you prepared to launch your new venture as a part time professional photographer. My writing centers around portrait photography, which I feel is the easiest, least expensive, and most rewarding way to get your photography business launched. I hope this series gives you the tools you need to answer the question, “How do I start a photography business?”

No matter what your level of art or experience, of photography or business acumen, you can start making money with part time photography today. With some time and TLC, you can grow your photography business as large as you want it, earn as much as your market will provide, rise head and shoulders above the competition, differentiate as an artist and business, and enjoy the fun, financial freedom, and flexibility that professional photography provides.

The best time to start was yesterday – but the second best time is to start today.

Learn something new.

Act on it.

Sow.

Reap.

Next Steps

• When in doubt, make a list! Read through the above articles and make a list of To-Do’s to get your career started as a part time professional photographer. Start at the top and work your way down, one step at a time. Take one step an hour – or day – or week, but take steps with consistency. Don’t lose your momentum. Before you know it, your business will be off the ground and bringing in paying clients.
• Brainstorm session: Why do you want to be a part time photographer? Write down your basic reasons, then delve a bit deeper, and really explore the benefits of taking action and making this happen. File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What will be the greatest reward you’ll enjoy in your life from starting your part time photography business? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• What you need to start a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 2
• How to make money as a part time portrait photographer – Startup Series, Part 1
• The legalities of starting a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 3
• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography

…but that’s a true statement about any service business.

There’s always going to be that occasional mooch looking for a free ride. You’re going to lovingly shoot them with no session fee, ask no minimum order, you’re going to begrudgingly post their photos to an online album because they desperately <insert weak excuse here>, then they’re gonna straight jack your proofs (watermark and all – maybe they’ll even cut it off in MS Paint!) and never spend a penny with you.

You know what?

Let it go.

One of the most common questions I get from new photographers is:

“How do I protect my photos from being stolen?”

This leads to discussions on proofing, watermarking, tracking, right-click disabling, copyright infringement, intellectual property law, and the real beneficiaries of such debate…lawyers.

The question is certainly valid, but the overwhelming concern – and the resultant long-winded opining from other photographers – is decidedly inverse to the real life problem and what it means to a portrait photographer.

Commercial photogs have something worth worrying about. Their images are carefully crafted, hugely expensive to produce, and they make their money through exclusivity and licensing. God bless’em, Copyright 101 is a required course for them.

But for us portrait photogs? You’ve got to get over yourself if you think you’re going to end up taking Jane Doe and her family to court for right-clicking on the proofs you posted online from y’alls photo shoot.

It’s fun to discuss the topic of copyright, to fantasize out loud to a frothing audience of fellow photogs about cease and desist letters, law suits, and reparations. We get to throw around words like infringement and punitive damages! You will even hear precious, rare stories from other photogs of successful copyright lawsuits. But for your everyday real life portrait photog, for example a part-timer like you or I, it’s just blustery self-important power-tripping horsesh*t.

Marketing guru Chris Garrett goes so far as to describe this mentality as exactly “How to Kill Your Brand in One Easy Step.” Popular Digger rsm33 sums it up nicely in reference to the RIAA’s attitude toward music lovers: “When you treat your customers like thieves, don’t be surprised if they stop buying things from you.”

Here’s what you really need to know:

Educate your client

Education (proactive) trumps persecution (reactive) every time.

Don’t stress out seeking every possible safeguard to put in place for protecting yourself from being taken advantage of.

It’s going to happen either way – you stand to lose more by wasting your time and treating clients like criminals than from any nefarious deed your occasional bad-seed clients come up with.

Most folks steal copyrighted digital works – MP3s, movies, your photos – A) because they can, and B) because they don’t liken it to stealing something In Real Life.

A good friend of mine, an educated, mature professional, asked me a few months ago where she could go online to “download movies.” I said iTunes. She said she wasn’t going to pay to download something from the Internet – the very idea was preposterous to her. I said that’s against the law. She didn’t believe me, so I showed her.

She had no idea.

Mates, if this woman didn’t “know better,” there’s a billion folks out there just like her.

Netizens like you and I are more wise to these truths than Mr. and Mrs. John Doe out there in the real world. Don’t let the curse of knowledge make you think otherwise. And don’t write your market off as slobbering boobs either, barbarians from which to protect your art – there are plenty of clients out there ready and able to drop hundreds to thousands of dollars on portrait photography who know little more about the Internet than where to find their e-mail and that skateboarding dog.

Here are some tips:

• The unequaled best way to prevent portraiture clients from stealing your proofs is to not put them online. You’re more likely to attract bargain hunters and right-click-savers at the entry-level end of the market, so if at all possible, do in-person proofing in your home, studio, or on a laptop at the cafe. You’ll retain complete control of your images at all times.
• If you must or prefer to do online proofing, get a retainer. I like to ask about half of my per-client average sale. This will ward off the worst clients, those who have no intention of spending money with you at all.
• If you proof online, disable the freakin’ right-click protection and warning javascript. It’s annoying, it’s insulting, and it just engages your client’s curiosity to solve the “problem” of subverting your safeguard – which will take about 10 seconds on Google. If someone wants to steal your proofs, it’s going to happen. Don’t treat your entire client base like criminals over a few potential thieves.
• Educate your client. When you’re talking about your digital file offerings, chat them up about how the files come with an “unlimited license for personal use” so they can legally share or print the files anywhere and any way they want. Telling them what they can do should clue them in to what they can’t do.
• If they ask about online proofs, let them know your retainer policy. “I’ve had problems with some folks stealing the online proofs and never buying anything at all. I know you guys wouldn’t do something like that, but instead of not doing online proofs at all for anyone, the retainer lets folks get online proofs if they want them. You get the full amount of the retainer in print and file credits, so it doesn’t actually cost anything.” It takes about 15 seconds to clearly explain this to a client, likely better than I’ve written it here – commit the line to memory and practice it until it flows as casually as regular conversation.
• If they scoff at paying a retainer, remind them they’re welcome to do an in-person proofing session, which of course requires no retainer. This is yet another advantage and tool in-person proofing gives you if you can do it.
• If they press the issue, listen to your gut. If you feel the client would still make a worthwhile buy if you put the photos online without a retainer, hey, you’re the business owner – exercise flexibility where you want. But if you feel the client may be trying to game you, don’t hesitate to say “No.” If they walk away, as I’ve said here before, you probably didn’t want them as a client anyway. Never be afraid to refuse a client or refer them out.

Set expectations

I’ve been doing professional photography here in Bandera County for over a decade. Between this and my position with the newspaper, most folks know me and I enjoy a solid reputation in the community. Also, being in a rural Texas market, most of the clients I deal with are right honest folk.

My market and my position within that market allow me to be casual with my business policies. I charge no session fee, have no minimum order, and if I feel good about a client, I’ll even break down and do online proofs without a retainer – but only if I feel very confident.

A few years ago I discovered that no session fee + no minimum order + automatic, ‘free’ online proofs = dismal sales, even in my normally friendly market.

Even I have to admit you can only be so casual about your policies before you’re not doing business anymore. Unless this part time photography business is just fun and games for you, there should be a gentleman’s understanding between you and your client that money will indeed exchange hands at some point.

You don’t have to be blatant, like forcing a minimum order, but subtle cues can build expectations with your client.

Try this:

• During your very first chat with a client, as you’re discussing their needs, be sure to ask questions that touch on the end product they want to walk away with. “Were you looking to end up with some digital files to print from and share on Facebook?” “What about a wall hanging, something to add a conversational centerpiece for your home?” “Wallets are a great choice for high school seniors because they can share them with all their friends, write little personal notes on the back, that sort of thing – and they come eight to a sheet!” You don’t have to be pushy about this; in fact, they don’t even have to know what they want. Having a casual chat on the topic at least plants the seed in their mind that an end product of some kind is the goal of the shoot.
• While you’re shooting, talk about potential end products for certain images while you’re making them. If I’m doing a full-length shot of a posed family, I’m going to comment that that image would make a nice portrait for the wall. If I’m doing goofy headshots of a high school senior, I’ll say something like “That’s hilarious, your friends are going to love these. They’d be perfect as wallet prints or digital files for posting on your Facebook!” Get the buzz started long before the sales session. As always, you’re not trying to manipulate them into buying something they don’t want; as their professional photographer, you’re guiding their buying experience and helping expose them to good uses for the photos they might not have otherwise considered. You should always be working to maximize the value your clients get from their experience and purchase with you.
• Chimp away during your shoot, and show your clients what you’re getting together. Here and there, mention a good use for a given image. Digital file, wall portrait, Facebook slideshow, collage, 8×10’s for grandparents, whatever would truly be a good end product for what you’re showing them.
• If you can subtly chat clients up about potential end products during the shoot, you’ll have an easier time during the sales session. You’ll have given them some ideas to think about, and when they sit down with you and you’re proofing the images with them, you can refer back to the suggestions you made during the shoot. “Here’s that group shot I said would be great for a wall portrait. Great expressions on this one, everyone looks sharp. You may like a different one out of the set, but that’s my favorite.” You’re not being arrogant or forceful, you’re guiding their experience. Again, you’re the professional – your client will appreciate your opinion and enthusiasm.
• If you’re proofing online, you have to build expectations and offer your sales advice by e-mail. When you send the gallery link to your client, include some comments about what images or sets of images you like for certain products, expose your client to interesting alternative products (like groupings, gallery wraps, collages, digital slideshows, whatever creative offerings you may have), and continue to create the expectation of a sale. I like to remind my client of the prices of my offerings, and let them know exactly how they can go about placing their order and the timeline for delivery of prints or a CD.

It can take some time and practice to become perfectly comfortable interlacing sales talk like this with casual conversation, but I guarantee you it does get easier the more you do it. It’s also very effective. I am blessed with great clients, but it’s no accident that certain expectations are made clear from the very first conversation or e-mail. Any potential mooches know I mean business from the start. And I’ve never had to be an ass about it to create that clarity.

Scaling your safeguards to fit your market

Chris Garrett views the issue this way:

1. Most people are honest, and your customers should not be treated otherwise unless there is a good reason.
2. When mitigating risks you should use appropriate, reasonable measures that do not put extra burden on brand new customers. This is a poor first impression.
3. A potential loss of a missed payment could be a better option than a severely disappointed potential advocate telling anyone who will listen their story.

Especially at the entry level, you may face some real challenges while you try to break into a target market that will both respect your work and have the innate expectation of spending money with you.

Triple these challenges if you’re doing business in a big city. I’m not trying to stereotype, but consistently I hear from photogs in the big cities who get overrun with cheap, pushy, needy bargain hunters at the first mention of having no session fee.

I suggest you start off as flexible and customer-friendly as you can, and introduce more stringent safeguards as absolutely necessary to protect your time investment. A flood of cheap clients early on does give you good practice at both your art and business, but you always deserve fair compensation for your time. As your client base grows, and as you start to earn buzz in better circles of clients, the bargain hunters will find someone else to haggle with.

Let’s play a little ‘if-then’ here:

• If you’re completely unknown as a photographer, have no paying clients, and no exposure in your market…then leave yourself wide open to being taken advantage of. No session fees, no minimum orders, no retainers, no ordering deadlines, and prices that err on the side of budget-friendly. Continue to guide your clients’ expectations, but chalk up the bad clients to portfolio building. The good clients? Shower them with love, get them on your newsletter e-mail list, get them on your Facebook friends list, and earn referrals to their friends. Focus your time this way and you’ll eventually be booked solid with only the best referrals of your best clients (file this under ‘Real Secrets of Success as a Part Time Photographer’.).
• If you’re getting lots of requests for online albums, and sales are dismal or non-existent after the shoot…then introduce a retainer for posting online proofs. Make it about half your per-client average sale. If you have no sales yet, make it something affordable but not Wal-Mart cheap – say, $40 or $50. If you’re keeping your per-client time investment down around four hours (pre-shoot, shoot, post processing, sales and follow-up), you’re at least guaranteeing yourself paperboy money. Don’t worry – keep shooting, improving your art, and growing your customer base, and you’ll step up to a better market and better averages in time.
• If you’re having problems with no-show clients (as in a one-in-two problem, not a one-in-10 problem)…then ask for a credit card number to reserve the booking. Let them know you won’t charge anything to the card – unless they don’t show up, in which case a cancellation fee will be charged. Even 10 or 20 bucks is enough to ward off the truly appointment-averse. You can even tell them they’ll get the cancellation fee back in print credits when they reschedule. I have luckily never needed a policy like this, but if I was getting stood up by half my clients, I wouldn’t hesitate to take steps to protect my time.
• If clients are avoiding a commitment to buy, saying they need to consult with their significant other, asking how long you keep the images on file so they can “buy a few now and get the rest later,” or any similar wavering…then introduce a deadline to purchase. When I set up an in-person viewing, I let the client know that after that viewing, I don’t guarantee to keep the images on file because of having to make room for current shoots. With online proofs, I like to give clients a week – certainly no less time than I asked for to process and post the images after the shoot. A gentler version of this is to introduce an archival fee to pull the images off DVD after a certain period.
• If your per-client sales averages are disappointing…then keep shooting. Only the very blessed fall bass ackwards into their ideal client base as an unknown photographer. If you can create luck like this, don’t let my words stop you. However, just about everything I write about here on PartTimePhoto.com assumes you’re starting from the beginning and working your way up the food chain. Exceptional art and exceptional marketing can catapult you right into a lucrative market, but both are skills learned over time. If you’ve already got either, you’re not waiting for my permission to get rich.
• If you’re in a brutal market that eats generous, customer-friendly photographers for breakfast…then go ahead and start charging a session fee. Have a minimum required order. You’re not running a charity, so if you’re straight up getting screwed by your market, take the necessary measures to ensure you aren’t donating your time to the benefit of unscrupulous clients. This is a worst-case scenario, a last stand against a barbaric enemy; you’re going to have to quickly and greatly step up your art and marketing to attract the kinds of clients who have no fear of session fees or minimum orders. Make no mistake, though: you can do it. It won’t be easy, but thousands of other photographers have done it this way, and so can you. Once you do break into that market and secure a foothold, you can again relax your policies and pack your schedule with good, profitable clients.

Nothing personal…but it could just be you

Don’t take this the wrong way…but if you’re consistently getting crappy clients, the problem may be that you’re marketing to the wrong people…or marketing the wrong things.

I had a horrible run on MySpace around 2006. This was when I was doing online proofing with no retainer, no session fee, no minimum order. Hell, I even threw my wife’s make-up artist services in for free!

Oh, I was busy as hell – I was downright popular, with my proofs adorning dozens of people’s MySpace profiles – but I wasn’t even making milk money.

This is when I learned my lesson about setting expectations with clients. This is when I learned that, when everything you do and say and market screams “I’M CHEAP AND DESPERATE,” you’re actively marketing yourself to the worst possible clients.

When you’re starting out, you really have to take your chances and take whatever clients you can get. Warm bodies in front of your camera at least give you the chance of making a sale and earning good repeat customers.

But if you’re overwhelmed with bad clients, start being more choosy in who you market to and how. This is tricky, but the idea is to gradually shift the focus of your proposition (what you have to offer as a photographer) away from your no-risk policies (no session fee, no minimum order, low prices) and toward the value of your art and experience.

If your web site design and content, for example, screams no session fee/no minimum order/no risk, but whispers about the quality of your art, you’re actively marketing to folks who are the least likely to have the expectation of spending good money with you. Makes sense, right?

As your client base grows and you get a good number of shoots under your belt, as your portfolio grows and your artistic talents develop, you can start tipping the scales of your marketing more in favor of the value of your art rather than the attractiveness of your policies. Less we-finance-anyone used car lot, more Mercedes dealership. Both business models work, but you’ll likely have to start at one end of the scale and work your way across to the other.

Trust your gut; trust your numbers as you compare per-client average sales to per-client time invested; trust your intuition as you judge your busy-ness versus your business… Adjust your marketing – its content, its voice, its target, its unique selling proposition – when you feel the time is right. Make small, gradual changes, and take time to measure the results. Then change again, measure again. Rinse and repeat.

You’ll know you’re top drawer when your marketing says, “If you have to ask, you can’t afford me,” and you’re still booked solid.

Until then, be flexible, show respect and love for your clients, but always maintain your self respect and self worth. If you don’t, you’ll burn out of the photography business before you have the chance to bring your art to the folks who would most appreciate and enjoy it.

Next Steps

• Get yourself a little text file going, or if you’re that kind, an Excel spreadsheet. Start keeping track of your clients and a few simple details: who are they, where did they find out about you, why did they choose you for their photos, how much did you profit from their purchase, how much time did you personally dedicate to that client from first contact to sale/delivery/follow-up. As this database grows, you’ll start to have enough information to see trends: maybe you’re getting your worst clients from MySpace, but your best clients from Facebook; maybe your most profitable per-hour-invested clients are coming from Craigslist of all places. This simple act of measurement will give you all the data you need to make intelligent, effective decisions about who your best clients are, where you’re getting them from, and how. Now go out there and get more just like them.
• Think of your Top 3 best clients this month. They can be your best because you had fun with them, or because they spent good money with you (it doesn’t always have to be about profit, ya know). Open up your e-mail and send them a heartfelt thank-you note right this moment. Just let them know how much you truly appreciate their business. Let them know you’re always happy to serve their photography needs; let them know you welcome the business of their friends and family, also, if any are in the market for good photos. Plant the referral seed and watch it grow.
• Are those Top 3 recent clients on your e-mail newsletter list? Are they fans of your Facebook page? If not, get them there. Ask permission to add them to your list. Invite them to visit your Facebook page and become a fan. Are your photos posted to their Facebook album? If not, send them watermarked proofs of their favorite images to share on Facebook if they like.
• Brainstorm session: Take a deep breath, clear your mind, and try to forgive the wrongs your bad clients may have done to you. Relax. Let go. With this calm clarity, really evaluate: How have you been wronged by clients in the past? Stolen proofs? Pitiful purchases? Wasted time? How many of these bad clients have you had versus how many good clients? What’s the ratio? Are you dealing with so many of these bad clients as to hurt your enjoyment overall of being a part time photographer? Are they notably hurting your per-client average sales? What of the above-discussed safeguards and marketing changes could you gradually implement to ward off these bad clients? File this in your Brainstorms folder (and if you feel ready, make a change today!).
• I’ll be honest with you: I do not have an exceptional knowledge of copyright law, at least beyond the basics as it relates to independent photographers, and even that I don’t make use of unless I’m calling out a client for blatantly stealing from me when I know they know better (or if I’m licensing images to a commercial client, which is just a small part of my business). I’m all about education however, so if you want to know more about copyright law as it applies to photographers part time and otherwise, just Google it. Some great resources can be found from Kodak, Editorial Photographers, and PhotoLaw.net.
• My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What’s the most egregious act of thievery a client has committed against you? What actions have you taken to keep bad clients from getting in front of your camera in the first place? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Your first photo proofing and sales session – Your First Customer Series, Part 9
• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
• Top 15 Internet Marketing methods, from least to most effective, from Darketing to Arketing
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• How to make money as a part time portrait photographer – Startup Series, Part 1

It’s bluebonnet time here in Texas. Wide open fields of beautiful blue flowers can be found all around the state, and photographers are out in force recording the sweet scenery.

The ‘kid sitting in a field of bluebonnets’ photo session is as cliche as they come here in Texas. You can’t drive very far without seeing a parent pulled over to the side of the road trying to get their kid to stop squinting at the sun while traffic whizzes by.

Most photographers around here have entire seasonal promotions built around the “bluebonnet sessions.” It’s predictable, the imagery is always the same, but photogs sell it and parents buy it by the pound.

First question: What seasonal outdoor shoots could you promote in your area?

Just here in the Texas Hill Country we have springtime bluebonnets, summers at the river, autumn leaves at the state natural areas, and since there’s no snow as far south in Texas as my studio is, there’s plenty of craggy, leafless trees in the winter which make a dramatic backdrop for artsy model-style photos.

Look at the work of nature and landscape photographers in your area. Attend one of their guild meetings each quarter and see what they’re preparing to shoot. They can tip you off to some of the most beautiful locations and moments to capture the unique scenery of your area. Figure out how to stick a kid or a family or a high school senior in that scene, and you’ll throw down some very salable images with Mother Nature providing the stage.

Second question: How can you differentiate?

Odds are the obvious natural scenery shots in your area have been done to death. Even if you just rinse and repeat, you’ll probably move plenty of sales.

But as always, you want to look at what “everybody” is doing, and find a way to do it differently or the entire opposite. Let your imagination run and see what ways you can dream up to turn the cliche seasonal shots into something unique and special.

I had done good, solid, dependable, typical Team & Individual shots for a local youth flag football league for years before I saw the work of a very imaginative photographer down in Corpus Christi while I was on vacation at the coast. I had always looked at T&I photos as rinse and repeat – so long as I did the same thing each year, they’d keep hiring me.

But the work I saw posted at a restaurant in Corpus opened my mind to a new way of shooting that type of photo. This photog treated T&I shoots like a corporate or environmental portrait. Location, but with strobes and dramatic lighting, strong wide angles, and exciting complimentary elements like reflections in golf club heads, baseball bats extending deep into the image, and a shower of tennis balls around a stoic high school athlete. Really unique, interesting stuff.

You think this guy’s annual contract was secure with the teams he shot? Think he could charge more (maybe a lot more) for his prints and packages than the other photogs doing rinse and repeat?

No doubt.

Apply the same level of imagination and execution to your seasonal scenery portraits and you’ll differentiate in a way that will bring your clients back year after year, checkbooks in hand.

As with any business endeavor, the more time and layers of depth, complexity, and attention to detail you apply to a project, the harder you make it for your competition to copycat.

How can you take your outdoor portraits over the top? Rent a bucket truck to give you an angle nobody else is getting, bring a bag of strobes and shoot at night, lightpaint your subject and scene, climb trees, hike away from the roadside, go urban instead of natural, get low and shoot up or get up and shoot down, bring in props and juxtaposing elements (how pretty would a nice park bench or a couch look in that field of flowers? How about a classic pickup truck with a candy paint job?), if everyone shoots in white button-ups and jeans then get your clients to wear dress suits or swimsuits, if everyone is shooting beside the river put your client in it…

Options are limitless with some imagination and the courage to do something brave and different, something outside the box or never done before – at least in your market. Your competition will be jealous and your clients will be thrilled.

Break the mold = break the bank.

Widening your network to widen your wallet

The best portrait photographers will tell you that success in our industry is a great deal influenced by relationships – making real connections with your clients, through great service and great art.

For our seasonal scenery portraits, let’s take that idea to the back end work – relationships with proprietors of choice properties can give you access to scenery that no other photographer can touch.

Here in Texas, there are lots of big acreage landowners. Mostly ranchers, some farmers, some folks who just like to own a thousand acres here and there.

Just as I like to have a good relationship with local clergy for my wedding work and business owners for my urban senior work, I like to seek out and make friends with my area ranchers and landowners whose private property is a wonderland of outdoor portrait delights.

Babbling brooks. Waterfalls. Long-stretching white fence lines. Rolling fields of tall grass and wildflowers. Dense, lush, green forests. Big red barns! Hay bales! Cows!

If you see a spot from the road that would make the perfect location for one of your shoots, don’t be shy – seek out that property owner and work on getting their permission to book shoots there. Most are flattered and happy to let you shoot there for free, or for the price of a nice print for their wall, or even a small rental fee.

Whatever the cost, odds are that unique access will give you images that no photographer in your area can get, and each location you add to your list will be one more way you differentiate from your competition.

Landowners here in Texas are as protective of their land as they are proud. I don’t for a moment condone trespassing on private property as a smart way to expand your portfolio. I unintentionally ended up shooting without permission at a private pond one time, and I was met by two men with rifles and stern words shortly after I arrived. I may not have gotten shot, but I did ruin an opportunity to land access to a really beautiful location.

Be mindful, and be respectful. It takes one knock on the door or phone call to get permission and do things the right way.

Next Steps

• Hit up Google and research your area for its resources of natural beauty. What unique scenery pops up in your area in each season? What do the nature and landscape photographers in your area shoot and post on their web sites? Where are your parks, big and small? Where are your water features? Where are your farms and fields of crops?
• Call up a few of those nature photographers and ask for ideas on what to shoot and where. They may even offer to give you a tour of some of their favorite spots.
• Visit your local visitor’s bureau or Chamber of Commerce and ask what seasonal events exist related to the local scenery. Strawberry festivals, watermelons festivals, wildflower tours, birding and nature walks, state natural area fall foliage reports, etc. What kinds of specials could you run in concert with these events?
• Get in the car, or better yet on the cycle, and explore the highways and backroads in your county. Where’s the pretty scenery at? Any public or private locations that would make for incredible photo shoots? Take notes and reach out to whoever you need to in order to gain permission and invaluable access.
• Brainstorm session: Close your eyes and get an image in your head of the most obvious seasonal nature portraits for your area. Now, turn your imagination up to 11, and write down a bunch of creative, fun, unique ways of shooting these scenes with an attention-grabbing twist. Furniture, props, vehicles, dissonant wardrobe, different times of day and night, different angles and lenses. Jot these down and file in your Brainstorms folder.
• What are some of your best landscape and natural discoveries during your explorations? What does nature provide your area during each season that is unique and ripe for profitable portraiture? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7
• Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people – Your First Customer Series, Part 2
• Should you buy an Apple iPad for your photography business?
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• It’s digital: go crazy! How to make great photos by accident

Outlaw Photographer James Taylor’s list of Internet Marketing methods, from least to most effective:

Darketing - Marketing without information, a target, or a plan – completely in the dark. Least effective, and by far most common, marketing method used by businesses today.

Larketing - See ‘Darketing’ – Marketing by whim without plan or purpose.

Parketing - Hanging the shingle and assuming that, by mere fact of existence, the world will beat a path to your product.

Quarketing - Invisible marketing, most often employed by those lacking any confidence at all in their own product.

Barketing - Making a lot of noise, generally annoying the hell out of everyone. Filed under, ‘Local Car Dealers.’

Starketing - Grabbing attention at any cost to your budget or brand image. See Outpost.com Superbowl Ad, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzbMcsrK-tw.

Sharketing - Always moving, always looking for opportunities for attention, but never stopping to check results. Most lethal form of marketing – big spending, no measurement.

Tarketing - Using research to aim your marketing at a good target market, your ideal customer. Here’s where we make the turn to good marketing methods.

Farketing - Marketing your brand by staying in the news with good PR. See Apple Inc., Ford Motor Company; not Kanye West, Tiger Woods.

RARketing - Sometimes it’s far more profitable and easy to market your way into being Second Best.

Snarketing - Sometimes it’s also more profitable to be divisive instead of mass-market. Being the bad boy underdog can earn fierce loyalty among customers.

Embarketing - Staying fresh and exciting by frequently having something new to share with your market. A sense of adventure keeps folks tuned in.

Harketing - Marketing by listening. Social media has given your customers a voice louder than any ad campaign. Pay attention, and be responsive.

Remarketing - Strive to make your product or service completely remark-able by customers. Then let the world know what you did. Seth Godin-style, Purple Cow marketing.

Arketing - Visionary. Have the only umbrella kiosk in a rainstorm, or the only boat in a flood. Beat the game by staying three steps ahead of the other players. See Facebook, Twitter, PartTimePhoto.com.

Cross-posted with love from a comment I made at Jeff Walker’s Internet Marketing blog.

Next Steps

• Brainstorm session: On the above scale, what best fits the marketing you’re doing now? What can you change to move up the scale of effectiveness? Touch on each point from Tarketing to Arketing to answer the question, “What could I do to act on this marketing method?” File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• Aren’t you proud of me? I managed to write a post less than 3,000 words – less than five hundred, in fact! If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What marketing traps have you fallen into that left you with sub-par results? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10
• How can I find time to be a part time photographer? – Your First Customer Series, Part 1
• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography
• It’s digital: go crazy! How to make great photos by accident

If you’ve completed the previous nine parts of this series, I commend you – you’ve read a small book’s worth of articles meant to help you get on your feet with your first customers.

As they say, the hardest moment in any journey is taking that first step. If you’ve read and followed along with this series, I hope that you’ve gained equal parts knowledge and confidence.

Here we come upon the final article in the Your First Customer Series. I’ll discuss what you can do beyond the art and experience of your photo shoot to keep clients coming back for more while referring their friends and family with reckless abandon.

A word about touchpoints

Waco, Texas, marketing guru Jay Ehret first turned me on to the concept of touchpoints – all the moments where we have an exposure to or interaction with our clients. All of these little touchpoints, from your advertising to your web site to your e-mails, phone calls, consultations, and follow-up contacts, are rich opportunities to add another layer of awesome sauce to your customers’ experience.

In any touchpoint, you can do what is expected – which often translates to mediocrity. Where the opportunity lies is in breaking expectations and giving clients something remark-able to experience.

Just as you want to answer your phone with a smile and be warm and encouraging during your photo shoot, you want your follow-up activities to reinforce your client’s great experience with your company. Continue to show your client appreciation and respect after they’ve already given you their money; it shows character, which is sorely lacking in most consumers’ buying lives these days.

Quality assurance = repeat business and referrals

Pick up the phone (or voice activate your Bluetooth, to be with the times) and give your client a jingle a few days after they’ve received their order.

Know your delivery times and methods. Know that if you place a print order with your lab on Tuesday at 2:45 p.m., your client will receive their print order sometime Thursday via FedEx Overnight shipping. Know that if you place that order at 3:15 p.m., your client’s order will most likely be delivered Friday. Pay attention and be aware, both so you can share this with your clients and so you know when to make that first follow-up contact.

When you call your client, your goal is the same as it has been all throughout your time with them: understand their needs and meet them to the best of your ability, with your best art and the best experience you can provide.

Here’s your checklist for the follow-up phone call:

“How are you enjoying your photos?” – Ask a few relevant and specific questions based on what your client ordered and what they talked about during your sales session. If a client buys a 20×30 piece of wall art, ask if they’ve had the chance to hang it; if so, ask where they went for framing and if they’re happy with that vendor. If a client buys a CD of digital images, ask if they’ve shared them with family yet, or ordered prints from their lab. Show an interest in how your clients are using your art.

“Did your order arrive on time and in good condition?” – Make sure the shipping times you are quoting clients match what’s being delivered by your lab or through the mail.

“All of the prints came out to your satisfaction?” – Give your client the opportunity to share concerns or problems with you. Don’t market a satisfaction guarantee if you aren’t willing to stand boldly behind it. Don’t beat your clients until they find something to complain about, but if they have a real concern, be sure they understand you are receptive to hearing it.

Those are your quality assurance questions. Be prepared for clients who may express dissatisfaction with some part of their order. Be ready to explain why an image looks different in print than on your laptop (ink vs. LCD), why their prints don’t have the same colors as what they see on their monitors (color calibration), why the print they ordered is “cut off” (cropping, image ratio vs. print size), why one print looks grainy and one looks clear (ISO noise, outdoor/studio lit vs. indoor/low light), etc.

Answer your client’s questions honestly and clearly. Most clients just need a bit of education and they’re satisfied. Be ready to stand by your guarantee, though – if a client is still not happy, offer to fix the problem if you can, or offer to refund that part of the order…

“Sure, I understand what you’re talking about. Because of the lighting, those indoor images do have more noise or grain in them. If I didn’t bump up the sensitivity of the camera once we moved inside, though, the images would have come out really dark.”

“I understand why you’re not happy with that print. If you’re not happy with it, I would be glad to do some Photoshop work on it and get a replacement print sent out from the lab. Would that work for you?”

“I understand why you’re not happy with that print. Because of the poor light, I’m afraid there isn’t anything I could do to fix that in Photoshop. If you’re not happy with it, I would be glad to refund your money for that print and you’re also welcome to keep it. Would that work for you?”

If you’re working with decent folks, and most clients are, they won’t ask for a refund or replacement if you explain why a print or image didn’t turn out the way they expected. If they ask anyway, you have to assume they are truly dissatisfied with that part of their order, and your best long-term choice is to cheerfully fulfill their wishes. Deal with the situation in a way that, if you were on the other end, would make you tell a friend, “I had a problem with one of my prints, but they took care of it, and quickly. No hassle. I’m very happy with them.”

If, for whatever reason within your market, you see too many requests for refunds or replacements (to the point that you’re losing an unacceptable amount of money), you may have to be less accommodating in order to run a profitable and enjoyable business.

“I understand why you’re not happy with that print. I would be happy to refund or replace the print for you, but I would need you to return the bad print. Is that alright?”

Some folks just like to complain. Some folks are happiest when they get something for nothing. By the time they get their order and complain, you probably saw it coming. But when you ask that kind of client to put in some time or effort to get their ‘freebie’ (as little effort as putting a 5×7 print in the mail to you), they’ll often just pass to avoid the bother. While I advocate above-and-beyond customer service, in no way do I suggest you should hurt your business to satisfy unreasonable clients.

A future article will address firing your worst clients, but in short, don’t be afraid to lose the business of a bad customer. And don’t fear losing their potential referrals – birds of a feather flock together; do you really want more clients just out to rob you blind?

That said, be realistic when evaluating how much damage your worst clients do. You don’t want to change a policy which hurts all of your clients, good and bad, when only one in 20 clients causes real trouble. Don’t overreact if one client now and then takes you for a ride. The many, many other good clients more than make up for that one loss.

But if your current market is overrun with foxes, don’t be afraid to guard the henhouse. Within a few months to a year, your client base will probably have upgraded by a level or two, and your ratio of BS to good business will have improved commensurate. Reevaluate your policies then.

Building long-term relationships

After the first half of your follow-up phone call where you ensure satisfaction, next work on the future of your relationship with the client.

“I’d like to stay in touch with you guys if I may. We have a fan page on Facebook and we send out a monthly e-mail newsletter with our latest specials, events, coupons and tips for clients to get the most from their purchase. Would it be okay if I add you to our list?”

If you haven’t already made this request during the sales session, make it now. Give yourself every opportunity to maintain a relationship and presence in your clients’ lives. When they or anyone they know are in need of a photographer, you want to be the first thought in their head – you want to be ‘top of mind.’

If they approve, befriend (befan?) them on Facebook (or MySpace, or Twitter, or whatever you use) and add their e-mail address to your newsletter list.

The referral engine – planting the seed

The referral engine, the processes you use to turn existing clients into your best marketing tool, has many small parts that make up the whole.

The first step is to simply plant the seed of referral in their minds:

“I like to ask all my clients, do you happen to know anyone who might be interested in our photography services?”

Referral incentive programs are worthy of their own set of articles, so I won’t go into them here, but if you have one, mention the benefits at this point.

You just want to expose your client to the idea of sending their friends and family your way. If they had an exceptional experience, they will likely do this anyway, but it doesn’t hurt to pose the question and help the wheels start turning.

Depending upon your sales methods (harder or softer), when a client does have someone in mind, you can either ask for that person’s contact information and permission to namedrop the referring client when you call, or you can simply offer to send your client a special e-mail to forward on to interested friends and family. Again, if you have a referral incentive program, mention the benefits.

Either way, let your client know that you’ll drop them a couple of follow-up e-mails in the next two weeks to make sure they get the most from their purchase.

The survey and the referral

Next up are a pair of e-mails to send to your client: a survey and a referral reminder.

I’m a big fan of the two-question survey:

“How would you rate your experience with our company and products on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a perfect experience?”

“If less than a 10, what could we have done better to make your experience a 10?”

Shut up and get out of the way. Don’t obsess over controlling the direction of your client’s response with loaded questions meant to elicit specific responses about specific areas of your business. Let clients tell you, in their own words, exactly what comes to their mind that would make your business a better one.

You’ll be surprised how much difference there is between what your clients think about and what you think they think about. Give their thoughts the consideration they deserve. Often, it’s the little things that count.

Send out your survey e-mail one week after you talk with your client by phone. Begin and close it with some copy reminding your client that you’re always available to answer any questions they may have, and that you hope they’re enjoying their purchase.

Your next e-mail will provide your client with all the info they need to easily refer their contacts to you.

Send out this second follow-up one week after your survey goes out.

In this e-mail, provide in brief your marketing message, and ask your client to forward the information on to any of their friends, family, or others who may be interested. This is a nice, soft way to ask clients for a referral. It also educates them to your business’ talking points – the best reasons why clients choose you over the competition. Let them know what to talk about and they’ll be ready to share when the opportunity arises.

Staying top of mind

A good e-mail newsletter is a wildly powerful thing. It is so easy to collect opt-in e-mail addresses from clients, and then for pennies, send them newsletters packed with great marketing – news, offers, coupons, contests, etc.

Facebook and other social media provide you another, more personal and interactive way to stay top of mind with your clients. Here you can keep up with clients’ lives while sharing your own professional life for fans to read about. Once a person or family becomes a paying customer, they become a part of your client community. Treat them as you would a neighbor – chat over the fence with them. Be yourself.

To be exceptional as a one-to-one marketer, which I feel is far more effective and lucrative than mass media for doing business as a part time photographer, you want to cultivate a very thoughtful, individual relationship with each client.

Should you dive into their personal lives? Share your own personal life with them? Unless you are one of those rare people who can pull off that kind of involvement and interest without creeping people out, I’d say again, treat clients warmly, but as a neighbor or professional contact.

Consider the ol’ Clip-and-Share.

Assuming you keep a handy customer database (as simple as a text file with a lot of notes about your clients; ages, birthdays, anniversaries, pets, jobs, hobbies, interests, what photo art and products they like or don’t like…), you can maintain a certain level of awareness about your clients’ needs and interests outside of photography.

When you come across something that would interest one of your clients, because of its relation to their job or interests (or their spouse’s), clip it and send it to them – e-mail a link, share a tweet, snail mail a magazine article, etc.

For example, one of my clients is involved in fundraising here in Bandera for Project Graduation, a non-profit event that gives high school seniors an alcohol-free place to party on graduation night. When I come across an article that highlights a new service or innovative project for fundraising, I forward that information on to her.

I have another client whose son has Asperger syndrome. I’ve sent her items weekly at times – news articles, book finds, blog posts. Another client had to cancel a shoot because her baby went into the ER with a high fever. You bet I called her the next evening to see how that baby was feeling.

Thoughtful gestures like these are far more effective than farming your client base for birthdates, then sending out a generic, mass-produced set of “Happy Birthday!” postcards each month. My gym and insurance agent both do it. I don’t even warrant a hand-initialed note. I’m worth “Thank you for your business,” signed, “The Soandso Staff” in Times New Roman.

Yeesh. Ain’t I special.

Whether in an e-mail, hand-written note, via an e-mail newsletter or on Facebook, be attentive, thoughtful, and ready to share things with your clients that will benefit their lives. Don’t spam, don’t hard-sell and upsell, just maintain a positive presence in their lives. The word-of-mouth referrals will flow.

Be real: care, and the clients will follow

Personal attention is the new black, in photography and just about every other industry. People want to be respected and treated as individuals.

The way you handle your follow-ups with each client helps lay the foundation for a lifelong professional relationship. Become ‘their‘ photographer. Establish loyalty when they’re a high school senior, for example, and you’ll be shooting their engagement, bridal, wedding, maternity, newborn, baby, children’s, and family photos for decades to come.

Carl Sewell in his book Customers For Life talks about how a single car sale is only worth a few thousand dollars to a salesman or dealership. But once you add in service, maintenance, repairs, swag, trade-ins, returning buyers and referrals over the course of a lifetime, any given customer is worth over a million dollars.

Take the time to treat every client like they’re worth a million bucks.

Personal attention in the form of thoughtful gestures sprinkled here and there will set you apart from your competition and give you a special place in the entire spectrum of a client’s consumer experiences.

When’s the last time someone with whom you spent $5 or $5,000 bothered to send you, you personally, a link they found for an interesting article on photography?

There lies the big opportunity, my friends.

Whether you’ve read just this final article or followed along with the entire Your First Customer Series, thank you so much for your readership. If it has proven a benefit to your entry into the world of part time professional photography, I am truly thrilled. I am blessed to have the opportunity to share my experiences with you.

I have pages and pages of notes for articles and projects I’m excited to share here on PartTimePhoto.com – these two initial series just scratch the surface of what’s to come. I hope you’ll visit again. You’re invited to bookmark the site and/or click on the handy-dandy free “Subscribe” button at the top of any page of this web site.

Next Steps

• Whether you’ve already shot one or a hundred clients, if you don’t have a customer database going, get started now. Start with your most recent shoot and go back from there. Write down names, family member names and ages, contact information, and everything you can remember about them that could be useful later on: jobs, schools, interests, hobbies, groups and associations, charities, supported causes, etc. Add as many clients as you can remember details for, and then as you gain new clients, add their names and information to your list. Study this list once a month to keep fresh in your mind the many opportunities to share beneficial discoveries with your client base.
• Brainstorm session: What’s the best follow-up from a business you have experienced as a consumer? How many great follow-ups can you recall? Do you see the opportunity here for your own business? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• We have only just begun, mates. PartTimePhoto.com will continue to grow with new articles, videos, and other great content to help you make the transition from amateur photographer to part time professional. If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What have you discovered is your best way to stay top of mind with clients? What have you experienced as a consumer that made you say, “Wow, that company really goes above and beyond for its customers”? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• How to prepare for your first photography client’s call – Your First Customer Series, Part 5
• Your first photo proofing and sales session – Your First Customer Series, Part 9
• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3

Home stretch folks! With this article on the photo proofing and sales session, we focus on the second-to-last article in the Your First Customer Series.

If you’re an ethical and honest businessperson, trust me when I say that showing and selling your photos is far less stressful than most beginning professional photographers believe it to be.

You don’t have to dress things up or make your art out to be something it’s not; you don’t have to hard sell or upsell or practice salesman chicanery; you don’t have to do anything that makes you squirm in your seat or leaves you reaching for the Pepto-Bismol.

Your goal when proofing photos for clients and “selling” them files, prints, and products, is simple and noble: do everything within your power to help your client get the most long-term enjoyment possible while staying within their budget.

You don’t have to try and convince your client to buy something they don’t want, but you do want to expose them to options they may not have considered.

For example, I always tell my clients…

“I’m a crappy salesman, I’ll tell you that from the start. I have no interest in selling you something you don’t want. I want to make sure you end up with something you and your family can enjoy for years and years. Let me give you a few ideas to think about as you’re picking out which images you want to buy…”

I then give them information on the products I really, truly feel they will get the most enjoyment from. Wall art for families, wallets for high school seniors, digital files for digital-native families, 8×10’s for elderly relatives, whatever suits that client’s situation.

So take a deep breath, feed the cat, stock food and drink nearby, and let’s dive into the ways you can best present your photos to a buying client and turn them into lifelong customers and referral-makers.

Presentation: Online vs. Live

The vast majority of photogs present proofs to clients in one of two ways: via online galleries or in-person live viewings on a monitor, big screen TV, or projection screen.

I’ll tell you right now from bitter experience: live outsells online every time.

Especially when you’re starting out, you’re likely to be selling to a lower-level buyer – they hired you because you were inexpensive, and they’re interested in getting the most value for their dollar. These are folks who are more interested in value than convenience; they’re more likely to “borrow” your online proofs, print them out regardless of quality, or just post them to their Facebook profile and never buy anything.

It’s no insult to your client to simply recognize trends like these. Even when your client does something that doesn’t strike you as fair (or sometimes even legal), you still want to respect them as clients and people and understand that they are coming from a different perspective than you.

There are ways to meet clients like these in the middle so they don’t become timesinks with no commensurate payoff in the end, but that’s a topic for another article. Today I’ll relate these clients to your photo sales session.

Putting images in an online gallery and letting that gallery of photos sell to your client on their own time and turf is a perfectly valid method to move product; but let’s be honest, it’s not the best way to present your art, educate and help your client get the most long-term enjoyment from their purchase, or build rapport.

A live sit-down with a client gives you face time, lets you build on their overall experience with your business, and lets you play expert adviser. Clients are bound to have questions, and if you’re not there to answer them or even help them know what questions they should ask, you’re doing a disservice to your art and to their ultimate enjoyment of your art.

That sounds more harsh than I mean it to; I know that most likely your inclination is to use the ease and convenience of online selling to do the heavy social lifting for you. A live proofing and sales session requires that you have a location to meet at (your home, their home, Starbucks) and a method to present your art (Apple iPad, laptop, projection screen) – these technical details come on top of the pressure to impress the client and not come off as a used car salesman. Add in the struggle and inconvenience of trying to match schedules with your client so you can get together and proof images for an hour or so, and online selling takes on a shiny veneer.

You’ll gain some time and take a bit of pressure off yourself, but there is a trade-off that I’m not sure balances out: no face time / experience-improving time with the client, no opportunity to educate and assist the client, and because of this, I can guarantee you will get a smaller sale from your shoot.

Clients, especially at the starter level, lean toward buying several small prints of their favorite images – a handful of 4×6’s. They’re cheap and because of one-hour photo labs, they’re familiar to the client. Clients often don’t think in terms of wall art, or groupings, or albums, or Facebook audio slideshows.

If you do find a client who buys these kinds of higher-end products from an online gallery, it’s most likely because a previous photographer already educated them. If you can avoid it, don’t play lackluster second fiddle to a more proactive photographer who came before you. Be that photographer who teaches their clients the value of higher-yield products – show them once, and they’ll be better buyers forever.

For years I did online viewings only, simply because it was easy and convenient. But I was consistently disappointed when my clients would buy strings of 4×6 prints, destined to languish in confinement within a dusty album or wooden box, deeply-tucked on someone’s bookshelf. My outlook fell to the point where I was just thankful when a client bought anything at all instead of stealing the dang proofs for their MySpace pages – forget about wall art or lay-flat coffee table books.

When I upgraded to live viewings projected on a 10-foot screen, the difference was monumental. I started moving some 16×20’s and 20×30’s for the first time, started feeling like I was using my expertise to help clients get real value from their buy, and most importantly for my business, revenues and profits both went way, way up.

There’s something about a scheduled proofing session where a client shows up, checkbook in hand, that creates the expectation of a notable purchase. It’s not as convenient as online, but that’s a good thing; it puts the client in the mindset that you are putting serious time and effort into helping them make a smart buy, and they’re going to reward you for that with a better purchase.

Online proofing and selling is cheap and easy; what mindset does that put your client in?

It won’t bankrupt your business, but online proofing is not going to do you any favors, either. When weighing your options, just be aware of the trade-offs – if they’re worth it for your situation or client base, don’t hesitate for a moment to go with online. Only you know what works best for you as a person and you as a business.

There are more than plenty of successful photogs who do proofing solely online – it’s by no means impossible. But I personally feel there’s more to be gained from the personal touch of live proofing, especially for a newly-minted pro photog in desperate need of repeat clients and all the word-of-mouth referrals they can get.

Whatever venue you choose, let’s explore how to maximize client adoration and personal profits at the same time – easily and ethically.

Proofing online? Get a retainer

I gladly offer online proofing to clients who prefer it to a live viewing. Sometimes folks just don’t have the time or inclination to drive out to the studio a second time. Sometimes they’re only in town for a short time and coming back to do a viewing isn’t possible.

We have a lot of dude ranches around my town and I pick up many family reunion shoots from their visitors. It’s not feasible to ask 12 groups from one big family to come in and view proofs when they’re only in town for a weekend – online is by far the better option for all involved.

I’ve found a simple and fair way to make sure I get paid for my time, run off potential right-clickin’ proof bandits, and give my clients an option to view their photos online at their convenience.

First, get a retainer. It’s this simple:

“We prefer to bring our clients into the studio to view their proofs on our big, color-calibrated monitors, but in your situation it may make more sense to put the proofs into a private online album so you and your family can look at the images on your time and make your purchase from home.

“We do ask for a $100 retainer to put your proofs into an online album, but you get 100% of that back as print and file credits, so there’s no extra charge.”

Then shut up! Let the wheels turn in their heads, and they will either agree that the online album is their best choice, or they won’t. If they prefer to drive back out for a live viewing, that’s their prerogative. If they balk at the retainer, stand your ground – let them know that because of problems you’ve had in the past, if you didn’t collect the retainer, you couldn’t offer online proofing at all. If they still balk, and it’s a deal breaker for them, let them go – odds are real good they’re just looking for a free ride.

I’m a big proponent of very customer-friendly policies, but again – you are a professional and you deserve to be paid for your time. Wild and woolly online proofing combined with my suggested pricing scheme of no session fee and no minimum order just draws too many digital proof bandits.

For the retainer amount, I like 10 times the price of your smallest regular print. If you charge $10 for a 4×6, ask for a $100 retainer. If you charge $40 for anything 8×10 or smaller, ask for a $400 retainer. Scale your retainer to match your print prices and your market – a part-time photographer averaging over $1,000 per client shouldn’t have the same online retainer as the startup averaging $50 or $100 per client.

A word about watermarks and copyrights

If you’re going to do online proofing, you’re going to get right-click proof bandits. The “it’s digital therefore it’s free to copy” mentality of netizens hasn’t waned much, despite the fine efforts by iTunes and company to create attractive alternatives.

I for one love it when my clients “steal” their proofs. Hell, retainer in hand, I encourage it. I tell them…

“You’re welcome to ’steal’ any of the proofs from your album for your Facebook, MySpace, or to e-mail to friends and family. If you have any favorites that could use some touch-ups, just let me know, and I’ll do some custom Photoshop work on them at no charge.”

(at least a half dozen grognards just clutched their chests and reached for the Bayer aspirin…)

“The only thing I ask is that you keep my framing on the image with my logo and web address on it.”

Never – I repeat, never – have I gotten into a copyright fight with a client over ’stealing’ proofs with this practice. If you just take a few minutes to educate them as to what they can and can’t do, then find ways to help them do what they want legally and fairly, they’ll do the right thing. As always, anyone who doesn’t is in the vast minority – don’t stress about them.

As with my philosophy on session fees and minimum orders, don’t treat your clients like criminals. They’re paying clients who love your art and experience and are willing to trade their hard-earned money for it. They’ve trusted you to do good work – trust them to do right by you. The few who don’t aren’t worth worrying about to the point that you degrade the experience for all your other clients.

As for how to watermark your images, you can see at the top of any post on this site an example of how I do mine. A semi-transparent thin bar across the bottom of the image with my logo on one side and web address on the other.

I don’t write PROOF in massive half-opaque lettering across the center of every image, nor do I put a massive © dead center on every proof, nor do I write DO NOT COPY all over my site and images. Do you think your clients feel respected and valued when you take every blatant precaution to guard against their stealing your photos?

If your default impression of your market is that of a bunch of thieves and criminals hell-bent on pillaging your business into bankruptcy, I’ll tell you now, you’re in the wrong business. Go into IT security – you’ll do great, kid.

Letting my clients post their watermarked proofs on their MySpace and Facebook pages has multiplied the volume of my business. There’s little better endorsement marketing you can get than a senior or family using one of your images as their default profile photo for all their hundreds of friends to see.

Educate your clients in a respectful way, then give them credit that they’ll do the right thing. They’ll respect the fact that you’re one of the rare few photographers that doesn’t treat them like bank robbers. It’s an easy way to differentiate yourself from your competition.

In a future article I’ll cover the wide, wide variety of venues you can use to do online proofing. You’ve got self-hosted, third party-hosted, full-service options and more. I use a self-hosted gallery with a shopping cart plugin. You may prefer to start off with a service like SmugMug to handle your online proofing and sales. You might use a combination of Flickr and e-mail to take orders.

Whatever you use, try to make the experience for your client as pleasant and simple as possible. Don’t let the service, technology, or process get between your paying clients and the art they want to buy.

The hardware – Live Viewing and Sales Session

Want to improve your per-client average on sales? Find ways to improve their overall buying experience.

The quality of your art is the first factor in how much you’ll earn per client, and what you can charge clients for your work. Second, though, is the experience your clients enjoy while working with you such as, during a proofing and sales session, how you present your art for their perusal and purchase.

Assuming you’re starting at the bottom and working your way up, you may do your first in-person proofing session on a slow little laptop in the middle of Starbucks. With time, clients, revenue, and investments back into improving your clients’ purchasing experience, you will eventually do live viewings in your own home or studio; on a big screen monitor, projection screen, or perhaps even in a dedicated viewing room with comfy couch, your art on the walls, and a waterfall in the corner.

Or perhaps not – you may prefer the privacy and free-spirited nature of doing location proofing sessions at the local coffee shop or in clients’ own homes. I’ve met photogs who do well with laptops and portable projectors to show full-size proofs right on a client’s wall. As they say in car sales, behind the wheel seals the deal.

From my experience, the larger you show your images, the easier it is to sell large prints. Most folks think an 8×10 is a big print, easily large enough to mount on their walls – at least until you show them how glorious their photos look as 16×20’s and 20×30’s.

Don’t discount using prints to sell prints. Many photogs for years have printed 4×6 proofs from photo shoots to use as sales tools. An investment of $10 or $20 on a set of printed proofs, including a few of your best shots as 8×10’s or larger, is a smart one.

Consider the benefits of printed proofs: equally effective for proofing on location or in your home/studio, no need for a laptop or computer monitor for display, no investment in new tech or equipment needed, tactile for clients to touch and handle, as mobile as a good laptop with no worries about dead batteries or technical issues, and probably best of all, they’re immediately available to sell: consumers pay better for convenience and immediate satisfaction. You can even offer the set of proofs as a single product for a discounted price. What you don’t sell you can use as examples for future clients.

However you show proofs to your clients, do so with confidence. Whether it’s on a 10-inch netbook or a 10-foot projection screen, feel good about the art you’ve made together and share it with enthusiasm. Your attitude, as much as your proofing tools, will help you sell your art.

The software – Live Proofing and Sales Session

Any computer you use for proofing is going to come with the software you need to show your art. Windows, Mac and Linux computers all have built-in image viewers that work great for displaying your art full-screen and zoomable.

Upgraded photo viewers, like the Bridge viewer that comes with Photoshop (which is what I use), add some helpful features like being able to tag or otherwise mark images as you view them. This is vastly convenient when you’re flipping through photos clients and your client says, “That’s a keeper… That’s a maybe… Oh, definitely no.” Two stars, one star, no stars – then you can sort and segregate accordingly. Easy peasy.

Most photo viewers include a slideshow option, which combined with some nice music, is a great way to initially present a photo shoot to your client. You can do this with your basic viewer and a separate music player like Windows Media Player or iTunes. Some advanced, sometimes expensive, photo viewers can do pretty fancy things to show off your photos. They often include royalty-free stock music that eliminates the legal complexities of what you can and can’t play during your presentation.

One of the most popular new photographer services is web-based Animoto, a slideshow program that makes very impressive slideshows easily – and importantly, for you to sell to your clients. A slideshow your clients can easily purchase and share with friends by e-mail or on Facebook is an attractive product that digital-friendly folks will pay well for. Animoto and similar purpose-specific software makes this an easy addition to your product offering.

For your hi-res digital file sales, you’ll also want some CD burning software, and if you have a decent printer, good label-making software. I use the freeware CDBurnerXP with the SureThing CD/DVD Labeler software along with the dead easy unitasker Avery CD/DVD Label Applicator to provide impressive CDs to my clients.

I also include a little “Copyright and License.txt” file on each CD which includes my contact info and in layman’s terms outlines what I ask clients to do or not do with their images. When I’m sitting with a client and burning their CD, I tell them about the file and what it’s for. Again, educate your clients and they’ll do right by you.

Location, location, location

There’s a great deal of talk and sometimes money put into where photographers hold court for their proofing and sales sessions. Some photogs do so in their clients’ homes, some do it in Starbucks on a laptop, some have beautiful and elaborate sales rooms.

While I believe in creating the most positive and memorable (as Seth Godin would say, ‘remark-able‘) experience possible for your clients, I’m also mighty frugal. I don’t think having a professionally-decorated sales room is overly beneficial if you’re selling to a low-end market. Does Wal-Mart have leather couches and fountains in its bathrooms? No, but The Madonna Inn of California sure does.

Scale your presentation to your market. Most of us want to end up in the fancy sales room with the projection screen and canvas prints on the walls, but that in no way means you have to or should start there.

Wherever and however you do your proofing and sales, be confident and comfortable. Don’t be ashamed if the best you can do is a set of 4×6 proofs laid out on your client’s dining table. Don’t be ashamed if you’re showing images in Windows Photo Gallery on a 10-inch netbook. Focus your energy on helping your client get the most enjoyment from their purchase and you’ll quickly bypass any imperfections in your presentation.

As an aside, I’ve always loved coffeehouses for client meetings. It’s modern, it’s artsy, it smells fantastic, the atmosphere is light and friendly, and four bucks is a great deal to ‘rent’ a table for a couple of hours.

Preparing To Proof

Okay – you’ve got a location and method for showing proofs to your client. Let’s get ready to make some money!

Regardless of where and how you present your proofs, be prepared:

• Dress nice and smell fresh. Don’t go overboard on the cologne or perfume. Remember, you’re still making an impression – present yourself as professionally as you present your art.
• If presenting on location, make sure batteries are charged and carrying case or bag is clean and organized. If you’re nervous, do a run-through of the entire process before your presentation. Software should be working great, your slideshow should look and sound good, photos all where you expect them to be and looking their best.

If you’re meeting a client at their house:

• Smile a lot, accept any hospitalities your host extend (drinks, snacks, tour of the house or property). Don’t take anything you don’t like, but allow your clients to be gracious hosts.
• Take control – find a great spot to present your art. A kitchen table is usually a good neutral ground where everyone can snuggle up and get a close look at the images together. Everyone should be comfortable and able to easily see the proofs.

If you’re meeting a client at a middle ground like a coffeehouse:

• Needless to say, get there first and get set up. As with an in-home sales session, find a great place to set up where clients can be comfortable and see your art. Try to find a quiet corner so everyone can be heard easily.
• Make sure your waiter or barista knows your name and that you’re meeting a business client. Let them know your client’s tab is to go on your bill, no question. Show forethought and preparation – your client will be both gratified and impressed. Consider a couple cups of coffee, glass of wine, or cappuccino a very worthwhile business investment.

If you’re meeting a client at your home:

• Be set up and ready to roll when your client arrives. Make sure the room is comfortable in temperature and light, that everything is clean. tidy, and dust-free, and that you have drinks and snacks available. For adult clients, it’s not inappropriate to offer a glass of wine. Having coffee brewed or brewing can also create a nice aroma and show your consideration of your client’s potential needs. Spray a light air freshener if you like – as with cologne and perfume, don’t overdo it.
• Make sure distractions are limited. Turn off the phone, TV, and radio unless it’s providing the soundtrack for your sales session. Have your spouse take the kids outside to play, out of earshot, and let them know not to disturb you during your session. Same with pets – a barking, jumping, scratching, whimpering dog will only annoy your client. You have control over your home, your domain – design as pleasant and delightful an experience as possible.
• Don’t forget to clean the yard and entry to your home. A great sales room only does you so much good when your client steps in dog poop or trips over your son’s bicycle on their way into your home.

Presenting & Selling

This is the moment that many new photogs worry about so much – showing art to a client and taking their money for it.

But if you’ve done your job – listened to your client, conducted an attentive photo shoot, and prepared your images and environment for presentation – this is one of the easiest and best parts of being a professional photographer.

Be confident. Feel good about getting to share the custom art you made for your client. There’s nothing to fear, so don’t let fear bog you down with nervous thoughts like, “What if my art’s not good enough? What if they’re disappointed in my photos? What if they think my prices are too high?”

Listen – your clients already want your art. If you ethically marketed yourself, your clients knew what they were buying before they booked with you. If you took your shoot seriously, did your homework, practiced, and then performed to your best ability, you’ll likely deliver art and an experience far beyond their expectations.

I like to start my proofing session with a slideshow. Often just a fade transition with some select tracks (legally licensed) playing in iTunes. It may take a few minutes, but a good slideshow with music can set the mood for your entire session.

As soon as the slideshow ends, let your clients share any comments of admiration, then be sure to compliment them on the shoot – tell them how much you enjoyed shooting with them and feel free to share an anecdote about one or two select images from the shoot. If you exude positivity and enthusiasm, so will your clients.

Here’s my general process (and as always, philosophy) to help you help your client get the most out of their art purchase:

I start, as noted above, by telling my clients I’m a horrible salesman and that my intention is only to help them buy what will give them the most long-term enjoyment and personal value.

“With that said…” I tell them what kinds of products I think they would get the most enjoyment from. Depending on the buyer (senior, senior parent, newborn parent, family of four, family reunion, 50th wedding anniversary, etc.), I’ll suggest different products that I feel they will enjoy. I always encourage clients toward more visible and sharable products like wall art for the home, wallet prints for friends, 8×10’s for close family, digital files for Facebook profiles, etc.

I tell clients that although most folks lean toward lots of small prints like 4×6’s, those tend to end up in boxes and albums that just collect dust and aren’t enjoyed daily. Wall art, for example, will become a centerpiece for daily enjoyment by family and a conversation piece with friends and guests.

Clients may ask for a reminder of your prices and a pad to write notes on; have these ready.

Flip through images first to last with your client giving a Yes, No, or Maybe on each one. Let them know this process is to cull down the overall selection and show only the best images they want to consider for purchase.

Once you’ve primed your client with some ideas and concepts they might not have thought of, tell them to start with the bigger pieces and go down from there, whatever they want to buy. “Start with what you really want to have and enjoy for a long time, and we’ll add in the rest as we go.”

After your first pass, clients will usually have cut down the selection by 50-percent or more. Keep in mind what I’ve said in previous articles – as your art improves, so too improves your ratio of must-have’s to good shots to leftovers. As you grow as an artist, clients will have a harder time not buying more and more of your art. You’ll see your per-client sales averages grow with every measure of style and experience you gain.

Separate out your No shots from your Yes and Maybe’s. Move the Yes and Maybe images into a separate “Best” folder, or if you use a program like Bridge with built-in rating and sorting features, filter that way. Separate the wheat from the chaff so your client can more easily peruse and purchase.

After the initial slideshow and the culling pass, your clients should now have a pretty good idea of their favorite images and what they want to buy. Bring up their Yes and Maybe images in a thumbnail view and make those thumbnails big enough to easily tell one from another (I tend to go for 8-10 on the screen at a time). Slowly scroll through the set, and ask your client what they would like to start with.

At this point, unless your client asks for advice, get out of the way. As they peruse images, slowly scroll through their options, and let them know they can ask you to scroll up or down, or to see an image full-screen. You’ve primed them to make an educated purchase, so give them control here and hush – let them consider and buy what they love.

If your client does ask your advice, give your honest opinion. If you have comparisons to offer from other clients, give them. If you have a personal opinion, give it. Just be honest, don’t try to upsell or be a salesman. You’re not trying to make money – you’re trying to help. Give advice as you would to a close friend. Treat a client as such, and they will respect you for it – and buy more because of it.

Let clients go down their mental list of what they want and need to buy. As they wind down or seem to get to the end of their list, ask if there’s anything or anyone they’re forgetting – desktop prints for the workplace, hi-res files for home or office computer wallpaper, prints for grandparents or extended family, prints for close friends or godparents (that’s one that is often forgotten), etc. Again, you’re not trying to make more money – you’re trying to help. You should never have to convince a client to buy something – your role is to present, advise, and facilitate maximum enjoyment.

When your client does finish their purchase, glance at your notes (you were taking notes during your presentation and proofing, no?) to see if there’s anything they mentioned wanting that they forgot to buy, then tally the purchase.

The grognards say you should never tally in front of a client. They tell you to go into a separate room to do the adding because, as the numbers climb, so will your client’s blood pressure. Walk back in, hit them with the total and without pause say, “How would you like to take care of that?” Don’t give them the chance to back out or have second thoughts, they say!

Here in Texas, that’s called horses***. Straight-up, hard-selling chicanery. If you have to trick and trample your client into buying beyond their wants or means, your business model is flawed, to say the least.

That said, when you do give your client a total cost, shut up! Photogs new to selling and not yet confident in the worth of their art are all too ready to start offering discounts and concessions, even before the client says a word.

“Well, umh, uhh, geez, ehh, the total is $254.42, but that’s a lot of money…how about $200 even? Is that okay? I can throw in some free 20×30’s, would that be alright? Or I could just give it to you for half off, err, uhh, how about just $125? Is that too much? I’ll throw in FedEx overnight shipping for free…”

To quote The Interwebs, “STFU!”

“Your total today is $254.42,” said with an adoring smile.

“Alright, will you take a check?”

“Certainly.”

Easy peasy.

Is that what you were so scared of?

If a client does balk at your prices or the total of their order, don’t devalue your work by providing discounts and concessions; offer to help them reduce the size of their order. Never negotiate or start discounting just because a client doesn’t want to pay your prices. Your art is worth what you ask, probably even more, but there’s no reason you can’t help a client identify where they can trim their order and still get great products to enjoy.

No matter what a client buys or how much they spend, treat them all with the same respect and enthusiasm. If a client buys one $10 digital file on CD, don’t scoff or insult their purchase. If a client buys $2,000 in massive prints, don’t fall out of your chair or become star-struck and gushy. Whatever the purchase may be, show humility, gratitude, and professionalism.

And don’t ever feel guilty for taking someone’s money. I’ve spoken with plenty of new pro photogs who expressed guilt for taking a hundred or so dollars from a client. Again, your art is probably worth more than what you’re asking, and it’s every bit the client’s right to buy what they want and can afford. If you sell to them ethically and honestly, you never have to feel bad for taking clients’ money. Most clients will hand you a check while thanking you for doing the work you do – it’s a good profession we are in.

Remember: just because you wouldn’t pay your own prices or couldn’t afford them, doesn’t mean your clients won’t or can’t.

Finishing Touches

Take your client’s payment and thank them for their business and the opportunity to work with them.

If you didn’t at the photo shoot, have them sign your model release right after they sign their check. Ask if you can send them your e-mail newsletter and/or add them as a friend on Facebook.

Explain what happens next; that their print order should arrive from the lab within 3-5 business days, or their CD will be available for pick-up in 15 minutes, or whatever is appropriate for their order and your delivery policies.

As soon as your client is out of sight, perform a well-articulated fist pump.

Soak it up – you’re a money-making professional photographer! Truly, from me to you, congratulations!

There’s one more article to go in this series: The Follow-up. I’ll share with you some hints and tips to make a great impression with your clients after the sale, and how to maintain a positive presence in their lives so you get the most and best word-of-mouth marketing possible.

As a side note, thanks for sticking with this article beginning to end. Six-thousand-plus words is a beast of an article to read online (roughly equivalent in size to 17 pages in a novel), but I hope what I presented here will greatly benefit your photography business. With a pinch of confidence and a lot of respect and love for your clients, you’ll soon have to hire people to count your money.

Next Steps

• Educate yourself on what royalty-free music is and where you can get it. Photogs don’t want people violating their copyrights, so don’t violate the copyrights of your fellow artists.
• Brainstorm session: Unless you’ve been hanging out in Tibet all your life, you’ve probably been a pretty regular consumer of commercial goods. You buy food, cars, electronics, toys, clothes, etc. What are some of the best sales / buying experiences you remember? What made them special? What about those experiences can you emulate in your own sales sessions? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• From tasty tidbits to long-form journalism, I do my best with PartTimePhoto.com to share my experiences as a part time professional photographer so you can confidently make your transition from an amateur photographer to a paid professional. If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What was your best-ever proofing and sales session like? How about your worst? What tips have you picked up that have helped you better thrill your clients and sell your art? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography
• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7
• The legalities of starting a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 3

The hardest part is truly over.

You’ve booked your first client, gone through a well-prepared and methodically-conducted photo shoot with them, and now you’ve got a few hundred images that you need to turn into a sales presentation.

Here’s where you get to admire your work and start making notes on likes and dislikes and what-to-do’s and what-not-to-do’s for next time and what to practice before your next shoot.

Assuming you’ve backed up your images to a second or external hard drive (I’m partial to Iomega and Seagate options myself), let’s start culling the shoot down to a digestible set of your most salable images and then give them some Photoshop love.

Culling your shoot

This is going to be painful. Gird yourself.

No matter how many photos you took during your shoot, no matter how many subtle nuances captured, no matter the number of seemingly equal variations, we’ve got to cull your shoot down to the very best.

How many? The number 50 has always been a good fit for me. If you primarily push large wall prints, a smaller and more purposeful set may be appropriate. For those of us in the digital age, selling digital files, 50 gives your client a good set to choose from. You’ll hope that your client asks “How much for all of them?” or that your client will cull your set down by half to around 25 and buy that many. If they buy less, they are usually on a strict budget and weren’t going to buy more anyway.

Nothing wrong with that at all – some clients buy more, some less, and 95% of the time you’ll more than have your time well paid for. When you don’t, you still gained experience and additions to your portfolio.

The best way to go about culling is to do an initial run and pick all your potential keepers. If you shot 400 images, by the time you toss all the bad expressions, half-closed zombie eyes, unflattering outtakes, and of course, utterly crap and/or out-of-focus images, you will end up with around 100 shots to concern yourself with.

Here’s where we take up the sage advice of two great thinkers of modern times, Steve Krug and Blaise Pascal:

“Get rid of half the text on your page, then get rid of half of what’s left.” – Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” – Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales

The point being, of course, that your first edit should not be your last.

If you don’t cull your shoot down to the very best, you’ll get two results:

A) Your client will be overwhelmed with so many photos to choose from and you’ll just end up wasting your time and theirs trying to whittle down their selection. You will likely frustrate and exhaust them in the process; and,

B) You will include too many “meh” photos, too many fair-to-middlin’ shots, and your client will be less impressed with your work. I shoot often with a fellow sports photog, very talented, whom I have long criticized (to his face, so I can talk smack here) for posting sooooo many images online. Backs of heads, no action, bad expressions… I tell him, “John Doe, you take some really good shots, but nobody’s going to wade through your 400 mediocre images to find your 40 real keepers.”

Fifty. 50. That’s the number to aim for.

Don’t kill yourself to get there, and have confidence in your artistic impression. If you feel you’ve got 80 really good shots and variations, show’em. If you feel you only have 25, then show only those. Give yourself some credit for knowing your art.

Many photogs will tell you that 50 is a loose cull, that you should get it close to 20 to show. I’ve found with portraiture, often my clients will go gaga over images that I wouldn’t have shown if I went with a tighter cull.

There’s art I shoot for myself and there’s certainly art that I shoot just for my clients; my art creates my style, but always, you want to balance style with salability. There’s something to be said for old standbys that sell every time.

If you’re having trouble finding 25-50 good images from your shoot, don’t stress – you’re early on in your transition to being a paid part time professional photographer, so give yourself some leeway. Try to find at least 20-25 images and let the client choose what they feel is worth trading their money for. Maybe they’ll drop $20 with you – just maybe they’ll drop $200. Some clients will spend as much on one big print of one favorite image as others may spend buying 20 digital files. Never underestimate your art or your clients. Give them the power of choice and get out of their way. Let’em buy what they love.

Post-processing

During your initial run of post-processing on the images you’ll present to your client, you want to stick to the 80-20 rule: 80% of the results from 20% of the effort.

You want to make your images look as nice as possible in the smallest amount of time. You don’t know what your client might buy, but you want to make a nice presentation so they are more inclined to purchase. Here, in the endless exploration that is Photoshop or your chosen equivalent, is where you can waste as much time as any marathon Facebook or MySpace session.

Don’t do it. Get in, make the proofs pop, and get out.

When I prep files for client proofing, I load them into Camera Raw in Photoshop CS4 (adjust my instructions to fit your digital darkroom of choice) and make universal adjustments to the entire shoot. I adjust white balance, brighten to taste, add a bit of contrast, bump the vibrancy, add a vignette if it’s warranted, and add as much fill light as I want to pull detail from the shadows.

I then quickly go image-by-image and fine-tune those changes I made universally to best fit that image. Sometimes I’ll grab a group of images, such as a set shot in shade, a set shot indoors, etc., and edit them together before making image-by-image adjustments.

What you adjust and where you take your image artistically is your call; it’s your art to create.

What you do in camera is only half the battle; what you do in post is almost as important as nailing the shot in the first place.

You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but showing your decent-and-better images some Photoshop love (without going hog wild…ha!) will only multiply their impressiveness and salability.

Once you’ve given each image a few seconds of attention in post, go back through and pick a handful (3-5) of your very favorites to do some extra post work on and add black-and-white versions of these. Use your spot healing brush to clean up blemishes and lines, soften skin, even out skin tones, dodge and burn to make the image pop where it should, then save a color version and black-and-white copy.

These will be your marquee images that really ring with clients during your sales session. Even if a client doesn’t buy one, they will see what you’re capable of doing with their favorite picks.

I’ll go into further detail on post-processing ideas and techniques in future articles; for now, just do what you know, do your best, and make those photos look nice. Just like learning to take great portraits in camera, learning to do good post work will take time and practice. Enjoy the fact that you’re getting paid all the while!

Take notes on what to improve

Want to multiply the rate at which you improve as an artist? As I mentioned in my Your First Photo Shoot article, taking notes on what you like and don’t like from your shoot will give you some real guidelines for how to improve your work.

When you’re done culling and post processing your shoot, make another pass through the images with notepad (physical or digital) in hand and write down another set of notes:

• What are your favorite images from the shoot? Why? Go into detail, explore your own artistic vision and preferences. Be verbose. You want to identify what to repeat next time.
• What are your least favorite images? Why? Be detailed here also. Is it the background? Lighting? Expression? Pose? Moment? Weather? Angle? Aperture?
• With this in mind, what are you going to do on your next shoot to create more favorites and fewer least favorites?
• What images do you think your client will love and buy? Do they differ from your own favorites as the photographer? Why? How can you balance the two styles? Step outside your own biased perspective and look at the images as a parent, senior, or bride.
• What resources (books, magazines, web sites, tutorials, forums, practice) can you draw on between now and your next shoot to better your best shots and bring your worst up from the trash bin? Try to identify at least one area of your art to better your knowledge in before your next shoot. Define a path to improve your photography.
• What will you do on your next shoot to create a better experience and better set of images for your client? This is a repeat from the last article, but worth doing again to both reinforce and introduce new ideas gained after post-processing.

In Part 9 of what is turning out to be a 10-part series, I’ll walk you through your first proofing and sales session. You’ll learn how to sell ethically and easily, letting your art and business policies do the hard work for you.

Next Steps

• If you’ve ever done a single photo shoot with anyone, for money or fun, go back over your images from that shoot and answer the note-taking questions posed above. As with your shoot, slow down and really evaluate. It doesn’t matter if you’ve done one or a thousand shoots; slow down and give yourself the opportunity to be conscious of your art and explore how you can make it better.
• Brainstorm session: If you could improve any three things about your art, what would they be? What resources can you find online or in your town that would help? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• Once this series is complete, I can up the pace of my posting and expound on many of the ideas I’ve touched on throughout. I plan to leave no nuance unnoticed in my effort to help you make the smooth and exciting transition from amateur photographer to paid professional. If you like what you’re reading here, feel free to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What’s one of the best post-processing tips or methods you’ve learned to improve your images after a shoot? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7
• How to make money as a part time portrait photographer – Startup Series, Part 1
• Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people – Your First Customer Series, Part 2
• How can I find time to be a part time photographer? – Your First Customer Series, Part 1
• Your first photo proofing and sales session – Your First Customer Series, Part 9
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/culling-and-post-processing-your-first-photo-shoot-your-first-customer-series-part-8/feed/ 2 http://parttimephoto.com/your-first-photo-shoot-expectations-and-results-your-first-customer-series-part-7/ http://parttimephoto.com/your-first-photo-shoot-expectations-and-results-your-first-customer-series-part-7/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:06:29 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=357



Ooh baby, it’s showtime.

(Speaking of showtime, here’s tip #1 for starting your first photo shoot right: show up on time. And on time means at least 10-15 minutes early. Guaranteed: if you don’t, your client will.)

You’ve booked your first client, gone over your personalized pre-shoot checklist, and just parked at the location you chose for your first official photo shoot. Grab the paper bag, don’t hyperventilate, and get ready for a terrifyingly exciting ride. Here’s where you get to shine – here’s where you create art that your client can’t live without buying.

Okay, assuming this really is your first rodeo, a more reasonable goal may be to just walk away an hour later with images that are in focus and salvageable in Photoshop.

Just like anyone who has ever tried their hand at “something new,” your first time isn’t going to be your best. I don’t believe so much in aiming for the stars and landing in the heavens as I believe in mindful preparation and doing your best. It’s all that can be asked.

You can knock it out of the park later on; for now, let’s just worry about getting around the bases, one at a time.

Slow down

On your first shoot, you’re going to deal with a heap of emotions and self-induced pressure:

• You don’t want to come off as a clueless amateur.
• You don’t want to give a bad impression and be talked poorly of.
• You don’t want your client telling all their friends how horrible a photographer you are and ending your career before it starts.
• You don’t want to throw up on your client.
• You don’t want to pass out.
• You don’t want to forget every single thing you’ve learned about portrait photography and end up with nothing but out-of-focus photos of people’s faces, contorted in disgust and venomous rage over your session being a complete waste of their time.

It ain’t pretty, but it’s true; you will probably be struck with the fear of any one of these escalating nightmares coming true. The good news is, they are nothing but fears; reality, I can tell you from experience, is far, far kinder than your own imagination.

More good news is, the first thing to do on your shoot is slow down.

(Repeat for effect: s l o o o w d o o o w n.)

The quickest way you will screw up your entire photo shoot is if you get nervous, worry too much about impressing the client, and melt into a lightheaded rush.

When you show up (early!) for your shoot, sit in your car and relax to some good tunes. Close your eyes. Take some deep breaths. Strike up the ol’ affirmations if you want: “I see myself taking my time, smiling and enjoying shooting with my client, and making the best photos I can for them.”

Deep breath.

Repeat.

Now that you’ve got your head on straight, step out of your car and don’t touch your gear. Close the car door.

Stretch. Breathe.

Look around. Smile and thank the stars you’re here today living the dream.

Start assessing the location you’ll be shooting at. Walk through the shoot in your head. Where’s an easy place to start out? Look for a comfortable place for you and your client, quiet preferably, with easy lighting and backgrounds, to test equipment and play get-to-know-you. If you did a dry run at the location during your pre-shoot checklist, just walk through your vision for the shoot one more time as a refresher.

Once you’ve surveyed the area and have your first few spots picked out to shoot at, pull your gear out and quickly test everything. Make sure your gear is where you want it and your camera settings are where you want them to be.

Feel free to walk over to your first setup (we’ll call good shooting spots ‘setups’), snap a few shots, and evaluate for exposure and background. Get things set to where you like them in your camera so when your client arrives, you won’t be fiddling too much with gear as you lead them into their first shots.

Client arrival & encouragement

When your client arrives at the location, do all the charming things your mother taught you. Greet warmly, firm handshake, smile, chat nicely, ask questions, laugh. Have some fun. Be serious about making the best images you can, but you’re not foreclosing on someone’s childhood home, you’re taking pretty pictures; allow some levity into the atmosphere.

One of the most important things you’ll do with any client is make them feel comfortable and confident. A photo shoot is as much about the experience as the resultant images; from the start, show your client a good time and give them consistent encouragement.

“Hey, we’ve got some beautiful weather today and you look great; we’re going to have an awesome photo shoot.”

“I really like the outfit you picked out, it looks great on you and it’s going to look really good with this scenery.”

“Wow, we’re getting some great photos here; the background is great and you’re really photogenic. I am very happy with these shots.”

To quote my choir teacher from high school, it doesn’t take a mental giant to do this.

Don’t be smitten, don’t be inappropriate with compliments, and sure as hell don’t be insincere. Look at your client with honest and thoughtful eyes and see the best about them to talk about. Maybe their glasses are stylish. Maybe their hair looks great. Maybe they look like a train wreck, so compliment their distinctive style.

Just a few words of encouragement sprinkled throughout a photo shoot can relax your client, who is almost guaranteed to be more nervous and uncomfortable than you are. Give them some confidence, their guard will go down, and you can really connect and make some images that show their best.

Chat with your client as much as you like before your shoot; let them know you’ve got some ideas for great pictures, but you want to know if they’re looking for anything specific or Artist’s Choice. Nine times out of 10, they just want you to do what you do best, but it’s good to ask. Help your client feel empowered as well as encouraged – if they don’t want the power, then make them feel they are in good hands. Some gentility and a good attitude will take you far in your art and business.

Once you’ve got a rapport going, it’s time to step up to the plate. Lead them to your first setup and get to work – showtime.

Your first shots

Your first shots – in fact, most of the shots you’ll take – will be test shots.

Get your client in place at your first setup, let them know they can relax while you do some shots to “test the lighting,” and do just that – snap a few and see what you get.

Here’s where we slow down – here’s where we guarantee the best possible images from your first photo shoot.

What you’re going to do is snap a few shots, then pause to look at them on your camera. You’re going to evaluate every set of images you make, and then make adjustments to get better and better photos.

• Look at your exposure: Too bright? Too dark? Just right? Remember, expose for your subject, not the background; don’t silhouette your subject with a perfectly-exposed sky behind them, and don’t blow out the human in the photo to get a nice exposure on the dark tree behind them. Try to shoot from an angle that gives you a background as even as possible with the light on your subject. When you can’t, don’t sweat: just remember, expose for the subject, not the background.
• Look at your settings: How’s your shutter speed? F-stop? If your shutter is too slow, you’re going to get blurry photos from camera shake or subject movement. If your F-stop is too low / wide, you’ll only have inches of depth-of-field to work with and you’ll likely end up with the best part of your subject, their eyes, out of focus. Raise your ISO if you need to give yourself a boost on either of these other settings.
• Look at your background: What’s going on behind your subject? Is it a clean, complimentary background? Are there people, cars, signposts, trash cans, or other distractions? Are there any trees, flagpoles, or telephone poles growing out of their heads? Adjust your angle up, down, or sideways to clean up your background.
• Look at your subject: Books have been written on how best to photograph the human face. For your first shoot, we’ll take aim at just a few biggies: shadows, expression, pose. This is where you’ll work your magic with a client to capture their best in your photos. Let’s give this one it’s own subhead…

Look at your subject

Here’s where so many photographers new to portraiture get discouraged and lose confidence. What you observe and adjust about your client’s face to get the best possible image will separate you from the wannabe’s.

Shadows: Unless you’re going for an artsy look, you want nice, soft, even lighting across your subject’s face. You want both eyes to catch some light and have life in them. You want light to come from roughly 45 degrees above and behind you, off to either side up to 45 degrees if you like.

This is why midday portraits are so challenging: your subject is lit from directly above, hiding the eyes and casting unflattering shadows.

Adjust your client’s body and face left, right, up, down, spin them around if you have to, to get pleasant light on their face. Remember that the camera will magnify the depth of shadows, so as with every setup you do, take some test shots and evaluate.

Harsh lighting is the most common challenge you’ll face shooting outdoors. If your client faces the sun, they’ll squint and tear up; if they turn sideways to the sun, half their face disappears; if they turn 180 degrees to the sun, their hair will blow out; if you put them fully in the shade, your background will probably be overexposed.

This is something you’ll have to learn to overcome with experience and practice. Be mindful of it as you shoot, keeping an eye on your subject’s face and the background behind them.

Above all else, no matter what other factors involve themselves, you want to properly expose your subject’s face and capture the best expression you can. In the sales session, your client will care far more about your getting a great photo of them than a perfect exposure on the background behind them.

Expression: Here’s where it pays off when you encourage your client and instill in them some confidence in front of your camera.

Getting an honest, personal, individual, telling expression out of a client is an art in itself; certainly worth of its own article in the future. There is so much nuance and psychology and personality involved in drawing out the best expression from a client.

Putting your client in the wildly unnatural position of being photographed, recorded, vulnerable in front of the camera, and then getting perfectly natural photos of them in that situation, is an area you will learn to master as you grow as a professional photographer.

Use your charm and social judgment to get natural expressions from your client. Get them to laugh. Get them to make goofy faces at you. Get them to look angry. Then happy. Then super-happy. Then angry again. This role playing will almost always draw a laugh or smirk out of them. Help them loosen up and be themselves and you’ll capture the best of them.

Pose: Posing is another factor in getting the best images of your client. This is also a subject about which many books have been published. In fact, go buy one or two right now. The illustrations and advice will give you far more knowledge and confidence than I can instill with mere words here.

In brief, you want to pose your client in a natural way that best compliments their unique body characteristics. In many ways, you want your posing to reduce or eliminate so-called “flaws.”

Double chins, big foreheads, big ears, big noses, lazy eyes, flabby arms, muffin-tops… You’ve got your work cut out for you, my friend.

But fear not! Honestly, most clients are reasonable human beings and know exactly what they look like, “flaws” and all. Play up their best features and reduce what they don’t like so much. As in all things, do your best; you’ll do fine.

Seriously though, invest some money in a good posing book or some time on a good web site that teaches posing. Even if you throw out all the canned “tried and true traditional” poses, what you learn about using poses and lighting to best compliment different faces and body types will pay dividends in every portrait you shoot.

Everyone is beautiful in their unique way, about this I have no question. It is a joy to me as a photographer to get to know and understand a client, to connect with them, and to best capture what makes them a beautiful person in this world. Sometimes it’s a laugh, a smile, a raised eyebrow, a stoic presence, a spiritual vibe, a loving aura…beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Step up – here’s where you earn your supper.

Pacing the shoot

Remember, you’re in control of your shoot. But for random acts of God, you’re given the reigns when it comes to pacing your shoot.

And I’ll say again: slow down.

You’re in a photo shoot. There’s no rush, there’s nowhere to be, there’s no finish line to cross. You’ll probably be shooting for around an hour or so, which is plenty of time to get a wide variety of great images with your client in a variety of setups.

Be methodical: set up, pose, shoot a few testers, evaluate, adjust, test, evaluate, adjust, test, shoot for real and work on capturing the best expressions and moments you can.

Getting the best possible shots during a shoot is a lot like solving a puzzle. Pace yourself and enjoy the experience just like you would while doing a good crossword puzzle, playing Jenga, or getting in a game of The Sims.

The very fact that you’re reading this article right now means you are miles ahead of most people, in artistic investment and business acumen. Take pride: even if you haven’t shot your first client yet, the education you are providing yourself through this blog and other sites and sources is putting you head and shoulders above most people to have ever touched a camera. You care. You’re trying. And that’s worth a lot.

As you proceed from setup to setup, work over your subject from different angles and distances at each spot. If you’re shooting them at a park bench, get a nice close headshot, then a layback shot on the bench, then some wide shots of them sitting on the bench, then doing a handstand on the bench – or whatever you want.

Nail your must-have shots, your bread-and-butter images that you know will sell well after the shoot, then experiment. Play around with ideas and just let your creativity flow. Once you feel you’ve worked over a setup for all the shots it has to give, move on to the next setup.

Repeat until your time is up.

Don’t be afraid to shoot the same shot at different times and setups throughout your shoot. Give yourself plenty of variety to choose from during post-processing. Keep shooting, testing, evaluating, adjusting, and shooting some more. Trust me; the headshot you get of your client toward the end of your shoot will probably be far more natural and pleasant than the first of the day.

Calling it a day

When time is up on your shoot, again turn on that charm your mother taught you and send your client off with more encouragement.

“This was a really great photo shoot, thank you so much for the opportunity. I really enjoyed it and I think we made some great photos today.”

“I’m really happy with how everything went today. The weather was right and you were really working the camera. We’re going to have some great photos to look at.”

“I think we got some photos today that you guys will really like. This is a great place for a photo shoot and we caught some great evening light.”

Lead your client back to your car and explain to them the remainder of the photo buying process:

• Show them your standard model release, explain what it means and what it’s for (“This just gives me your permission to use your photos in my portfolio or in an ad for my [senior, bridal, family, baby, whatever] photography business.”), and have them fill it out, including contact information and e-mail address.
• Ask if they enjoyed the photo shoot. Then ask if you may add their e-mail address to your newsletter list. If you offer a coupon for new subscribers, let them know what they’ll get and how they can use it during the coming proofing and sales session.
• Let them know you shot a ton of photos, but you’ll cull them down to the best from each pose and setup, looking for the best expressions and moments. If you recall a specific shot from the shoot that you know is good, mention it as an example. (“I loved the shot of you laying back on the park bench, the light was just right on your face; that will definitely be in there.”)
• Set a date, time, and location for your client to get with you to view the proofs and buy their prints and files. If they want the images in a private online album, collect your retainer for this service and let them know when they can expect an e-mail from you with a link to the images.
• Ask if they have any other questions, thank them for a great shoot, and then release them back into the sea.

Congratulations – you’ve survived your first photo shoot! Hopefully with grace and aplomb, but if not, no worries. So long as you were courteous, encouraging, had some fun, and made some solid images, you’ve had a pretty fantastic first shoot.

If you threw up on the client and all your shots were out of focus…well, everybody has to start somewhere!



Taking notes on what to improve

Do you want to multiply the rate at which you improve as a photographer? Whip out a pad and pencil (or digital equivalent) as soon as your client leaves and get ready to jot some notes.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and flow of a shoot, then the euphoria of its end, without ever really slowing down to take stock of what went right and what went wrong.

The secret is to be conscious of your work.

Just like slowing down to evaluate each set of images you make during the shoot, you want to take a moment after to take note of your thoughts on how to improve for next time.

Pencil, stylus, keyboard, or touchscreen in hand, answer these questions:

• What was your favorite part of the shoot? Go into detail. Was it nailing a certain shot? Joking with the client? Getting to know the client and making better images for it? You tell me.
• What was the worst part of the shoot? Nerves before? Mind-melt during? Did the client have no sense of humor? Did you have no sense of humor? Details.
• What do you think your client’s favorite and worst parts of the shoot were? Do these differ from yours? Try to step into their shoes as self-conscious and inexperienced subjects and explore what you feel they most and least enjoyed.
• This knowledge in hand, what can you do differently or better next time to improve your client’s experience?
• Briefly looking at your images on camera, what do you like and dislike from the shoot? Best? Worst? Why? Where did you ace it, and where did you miss? How can you do better next time? Be specific; give yourself something real to grab onto and improve.

Head home, plug your card into your computer, back up your images, then back’em up again to a second or external hard drive.

In the coming final articles of this series, I’ll go over culling+post-processing, the proofing+sales session, and how to follow-up like a rock star.

Next Steps

• Take another pass through the Flickr archives to see what kinds of portraits other photographers are making in the great outdoors.
• Like a good actress or actor, grab a mirror, and talk out some of your photographer-client shpeel. Have a mock conversation with a client, from introductions on location to posing and joking around to fond farewells. Have fun. Be silly. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Life is good.
• Brainstorm session: What’s the worst thing that could happen on your photo shoot? What’s the most realistic worst thing that could happen? How can you prepare for it? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• What was your first photo shoot like? What were the biggest lessons you learned? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people – Your First Customer Series, Part 2
• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
• Your pre-photo-shoot checklist in four easy steps – Your First Customer Series, Part 6
• It’s digital: go crazy! How to make great photos by accident
• Open your eyes and make beautiful photos where you are now
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/your-first-photo-shoot-expectations-and-results-your-first-customer-series-part-7/feed/ 6 http://parttimephoto.com/should-you-buy-an-apple-ipad-for-your-photography-business/ http://parttimephoto.com/should-you-buy-an-apple-ipad-for-your-photography-business/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:46:55 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=338



My business sense and my technology lust often find themselves in severe conflict.

Apple’s official unveiling yesterday of the new iPad tablet computer is yet another case where I find myself trying a little too hard to justify a tool as a worthwhile investment for part time photographers. A sure sign of lust over love.

As with any tool, It’s All In How You Use It (TM!).

Pro Argument – The ultimate portfolio

Scott Bourne at Photofocus hit the nail on the head with his initial assessment of the iPad; for the foreseeable future, the Apple iPad will reign as the ultimate portable portfolio for photographers and other visual artists.

Apple already showed how slick photo viewing could be with the iPhone. Bourne says he has picked up numerous shoots using his iPhone as a portable portfolio, and I can back that up; it’s one thing to hand someone a business card, and another thing entirely to hand them your iPhone with your portfolio presented with music and animation.

Apple knows how to make it easy to look good.

The iPad is going to bring this ease and intuitive design to the presentation of your photography portfolio. If the iPhone’s little screen can land clients, imagine the impression you can make with 9.7 inches of beautiful screen real estate.

If you get a notable amount of your business from ‘F8 & Be There’ marketing (physically being where your clients are), the iPad will only multiply your returns.

Besides the carry-and-show portable portfolio scenario, imagine how this thing will look on a stand showing your images at events.

Is shooting local high school sports a part of your senior marketing mix (article forthcoming)? Set up your iPad to display animated slideshows and videos of your work with a stack of business cards at the concession stand. Or put a good screen protector on it and invite people to flip through photos on their own. Same goes for any kind of event.

If you sell prints from events like this, I can see a good season’s worth of increased print sales helping the iPad pay for itself, not even counting the increase in portraiture inquiries. During halftime or a break in the event you could visit with people at the concession stand and have an immediate ice breaker.

Differentiation is a big part of growing your client base in a competitive market, so if you start getting buzz from walking around and showing off your work on an iPad, you’re making waves that your competition is not with their printed portfolios, if they even have them.

The iPad can definitely help you build your client base one person at a time, which is a method I am a huge advocate of.

Seven ways I can see the iPad paying for itself as a photography business tool:

• Proofing: The iPad costs less than most projectors or laptops and will give you a unique and stylish way to do a proofing and sales session with your clients on location. With a gorgeous landscape+portrait screen, intuitive controls, photo+audio+video capabilities, and slick presentation build in, the iPad is the perfect setup-anywhere sales tool. If you don’t have a home or retail studio sales area with couch, desktop, projector, and mini bar, the iPad is by far the best value you can get in a sales presentation tool. When you’re pinching, pulling, and sliding images around, clients will be impressed.
• Portfolio: As mentioned above, the iPad will let you show off your images to anyone whose eyeballs you can wrangle, and it will leave a big impression on them. As great culinary artists will attest, presentation is as important as the product.
• Access: In relation to having a portable portfolio with style, the iPad for years is going to be a popular item that draws interest. Carry one around or be seen using it and you’ll have an instant common point of discussion with most people. Ever notice, if you carry around a dSLR, that people are very comfortable in approaching you and asking about the camera or photography in general?
• Booking: With this one tool in one place at one time, you can show off your portfolio, look at your calendar and book a shoot on the spot, collect a potential client’s information, do a pre-shoot consultation and show them examples of wardrobe and accessory choices, and e-mail them a copy of your pre-shoot checklist for clients and latest newsletter. Can you do all this with a laptop? Yes, but you’ll look like an egghead. Can you do it with a smartphone? Yes, but you’ll look like a dweeb. The iPad lets you do all this with style. Again, presentation.
• Display: Set this thing up to play a slideshow of your images and promotional videos at any event with a stack of business cards. Let the iPad sell your work for you. An iPad on a display stand is vastly more approachable than an open laptop.
• Ease-of-use: When a tool is easy to use, you’re much more likely to use it. I was completely prejudiced against the iPhone…until I used it. Then I bought it (for $100 less than the iPad starts out at). Then I loved it. Owning an iPhone has been revolutionary for me, in the access I have to communicate with people and in how I use little bits of free time. Keeping up with e-mail, MySpace, blog reading, the news… Having connectivity anywhere, and absolute ease in making use of it, has brought far more value to my business than what I shelled out for the tech to enable it. If the ease and fun of using an iPad helps you to keep your photography business’ blog updated, to tweet daily, to get out that monthly e-mail newsletter, to be seen by and around your target market, to market on MySpace or Facebook – and enjoy it – then you’ll reap great rewards from owning an iPad.
• Impression: I’ve touched on this several times already, but it bears repeating: the iPad will let you make an impression on potential clients unlike anything else in its price range – and you can make that big impression anywhere. You don’t have to buy a billboard, you don’t have to haul around a 30” monitor or projection screen, you don’t have to boot up a laptop, you don’t have to set up a kiosk, you don’t have to court around a one-trick-pony printed portfolio, you don’t have to limit yourself to still images, you don’t have to buy presentation software and learn to use it, you can change the contents and presentation on the fly…and look like a modern, savvy professional while doing it.

Con Argument – Keeping the purse strings drawn



As much as I advocate investing in tools that make your life as a part time photographer easier, more fun, and more profitable, I also believe wholeheartedly that one of the ways to guarantee success is to vigorously control expenses.

Looking at the forums of eloquent discussion between photographers online, one would think that professionals spend more time arguing and debating than actually taking photos. “What should I buy next?” is always a hot topic that draws mountains of sage advice; it’s easy to spend other people’s money.

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket, according to the great Will Rogers.

Before your fall in lust with any piece of potential camera kit or marketing mix, you have to compare what you’ll gain to what you’ve already got.

If you are specifically not the type to go around with your portfolio, showing off your photos and landing clients because of it, the iPad is going to be more of a luxury purchase than a smart business one.

Showing off a portable portfolio to people is certainly an effective method of marketing, but if you’re not that outgoing, it’s going to be real hard to argue your returns on a $499 tablet computer. You probably can’t edit photos nearly as well as on a desktop, the hard drive isn’t much larger than your camera’s memory card, and it’s easier to type venomous posts in the forums with the honest keyboard of a laptop.

The iPad is a beautiful piece of tech, a revolution, doubtless a real pleasure to use… But as a valuable and necessary part of your part time photography business, if not for visceral punch with potential clients, there isn’t anything it can do for you as a photographer that comparably-priced alternatives don’t trump.

Here’s a list of 10 other worthwhile ways you could invest five benjies into your business (based on Jan. 28, 2010 prices):

• Save it: Put those $499 back in the bank. Stick it in savings. Hold onto it for a rainy day. Guaranteed, at some point in your professional career, you will need it. [You weren’t thinking of buying your iPad on a credit card, were you? O_o]
• Lens: Freshly-minted professional photographers often lose sight of the value of good lenses behind the sparkling glare of features found on new camera bodies. I’ve seen many photogs walking around with $1,500 camera bodies and $50 kit lenses on the front. Lenses hold their value better than any other gear you can buy, and even a cheap dSLR will benefit from having good glass attached. My favorite under $500 is the Tamron 17-50/2.8.
• Camera: A lens is only a good purchase if you have something to put it on. If you’re still sporting a point-and-shoot camera, assuming you’ve about mastered its use, stepping up to a good dSLR will open up a new realm of artistic opportunities for you. Going from P&S to dSLR is a challenging step (learning how to control depth of field alone will set you back a month), but it will by far raise the ceiling on your artistic growth and image quality. My pick at $499 is the Canon Rebel XS with kit lens.
• Computer: As professional photographers, we spend as much or more time sitting at a computer as we do taking photos. Upgrading here will let you work more efficiently and quickly so you’re spending less time waiting for pics to load and more time shooting or marketing. $499 goes a long ways these days with both laptops and desktops; if you want to do presentations, in-person location proofing and sales, or just prefer to stay out of the house, go for a laptop. Otherwise, you’ll get more power for your buck with a desktop. I like Gateway, myself.
• Monitor: On the same token, with as much time as you spend in front of your computer, a good monitor upgrade will give you more screen real estate to work with, less eyestrain, and better color reproduction. Pick one up with a decent color calibration tool to have confidence when processing that what you see is as true as possible. You can pick up a gorgeous LG 27-inch or Samsung 25.5-inch with cash left over for a calibration tool such as the Spyder3Express.
• Software: $499 won’t quite get you to a full copy of Adobe Photoshop, but you can easily pick up Lightroom 2 + Elements 8 and get 95% of the benefit for a third of the price. Grab Scott Kelby’s Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers and Elements 8 for Digital Photographers and become a master of your software domain. $250 will get you a year’s worth of unlimited Animoto videos for commercial use, which if you make use of it, will impress the heck out of your target market and even give you a new line of products to sell.
• Marketing: Much as I push free marketing through social media and being in front of potential clients, $499 can have long legs with paid marketing if you use it right. Consider a monthly direct mail campaign to the homes of 50 potential high school senior photo clients, weekly classified ads in the services section of your local newspaper, small weekly display ads in the sports pages of your newspaper, a banner ad on your Chamber of Commerce or newspaper web site, or a co-op marketing campaign / contest / program with several businesses that serve the same area and market as you (families, seniors, new parents, etc.). For $499, if you target tightly, you should be able to get a year’s worth of exposure in front of potential clients.
• Education: Five benjies will take you a long way with books, e-books, magazine subscriptions, instructional DVDs, professional association memberships, and workshops (if you spend your dollars wisely). Invest in resources that will broaden your business, marketing, and artistic horizons. There are hundreds of good options here, but to name just a few: the Duct Tape Marketing book, W Magazine (massive fashion magazine full of inspiration), any PartTimePhoto e-book (all I need to do is write one!), Lynda.com for Photoshop tutorials, your local PPA guild, PPA Super Monday workshops…this list could go on and on and on.
• Business: Drop that $499 on getting your business in order. Score some time with a good accountant to make sure you’re handling your finances, budget, and taxes right; invest in a nice portfolio web site or WordPress theme; get your logo designed; get your business cards designed and printed; then set up your e-mail marketing and integrate it into your web site and every part of your business. Get all your ducks in a row so that you can concentrate on showing love to your art, to your market, and to your clients. With a solid foundation and the confidence it provides, you can quit worrying and start working.
• Health: Call me too holistic if you want, but I will never shy away from saying that taking care of your health is as important to your business as taking care of your art and your marketing. I know from experience that when you’re overweight and out of shape, it affects every facet of your life, including your ability to do your best work in your business. $499 invested with a personal trainer to talk about exercise and diet will give you a lifetime’s worth of beneficial knowledge. With the leftover cash, schedule a visit with a dietitian and sign up for a local yoga class. These can be personally challenging steps to take, but just like with knowing your business is well taken care of, the confidence you have from knowing your body is taken care of will pay dividends artistic and financial.

So am I going to buy one?

Hell yes I’m going to buy one.

Even though at this point, having like most people yet to even touch the thing, my impression of the iPad is that it’s a really big iPod Touch / iPhone.

But after my conversion from a non-believer to a devout iPhone user, I have faith in Apple that once the creature is in my hands, I will find the return on investment to be far higher than I could have imagined.

I’m a very social and outgoing kind of guy, so the iPad is a perfect match for my personality. If it does nothing but replace my Dell netbook, with its cataclysmically-placed apostrophe key, it will earn its keep.

Stylish mobile blogging, portable portfolio, wow factor with clients, proofing and sales sessions at Dairy Queen over Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Blizzards…

…oh yes. I think so.

Next Steps

• Hurry up and wait. If you want to buy an iPad or read real-world reviews of how well it works in the hands of professional photographers, only time will tell.
• Brainstorm: What are all the ways you could make use of the iPad’s unique features (style and impression being valued features) to improve your photography business? Where could you possibly better invest your $499? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• PartTimePhoto.com is your source for real-world advice for part time professional photographers from a part time professional photographer. If you like what you read here, please don’t hesitate to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• Are you excited or deflated by the possibilities the iPad brings to the photography industry? Did I miss any good $499-and-under investment recommendations? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How to prepare for your first photography client’s call – Your First Customer Series, Part 5
• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
• Your first photo proofing and sales session – Your First Customer Series, Part 9
• What does a successful part time photographer look like? – Startup Series, Part 4
• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/should-you-buy-an-apple-ipad-for-your-photography-business/feed/ 0 http://parttimephoto.com/your-pre-photo-shoot-checklist-in-four-easy-steps-your-first-customer-series-part-6/ http://parttimephoto.com/your-pre-photo-shoot-checklist-in-four-easy-steps-your-first-customer-series-part-6/#comments Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:52:53 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=309



Booked your first shoot? Pat yourself on the back; the hardest part is done.

Truly, there’s a reason why most successful photogs will tell you professional photography is 95% business and 5% photography. Getting clients in the door is the great challenge of any new business, artistic and service-based or otherwise.

So congratulations – with your first shoot on the books, it’s time to go down your pre-shoot checklist and make sure you’ve got all your waterfowl properly aligned. Nothing will make your first and forthcoming shoots go more smoothly and comfortably than a healthy dose of preparedness.

Step 1 – Confirm the shoot

Leading up to the date of your photo shoot, contact your client a few days before to thank them for their booking and confirm the date, time, location and meeting place for your shoot.

Answer any last-minute questions they may have about wardrobe or anything else.

Give them a weather update. Visit weatherunderground.com or a similar site to see what the forecast is for the day of your shoot. Have a bad weather back-up or rescheduling plan. Set the expectation that you want your client to have. For example, I tell my clients that if the weather gets iffy the day of the shoot, I’ll call them to confirm or reschedule the shoot that morning. Then I follow-through – not knowing what should happen or is happening is a big source of stress in any situation. Always work to dissipate the chance for such stress.

As I’ve said many times, your art takes time to grow, but you can provide attentive, fantastic customer service like this starting with your very first shoot.

Step 2 – Your “Plenty of Time” Checklist

Right after you confirm the shoot is on with your client, go through your first round of preparations:

• If you haven’t picked up your camera lately, do a dry run through all the gear you’ll be using. Pop in the battery, pop in the memory card, walk around and snap some photos. Plan on using an external flash? Load the batteries and snap some test shots. This is just to make sure all the gear you intend to use is in full working condition and working the way you want it to. If you’re going to have a problem, now’s the time to have it.
• Is anything not working? Do you have backups for crucial items like batteries and memory cards? Grab a third-party backup camera battery and a cheap 1GB memory card if that’s all you can afford, but try to always have a backup. Try to have a backup camera body if you can, even if it’s just a decent point and shoot or – if necessary – a decent camera phone.
• Day by day, stay abreast of the weather situation and forecast. Assuming at this point you are shooting outdoors with no off-camera flash or strobes, you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature. Respect her.
• If time permits, do a walk through of the location you’ll be shooting at during the time of day you’ve booked to shoot. Look for cool nooks and crannies to get fun photos in. Look for attractive and evenly-lit backgrounds and foregrounds. What exactly you’re looking for will change depending on whether you’re shooting a high school senior or a newborn or a family of four. But familiarity with your location before you’re there with clients will make the experience more fluid for them and you will be more confident throughout.
• If this is truly your first time with this kind of client or location (senior in a park, 50th wedding anniversary at a church, etc.), hit your favorite photography forum and post a request for some pointers and ideas. Fellow photographers are always a deep well of great experience and fresh perspectives. Ignore any discouraging bullbutter any grognards may heap your way, and take the good stuff to heart as you plan your shoot.
• Raid the ark of inspiration that is Flickr’s talented artists. Do a search for photography in the type of location you’ll be shooting at and with the kind of people you’re shooting, such as family portraits in the park, or high school senior photos at a junk yard. Take note of anything that inspires you – analyze what you like about your favorite images and solve the puzzle of figuring out how you can make those types of images happen on your shoot. Perfection is not required, just an idea of what you’re aiming for. Start building your shot list.
• Your shot list? Ahh, here’s one that some cocky starving artists don’t care for. That’s why the poor anemic things look like they’ve been living off two Starbucks lattes a day since they hit puberty. The shot list is good stuff, and unless you’re someone who can draw upon The Muse at will and MacGyver your way through a photo shoot with just a pinhole camera and your own force of will, said shot list will give you a big boost in confidence, flow, and most importantly, salable results.

In fact, let’s give The Shot List it’s own subhead:

Step 2.5 – The Shot List

Your shot list is a collection of images, ideas, and setups you want to work your way through on your forthcoming photo shoot.

In the beginning, your shot list may take the form of a scrapbook or folder with photos, notes, printed web pages, setup diagrams, and roughly illustrated concepts. As you grow as an artist, you’ll transition from a physical shot list to a purely mental one. With enough time and experience shooting all kinds of people, styles, locations and lighting, you’ll have enough swagger to let The Muse guide you through most shoots.

But for now, let’s assume that the second you shake your client’s hand, all your intensive research and creative inspiration will transmute to grass growing in bullet time. Honestly, that’s probably what will happen. Again, good preparation can diffuse this stressful problem before it starts.

Check out my article on the top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people for a strong jumpstart to your shot list.

What you want on your shot list are enough go-to resources to keep you flowing through your photo shoot when your brain quits on you. And you want enough variety to show your client a wide range of imagery during your sales session.

It’s easier to sell a client one image each of 20 different setups than to sell three images each of only six or seven setups.

Start with some easy setups; some simple, specific poses and places that let you get into your groove and to make your subject comfortable in front of the camera. If you’re shooting a senior near a swimming pool, don’t start with the cannonball drop into the drink. Give yourself and your client some easy stuff to start with so you can both get warmed up.

Add as much fun and artistic stuff to your shot list as you like. This is where you’ll begin to develop your personal artistic style, and experiment with new looks and feelings in your images. Have a solid set of salable images you know you can pull off – then, as time permits during your shoot, try out as much fun and experimental work as strikes your fancy.

You don’t have to go through your entire shot list on every shoot. But starting with a core set of images that let you make salable art with any client, then introducing some fun and artsy stuff with flavor and impact, you’ll be able to put together a robust set of proofs to show and sell.

Your client will very rarely buy every image you shoot. But you better your odds for a happy client and a bigger sale if you give them a smooth experience and lots of variety to choose from, both of which are a direct result of having a good shot list.

Preparation = confidence.

Step 3 – Your “Day Before The Shoot” Checklist

Now that you’ve got a good sense of who, what, and where you’re shooting, let’s get into the technical stuff you’ll want to check off your to-do list the day before your shoot.

• The obvious stuff: charge your batteries (both camera and flash if you use one); dump and clear memory cards; make sure your camera settings are about right for your shoot (TV mode is prepped at a fast enough shutter speed in case you start getting motion blur / camera shake, AV mode is prepped at a wide f-stop in case of low light, Manual mode is about where you think you’ll need to shoot, and your bloody ISO isn’t set to the noisiest-possible 1600 or H setting).
• Gather and pack your gear, including bodies, lenses, batteries, cards, flashes, tripod, backups, and anything else you need for your shoot. Try to get everything you need into one camera bag so that if you remember to bring anything, you’ll have everything.
• If you’re not too familiar with where you’ll be shooting, have directions in hand from someone who knows or, preferably, Google Maps. Plug the address into your GPS. Know how long it should take you to get there – then allot an extra 15-30 minutes. If there’s any chance of traffic issues, allow even more extra time.
• Go back over your notes or e-mails from talking with your client and take heed of any specific requests or information they provide. If they “have to” get a family photo in their Texas Tech Red Raiders jerseys, by all means, write this down. Be sure to proactively remind your clients of this when you meet up – they will immediately appreciate that you remembered and that you’re excited about making “their” photo.
• Check the weather yet again. If you may have to deal with light drizzle, intermittent cloud cover, overcast skies, or bold cloudless sunlight, you want to at least be solving those problems in your head the night before rather than the moment of your shoot.
• Watch what you eat. A worthy mantra for anyone trying to maintain their girlish figure, this advice will also keep your intestinal issues at bay the day of your shoot. Overeating or eating abrasive food is only going to exacerbate problems the next day when your nerves go straight to your stomach as you’re driving to your shoot. Eat light, drink lots of water, stick to fruits and veggies and salads that you know are easy on your system, and by all means, have a bottle of Pepto at the ready if you need it. (This is one of those “been there, done that” real world tips you just won’t find elsewhere – there’s no BS or pretense here, this site is about really helping you do your best as a part time photographer).
• Clean your gear. Whip out those microfiber cloths that come Free With Everything and give your lenses a good wipe down. Make sure your glass is clean and your camera body looks nice.
• Set your alarm. If you’re shooting early, set your bedside alarm. If later in the day, set an alarm on your phone with time to get your gear together and get on the road. Much as you have prepared for your shoot, the moment you sit down for a second in front of Call of Duty on the Xbox or David Hasselhoff on YouTube, you will lose track of time and only realize you’re late when the phone rings, it’s your client wondering where you are, and your heart drops out of your chest.
• Plan your wardrobe. Having checked out the weather for the next day, pick out what kind of professional-but-comfortably-artistic wardrobe you want to work your shoot in. Your wardrobe style should reflect your personal style and your artistic style. Some photographers belong in turtlenecks and scarves, others in jeans and T-shirts, still others in graphic T’s and khaki shorts. But guaranteed: if you don’t plan your shooting wardrobe, you’ll awaken to realize all your good clothes are in the hamper and either show up wearing a wool sweater and gym shorts or smelling like cheese.

Preparation = confidence!

Step 4 – F8 and Be There

If you’ve done your prep work – which despite the length of this article, should only take a couple of hours total – you can arrive at your shoot with time to spare and confidence oozing from every pore.

Or at least you won’t be hyperventilating and fighting to keep your breakfast down.

Your first time, as with a few other select experiences in life, won’t be your best. But there’s no reason you have to go into your shoot blind, deaf, and dumb. Take the small amount of time needed to give yourself the best odds at having a great shoot.

If you can show up with those ducks in a row, you’re honestly doing better than many paid professional photographers. What they lack in attention to detail, complacency brought on by arrogance and boredom, you can make up for in preparation and honest caring.

Art takes time, but providing the best experience you can for your clients starts right now, this very day.

The next articles in this series will walk you through a typical location portraiture shoot, your first sales session (in person or via online album), and how to follow through with a client to guarantee referrals and a customer for life.

Next Steps

• Now that you’ve read through this article, make your own personal pre-shoot checklist that touches on the above advice in brief. Single-sentence To-Do’s should keep you on track to make the most of your shoot.
• Make an inventory of all your shooting gear, piece by piece. Are you missing anything, specifically backups for crucial pieces of kit like batteries or memory cards? A spare of either costs about a tenth of what you’ll lose if you blow a shoot for lack of backup, and a hundredth of what you’ll lose long-term from looking like an unprepared amateur. If you have the coin, hit up Amazon.com or bhphotovideo.com and get a good faith set of backups for your primary gear, even if it’s the cheapest thing you can buy. I’d rather fall back on a children’s $50 Disney Digital Camera than nothing at all.
• Brainstorm session: What’s a quirk unique to you that could affect your ability to perform at your shoot? Irritable stomach? Profuse perspiration when nervous? Need Starbucks? Affirmations? Yoga? A jog? What should you add to your pre-shoot checklist that gives you, you personally, you specifically, the best chance at having an awesome photo shoot? File this in your Brainstorms folder (and add to your checklist!).
• PartTimePhoto.com exists to provide sound, real-world advice from one photographer to another, me to you. If you like what you read here, please don’t hesitate to click the free “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What’s one thing that you do to prepare for a shoot that’s unique to you? Did I miss anything in the above list? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7
• Open your eyes and make beautiful photos where you are now
• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
• Should you buy an Apple iPad for your photography business?
• Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people – Your First Customer Series, Part 2
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/your-pre-photo-shoot-checklist-in-four-easy-steps-your-first-customer-series-part-6/feed/ 4 http://parttimephoto.com/how-to-prepare-for-your-first-photography-clients-call-your-first-customer-series-part-5/ http://parttimephoto.com/how-to-prepare-for-your-first-photography-clients-call-your-first-customer-series-part-5/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:38:38 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=299



So you’ve got your prices set, your most salable photos picked out and practiced, and your marketing has people talking about your business.

Then the unimaginable happens – someone actually contacts you to ask about your services! Life and small business ownership are sometimes truly unpredictable.

Make no mistake – if you are practicing your art and marketing your services to your target market, you will get clients a-callin’. Let’s explore how we need to prepare for this momentous, and nerve-wracking, occasion.

Your first contact

Not unlike how scientists are prepared to communicate with alien races when they come to take away all our cattle and chocolate, you want to be ready to take the questions your potential clients may have when they call and turn them into answers, education, and bookings.

Answering the phone:

• Do: Smile (people really can hear it in your voice)
• Do: “Thank you for calling James Taylor Photography, this is James, how may I help you today?”
• Do not: “Hello?“

Nothing turns me off faster than when I call a business, especially a service-based business owned and operated by an individual, that answers the phone like I just interrupted their dinner. “Hello?”

Because then I have to sound stupid and ask, “Is this James Taylor Photography?”

To which they shall then eloquently reply, “Yeah.”

I’m officially done. I no longer care about whatever I called to ask about. You’ve lost my business and I’ll probably tell everyone I know.

As a part time photographer, your business phone is probably your personal cell phone – nothing wrong with that; that’s how I’ve handled my business for many years. But unless you know for sure the person calling is a friend or family member, always answer with your professional intro and a smile. Begin every call by giving the right impression.

Be sure you know your business, policies, and prices. Be ready to answer questions broad and specific.

The first question most contacts will ask is, “What are your prices?”

At this point, don’t become a smarmy, manipulative salesman. Grognards will tell you that the first thing you do when asked this question is to deflect and say, “Well our price depends on a number of factors. Tell me what kind of photos are you looking for?”

You know what? If I call someone and ask what their price is, and their response is to not tell me: yet again, instant turn off. Don’t start trying to play Salesmanship 101 with me. Tell me what I want to know, then introduce your hook.

“I charge no session fee and have no minimum order, you just buy what you love. Prints and files start at just $10…”

…then, without pause, extend the conversation…

“What kind of photography are you looking for?”

If you follow my suggested pricing structure for freshly-minted professional photographers, it would take quite a cheapskate to balk at your prices. You don’t want to flatline the conversation, though, by answering their question and leaving them to come up with a response. Warmly guide them into establishing a rapport and learn about their needs so you can better help them get what they are looking for.

Remember: In all acts as a small business owner, your goal is to help your clients. Approach all contacts as an opportunity to learn their needs and help meet those needs via the best experience to be had. It is most definitely not about manipulating and milking clients for all you can get out of them.

Be ready for anything

Be sure you are knowledgeable and confident about your business:

• When someone asks your price for a 16×20 print, know it. (“16×20’s go for $80. Are you looking for some wall art to go over your fireplace?”)
• When someone asks if you guarantee your products, know the answer. (“Any print or product you purchase from us is 100% satisfaction guaranteed. If you purchase a digital file from us, we will give you our recommended labs to get prints from, but of course we cannot guarantee someone else’s prints. That’s one of the benefits of buying directly from us. Some clients simply prefer the convenience of knowing we are handling and guaranteeing their prints.”)
• When someone asks if you’re available this Thursday at 2 p.m. for an outdoor shoot, know your schedule. (“I do have an opening at 2 p.m., but the light is still pretty harsh at that time of day. I would suggest shooting closer to 5 p.m. so we can catch that lovely, soft evening light. Would that work for you?”)
• When someone says they had a bad experience with another local photographer, know how to respond. (“I’m sorry to hear that shoot didn’t work out for you! I’ve always heard good things about Jane Doe Photography. We have no session fees and no minimum orders, and we guarantee complete satisfaction with all our prints and products. Tell me what went wrong with your other shoot and I’ll tell you how we will prevent those problems if you decide to work with us.”)
• If someone asks you for anything outside of your limits, know how you’ll respond and still help them. (“No, I’m sorry, we don’t shoot on family holidays like Thanksgiving. Would the day before or after work? No? Hmm, let me call a couple of other photographers I know and see if they are open that day. Could I get your phone number and call you back in about 10 minutes?”)

Whether you charge $10 or $100 for an 8×10, whether you never shoot on Sundays or every Sunday, make sure you know and are confident in your policies. Some fish will swim away, and that’s perfectly fine. Even just starting out, you do not have to shoot for free or jump through hoops to build your business, and you never, ever have to suffer insufferable clients. Have the confidence to say, “I don’t think we are the right match for what you need, but let me recommend a couple of other local photographers I have worked with that may better be able to help you.”

Answer client questions directly and honestly. If you don’t know how to do something they need, or if you feel they need someone with more or different experience, don’t be afraid to tell them so. Don’t be afraid to tell folks that you are new to professional photography, that that is why you are such a good value, and why you’re ready to work hard to ensure they have the best experience possible.

And be ready to refer out: as someone just getting started in part time professional portrait photography, taking on a big commercial contract for an architectural firm is asking for a mountain of stress and one ticked off client.

Booking the shoot

When you feel like you’ve answered your caller’s questions and fairly educated them to your prices and policies, go ahead and ask for the booking.

“I have an opening this Friday at 6 p.m. Would that work for you guys?”

Put the ball in their court. Try to get a firm booking from them, but if they have to talk to a spouse or check their schedule, make sure their impression of you is a good one. Starting out, sometimes enthusiasm is all you’ve got – but that enthusiasm and attention can be big sellers to potential clients. They will expect, and receive, a better experience than a much larger, pick-a-number studio may provide.

If your art isn’t to the point of enamoring clients, make sure the experience you give them leaves them enamored with you as a person, photographer, and business.

When finalizing the booking, be sure to:

• Ask for the client’s phone number so you can call to confirm the shoot the week or day before the booked date (and to get a hold of them if something comes up on your end – when I came down with swine flu this year, I had to make quite a few phone calls).
• Ask for their e-mail address so you can send over a Session Prep Cheat Sheet (I’ll write about this in a future article). Ask if you can also add their address to your e-mail newsletter list. If newsletter subscribers get a little bonus like a free digital file or 8×10 with their first shoot (and they should!), be sure to mention this when asking their permission to add their address to your mailing list.
• Repeat the date and time back to them one last time. “This sounds great! I’m very excited to shoot with you guys. I’ve got you down for Sunday, Dec. 20, 5 p.m. at the City Park. We will see you then!”
• As soon as you hang up the phone – before, if you’re good at multitasking – get that booking on your own calendar in full detail. Be sure to include all the details of your conversation, your client’s needs and expectations, and their contact information. I use Microsoft Outlook, and put all this information right into the calendar; this way, when I sync my iPhone, I always have everything I need at my fingertips.
• If you said you would send a follow-up e-mail with that cheat sheet or any other information, do so immediately.

So you’ve booked your first honest client! Not your sister, or your best friend, or your coworker – your first client to learn of your business from an outside source and proactively contact you to set up a shoot. Congratulations!

Preparation is key – I’d rather be ready than lucky any day.

The next three articles will close this series with how to prepare for and perform your shoot, how to make the most of your sales session, and how to follow-up with your client.

Thank you to all those readers who have visited and referred their friends and fellow photographers to this site over the past few months. It’s been great reading your comments and sharing encouragement with one another!

Next Steps

• Review your prices, products, and policies – daily – until they are second nature to you. When a potential client calls, you want to be confident in answering their questions. Feel free to have mock conversations with family or friends, or by yourself – remember, practice how you will perform.
• Call around to your local competition. Don’t be shy in playing the part of a consumer and seeing how they respond to your questions. See if they use a soft or hard sell, see if they treat you with respect and answer your questions clearly, see what their demeanor is like on the phone. Refine the experience you provide your potential clients on the phone to meet or beat their best.
• Brainstorm session: Do you feel prepared to answer the phone when a potential client calls? What can you do to make sure you can speak with confidence and answer potential questions and curveballs? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• Encouraging, educating, entertaining, empowering content is the bread and butter of this blog. If you like what you’ve read today, please don’t hesitate to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What do you to prepare for incoming phone calls? What phrases and methods have helped you up your bookings over the phone? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10
• The legalities of starting a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 3
• You’re going to get screwed doing part time photography
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/how-to-prepare-for-your-first-photography-clients-call-your-first-customer-series-part-5/feed/ 2 http://parttimephoto.com/how-do-i-get-my-first-photography-client-your-first-customer-series-part-4/ http://parttimephoto.com/how-do-i-get-my-first-photography-client-your-first-customer-series-part-4/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:41:52 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=110



Ahh, welcome to marketing.

We’ve talked about the benefits of part time photography, how to price your work, what images are solid options for making you money, and now we’ll come to the threshold: Your First Customer.

Let’s be clear from the start: marketing is about getting your name and product in front of people who need, or know someone who needs, what you have to offer at the price you ask in trade. Or, as John Jantsch puts it, you want to get folks with a need, to know, like and trust you.

Odds are, your very first customers will be family and friends, and that’s perfectly fine – that’s how you build your portfolio and get the ball rolling. They’ll give you a nice set of images, invaluable experience, feedback, and kind testimonials to get you started.

No doubt, other than for fun and practice, you should offer friends and family the same pricing system as everyone else. If you’re using my suggested prices and policies, it’s a no-risk investment for them and the prices are such that anyone can afford them safely.

Getting your first customer

While the word “marketing” draws a blank stare from many photographers, there are a number of ways to get your name and product (your art and abilities) out in front of a buying market. And thanks to the Digital Age (the same Digital Age many grognards say has upended their industry), we’re going to get your work out there at little to no cost.

I have a laundry list of free and very low-cost ways to market your business (read my brief list at the end of this article), all ripe for their own articles, but let’s get you started with the cheapest, easiest way to land your first customer.

Social Media Marketing

Social media, MySpace specifically, by far sends me the most business of any marketing I do. It’s also absolutely free and easy as writing e-mail, if you’re even somewhat of a people person.

Running a good photography business is about building relationships – photos are just the common subject over which to bond.

Social media gives you so many opportunities to find potential clients, introduce yourself and your art, establish a rapport and grow a profitable long-term relationship. You can read what people are talking about, get a feel for their lifestyle and family, easily see who is getting engaged or having a baby, and the “social” part of social media gives you the situational go-ahead to interact with people about their lives.

For most people, it’s hard to walk up to a pregnant woman at the grocery store and say…

“Congratulations! When are you due? Have you picked out a name? I am a photographer and would love to do maternity photos with you. Here’s my portfolio – do you like it? Would you like to get together for a photo shoot?”

And God help you if the woman only looks pregnant!

It’s a lot easier to be surfing MySpace and happen upon someone in your zip code with a profile photo showing their pregnant belly. Then you can read their profile, get some details, and send over an introductory message:

“Hey there Jane, I saw your profile photo and wanted to congratulate you on your baby! My son was born two years ago and has been nothing but fun since day one. I run a photography business here in town and I’m working on my maternity portfolio right now; you can see some of my work on my profile. I would love to set up a shoot with you if you would be interested!”

Season to taste (and to match your personality), of course.

One in a hundred people will give you that “uuuuhm okaaaay” look or response, whether you make the offer in person or online. Most photographers don’t approach potential clients directly for fear of rejection. If you’re pleasant and are able to just chat casually with them, trust me when I say that most people will be thrilled.

And that’s assuming you go for the direct approach. You’ll have as much if not more success if you just go about casually chatting with people and adding them to your friends list. When you send someone a message or leave a comment on their page (regardless of the topic), the first thing they will do is visit your profile – where they will see you are a photographer and see the quality of your work. Mission accomplished.

(Brief aside: Never be ashamed of the quality of your work. Photographers are notoriously hard on themselves and rabid perfectionists – you have to start from somewhere! If you’re reading this, I’d bet good money you are notably better at photography than your client base. And if you’re following along with my suggested pricing and policies, potential clients will always know exactly what they’re getting, and they’ll know they are getting a good value. Better art will come with time and practice – and with it, bigger sales and more profits for you.)

In the course of discussion, you’ll always either be asked about or have the opportunity to talk about your photography. Never be afraid to offer people photo shoots. Most people are flattered by the offer, and even if they aren’t in the market at that time, you’ve established top-of-mind awareness: when they think local photographer, for themselves or others, they’ll think of you, and know where to find you.

Setting up and using your MySpace profile

(These concepts apply the same to Facebook, I just don’t have a profile on there – yet!)

When you set up your MySpace profile, try using a display name of something like John @ John Doe Photography. I use James @ Outlaw Photography, for example. Enter your real name and allow it to be shown, so you look more like a real person than a possible spammer.

Fill out as much personal information as you like. Be sure that your photography and business are mentioned, but not hyped.

“I love photographing people and am blessed to do it professionally. You can view my work in my photo album or at OutlawPhotography.net. Drop me a message or e-mail me at James@outlawphotography.net if you would like to set up a photo shoot.”

…is far less abrasive than:

“FREE PHOTO SHOOTS!!!! MSG ME!!! i specialize in maternity landscape newborn automotive commercial industrial pets antiques seniors children families and weddings in the Texas Hill Country Bandera Fredericksburg Boerne Kerrville Hondo San Antonio area… CHECK ME OUT AT www.geocities.com/soho/113131/kitty.html”

(No, no…really.)

Next up, post some of your best photos to your profile’s photo album. If you don’t have a feel for how many, go for 10-20 to start. I have hundreds on mine, usually four images per photo shoot, sorted by year into albums.

Visit the Browse Users page under the Friends menu. Search for folks local to your zip code. If you’re in a city, tighten the search – if you’re in a rural area like me (Bandera, TX, pop: 957), widen it out to include surrounding towns.

As one marketer so perfectly put it: Own Your Zip Code. Start by visiting the profiles of people within five miles of your zip code. Check out their profiles, see what they’re talking about, look at their photos, and send them a message to say hello. Be as basic as you want:

“Hey there! I’m new to MySpace and I’m adding people from around Bandera to my profile. I saw you love U2 – did you go to their concert last year? I was there and it was truly awesome. I have some photos from the show in my photo album.”

One by one, you’ll gain access to and build rapport with people from your community. As they visit your profile, see your photos and see that you are a professional photographer, you’ll begin getting inquiries about your prices and booking. As you book these people and shoot with them, you’ll start seeing your photos appear on their profiles – which then appears on all of their friends’ profiles – and the cycle begins.

This is just a small sampling of what you can do with MySpace and social media to reach out and collect your first customers – and to build an ever-larger set of customers over time whose own profiles will serve as the best referral you can’t buy.

10 (other) ways to market your photography

Not feeling the Social Media vibe? Some folks are just that way and you know what? That’s perfectly fine – being a part time professional photographer should be fun and rewarding, and you should never have to do any kind of marketing you aren’t comfortable with.

Here are 10 other ways, in brief, you can land your first customer (all of which I have done and can vouch for as working quite well):

• Classifieds – Craigslist or your local newspaper. Advertise online for free or in small local papers for a few dollars a week. It’s the least expensive newspaper advertising you can buy, and some of the best read. I have gotten many, many lucrative clients (especially for baby photos) through this venue.
• Offer to pick up competitors’ excess work – This one might seem a long-shot, but every photographer at some time is unable to meet someone’s needs because of time or price. They are happy to refer work to a fellow photographer who can take on that client – it makes them look good, and it nets you business.
• Free press – Talk with your local newspaper and get in a press release about your new business, get their business writer to do a feature on you, hold a grand opening event (like a half-day photo shoot at the park) to be featured in the paper’s event calendar, submit photos of local sports and events in exchange for bylines (including your name and web site). Try advertising in their classified section for a month first – often this will grease the wheels when you ask for some PR. Local radio and TV stations are also worth contacting for possible PR.
• Co-op marketing – This is one that the big-boy boutique studios use. Find a business with the same customer base as you and do a contest, drawing, or event together. As an example, if you’re a baby photographer, visit your local children’s resale store and offer them three photo shoots with files on CD to give away to their best customers. You’ll do the shoots using wardrobe provided by the store, then give the store framed 20×30 prints to hang on their walls – alongside your business cards, of course.
• Bulletin boards – Be sure your business card is tacked onto every bulletin board in your community. Ever see those “For Sale” sheets of paper with the phone numbers at the bottom, cut individually so people can tear a number right off? Make up your own for your photography services! Many businesses, including your local Visitor’s Bureau, are also happy to display your brochures and business cards.
• Volunteer – Non-profits can always use more volunteers, and as a photographer, you have a unique gift to give. Work with local charities to photograph their events, membership, and marketing images. You will help a good cause and build an immediate fan base among members.
• Shoot local sports and events – From Little League to Friday Night varsity football, pet parades to Fourth of July fireworks, communities love to see photos of their friends, neighbors, children, and themselves. Work with organizers to be able to display images from these events on your web site, and to promote your web site at the event. Offer to sell prints from the photos as a fundraiser for the event or organization (such as sports photos for the Athletic Booster Club) as a way to grease the wheels and gain access and permission. Your web site traffic will go up by leaps and bounds.
• Networking – Being present and involved in the community is one of the best ways to build loyalty and recognition. Attend Chamber of Commerce mixers and business association meetings, high school Project Graduation meetings, Little League board meetings, Kiwanis Club car washes, Education Foundation gatherings, any kind of event where people will get together, share ideas, and work for a common cause. Participate as a member of the community and offer your own ideas. Bring your camera.
• Models – Beginning photographers get along just fine with beginning models. Use sites like OneModelPlace to set up a photography profile and meet models in your area. Do TFCD (Trade For CD) shoots with them to build your portfolio. They may not be paying customers (at first!), but they can help you practice and grow your art while building your portfolio. And as always, the better your portfolio, the more people will take notice.
• The Modern Marketing Triumvirate: Your business cards, web site, and e-mail newsletter – These are three of the least expensive weapons in your marketing arsenal, and three of the most effective. Your business cards lead folks to your web site (the best brochure ever), your web site leads people to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter, and your e-mail newsletter gives you a free list of people who are actively interested in your services, along with the permission to market to them.

I’ll expound on each of these marketing opportunities in future articles. They are all wildly powerful, free or inexpensive, and can serve to keep you booked solid.

Own Your Zip Code

So you’ve got your name out there and people are beginning to buzz about your work! What do you do when that first potential client calls and asks about prices and booking? What do you need for your shoot? For your proof viewing session? What about model releases, referrals, testimonials? Come back tomorrow to find out.

Again – Own Your Zip Code. Whether you start with MySpace or visiting with people in your own neighborhood, your end goal is to ensure that anyone who needs photography services – on your block, on your street, in your subdivision, in your town – knows who you are and what you can do for them.

Remember: Be social, don’t fear being direct in asking for people’s business, and let your art and your profile do your selling for you.

Next Steps

• Head over to MySpace or Facebook and set up your profile as a professional photographer. Use the steps outlined above to maximize your profile’s selling power, then start visiting with the locals. You will make so many great contacts and friends this way, and the more you participate, the more your business will grow.
• Play around with some of the other marketing ideas mentioned above. Pick any one as a supplement to your social media marketing and try it out. As with all marketing, ask every person who contacts you, “How did you hear about us?” Make note of which marketing efforts are getting you the most attention. Then, track who books with you, and make note of which marketing efforts are getting you the most bookings. Then, track who buys from you, and make note of which marketing efforts are getting you the most profitable clients.
• For more great marketing ideas, I can wholeheartedly recommend anything (books or blogs) by Seth Godin, John Jantsch, or Michael Port. For a good Marketing 101 education, start with Michael Port’s “Book Yourself Solid,” follow up with Jantsch’s “Duct Tape Marketing,” then graduate to Godin’s numerous excellent books. His book, “The Dip,” will show you how the challenges you face now as a newly-minted part time professional photographer are necessary and welcome along the road to success. Don’t fear The Dip – embrace it.
• Brainstorm session: What opportunities do you see in your neighborhood or your town to show your target market (parents of newborns, high school seniors, brides to be, all of the above) who you are and what you can do for them? What’s stopping you? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• This article is just the first of many on marketing to be featured here at PartTimePhoto.com. If you like what you’ve learned here, please don’t hesitate to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What’s the best marketing advice you’ve ever been given? What marketing effort has produced your best clients? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How can I find time to be a part time photographer? – Your First Customer Series, Part 1
• Top 15 Internet Marketing methods, from least to most effective, from Darketing to Arketing
• How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10
• Should you buy an Apple iPad for your photography business?
• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/how-do-i-get-my-first-photography-client-your-first-customer-series-part-4/feed/ 1 http://parttimephoto.com/what-should-i-charge-for-my-part-time-photography-your-first-customer-series-part-3/ http://parttimephoto.com/what-should-i-charge-for-my-part-time-photography-your-first-customer-series-part-3/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:54:30 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=107



Here’s where a lot of new-to-the-game professional photographers get stuck.

“My friends tell me I take really good photos. I want to start charging and getting customers, but how much do I charge? What if I charge too much? I can’t charge as much as that guy, he’s a lot better than I am. Oh man, what if I charge too much and people realize I don’t know what I’m doing and they’re disappointed and my business is ruined before I ever get started?”

At which point, most people promptly hyperventilate and pass out.

Pricing any product or service is a simple enough theory: you’re worth what people will pay you. The sweet spot is in charging the most money you can while attracting the most customers.

Many photo grognards will tell you that you have to charge $XXX to make any money at all, otherwise you’re not a professional and you’re undermining the industry and you’re going to go straight out of business.

Let’s ask the market, though:

• Do some people get their photos done at Wal-Mart? Yes.
• Do some people get their photos done with <insert work-from-home part time photographer here>? Yes.
• Do some people get their photos done with <insert retail studio here>? Yes.
• Do some people get their photos done with Annie Liebovitz? Yes.

Point being, there is a market for just about any price range and artistic level of photography. I don’t feel I’m stretching the imagination by saying that people pay less for Wal-Mart than they do for my own work, and less for me than they do for Annie Liebovitz.

Let’s cut to the chase.

What to charge for your part time photography

Here’s the pricing system I suggest to any newly-minted professional photographer:

• No session fee
• No minimum order
• $10 – 4×6 print or hi-res digital file
• $15 – 5×7 print
• $20 – 8×10 print or sheet of wallets (8)
• Then double the price for bigger prints: $40 for 11×14, $80 for 16×20, $160 for 20×30.

Simple as that. (I can hear the collective gasp of horror from across the land of “boutique” photographers.)

Now that I’ve thrown those prices out there, let me issue some clarity:

This pricing system is dead simple and dead easy for you and for your clients. As a fresh-faced professional photographer, most likely with a limited or non-existent portfolio and a yet-developed artistic style, your focus needs to be on practice, building your portfolio, and growing your talent and customer base – and as a professional, you deserve to be paid every step of the way.

When someone asks what you charge and you explain, “I charge no session fee, there’s no minimum order, and prints and files start at just $10 – you just buy what you love,” you will never – I repeat, never – lose a potential client due to pricing. Do you run the risk of someone really only spending $10 with you for all your time and efforts? Yes, but don’t worry about it. Those folks are by far the exception, not the rule, and either way you’ll have added another layer to your portfolio and experience.

This pricing system places the onus of responsibility for maximizing profits on your artistic ability. The more great photos you make of your client, the more they will buy. There is no artificial padding of the profits through session fees or minimum orders. Either you produce photos your client wants to buy, or you don’t.

There is zero fakery involved. You can show people your portfolio, no matter how small or weak, and if they hire you, they know what they are getting. There is no risk for them because they only buy what they love. There’s no risk, and far less pressure, for you because they’re only going to buy what they love. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

This pricing system takes all the BS and salesmanship and upselling out of the equation. Your goal is not to squeeze and squabble as much money as you can out of your client – your goal is to make art they love and want to buy. Yes, you’ll offer guidance when it comes proofing and viewing time, and I’ll talk about that in a future article, but your purpose is to maximize their long-term enjoyment of their purchase – not to make that purchase as big as you possibly can. This is how you build lifelong clients and a successful business.

Talent- (read: results-) based pricing

All of that said, the numbers I’ve thrown out have no knowledge of your artistic ability or your market. I’ve had 10 years to perfect my pricing in my market to make sure I stay as busy as I want and earn an average amount per client that perfectly meets my personal and business goals.

Pricing, by and large, is best used to increase or decrease your total number of bookings, not to affect your bottom line. Assuming you’re marketing yourself properly and your market knows you and what you have to offer (another topic for a future article), you can raise or lower your prices to add to or reduce the number of people booking with you.

When you raise prices, you’ll price yourself out of landing some clients. That’s perfectly fine – you’ll make up their loss with a higher per-client average. If you price yourself too high, you’ll lose more clients than you make up with those that remain. This is also perfectly fine if your goal is to reduce bookings.

Your goal is to shoot as many people as you want, to spend as much time working with clients as you choose, while earning enough money in exchange for your time and talents that you feel more than satisfied having made that trade.

I repeat – the goal is not to always make as much money as you possibly can off of every person you can make it from. That mentality will leave you stressed out and burned out. Some people, however, do play business like they play chess, and the numbers game is one they enjoy playing in its own right. If you’re like me, you would rather focus on growing as an artist and, as a result, getting paid better and better for your work.

This is not to say you should never raise your prices. I am a firm believer in the adage that if nobody’s complaining about your prices, you’re not charging enough. But this assumes you’re booked solid. If you’re just starting out, as an artist and as a business, work on building your portfolio, client base, and artistic ability. When your art and your marketing have people beating a path to your door, then you can start raising prices and maximizing per-client averages and playing the numbers game to your heart’s desire.

But, but, but!

But but, you ask: What about framing? What about coasters and key chains and photocookies and mugs and gallery wraps? What about outsourcing my Photoshop work? What about expenses and Cost of Doing Business calculators and Costs of Goods Sold? The grognards are doubtless red-faced that I’ve spoken of pricing without saying word one about any of these almighty acronyms.

All good questions to be answered in future articles. For now, in this moment of getting your feet wet and landing your first clients, don’t worry about it.

If you have a camera, you can start making money with your photography today. And if you don’t have a camera at all, I’ve even got an article in the works for you.

Remember: Ready, Fire, Aim! Start shooting and making money with your photography today. Call a friend or run into someone on the street and book a shoot. Make photos, let them see them, and let them buy them. Go make some art, get out of the way and let your subject buy what they love.

Next Steps

• Call a friend or family member and set up a photo shoot! Go over your list of top money-making outdoor photos, take your subject to the nearest park, and have at it. Invite them over later or the next day, after you’ve had the chance to cull and process, and show off your work together. Let them buy what they love. Pocket the cash and revel in astonishment that being a professional photographer is just that easy.
• Pay a visit to Google and look up your local competition. Check out their web sites and take note of their prices and where you perceive their artistic level to be. If they don’t list their prices (and they probably won’t), call them up and ask what they charge. See how they handle the question and what numbers you get. Don’t forget to ask about session fees, prices for prints and prices for files.
• If you have the coin, hire one of the photographers for a basic session, even if just to get some headshots. Make sure you budget enough for the session fee and a hi-res file or 8×10 print or two. Enjoy the experience and critically evaluate how the other photographer does business and makes photos. Are they nice on the phone? Do they book shoots on Sundays? What’s their turnaround for proofs? Do they proof online or in person? How do they present their pricing and why they charge what they do? How do they work with you during your shoot to get the best possible photos? How do they work with you during the proofing session? Are they helping you get what you want or trying to sell you something you don’t necessarily want? What’s the final product like? This entire experience will be invaluable for you as a photographer, businessman, and competitor to this and other local photographers.
• Brainstorm session: Who are the best photographers in your market? Why and how? Who are the worst photographers? Why and how? What do you need to do to move away from the worst and closer to the best? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• It’s taken me time to find my groove with posting here on PartTimePhoto.com, but I think I’ve got the hang of this blogging thing now. If you enjoy what you’ve read here and don’t want to miss your daily dish of part time photography goodness, please feel free to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What do you charge for your photography services? How do you feel about that? What’s one thing you could do to earn more? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How to prepare for your first photography client’s call – Your First Customer Series, Part 5
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• The legalities of starting a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 3
• Your first photo proofing and sales session – Your First Customer Series, Part 9
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/what-should-i-charge-for-my-part-time-photography-your-first-customer-series-part-3/feed/ 11 http://parttimephoto.com/top-10-money-making-outdoor-photographs-of-people-your-first-customer-series-part-2/ http://parttimephoto.com/top-10-money-making-outdoor-photographs-of-people-your-first-customer-series-part-2/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:07:17 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=132



It may take some practice on yourself or friends and family, but below you will find the top 10 money-making outdoor photographs you can make of and sell to your portraiture clients as a newly-minted part time photographer.

I’m featuring outdoor portraits here because you can shoot them with just the camera in your hands, and you can shoot them just about anywhere, from a local park or playground to your own back yard.

Aim to start shooting about one hour before sunset. This will give you nice evening light to play with.

For your lighting, you want your subject facing toward the sun. If the sunlight is right in their eyes and they’re squinting, move them into some shade but still have them face toward the sun. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a passing cloud in front of the sun or have overcast skies to act as a big diffuser.

I’ll be adding some more in-depth video and photo tutorials for these photos in the future, but for now, use the below guidelines to begin shooting salable portraits of your clients.

Let’s visit the great outdoors!

The Headshot

A good headshot fills the frame with your subject’s face, preferably from mid-chest or shoulders up. Zoom your camera in all the way and walk away from your subject until they are properly framed. By zooming in, you’re reducing your depth of field, which will give you a nice, soft background.

The biggest part of the headshot is a natural expression (preferably a candid smile or laugh between funny faces) and good lighting. If your lighting is too harsh or too far to the side, you’ll get nasty and unflattering shadows across the eyes and face. Make sure the eyes always look fabulous.

Don’t have to worry about background too much with these, since almost all of the frame will be filled with the subject. As always, try to have a complimentary and simple background. Avoid busy or clashing backgrounds at all costs.

Mix this up with a nice pair of sunglasses and you can get another set of fun and stylish photos. Once you’ve got what you like from a standing-back, zoomed-in position, zoom all the way out, get close, and do some wide-angle headshots. Make sure your background is clean and complimentary, lift your camera overhead and shoot down at wild angles, and have fun with it.

It’s digital: go crazy!


                       

           

                 


The 3/4 (Three-Quarters) Shot

The 3/4 Shot goes up from your subject’s thighs, waist, or torso, including arms and hands. We’ll introduce a bit of body posing with this portrait.

Make sure your lighting looks good on your subject (I’ll say this every single time – learn to look at the light and shadows on your subject’s face before you even lift your camera to take a shot), then have them “just slightly” push their shoulders back and arch their backs. If they suddenly look like they sat on a cactus, have them loosen it up a bit.

Where your subject’s hands will go depends on what they’re wearing. Thumbs can go in jean pockets for a Western look, arms can cross for a powerful stance, hands can go to hips (with a little hip swish to the side) for a more model-esque pose, hands can go in jacket pockets if they’re wearing one, etc.

Look for something natural and fitting: unless you’re breaking the ice and being funny, cowboys shouldn’t swish their hips and khaki-wearers shouldn’t hook their thumbs in their pockets.

Women going for a model look can do the hip thing, put hands in their back pockets, bring their hands up to mess with their hair, etc. You can turn most women loose with posing in a 3/4 shot and they’ll do fine on their own.

Your background is going to be more visible in this shot, so make sure it doesn’t hurt the image. If it’s loud, noisy, overbearing, super busy, or just not complimentary to the photo, change positions. Have your subject lean against a tree if you must, but maintain a clean background.

This photo set should also be shot from a distance, zoomed in. Feel free to introduce some sunglasses and/or wide angle shots if you like, but since we’re shooting more body this time, the final impact will be less pronounced.


                       

                       

                 


The Close-up Shot

Not for the faint of heart or those with particularly poor skin.

The close up shot is a twice-as-close headshot, focusing greatly on the eyes, filling almost every inch of the frame with your subject’s face.

Definitely step back and zoom in to take this photo. Wide-angles up close will exaggerate features well beyond attractiveness. That said, if you have a funky subject, go for it – never let your own snobbery of how a portrait should look take precedence over what the client wants and will buy.

When you’re this close, make sure you aren’t casting a shadow (even faint) on your subject.

When you like the lighting on your subject’s face, let them give you several expressions, and play to their best features. If someone has bad teeth, aim for closed-mouth smiles and dramatic or intense facial expressions. If they have a great smile, start cracking jokes. If they have amazing eyes, get super close on those. If they have great hair, or if their hair is a big part of their style, be sure it frames or comes forward a bit to accent their face.

Since a close-up is more of an artsy and intimate image, play around with having your client look away from the camera, pose their head to the left or right and have them look both toward you and away, and if they’re the jocular type, have them make some funny faces.

Good close-ups make great MySpace and Facebook defaults.


     


The Layback Shot

Find something for your subject to lay back on. I’m lucky to have a great spot on a tree at my city park where my subjects can lay back comfortably, but you can use a flat surface like a patch of grass or a park bench.

You’ll have your subject lay down, and turn/lean their head back to look at you. As always, make sure your lighting looks good, and if their faces aren’t catching even light, rotate them until they look great.

Have your subject arch their back a bit to make it easier for them to look back to you. Take your time and get a natural pose here – if your subject is straining their neck too much or too twisted around, their discomfort will show up in the final photo.

Hands can go down the side into/around pockets, their far hand can go up behind their head, and the near hand can stay down, go in a jacket pocket, or reach up to grip a lapel.

This mostly looks good as a dramatic photo, but as with every photo, try to work a range of expressions in. Go crazy and cull out the misses later when you’re on the computer.


           


The Bench Shot

A good park bench is a great prop for posing. Your subject can sit, stand, or lay on it, and any which way, it creates visually interesting horizontal lines in the image.

Work your angles and expressions, primarily focusing on straight-on shots capturing the long side of the table or bench. Overhead shots can be good here as well to create some angled lines through your image.


                       

                 


The Standing On Something Shot

I may not be creative with naming these shots, but this is one of the more dramatic photos you’ll take of your subject.

Find something that your subject can stand on, preferably a something that creates a statuesque appearance. A chair, a rock or cement wall, a pillar of some sort, a table, a tree stump, whatever’s available.

Go for dramatic and goofy poses and expressions here. Try to get your camera down around your subject’s foot level and shoot up at them. Primarily do this zoomed in, but try some wide angles as well. Dramatic poses should give your subject the appearance of a statue on display, and goofy stuff can include flamingo one-legged stances and bird-in-flight pantomimes.





The Wide Shot

You’ll have to do some hunting and practice your landscape photographer’s eye to find a good place, but seek out some good scenery to do a landscape-style photo with your subject as a small but highlighted feature in the shot.

A tree that overhangs a hillside, a select tree out of a row of a dozen, a lone tree in a field (can you tell I shoot around trees a lot?), a hillside or field covered in green grass or flowers… You get the idea. Get in a position where you can shoot a wide-angle photo of this beautiful landscape or natural feature, and pose your subject in a key point.

If photographing the overhanging tree, place your subject in the frame created by the branches which dip down at their tips. If shooting the lone tree, seat your subject at the side of the tree, or stand them in front of it. If you can shoot from a high position, lay your subject in that field of flowers and let them be the unique break, and thus focal point, in the pattern the landscape creates.

Your subject will be very small in this photo, so pose them dramatically enough that they don’t appear as just sticks or squares in the photo. Extend the pose enough to create more interesting shapes. Make them take up some space around them.


                       

                       

           


The Funky Angle Shot

Go wide-angle and shoot from an unusual angle on your subject. I love to shoot overhead for these, but you can lay down and shoot from ground level, or just get close and twist the camera so your subject takes up the frame corner-to-corner instead of top-to-bottom.

This is a playful type of shot, so feel free to play around with your subject to get a memorable image.


                       


The Down The Road Shot

Roads, not unlike the done-to-death train track, create nice lines in an image.

Place your subject in the middle of a road (do mind the traffic), or off to one side or the other, and look for a shot which includes the bold graphic element of the road and the lines on the road. Have your subject take a bold stance if in the middle of the road, or have them turn toward the road if they’re posed to the side. If to the side, place your subject in the left or right side of the frame, with the road filling the rest.

After you nail your straight-on shots, do some funky angle shots and do some overheads. The bold lines that roads create will, if captured properly, give your portrait a big boost in style.


                       


The Jump Shot

Ahh, The Jump Shot – a must for nearly every subject I photograph, in the studio or outdoors. Seniors, brides, children…none are exempt from the coolness of this photo.

Find a place where you can get below your subject’s feet; the crest of a hill, a low wall, whatever works for you.

Lay down. Get extra low for this shot. The lower you are, the higher it will appear your subject jumps, even if they are notably sans “ups.”

Get some space between you and your subject, but stay close enough that you can shoot zoomed out for a nice wide-angle effect.

For the jump, tell your subject to get as high as they can on the jump, and have them go all-out cheerleader. Guys and gals both should throw their hands up and kick their heels back. Big laughs and wide-mouthed smiles look great here.

Snap your photo at the apex of their jump. If you’re shooting with a point-and-shoot, you’ll have to play with your timing to make this happen. Pre-focus on your subject to reduce the delay.

Watch the background in this one – your subject should have nothing buy sky behind them. If there are trees or buildings disturbing your subject’s blue-sky background, the flying effect won’t be as strong.

This is always a fun photo to make and show to clients, and one that often sells as a big print.


           


Bonus: The Prop Shot

I have a couple of bonus shots for you, separate from the rest because they involved props.

The appropriately-named Prop Shot involves the inclusion of just about anything that your subject will pose with – a pet, sports gear, hobby gear (such as a camera!), etc.

Whatever the prop is, your first priority is to show your subject interacting with the prop, and your second is to have the subject interact with the camera at the same time.

If your subject wants to pose with their dog, they’re holding the dog in their arms and the pup starts licking their faces, great photos will be had. If you can catch your subject laughing and looking at the camera while this is going on, it will make an even better photo.

If your subject wants a shot of them swinging on a swing, get a nice low angle down and to the side of them so you can catch them at the top of their forward swing; if you can get them to look back/down at you while laughing or smiling, even better.

Interacting with the camera, in any case, is secondary to them interacting naturally with their prop of choice. If you’re doing a profile shot of a subject kissing their pet potbelly pig, the mid-laugh smoochy shot is going to be far and away better than then snuggling and smiling at the camera shot. Make them both, but know which one will sell more prints.


                 


Bonus: The Car Shot

A car is really just a big prop, but because of its size and usually very personal relationship with its driver, it gets special mention here.

A car says a lot about its owner. A beat up old truck can lend as much character to a portrait as a slicked-up Porsche can add style to another.

Get photos of your subject in the driver’s seat, leaning against the car James Dean style, sitting on the hood or tailgate, do a Layback Shot on the hood, ask for stories about the driver’s experience with the car and then try to recreate that experience. If they rebuilt the engine, get photos of them under the hood poking around, or slid underneath the car with just their legs sticking out. Find the connection between the driver and the car and make some fun and memorable photos which capture that connection.





Practice makes perfect

Phew! That’s 2,443 words of ideas to get you kick-started taking money-making photographs of your portraiture clients. Start practicing what you’ve learned above and build your own set of favorite money-making photos so you never have to “make it up as you go along” unless you want to.

Keep in mind, this is by no means an in-depth or exhaustive list; as you grow as an artist, and expand your repertoire of favorite images to make of clients, you’ll start to enter a flow state when you’re shooting and go naturally and easily from one pose and place to the next.

In the near future you’ll find here on PartTimePhoto.com some fun and dead-simple video and photo tutorials to help you more visually learn to make the most of these photo opportunities.

Next Steps

• Take a drive around your town or neighborhood and explore the outdoor areas which would be ripe for good photos. Look for parks and playgrounds especially. Walk around your own back yard and see what little nooks would be great to take portraits in.
• Grab a friend or family member and practice, practice, practice. Print out or download this list to your iPhone and setup by setup, practice each photo, and practice getting good expressions from your subjects. Remember, you’re a working photographer now – let your guinea pig subject know that they can get with you to view the photos at a later date and buy what they love.
• Have fun practicing and have fun on your shoots. You will make far better photos, and your subjects will enjoy the experience a great deal more. Remember, your art will take time to grow, but your ability to provide clients with a fantastic experience lies in your hands right now.
• Hold a practice viewing session with your guinea pig subject and look at your take together. See which images get the best reaction from them. See if they’re interested in buying any of them. Take note of what really floats their boat, and keep this in mind for your upcoming brainstorm session – these are the photos that you want to lean toward making with future clients.
• Check out the work of Flickr artists from their outdoor portraiture sessions.
• Brainstorm session: Write down your thoughts on which photo setups gave you your best images, both artistically to you and financially to your subject. Those photos that they were really happy with are what you’ll want to be sure you shoot every time with your clients. File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• If you’re interested in maximizing your financial and enjoyment benefit from your part time photography business, feel free to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site. I’m very thankful for your readership!
• How would you classify some of your favorite outdoor portraits? Do they fit in any of the above categories? If not, how would you classify them? What have you learned is your best-seller image? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7
• It’s digital: go crazy! How to make great photos by accident
• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
• Testing wordpress post
• Open your eyes and make beautiful photos where you are now
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/top-10-money-making-outdoor-photographs-of-people-your-first-customer-series-part-2/feed/ 9 http://parttimephoto.com/its-digital-go-crazy-how-to-make-great-photos-by-accident/ http://parttimephoto.com/its-digital-go-crazy-how-to-make-great-photos-by-accident/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:47:12 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=142



(Putting some thorough time in on Part 2 of the Your First Customer Series, so here’s some fresh reading while I’m dabbling in that project.)

There are two camps of professional photographers out there: the selective and thoroughly-planned, and the spray-and-prays.

I lean more toward the latter, although I’ll say that with time and experience, you can begin to combine the two styles effectively.

Whereas some portrait photographers like to set up and plan and micromanage every shot down to the last detail, I have enough ADHD in me to necessitate going hog wild while I’m shooting.

I’ll get my client into a general pose, or give them some posing instructions and turn them loose, then start shooting – as I see things I like, I’ll have them repeat them.

For example, if I’m shooting a senior outdoors I may have them lay back on tree or picnic table, have them arch their backs and turn their faces to me. I’ll start shooting, then ask for different expressions, different hand placement, etc. As they morph the pose to their own inspiration, I’ll grasp onto what they’re doing right in my eyes and encourage them to do more of it.

I tend to shoot 400 or more photos in a one-hour session, whether in the studio or out in the wild.

Grognards will tell you that shooting so many images is “amateur,” but I don’t think any method is amateur that results in photos your client loves and is willing to pay good money for. If you’re more meticulous, do more planning and setup; if you’re like me and love variety and faster rhythms, spray away.

Experiments make money

A sidebar to this concept of shooting like crazy to make great photos would be to experiment like a mad scientist.

Photography is definitely one of those artistic talents that benefits from experimentation, to ‘learn by doing.’

One of the best things about “not knowing any better,” in photography and in life, is that you can experiment freely. Want to shoot portraits at night by street light? Do it. Get a whim to do a family portrait with everyone upside down hanging from swings? Do it. Inspired to play with backlighting, unusual or wild posing, high fashion set and scene creation, want to go with a commercial feel, feel like putting everyone in sunglasses, can’t go another day without doing an entire shoot with a Star Wars theme, just have to shoot an entire senior session in the subject’s home? Do it.

It’s digital: go crazy!

Especially when you are early-on in your professional photography career, experiment and blow the doors off your self-imposed boundaries. If a photo stinks, throw it out without a second thought or if you like the idea, ponder (or ask advice on the forums) how you can do it better.

When you find something you love, and more importantly, your client loves it too, write it down and add it to your shot list – your list of must-shoots for every client.

Don’t sacrifice your basics, your ‘guaranteed’ salable photos, but definitely take time to experiment and play with fresh ideas and your own imagination while working with clients.

You’ll find that your artistic talents grow much faster, and you’ll create some truly unique and remarkable photos along the way. Those stylish images, along with a proven capacity for knocking down solid, quality portraits, will get you word of mouth, a healthy buzz, in your market.

A digital caveat

The only flipside to the spray-and-pray style of shooting is that you will wear out your camera faster than usual.

I experienced this with my Canon 40D, 20D, and original silver Digital Rebel. I’ve had to replace the shutter on each at $250 a pop. Each time the old salt behind the counter tells me, “You take too many pictures! Just because it’s digital doesn’t mean you can take so many pictures!”

His advice is well-taken, and as years go by, I’ve become better and better at being more selective in my shooting.

However, my style, my salable photos, are my bread and butter as a professional photographer. I have made back what I’ve spent in shutter replacements many, many times over.

Go with the flow and make your photos your way. Do what feels right to you, what you’ve learned gives you the best images you can make.

Next Steps

• Experiment! On every single photo shoot, try something new or different or downright crazy. As always, check out the inspirational work of Flickr artists to keep your brain buzzing.
• Brainstorm session: Close your eyes. Let your imagination explore visions and ideas for unique and interesting portraits of people. Write down every vision that comes to mind, every important detail, and who/what/where/when/how you would photograph each. File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• There’s only more real-world advice, tips, and encouragement to come here on PartTimePhoto.com. If you enjoy what you’re reading, please feel free to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
• What preconceived notions or fears do you feel are holding you back from making fun, fantastic photos? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people – Your First Customer Series, Part 2
• What you need to start a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 2
• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
• How to make money as a part time portrait photographer – Startup Series, Part 1
• Open your eyes and make beautiful photos where you are now
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/its-digital-go-crazy-how-to-make-great-photos-by-accident/feed/ 4 http://parttimephoto.com/how-can-i-find-time-to-be-a-part-time-photographer-your-first-customer-series-part-1/ http://parttimephoto.com/how-can-i-find-time-to-be-a-part-time-photographer-your-first-customer-series-part-1/#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:29:26 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=104



Most of you reading this blog already have full time jobs. Whether that’s as a corporate executive, coffeehouse barista, or full time mom, we’ll assume you have your hands full 40 hours a week.

Being a service provider, part time photography allows you to dictate your own hours. You can book as much or as little work as you wish, maintaining all of the flexibility you need to take care of your day job and familial responsibilities.

I’m a workaholic, love what I do, and am able to spend a lot of my working time with my family, so I invest a lot more time into my part time photography business than most people might. After a typical 9-5 day at my journalism job, I’ll probably spend five to seven hours doing photography work – marketing, shooting, processing, and selling.

You certainly do not have to make such a time commitment to be a successful part time photographer. You can work as much or as little as you like. If you want to just get your feet wet, try a half day or two each month. If you want to go all-out, try four hours a day, six days a week. If you want to aim for a balanced start, let’s take aim at four hours per week.

Getting better at anything takes time and effort. The more you put into your part time photography business, the more you will get back.

The more time you invest in your business…

• The more you will accelerate your learning of the photographic and post-processing arts, making your portfolio more impressive and images more salable;
• The more you will be able to network, in person and via social media, to expose potential customers to what you have to offer;
• The more money you will make, through creating ever-improving salable art and taking in more customers;
• The more quickly you will learn how to balance life and business while making the most of both.

With that said, you don’t want to burn out on your new money-making part time job. Unless you’re a desperately passionate workaholic like me, you’ll tire quickly of daily photo shoots and photo processing work.

But you know what? How much time you invest is your own business, literally – only you know what time you have to practice part time photography, and how much time you want to invest.

The Four-Hour Set

The complete workflow of my part time photography system is built on four-hour sets.

• Hour One: Marketing – This is where you get your art and business in front of potential customers.
• Hour Two: Shooting – The creation of beautiful photos for your clients to purchase! Not to disrespect the art of photography, but for our purposes, the goal of taking photos is to create a desirable product to sell your customers.
• Hour Three: Processing – Here you will separate the wheat from the chaff. You’ll pick only your favorite images from the shoot to show your clients. On those photos you’ll do some light post-processing to give them a nice punch. Again, the purpose being to show customers the most salable art / product you can.
• Hour Four: Selling – There is no better feeling than someone handing you a nice check and sincerely saying, “Thank you for what you do!” The viewing / sales session is when your clients will get to see the photos you’ve made for them and make their purchase.

You are able to split these four hour sets any way you like. If you want to work four evenings a week, aim at doing four sets of four hours of work, equally split between the four above activities. If you want to only work on Sundays, set aside eight hours to do two sets of four hours. Split your time however it best fits your lifestyle.

Look at this time like a good workout for your art, business, and wallet. Specific exercises or activities done in manageable sets will give you balanced improvement and maximize both short- and long-term results.

The flexibility of this system also lets you shift time into marketing during lull shooting times or early on when too few people even know you’re in business. In Part 4 of the Your First Customer Series, you’ll learn how to fill up your shooting schedule as fast as possible – then keep it that way.

But slow times are sure to come eventually. Customers, bless their hearts, are the only part of the system that you don’t have hands-on control of. However, with good marketing practices, we’ll minimize slow times and keep you earning as much as possible.

I’m very much so a learn-by-doing kind of person, so the part time photographer system will have you shift your time entirely into marketing during slow times so you can get back to shooting and practicing your skills in real world situations as fast as possible.

And don’t worry, marketing in my world is just about connecting with people, being social, and having a lot of fun. You will never have to sacrifice ethics or honesty to get people in the door, and you won’t have to trick people out of their money when you’re doing sales. People will only buy what they love.

Tomorrow in Part 2 of the Your First Customer Series, I’ll show you the 10 best and easiest photos you can take and sell to customers. Along with frolicking in your own artistic playground while shooting your customers, these 10 images will result in the first dollar bills you’ll earn as a part time photographer.

Next Steps

• Write down all of the sections of “free time” you have outside of your day job. Decide how much time you would like to invest each week in your part time photography business, thinking in sets of four hours (which can be split over several days, if you wish; the hours do not need to be consecutive). Look at your sections of free time and decide when you would like to dedicate to your part time photography business.
• Brainstorm session: Write down what obstacles stand in your way of doing at least four hours of part time photography work each week. What creative ways can you overcome those obstacles? Can you work at odd hours? Can you work weekends? Can you work on Sunday afternoons?
• I will write many more articles about the workflow of being a part time photographer in the future. To keep up with these and other juicy topics, feel free to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of every page of this web site.
• When each week will you be a part time photographer? Have you found that you are at your most productive and artistic during certain times of the day? When? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• What does a successful part time photographer look like? – Startup Series, Part 4
• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• What should I charge for my part time photography? – Your First Customer Series, Part 3
• How to start a photography business – the Startup Series
• Top 15 Internet Marketing methods, from least to most effective, from Darketing to Arketing
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/how-can-i-find-time-to-be-a-part-time-photographer-your-first-customer-series-part-1/feed/ 4 http://parttimephoto.com/what-does-a-successful-part-time-photographer-look-like-startup-series-part-4/ http://parttimephoto.com/what-does-a-successful-part-time-photographer-look-like-startup-series-part-4/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:12:48 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=78



The Part Time Photographer Startup Series:

Part 1: How to make money as a part time portrait photographer

Part 2: What you need to start a part time photography business

Part 3: The legalities of starting a part time photography business

Part 4: What does a successful part time photographer look like?

—

Different people wear success in different ways.

My definition of success is probably a lot different from Work At Home Mom, Creative Outlet Corporate Executive, or Hobbyist Turned Pro. Depending on your goals (a subject we’ll look at in depth in a future article), the lifestyle and business you aim to create through part time photography, your version of success, will be wholly unique.

You may be a stay at home mom, married to military, with a couple of young kids that deserve as much attention as you can give. Success to you may be to work only a few hours every week photographing babies and toddlers in your home studio. Maybe you want to have the flexibility of setting your own schedule, making photos of your favorite subject – babies – while earning enough money to pay for a great summer vacation for your family. Disney Cruise, anyone?

You may have a good, decent day job, but you have the entrepreneurial itch and you enjoy photography. You would like to stretch your legs during your recreational time each week to see what kind of business you can build on your own. It’s not so much about the money as building a business with your own art and your own two hands.

You may certainly be an enthusiast photographer who loves the art and experience of your hobby and you want to make your hobby pay for itself. You want a bunch of cool photo gear to make awesome photos. You’ve got the inspiration – you just need the funds to buy the tools needed to make your visions reality.

You may be a regular joe like me. You have a normal day job that pays the bills, you’ve gone about as high as you can go with your current company, and because of wife-and-kid responsibilities, you can’t just quit and eat beans for a few months while you chase your dreams. You want to take on a second job to make money and save up until you’re in a financial position to pursue the career you really want. You need a flexible way to earn enough money to make these dreams happen.

Where I stray from the norm is in being a serial entrepreneur. Whereas many people work to afford play, work is my play. I am a Godinfan the way most people are Potterfans. I spend more on marketing and business books every year than I spend on food. Given the choice of a day at Seaworld or a day blogging about part time photography, well…you won’t find me smelling like whale at the end of the day.

Build your own lifestyle

The beauty of being a part time professional photographer is you can create any business or lifestyle you want – and best of all, you only get better as you go along. Your business knowledge grows alongside your artistic skill; your income grows with your customer base, which increases commensurate with your business and artistic abilities.

• Want to shoot one client a week and work only four hours? Can do.
• Want to only work Tuesday evenings? Can do.
• Want to make five times as much money? Shoot five times as many clients. Can do.

Like I said, I’m an unusual example – I work 30-40 hours a week on my second job. A) I love what I do, B) I’m wired to be a workaholic, and C) my wife and kids are greatly involved in almost all of the shoots I do, so very little family time is lost because of my second career as a part time professional photographer.

The system I’ll share with you through PartTimePhoto.com is very scalable and nigh risk-free. The minimum time investment I suggest sits around four hours per week, which includes marketing, shooting, processing, and selling at least one client. You can work more or less – aim at one client a month, or one every day, whatever aligns with your goals.

More clients means accelerated development as a part time photographer and accelerated income. You can set your own pace to both grow and earn.

My version of success

What’s success look like for me, personally?

I get up every day at 8 a.m., I get in a good workout at the gym, then I’m at work by 9 a.m. I let myself sleep in on Sundays. Gym’s closed anyway.

I’ll work on a mix of newspaper and photography work for the next 12-16 hours; day job + second job.

Wednesdays are family day – no worky worky of any kind, although you’ll catch me reading e-mails and blogs on my iPhone during downtime throughout the day.

I’ll photograph 2-5 clients in a week, and spend whatever time I need to ensure they’re given the best and most attentive experience possible. I’ll spend around one hour culling and post-processing each client’s shoot, and another hour doing a viewing / sales session with them within a few days of their shoot.

Any time I am not doing active income-generating work (shooting, processing, selling), I am marketing – and this is a big part of why my system works so well.

I like to stay booked about a month in advance, and I book as many clients as I am feeling the desire to shoot. Sometimes I’ll book light weeks, one or two clients, when I have other projects I want to concentrate on. I’ll book heavier weeks in busy seasons like Christmas and high school graduation when I have a lot of clients who need timely service – it can be a busy time, but the money made then allows me flexibility elsewhere in the year.

Marketing is just a combination of exposing potential clients to my business and my work, and showing existing clients lots of love to ensure they come back. From eating at the Old Spanish Trail restaurant and handing out business cards to potential clients to making connections with people on MySpace, from advertising on Craigslist to sending out a monthly e-mail newsletter, there are myriad ways to keep yourself busy with ensuring you have clients lined up to shoot with you.

What do I get out of being a part time photographer?

• I get to meet amazing people every single day, many of whom become good friends.
• I get to make cherished photos for those amazing people; a good sign of success is when clients are sincerely thanking you from their hearts…while handing you a check.
• I get a ton of satisfaction from running a successful small business, providing clients with a great service and great experience while contributing to my community and staying profitable.
• …and the money doesn’t hurt, either. I earn as much or more in my pocket from part time photography as I do from my day job as a community journalist. This enables me to enjoy financial security, job security, and freedom security – part time photography is a business you can take anywhere you go.

Your mileage will vary. It took me 10 years to achieve such a balance in my work and life. But I hope you will benefit from my knowledge and experience and enjoy exactly the success you want far faster than I did.

Does this sound like something you want to do? If so, let’s get it done!

Today is the day

This article concludes our four-part Startup Series for part time photographers. These blog posts are only the beginning of what will become a vast resource for living and working as a part time professional photographer. I hope you’ll stay tuned for the goodness to come.

The next series of articles here on PartTimePhoto.com will help you prepare for and photograph your first client. Then your second. Then your third, and so on. I’ll help you get set up with a simple system for marketing to, photographing, post-processing, and selling to as many clients as you want.

Next Steps

• Brainstorm: Write down your ideal situation as a part time photographer. How many hours per week will you work? When can you set aside time for marketing, shooting, processing, and selling? Do you want to do it all in one or two days a week, or a little bit each day? What kinds of clients will you work with? What’s your vision of a dream-come-true, successful situation? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
• Growing as a photographer and as a one-person photography business will take some time and some work, but by following along here at PartTimePhoto.com daily, at least you will know that the steps you’re taking are in the right direction. If you have learned a thing or two from this blog, you’re invited to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this blog.
• Does the life and work of a part time photographer appeal to you? How would being a successful part time photographer benefit your life? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How can I find time to be a part time photographer? – Your First Customer Series, Part 1
• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• How to make money as a part time portrait photographer – Startup Series, Part 1
• Your source for making money as a part time photographer
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/what-does-a-successful-part-time-photographer-look-like-startup-series-part-4/feed/ 1 http://parttimephoto.com/the-legalities-of-starting-a-part-time-photography-business-startup-series-part-3/ http://parttimephoto.com/the-legalities-of-starting-a-part-time-photography-business-startup-series-part-3/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:23:30 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=55



The Part Time Photographer Startup Series:

Part 1: How to make money as a part time portrait photographer

Part 2: What you need to start a part time photography business

Part 3: The legalities of starting a part time photography business

Part 4: What does a successful part time photographer look like?

—

With the disclaimer made that I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant, let’s broach the topic of legalities you’ll need to be aware of as you kick off your part time photography business.

All of the thoughts I share here are from my experience over the past 10 years as a part time professional photographer in a small town in Texas. The language, terms, and governmental entities you have to deal with in your state or country may go by entirely different names. At the end of this article, I’ll provide some sure-fire advice as to how you can rest easy knowing you are completely covered as a working photographer. The peace of mind is worth the research.

DBA – Doing Business As

When I launched Outlaw Photography, I was required to go to my local county clerk (found conveniently at my local county courthouse) to file a DBA or Doing Business As form. This just makes a recorded connection between you as a person and your business.

You’ll spend a few minutes going through their records to ensure your business name isn’t taken (in a future article, I’ll show you how to name your business in five seconds flat), then fill out a form and pay a filing fee. Mine was $25.

To accept checks in your business name, most banks will ask you to show them your DBA, and will require you to open a separate account. My local Wells Fargo branch did not have this requirement, but the bank I now work with does. Expect to pay a monthly fee for this second account.

It’s sound business advice to always use your business checking account for business income and expenses.

Sales Tax

Next up you’ll need to go to the web site of your state’s sales tax enforcer and find their sales tax application.

For me, I went through my state comptroller’s web site and completed the free and easy application online. You’ll get your sales tax ID # slip of paper in the mail, which you’ll want to keep displayed where customers can see it. Unless you have a retail studio space or home office open to the public, just slap this in a file which you can show customers if needs be. No one has ever asked to see mine.

When it comes to collecting sales tax, the rate you collect from customers and later deliver to the state will depend on where your business is located. When I worked out of my rural home I collected 6.75-percent sales tax – now that I have a retail studio in an incorporated city, I collect 8.25-percent sales tax. Your taxing entity will provide you with the rate you should charge.

To answer the age-old question of what services or products you should collect sales tax on, I charge it on everything. The wisest advice I was given was that professional photography is considered manufacturing a product and thus you collect sales tax on parts and labor both. See my advice at the end of this article regarding the Your Mileage May Vary aspect of this point.

In Texas, you hand over the sales taxes you’ve collected on an annual basis unless you collect in excess of $xxxx amount, in which case you pay quarterly.

Income Tax

You will need to report all of your business income and business expenses come tax time. I’ve always trusted my numbers to H&R Block, of which we have a local branch with local people who take care of me any time I have a question and have given me great advice and peace of mind over the years.

If you enjoy filing your own taxes form by form, you’ll need a Schedule C. That’s honestly as far as my knowledge goes in that realm. There’s some good advice over at the Keeping Nickles blog for the do-it-yourself’ers out there.

Zoning

The last legal requirement you need to worry about is the zoning of your property if you live within a city and plan to work from home. This should only ever be an issue if you have clients visit you at your home, either for shooting in your home studio or doing photo viewing and sales sessions there. If you shoot entirely on location and do viewings at Starbucks on your laptop, you should never have an issue.

If you do plan to host clients, visit with your friendly secretary at City Hall about what permits or restrictions you may face working from your home. If you live in a subdivision, visit with your Home Owner’s Association. Part time portrait photography is a very low-traffic business, so most associations will have no problem with you doing part time business from home.

Making sure your butt is covered

God bless the spirit of the bootstrapper, but even I will say that the legal issues of starting and running your part time photography business are no place to be chintzy. Talk to a local CPA (Certified Public Accountant), preferably one recommended by a fellow photographer so you know they know your business. Even the shortest consultation will help you understand your legal position and needs, specific to your business, city, and state.

Your second option is to visit with other photographers in your city or state via online forums. I’m a big fan of my state’s best photography forum, TexasPhotoForum.com. Join your state’s forum and search their archives in the Business section for startup advice. This won’t guarantee your butt’s covered, but it’s the fastest way to get a good idea of what you need and where to look for more information.

While you’re there, search for recommendations for a CPA you can trust and talk with.

If you have any lingering questions that you can’t find from searching your forum’s archives, don’t be afraid to start a thread and ask dumb questions. Down the road when you’ve made it big, you’ll be the one on the other side of the Internet helping newbies get their start.

Your third option is to visit with your local Chamber of Commerce or business association. They can give you good advice and resources to explore.

In Part 4 of our Startup Series, I’ll show you what success looks like, and we’ll answer the underlying question of, “Is this something I really want to do?”

Next Steps

(Lots of Next Steps at this juncture – don’t be intimidated; this is where you are able to guarantee yourself the peace of mind you need to run your business without stress or worry.)

• Search Google for your state’s premier online photography forum. Join (should be free) and search their business archives for threads on startup issues and questions. Take the time to read over each one and as you go along, make notes of what you need to do or investigate further to ensure you’re legal. You should be able to answer most of the above-noted questions here. (A couple of good lists for general photography forums can be found at Doug Plummer’s blog and Amazon’s Askville.)
• If you have a question that hasn’t been answered, or need clarification on something, PM (private message) one of the seemingly knowledgeable photographers who was providing answers in the forum. Tell them you’re an aspiring professional photographer and ask your question. Keep in mind some people are jerks and don’t let them wear you down if they aren’t encouraging. If they won’t answer your question or aren’t encouraging, PM someone else.
• Search the forum for a recommendation for a good CPA. If you can’t find a recommendation, ask one of the knowledgeable posters in the forum. I suggest making contact with this CPA, finding out about prices, and finding out what the cost would be for an initial consultation.
• If you can afford it, arrange for an initial consultation with your CPA of choice. This is the best money you can spend on starting your own photography business – the peace of mind of knowing you’re covered is worth far more than what you’ll pay.
• Brainstorm session: Using what you learned in the forums and / or from your CPA, write down a list of all the things you need to do, all of the people you need to contact for more information, and make a plan for getting it all done. This is one of the hardest parts of starting your photography business, but the costs will be minimal, and there are no stupid questions. This will be the test of whether or not you have it in you to start your own business. Trust me, speaking from experience, it is way easier than you think it is. Go through the motions and within a day or two, you’ll have or have set in motion everything you need to legally start your part time photography business.
• I write and post new articles for PartTimePhoto.com daily to help you become successful as a part time professional photographer. If you like what you see here, you’re welcome to click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this site.
• What legal issues have you run into while starting your part time photography business? What have you found to be unique to your city, state, or country? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Open your eyes and make beautiful photos where you are now
• How to prepare for your first photography client’s call – Your First Customer Series, Part 5
• How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
• Top 10 money-making outdoor photos of people – Your First Customer Series, Part 2
• How to earn lifetime photography customers with the perfect follow-up – Your First Customer Series, Part 10
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/the-legalities-of-starting-a-part-time-photography-business-startup-series-part-3/feed/ 0 http://parttimephoto.com/what-you-need-to-start-a-part-time-photography-business-startup-series-part-2/ http://parttimephoto.com/what-you-need-to-start-a-part-time-photography-business-startup-series-part-2/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:02:03 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=33



The Part Time Photographer Startup Series:

Part 1: How to make money as a part time portrait photographer

Part 2: What you need to start a part time photography business

Part 3: The legalities of starting a part time photography business

Part 4: What does a successful part time photographer look like?

—

There are four things you’re going to need to start making money through part time photography:

Camera

Here’s where the equipment snobs will try to work you over with a sack of credit cards. Or they’ll at least try to get you to max yours out.

What you have is what we’re going to start out with. Whether that’s a little point and shoot or a dSLR, it makes no matter. We’re not going to start out aiming at the framed 20×30 crowd. We’re looking squarely at the 8×10 and under client set, and anything over 1.3 megapixels should work just fine.

If you’re trying to judge the value of your camera, nowadays, odds are if it’s made by one of the name-brand manufacturers (Canon, Nikon, Sony, Kodak, Pentax, etc.) it’s probably worth what you paid for it. A $50 camera will give you $50 photos and options for taking pics, a $200 camera will give you $200 photos and options. I would hope you’re at least starting with something other than your camera phone, but whatever the case, we’ll make it work.

The more expensive your camera gear, the greater control you will have in taking photos – playing with depth-of-field to blur a background, manually adjusting the shutter and aperture for tricky lighting, better low-light performance for shooting indoors or at night, etc.

But even a basic point and shoot can make photos good enough for our startup purposes. Again, the business model we’ll work with makes every shoot a no-risk, buy what you love situation for you and your clients. The more good photos you make, artistically and technically, the more money you will make, but even with the most rudimentary equipment and skills, you can start making money today.

(Such as: any Canon PowerShot or Nikon Coolpix – dSLR beats point and shoots, more expensive P&S beats cheap, but nearly anything sold today can make a decent 8×10)

Computer

You will need a computer with which you can download pics from your camera, do some post-processing on them (brighten, add contrast, crop, blemish removal), show to clients during their sales session, and to post photos on your blog.

What you have is what you’ll use. So long as you have a computer capable of at least running any of the free image editing packages out there (GIMP, Picasa), you have everything you need.

The faster and more modern your computer, the more efficient your workflow will be during post-processing. Faster = less time, less frustration.

A laptop is better than a desktop computer for our part time photography purposes. This will allow you the freedom to process photos anywhere, to do viewings in clients’ homes or at Starbucks, and basically take your mobile office anywhere you want.

I love to set up at the local diner, eat pecan pie, and process photos. I often get comments about my photos while I’m working and get to hand out some business cards.

(Such as: whatever laptop is on sale at Newegg – get more for your money by opting for a heavier beast with a medium to large screen)

Software

Software will be the first thing you’ll spend your hard-earned part time photography money on. But, as always, you’ll start with what you have – or at least with freeware off the net.

The top two free image editing packages are GIMP and Picasa. GIMP is powerful but has a dry interface, and Picasa is very newbie-friendly but not as powerful. Try them both and see which you jive with. I’ll write my reviews and tutorials for how to use each for our purposes in the near future.

Other than the image editing software itself, you’ll need a good system for organizing photo shoots in folders, backing up those folders, presenting photos to clients during your sales session, and posting photos and information to your blog. I’ll cover all these subjects in future posts.

Internet

The great majority of the marketing we’ll do is going to take advantage of free services on the Internet – Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, Craigslist, Flickr, etc. Most of your on-your-own educational opportunities outside of PartTimePhoto.com will also be through online tutorials, courses, webinars, blogs, and photography forums. We’ll also use online labs for making prints.

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve got this base covered. You can take advantage of Wi-Fi hotspots and libraries if you don’t have access to the net at home, but hopefully if you have a computer, you have at least dial-up net access, which is all you need.

As with your computer, faster internet = less time, less frustration. A slow computer, slow camera, or slow internet access won’t kill your money making opportunities with part time photography.

(Such as: AT&T or any local providers – ask friends or neighbors for recommendations; broadband beats dial-up, but costs 2x-3x as much)

The lesson here is that you can start getting paid today as a part time professional photographer with the tools you already own or have free access to. This is Dave Ramsey-style business financing: bootstrap it, start with what you have, invest what you can as you earn it.

If you are missing any vital piece of this equipment puzzle, watch for my upcoming buying guide which will give solid recommendations across the board for any budget – including $0.

In Part 3 of our Startup Series, I’ll make sure you have your legal bases covered for accepting money in exchange for your services.

Next Steps

• Brainstorm session: Write down a list of the equipment you have right now to start your part time photography business. Are you missing any of the above-mentioned necessities? Write down who you can beg, borrow, or steal from to fill in the gaps until you earn enough to buy what you need. File in your Brainstorms folder.
• Read PartTimePhoto.com every day to make sure you don’t find yourself lacking at your next photo shoot. You’re invited to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page on this web site.
• With the equipment you own now, could you start your own part time photography business? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• How to make money as a part time portrait photographer – Startup Series, Part 1
• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• Should you buy an Apple iPad for your photography business?
• Top 15 Internet Marketing methods, from least to most effective, from Darketing to Arketing
• Open your eyes and make beautiful photos where you are now
]]> http://parttimephoto.com/what-you-need-to-start-a-part-time-photography-business-startup-series-part-2/feed/ 0 http://parttimephoto.com/how-to-make-money-as-a-part-time-portait-photographer-startup-series-part-1/ http://parttimephoto.com/how-to-make-money-as-a-part-time-portait-photographer-startup-series-part-1/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:38:45 +0000 Outlaw Photographer James Taylor http://parttimephoto.com/?p=35



The Part Time Photographer Startup Series:

Part 1: How to make money as a part time portrait photographer

Part 2: What you need to start a part time photography business

Part 3: The legalities of starting a part time photography business

Part 4: What does a successful part time photographer look like?

—

The introductions are out of the way, so let’s get to some meat and taters of becoming a part time photographer.

The business model I’m going to use throughout PartTimePhoto.com is portraiture: children’s, high school seniors, engagement, bridals, couples, family, maternity, and baby photography. I believe it’s the easiest to imitate, both as a business and artistic endeavor, until you are able to further develop your talents and become an innovator.

Most photographers start out wanting to be artists. They get a digital camera, show their photos to friends and family, and get told “oh wow, you take amazing photos! You should be a professional photographer!”

Artistry and innovation will come with experience and self development. Right now, I want to concentrate on giving you the tools of knowledge you need to practice making saleable portraits and getting paid for them. Art, bless it’s heart, will come in due time.

Business success will enable your artistic success. Once you get your first few paid shoots under your belt, you’ll have some money to play with – what you do with that money is your business.

That said, investing money and time back into the development of your business will only make your business easier to make money with.

• Buying better camera equipment will improve the technical quality of your images and open doors to more advanced portraiture techniques like bounce flash and small depth of field.
• Buying better computer equipment will make the post-processing part of your job more efficient, saving time and frustration.
• Investing in photography education, through books, online classes, webinars, in-person workshops, professional memberships, magazines, and other training will greatly improve your art, which gives you a much more valuable product. The better your art, the easier it is to get clients, and to get clients to pay what you want.
• An investment in good marketing is the easiest way to multiply your volume of business, such as through Google AdSense, a more professional web site, graphic design for a new logo and visual identity, or local advertising via print, radio, television, direct mail, mall displays, etc.

I will get into all these aspects of growing your photography business with time. For now, I want to brief you in summary as to how you’re going to make money as a part time portrait photographer.

How to make money as a part time portrait photographer

First, we’re going to keep costs low – in fact, if you’re reading this, odds are you already have everything you’ll need – a camera, computer, Internet access. We’re going to pull a Dave Ramsey and only buy what we can afford – we’re only going to spend money when we make money to spend. We’re going to use the equipment you have, open source software, and free online tools to shoot, process, sell, and market.

Second, we’re going to make it nigh impossible for people to turn you down: no session fees, no minimum orders, buy what you love. That is basically the tagline of my own photography business, and it works just as well during the startup phase as it does 10 years down the road.

Third, we’re going to sell exactly five products: hi-res digital files, 4×6’s, 5×7’s, 8×10’s, and sheets of wallets (8) – nothing over $20. We will expand our product line as money is made and you’re able and desirous to invest in better equipment.

We’re also going to practice three principles of good art and good business:

• Occam’s Razor – To paraphrase, to do with more what can be done with less is vanity. Simplicity in learning and simplicity in practice is how I will help you grow from enthusiast to paid part time professional photographer.
• Kaizen – The Japanese philosophy that small improvements over time create huge advantages. We’re going to start where you are, wherever that may be, and improve from there. There is no disadvantage or ignorance in your life that we cannot overcome on our path to you making money with your photography.
• Patton’s Law – A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow. You’re never going to take the first step on this journey if you don’t accept that you’re not perfect. You won’t say the perfect things to a client, you won’t have the perfect marketing materials, you won’t take the perfect set of pictures. Start today with what you have and what you know and we will find ways to improve in some small way every single day.

One of the best parts of the model you will follow with this plan is that it’s guilt-free and no-risk, for you and your clients. They don’t pay a dime until they see their photos, they only buy and spend what they want, and you make money when your clients walk away with photos they are happy with. There is immense wiggle room to screw up and learn from your mistakes, so there’s no pressure.

Use what you have, in equipment and knowledge, and make small improvements every day. With time, you will have a shooting calendar filled with ecstatic clients and your only limit on income will be in choosing how much and when you wish to work.

Been there, done that – now let’s you and I do it together.

Tomorrow in our Startup Series, Part 2, I’ll go over what equipment you’ll need to get started with your photography business.

Next Steps

• Visit the low-fi portraiture gallery on Flickr.
• Brainstorm session: From the above gallery, write down all the ways you see photographers making good portraits with inexpensive, low-tech gear. Add to your Brainstorms folder.
• Read PartTimePhoto.com daily for all the delicious details of how to make good money through part time photography. To make it easy, scroll to the top of any page on this site and click on the “Subscribe” link.
• What have friends and family told you about your photographs? Have they said you should take up professional photography? Leave a comment below, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.

Similar Posts:

• Want to make money as a part time photographer?
• What you need to start a part time photography business – Startup Series, Part 2
• Your source for making money as a part time photographer
• Your first photo shoot: expectations and results – Your First Customer Series, Part 7
• Culling and post-processing your first photo shoot – Your First Customer Series, Part 8
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