KRT_6528

KRT_6528, a photo by KirkTuck/photo on Flickr.

It's getting hot here in Austin and now I'm nostalgic for the low 90's that we had during Eeyore's birthday party a few months ago. This was done with the Zeiss 50mm 1.4 and the Canon 1Dmk2n. What a wonderful combination.

Changing Gears. A brief blog about marketing for local photographers.

I just got off the phone with a dear friend who started a landscaping business here in Austin, last year.  She's doing okay with her business but like most of us she needs a stream of new clients to keep her business going and growing.  She'd like every client to be a big client  but we were talking about how human nature really works and after mulling it over for a while we settled for doing marketing the way big companies do when courting consumers.  We like the classic model of retail marketing.

The biggest obstacle companies of every size face is getting someone to effect initial trial.  To take active steps to work with your company the first time.  To make the move to buy your product the first time.  And there's a lot of logic to the customer's resistance.  Most things people spend money one aren't really necessities.  If your product (photographs) or service (photography) isn't in the same category as food, shelter and electricity they've probably done okay without it for a long time.  If your client is an ongoing business, like an advertising agency or marketing department within a company, they probably already have a trusted supplier or a list of referred suppliers.  Something may have changed in their situation and you've showed up on their radar as someone who can potentially  add value for them.

The customer may have determined that they'd really like to hire a photographer for their daughter's wedding.  The ad agency may need some photographs for a series of ads.  But there are doubts that you'll need to overcome to get the work.

Since the clients have never worked with you before they will have doubts.  Will they like the final image?  Will it be worth the money they have to spend?  Will you be able to deliver?  If the need is timely, are you reliable?  Will they enjoy the time they'll need to spend with you to make the job work?
Their fears as retail customers are:  Will I get what I'm paying for?  Will I like what I get?  Could I spend this money on something else and have a better emotional reward? (Better cake.  More flowers.  Nicer food. Cooler dress.)

For the responsible party at the ad agency or marcom dept. the emotional reticence is the same.  Will this supplier be able to deliver a good product?  Are they reliable?  Will we get our monies' worth?  And the fears sound something like this:  If this supplier messes up will I lose credibility with my client?  Will I lose the trust of my employer or supervisor?  Will we have time to pursue other options if this doesn't work?

Having never worked with you before all these responses are a natural part of the divining process.  On some level people hate to make bad purchases because it calls their competence into question.  I firmly believe that online product research will (or already has) outstrip porn sites in our society because people are so determined to check in with everyone else and to research each purchase in detail.

So, how do you handle getting in the door?  I'd suggest that you do it by finding a product or service your business supplies that has a low purchase cost and a very high probability for success and offering that product or service to customers first.  The price has to be low enough so that, in the event of perceived failure, the client isn't afraid of taking a risk.  You'll need to finding a pricing inflection point at which your offering value potentially outweighs the risks involved in buying it.

In my business it's the head shot or business portrait.  In the coffee business it's a small cup of coffee.  For a camera company it's 4x6 inch color prints.  I price my in studio commercial headshot sessions at $250.  This includes the sitting, a web gallery for selection and the retouching and digital delivery of a file (in three sizes) for their use in public relations and promotion.  When business slows down I'll have a sale and provide the same service for $199.

Starbucks often introduces new products by sending out coupons for a free, small serving of the product.  It takes away the "what if I don't like it?" fear.  My favorite camera store will do give aways of prints that only require that you come into their store with a coupon.  Starbucks assumes that most people who try their product (and their service and store environment) will like it and come back for more.  They've removed all the risk for you to try them.  The camera store has provided an incentive for people who are interested in photography to come in and check out their store.  They'll assume you've never been to such a good photo retailer, that you'll be impressed by their prices and their knowledgeable staff and that you'll enjoy the experience enough to make them one of your vendor's.

I know that most companies won't blink at spending $199 to get a great marketing image of one of their important employees and I hope they'll have a positive experience with me, with my delivery and with the image.  And to back that up, if they don't like what they see in the galleries, we offer a money back guarantee.  If you aren't happy with my work I'll refund your money or reshoot you for free.  Your choice.  Once they are in the studio they'll see nice work on the walls.  They'll see how I handle portrait sittings and they'll see how well people respond to their new portrait.  They get to see us in action.  They get to see the result for a low financial risk.  We've found the inflection point and used it to get them to effect trial.

Now, when they return to Starbucks they'll feel more confident about their chances for satisfaction if they order a larger, more expensive treat.  Having been treated well and having gotten wonderful color prints on their first visit, the camera store customer will feel more at home coming back to talk to an "expert" about a new lens or camera.  And now that they've had a good experience getting their portrait done at a good price (with great service) they'll feel a lot more confident talking to me about a bigger project.  With a bigger budget.

Each interface with a customer gives you the potential to strengthen the relationship (or kill it).  But in each step you have the opportunity to make them feel smart about their original decision to buy.  And that's the crucial decision for your business.

Consultants in our business love to talk about getting in the door at Nike or a big ad agency in New York but in reality only a small percentage of photographers will play in that rarified arena.  The rest of us need to understand how to work, survive and thrive in second tier markets and with normal, day-to-day clients.  Getting that first yes is critical.  It's the stepping stone to bigger and bigger projects.  And it's the financial foundation for organic growth.

So, when we got into the subject of landscaping we talked about the current reality of central Texas.  We're in the middle of a severe drought.  There's water rationing in many areas.  And the big trees on our properties are starting to be affected, not just the lawns.  And a big tree can add $50,000 to the value of good properties so it's important to do what's possible to keep the trees healthy.  A simple step is to surround the base of your trees with mulch so that when you deep water them the mulch holds in much of the precious moisture for the tree to use.  We decided that people will be slow to add new plants or undertake big landscape projects during the worst of the drought but they would have a keen interest in taking care of their trees.  My friend is putting together an offer to "remediate" effects of the dry weather on the trees by enriching the soil and putting down a healthy mulch spread, with a ringed dam, to retain water and help the trees use it efficiently.

She's determined to keep the cost per tree low.  She'll offer the service to her existing clients and target new people within her target market with a simple mailed card.  The cost point will be negligible compared to the value of the trees.  And the people in the demographic she markets to would much prefer using this service instead of sourcing mulch, transporting it and then working in the 100+ degree heat.  She'll also put together a little paper about proper tree watering as a "leave behind" piece.

Given that bigger landscaping projects can run into the tens of thousands of dollars or more getting people to effect a first trial is a great way to build the business.  It may be basic marketing but I get the sense that most people are looking for the big splash in their marketing and that may just be counter productive.  Fish in a good stream before going out after whales.  It's all about sustainability.  In landscaping and in photography.

Hope you are having a cool, fun, happy Sunday.   I'm heading out to buy some mulch.

P.S.  Once you've gotten someone to try your photos, your mulch, your coffee or your prints be sure to drop them a nice, handwritten note and tell them how much you appreciate their business.  You wouldn't be in business without them.

Creating your own background. Making your own art.

I wanted a cool, warm background for a photo I was working on of four women in wild, bling, "art bras."  I'd be photographing them in a group and wanted something just......crazy....as a background.  So I dropped by the art supply store and bought a square canvas and came home for a little painting session.  Red, with tinges of black mixed in, as a background for warm yellow.  Now, this is just a starting point.  Once you've pulled the background into PhotoShop the sky is the limit.  I played with the background until I ended up with something I really liked and then I tested it by throwing in my favorite singer/actor/model: Selena.  The final background is the result of some motion blur, a couple of filters in Topaz Adjust (Photoshop plug-in) and some quick selection moves.  Nothing fancy compared to what I'm sure most of my readers are capable of doing.  But the cool thing is the idea that you can paint your own backgrounds for just about anything.

I'd show you the Art Bra finished piece but I need to wait on that until the people print it in their calendar.  It's wonderful to have a studio, no matter how small or rough.  At least you'll have a place where you can splash paint around without people fussing.  And you can sit in front of your computer and write blogs while the dog sits at your feet and looks at you adoringly.  Not bad.

Gaussian Blur.

Saturation and motion blur.

Just Plain Nasty.

I went through four Profoto Acute B batteries in three hours today.

I agreed to do something I've never done before.  My kid is a swimmer for the mighty Rollingwood Waves swim team.  Every year they line up whatever kids want to participate and do a portrait of each one with the pool in the background.  They also round up all the kids and do group photos by age group.  In the past they hired someone to do this for a set price.  The photographer would deliver a 4x6 inch print of the individual swimmer and a 5x7 inch print of the age group the kid swims with, in a little presentation folder,  for somewhere around $20 per kid.  They've asked me if I wanted to do this in years past but it's not a niche in photography that I have any expertise in and I was usually too busy so I always declined.  This year the parents asked again and I decided to go ahead and do the job.  I figured 20 or 30 kids would sign up for the individual photos and I didn't have a lot on the calendar anyway.  Maybe I'd make enough money to buy a couple bags of groceries.

So I loaded the car with a Profoto 600b power pack, a head, a 28 inch beauty dish with a front diffusion sock, a heavy duty stand, a thirty pound sandbag, my wooden Berlebach tripod, a Canon 7D and a 24-105L series lens.  I also had 100 sign-up sheets that Belinda designed for me the night before.  I brought along 4 batteries for the Profoto set up.

The shoot happened at 8:30 this morning so I left the house at 6:45, dropped by Starbucks for a coffee and a scone (intending to enjoy them later......) and then headed to my masters swim workout at 7:00.  After workout I unloaded the car and had everything set up and ready to go at 8:30.  When I looked up there was a line of moms and dads and kids and they were clutching the sign-up forms and their checkbooks and jockeying for position.  I had a volunteer assistant who took the paperwork, accepted their checks and helped line up the kids.

The way I organized myself was to have the kid (or parent) write the swimmer's name really big across the sign-up sheet.  Then I would take a test shot of each kid with the sheet in front of him/her.  That way I'd be able to identify any of the kids I didn't know by sight. (Keep in mind that I've been photographing some of these kids every Summer for the last ten years and all of them for the last four swim meets.)  As a failsafe I had a blank on the form called, "reference frame" and I'd call out the starting frame to my assistant and have them jot it in.

Long story curtailed.  I started making portraits at 8:30 and didn't look up or have time to grab my coffee from the car until 11:30.  We shot nearly 180 people, five group and over 800 total frames.  I was twenty shots into my fourth Profoto battery when the last person came through the line.  Nice to be able to click the box off, pull the battery out, shove another one in and get to work in less than a minute.  An hour into the shoot I had to have a parent make an emergency called to Belinda the Designer to bring more sign-up forms.  Thanks goodness she was near the studio.....

The flash was remarkably consistent and the beauty dish with diffusion was just right.  I was exhausted by I had a blast.  The previous photographer shot film and took one frame per person.  If you know anything about the way I shoot you'll know that's not the way we rolled today.  We shot until we got a genuine smile.  That meant a lot of photographer silliness: growling, howling, giggling, jumping up and down and generally acting about five years old.  You know, the same kind of thing we have to do to get CEO's not to look to stiff.

The battery pack system was the way to go.  We used it at almost full power to achieve parity with the sun.  The recycle was three seconds.  Since I used a radio trigger to fire the flash we had NO cables on the ground.  Nothing to trip over.  Nothing for the five year olds to play cowboy with.

I'll send digital files out to the lab.  Wait patiently for my folders to arrive and charge the camera batteries for the swim meet tomorrow night.

In the meantime I'm cleaning up the studio.  I got volunteered to do an art photo for the Breast Cancer Resource Center's annual Art Bra Calendar project.  I've got three or four people coming over to the studio in a couple of hours to model artist's "art bra" creations.  Should be a fun evening.  I don't know what to expect but that's never been an impediment before.

I'm starting to think of my life as........interesting.

My afternoon with Michael O'Brien.

Shot with a real camera.  Not my phone.

Michael O'Brien is a quite a legend in photography circles.  He rose up from shooting newspaper journalism to become one of the "go to" photographers for advertising agencies throughout the 1980's and 1990's.  He shot the original "What's On Your Powerbook?" ads for Apple Computer.  Beautiful people in beautiful landscapes for Bank of America and so many more solid campaigns.  At the same time he's been a regular contributor for magazines from Texas Monthly to National Geographic. Now he's producing art books. But besides being known for shooting for the best in the business O'Brien is universally known (from worldly clients to the greenest assistant) as being an incredibly nice guy.

This Summer he's teaching an intro to photography course in the School of Photojournalism at the University of Texas at Austin.  A few weeks ago he called me and asked if I would come and speak to his students about my career in photography and where the passion and business is taking me now.  I was flattered and thrilled.  Ecstatic, really, when I found out he'd also be buying me lunch....

I threw together two fun books of images and waited for Michael to drop by the house and pick me up.  We headed over to an old Austin favorite, Maudie's, for a quick bite.  We talked about the usual photographer stuff:  The current state of the business.  Whether it would ever recover.  Would it come back in a new form.  (Answers: bad.  yes. who knows?)

Then we headed off to UT to rendezvous with the students. Small class with great kids.  An Architecture student, a sprinkling of  PR and Journalism and Advertising majors.  A pre-Med student and a neuro-biologist.  Michael started the class off by showing the evolution of the cover design for his book, Hard Ground.  Amazingly, superstar designer, D.J. Stout did over 100 permutations of the cover design before he was satisfied.

Then Michael turned the floor over to me and I tried my best to entertain, inform and keep from embarrassing myself.  The class and Michael were kind and told me they enjoyed the presentation.  Michael drove me back to the house and we talked about the one subject that was a leitmotif for the day:  The idea that you can no longer make a living being a traditional photographer.  That going forward you'll need to do more for your clients.  He cited my progression as an example.  I've moved from just taking photographs to writing ads, writing books, writing scripts, making videos and adding marketing services to projects.  We both agreed that people needed to strengthen their secondary skills to really make it now.  Amazing to hear it from one of the giants of the industry.

Talking to students is a blast but it always shows me my weak points.  I'm bad at editing my portfolio.  It's just an assemblage of images that I like, tossed together with little rhyme or reason.  I love telling stories but I need to check in with my audience and not talk about technical stuff they haven't learned yet.  Hanging out with Michael makes me feel like a temporary guest member of an elite and private group.  But when he drives away my membership expires and I have to go back to my day to day existence as just another corporate photographer making my way through the fog.

Random fact:  Michael O'Brien was a philosophy major in college.

Reinvention. Does anyone have the owner's manual?

Curmudgeon:  a crusty, ill-tempered, usually old man.


I caught myself pontificating about the "way photography should be" the other day.  I was railing about HDR or the fact that no one really knows how to light stuff anymore or some such bullshit.  And I had an out of body experience wherein I could look down and see just how silly I sounded.  Anyone who's been in a field of study or practice for more than ten years probably has a certain amount of brain lock  that makes it more comfortable to fall back on tried and true techniques rather than take the risk to take some chances.  And it's probably the thing that stalls more careers and more hobbies than anything else.

There are two important keys to defeating this kind of curmudgeonly brain lock.  The first key is to recognize that you are doing it, giving in to it,  and that your slavish devotion to the same practice, over and over again is dangerous to your potential as a creative human being.  The second key is to break down the barriers that keep you from emotionally embracing new and different and.... go for it.

We like to think that our hard won knowledge, gathered over time, gives us a leg up on the competition.  But we live in now and our clients live in a different mental space than we do.  We may think that they prize us for our Captain Blye-like command of a certain technique but they may, in fact, be using us in spite of our allegiance to that old school dogma.  They may just like the idea that we show up on time and we don't spit on the floor.

I forced myself to take an image from last week's swim meet and play with it in Topaz.  I played will all the filters.  And then I played with them again.  And you know what?  It's okay to do new stuff.  The photo I started with was the classic available light sports shot.  I tried not to over do it but I really like the tones and the colors I ended up with after playing.  And I've come to love the "fade" control in PhotoShop.   But "playing" is the important ingredient.

People often take me to task for buying and selling gear.  For trying new lights.  In every move and shift I'm trying to be aware that I don't want to get locked into a way of seeing just because I already own the gear.  There's a lot of truth in the old saw that says,  "When you only have a hammer everything looks like a nail."  Going forward the cleanest path to creative illumination might be most open to those who own the least gear.  Or none at all.

Re-invention.  It's not just for old guys.  It's for all of us who work in a dynamic, taste driven field.  And it's not just about adjusting to change.  Real artists push the change.  And that means constantly taking chances and not just falling back on what you know.  Because what you learned back in the 1970's might be just as valuable now as a 1978 Chevy Nova.

Dang.  I hate it when I have to admit I'm wrong.


Added edit: June 7 5:52 pm CST. 


This is from an interview on APE (a photo editor) with hot, young photographer, Nick Onken.  He's talking about his philosophy of ABS = "Always Be Shooting."

 I think. So you’re bought into that? That you need to be shooting all the time, because you need to log the hours, the reps.

Yeah, log the hours to improve. On top of that, the reps always love it when they have new work to show, so they can keep putting in front of people.

Sound Familiar?

Here's the whole interview:  http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2011/06/07/nick-onken-interview/