Going to the chapel!

So last weekend I had the wonderful pleasure of photographing a wonderful couple (Joe and Amy) at a wonderful country club. Everything went off without a hitch, with the exception of it being hotter than blazes and the wedding was outdoors. Not a problem, we persevered and came away with some fantastic and fun looking photographs. It makes such a difference when the people you're photographing buy into the vision you are trying to achieve. In this instance, because the Joe and Amy are fun an energetic themselves, I thought it would be appropriate to get them doing some off the wall kinda things. They went right along with it and came up with some ideas of their own that fit into the whole motif. In fact, one of the best images we got (pictured above) was their idea! I had a good time and I'm looking forward to their reaction towards the finished product.

The cost of staying in Business

It seems I get the same type of e-mail every couple of weeks from families, brides, and models asking what my rates are. I kindly tell them what to expect in terms of both finished product and money and 9 times out of 10 I never hear from them again. On this one occasion recently, however, I had some one ask me if they thought that my rate was too steep for what they wanted. I thought about it for awhile, and I came to the conclusion that I wasn't effectively conveying the value of both my time, my investment, and my talent. It's difficult to overcome the mindset that "all you do is click a button and the picture happens" in the digital age to people who aren't all that familiar with the process. What a lot of people fail to realize is that its taken a multitude of lighting tests, compositional knowledge, color theory classes, technical know-how on how to get the most out of an exposure, etc., etc. Not to mention the monetary investment in all of the necessary equipment to be able to produce the image in the first place. Add to this your time in scout location, preproduction, post production, color management, scheduling, correspondence, and time spent learning new techniques in order to make even more interesting and creative images, and you have a sizable chunk of your time and money out the door. But how do you convey all of this info to a potential client without sounding pretentious? I like to explain it as such: with my potential at creating your image, you will have a unique finished product that will utilize all of my knowledge, creativity, and technical ability. As such, in order for me to stay ahead of the curve with these traits, I need to be able to purchase new equipment, learn new techniques, etc.- hence the reason for my rates. I think if people can attach a tangible value to your photography, the battle is already half way there in your favor.

Making new Memories at Kennywood

So a couple of weeks ago I had the rare opportunity to not only work with the fabulous Ali Pace of Down with Fashion, but we also were able to do a location shoot at Kennywood, a local amusement park here in Pittsburgh. We got rolling at 8:00 in the morning to avoid any potential run-ins with incoming park guests (poor Ali, the model, and the makeup artist all got there start at 6:00 a.m.!) and the whole thing went off without a hitch. We photographed around the Merry-go-round and the kids kingdom area. The model, Chelsea, was a real pro which led to some great pictures! We were in and out of there inside of two hours, just as the days crowd was filing in.
When your dealing with an outdoor location shoot like this, its always important to try and control the available light as much as you can. In this particular instance, it was still early enough to kinda plan my angles because the sun wasn't too high in the sky yet. I had my assistant Lauren provide diffusion when we needed it to let the strobes do there job. Much thanks to Ali, Adrianna, Chelsea,Lauren and Jeff from Kennywood for making this all happen. Take a look at the pics and short video, let me

know what you think!

Just another day at the office...

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think "boy, do I love my job." Thursday was a great example of that. I got an email earlier in the week from a photographer in Missouri who was coming into town to photograph a baseball player. He was looking for an assistant for the day and as luck would have it I was available. They were going to be filming Joba Chamberlain, one of the pitchers for the New York Yankees, for a sports apparel commercial. When I got to the location there was a film crew already setting up and some curious passersby. Our job was to photograph still images of Joba in between takes for the commercial. The whole experience gave me an insight into the world of the celebrity. It seemed every minute of this young man's life was spoken for in some way or another. We had him from roughly 10:30 till 3:00 and in that time he filmed various segments for the commercial, posed for still photographs both for us and the crew, signed autographs, and met with a group of preteen admirers. The amazing thing to me was that he did all of this with such poise and togetherness, it was really something to take notice of. After we finished the film crew, the photographer, and I went to eat and digest the days experience. Everyone was in agreement that the shoot went off without a hitch and things probably couldn't have gone any better. I had a great day by meeting new people in the industry, having a minor brush with celebrity, and learning while getting paid to do so.
All in all, not a bad day of work!

Moving on...

Well its been a heck of a week. Last Friday I finally graduated from college with my bachelor's degree in photography. It had been a long time coming and I was glad to finally get it over with. As luck would have it, I ended up winning the best of show award along with the dean's merit commendation. It was both a wonderful honor to receive and a humbling experience.
Since then my life has been a nonstop train ride of incoming work oddly enough. Running down the itinerary of this past week, I did two food shoots for publication, 2 editorial locations for a city night guide, a group portrait of a party promotions company, a test shoot for a local clothing company, an assisting job with an architectural photographer, and an editorial fashion shoot for a wonderful local clothing designer. I guess my point with all of this info is that you as a photographer need to constantly be on the look out for that next opportunity. Probably 80% of the above mentioned jobs were booked well before this week, knowing that I would have a lot of free time post graduation. It's important to keep yourself motivated and moving on to that next step in your career!

Band Photography

I thought I would throw up a new video of a recent shoot I did with the band Hyperion. They were a bunch of great guys and we got some great images!
See you next week!

Self promotion commotion

We've all agonized over it. How do you as a photographer promote yourself to the world. If your like me, I'm sure you have spent many a sleepless night wondering if your approach is working. Should I change my postcard? Too simple? Not simple enough? Should I even be sending out postcards? What about business cards? Is the design effective? Is it sending the message I want it to send? All of these questions are enough to make you want to pull your hair out (and if your in my situation, there isn't that much hair to spare!) Having run this gauntlet recently I have a few thoughts on the subject that I hope you find enlightening:

1. You are a photographer, not a designer- I know, I know, you may think your day-glo blue business card with the swirly-Q font looks cool, but trust me it doesn't. I remember asking the opinion of my graphic designer what she thought of my latest design for my business card (this was before I asked her to come up with a design for me). She gave me a sympathetic look and said "why don't you just stick to photography"... Truer words could not have been spoken. Graphic designers have a plethora of knowledge when it comes to appropriate font choice, layout, color selection, etc. USE IT!!! If you can't afford a graphic designer; beg, borrow, and steal to get the services of one. I had to sell a kidney (just kidding :)

2. Be as innovative as possible- I once heard a story about an advertising company that was changing their name. They needed an innovative way to get the word out, so instead of traditional snail mail they used carrier pigeons! They attached a tiny invitation and RSVP to the pigeon's leg inviting the recipient to a renaming party. They sent out 60 pigeons over 3 days and had a 100% success rate! It's true, you can read about it here.
My point is that if you want to get someones attention, you generally have to beat them over the head with something extremely unique. I've seen some truly unique pieces, from plant beans that spell out the word "create" when fully grown to miniature portfolios that fit inside a pocketbook. The key is to find something that fits your personality. I like to use minicards. There cute, tiny, and unorthodox; just like me!

3. Make your promotion system unified- What I mean by this is you want all of your promotional material to be consistent. If you have a postcard with one font choice and a business card with another, your clientele is going to get pretty confused pretty quickly. It's good to think in terms of searing your branding into a client's brain. You want them to remember you beyond just your photography. A strong promotional system will do just that.

That's about it for now, just remember that a strong self promo is one more way to get your foot in the door.