Archive for the 'Business Advice' Category

The importance of quality

Published
by
Tommy
on December 2, 2008
in Business Advice, advice on photography and customer service
. 1 Comment

Quality is so important when it comes to portrait photography. The end product is what everyone sees and judges your work by.

If you want people to buy your work over and over again, don’t cut corners. Do quality work, from your professionalism with them, to photographing them, to processing their images. Do you think your customer will appreciate if they spend hundreds or thousands of dollars, even if you did a good job photographing them and then you hand them prints printed from the local drug stores dye sub printer kiosk…. I don’t think so!

All aspects are important, because they all reflect your quality. You can’t have quality in 90 percent of your steps and not the other 10 percent because the other 90 percent will suffer because of it. From the beginning to the end, be professional in your appearance and keep your quality high. If any of the areas have substandard quality, your customer will notice.

The following areas need attention so that quality remains high:

1. personal appearance
2. work ethic
3. customer service
4. good attitude with customers
5. good photographic technique
6. dependable and quality equipment that can perform the task at hand
7. delivering what you promise, when you promise
8. make your pricing and procedure clear for your customers
9. using good materials to produce and present your work
10. going beyond what your customer expects from you so that you not only meet their expectations but instead thrill them

These are only some of the things that you need to do to ensure your quality of work and service remain high, however if you work on these areas and become proficient in these areas, you will have very happy customers, which in turn will be very loyal to you.

Remember QUALITY from start to end!

The positive side of this depressed economy in regards to portrait photography businesses

Published
by
Tommy
on November 25, 2008
in Business Advice and advice on photography
. 5 Comments

Worldwide there is much concern about the economy. This certainly is not in vain as many people are losing their life savings, losing their jobs and losing their earthly possessions. That fact has caused me to consider my position as a photographer and the fact that it is the sole root of income for myself and my family. I know that photography is not an essential part of life such as food or shelter. In fact, many people would go as far as to call it a luxury. However, while I would never call it an essential part of life, I will say it is a very important aspect of most people’s lives and therefore would not call it a luxury. Regardless of the state of the economy, I have found people to  still value photography enough to purchase it while times are getting worse and worse. Many people who are not professionals may consider weather or not it is wise to become involved with photography since they see the financial world around them deteriorating. That’s a very valid point and thing to think about, however in this post I’d like to discuss five simple points that I believe make a good counterpoint to this.

I feel that while the monetary world is in a very poor state now and people’s pocketbooks are shrinking, things can still be good for the portrait photographer and there are positive sides to this potentially very bleak financial condition we are in as a nation and for that matter world.

The first thing I’d like to discuss is the fact that equipment is cheaper than ever before. You can find some real bargains on eBay if you are willing to not have the latest and greatest. There are plenty of people out there selling very good equipment at discounted prices to try to pay their bills. One man’s trouble is another man’s treasure. When people are in a financial pickle, you can make the most of these situations by helping them and getting a fantastic deal.

Secondarily, I’d like for us to consider how when things go south, people tend to put less  importance in material possessions and more importance on the people they love. Portraits of loved ones are always important to people and our business will never become irrelevant. People may lose their homes, cars and jobs, but they will always treasure the memories they have of their families and friends. These memories come in many forms but one obvious way is the portrait. Therefore, I believe it is a way we as portrait photographers can push that emotional button even in these financially stressed times to get the general public to spend money on portrait photography.

A third thing I would like for us to consider is there are always children being born and growing up. While adults may not change much except maybe over the course of a decade, children on the other hand grow up and change so fast that if one goes without a portrait for more than a year, that is too long and they have changed immensely over the course of those twelve months. So, while the economy is low, people still want portraits of their children who are changing all the time. If you charge an arm and a leg for portraits, you probably won’t get the business you’d like with children as when times are prosperous, but if you are reasonable, I believe you can still be successful during hard times with portrait photography.

Next, I’d like you to consider that regardless of difficult times, people continue to get married. The obvious point here is that people need photographers of their special events. Again, the idea is not to blow people out of the water during these hard times with ridiculous prices but be fair and competitive and you will continue to stay busy.

Lastly, a good point to consider is that while times are indeed bad and may get much worse, if you shoot digital, overhead is very low. Why not shoot as much and as often as possible? Now’s the time to practice while times are not good. It doesn’t cost anything to shoot a digital frame. Shoot, shoot, shoot. It will only make you a better photographer.

I hope that these five considerations will help you as you try to look at the positive side of this potentially depressing situation in our economy. There is a bright side to everything.

Give it away

Published
by
Tommy
on September 22, 2008
in Business Advice and customer service
. 1 Comment

In my days as a preteen, I remember swimming around in the pond at our city park. The town was Golden Meadow, LA and I had a friend Issac who I distinctly remember playing a song over and over from his portable radio fully equipped with a cassette player. We were rocking out to Red Hot Chili Peppers and the lyrics still stick in my head, “Give it away, give it away, give it away now”.

What exactly was he singing about? I don’t know but I do remember the singing and moving bass line was just so harmonious and beautiful. I really don’t know, but the lyrics, the song; it all seems fresh in my head even though that was nearly two decades ago. Can you believe it? Well believe it. The nineties were not just a few years ago anymore. Yes, we’re getting older.

Anyway, my thinking behind today’s post is this: give it away. Give your photography away. Give it to someone who would really appreciate it. Give it to someone who can’t afford your photography. Give it to someone who really needs it. Give it away to someone who deserves it. Give it away to… well, just give it away. Of course, I don’t mean just give it away for now on, and never charge for it again, but what I mean is give it away period. I mean, even once would be something. It won’t kill you to give some of your talent away to someone who needs or deserves it.

There are several benefits to doing this. The first is if you give it away, you are being giving. That is a good virtue to possess. It proves you aren’t greedy and you are willing to part with something that is of value.

The second is it leaves no real pressure on you to be perfect. If there is something wrong with the photo or the subjects don’t really like their photos, well, they can’t really complain, it was free. I like to use the word complimentary instead. That sounds better to me than free. Free has a connotation of being worthless, but complimentary still holds value. It just means that you gave it away, but chose not to charge what it was worth for it.

The third is that if you are not that experienced or even if you are, that’s just that much more practice that you can have photographing subjects and getting better at it. Shooting subjects without charging them for it, puts the pressure off of you and allows you to focus on getting good photography for the sake of getting it right, not feeling nervous because you know that if you don’t perform that you will have to deal with the fact that they paid for your services and they are not satisfied.

The fourth reason for giving away photography is because it will be appreciated. When people know that you have a skill that they want and you are just willing to give it to them, it makes you very appreciative of that person. Recently, my mother offered to pay for my gym membership. It was getting to the month and date where I would have to re-up my yearly membership. My mother thought it would be a nice and helpful thing to pay the cost of the membership plan. I was so thrilled and happy and appreciative. It was a couple hundred dollars but it still meant so much to me. It meant so much to me because my mom was willing to sacrifice something of hers to give me something that would mean something to me and not benefit her. This was real sacrifice and it meant a lot to me. I thanked her over and over. I was just so surprised and thankful. I just told her I didn’t know what to say except thank you! Thank you so much!

The fifth and final reason to give away your photography is because those that you give your photography to, will usually have nothing but good things to say about you and your photographic services and abilities. They will brag about you. They will tell everyone about you.

Let me tell you a story quickly. When I was twenty years old, I bought a six year old Toyota Camry. While in the Army, I  was deployed overseas to Bosnia and was able to save up a lot of money. So when I got back, I decided to purchase a used Toyota Camry with eighty thousand miles on it. The car ran great and it continues to run with minimal problems. After all these years, we have an old car that has almost 400,000 miles on it! That car has been all over the United States and seen car wrecks, enormous amounts of miles, suffered neglect to the regular maintenance that I should have done to it on an interval that the manufacturers suggested and has even flown off a cliff! I will tell you as I have told everyone else, This brand, the Toyota brand, is amazing. I can tell you from personal appearance that of all the brands out there and the different brands that I have owned or have personal knowledge of, the Toyota brand is leaps and bounds above any of the competition. I have told probably a thousand people in the past ten years that I’ve had the car for that long and it’s still running like an older used car. The point is, I tell people all the time, Toyota’s are the best cars on the market. They have received so much free publicity from me and I am sure countless other drivers. In fact, when we were searching for a new vehicle, we bought a Scion XB because Toyota makes them. The beautiful thing is not only does it get manufactured by Toyota but the Scion XB contains a Toyota Camry engine inside. After owning several Toyotas, I knew that this was great and I wanted to talk with them. I also know that we woud only use Toyotas for now on. Unless there’s a reason to change, we will be loyal to Toyota for now on.

The same can be said for you and for giving away your photography. When you start giving your photography away while expecting nothing in return, good things will happen to you. People notice your generosity and will share with others their thoughts on you. They will tell people how good they think your photography is, they will show people your work, they will be your word of mouth advertising. The best kind of advertisement is just that. And just as Toyota has me spreading the word to countless people, so are my subjects when I give them free photography. I don’t have to give them free photography in order to receive this word of mouth advertisement, which is so important, but when I do decide to give it away, it is inevitable, it will happen. I will get work because of it.

There isn’t a need to give away hundreds of dollars of printed portraits away. But you can even give away CD-R with your portraits on them or photograph a poor widows children and give her a complimentary 8×10 just for the sake of it. If you know of a poor neighbor who you feel couldn’t afford your photography or photography at all for that matter, what would be the harm in offering to photograph her children and offer to give her an 8×10 print in exchange for some practice photographing her children? She would love it and you’ll get some practice out of it! It’s a win, win situation. Don’t need the “practice”. Do it anyway, maybe you need the “giving” practice.

When you do good to others, truly do good, without expecting something good in return, good things do happen to you. It’s a funny circle, but while you shouldn’t do this to get work because of it, you will get work because of it. So with that, I leave you with three simple words, “Give it away”. Now go, and do!

Part of the “Final Image”

Published
by
Tommy
on September 8, 2008
in Business Advice, advice on photography and customer service
. 0 Comments

For the first years of my career, I was a photographer with no regards to my own personal appearance. I am not comparing myself to Einstein academically but it is said that people who are artistic or intelligent sometimes are very messy in their outward appearance. If you see an artist’s home or office, you may find it to be completely un-orderly. The mind of an artist as well as their creations may be beautiful but the outward appearance may not match that of his mind. He may create images that are aesthetically pleasing yet may not treat his own appearance in the same manner. It isn’t that he has no care or regard for his own appearance but it is just that his mind thinks differently about the way things ought to be.

While common thought is that clean cut appearance is acceptable and right, the artist may view the norm to be artsy and flagrant. But because the common thought of what is “normal and orderly” is clean cut, then perhaps the artist who desires the opportunity to fit in to the norm of society and to work for those that it consists of should consider altering their appearance and mentality to fit into that realm. Most artists, in fact I can picture some of you now reading this, will object, “This is me. This is who I am. It is self expression and who are you to tell me otherwise.”

Well the truth is, that I speak primarily from the view of a business owner, not just creating art for the sake of creating art. If you create art, be it photography, paintings or the like for the purpose of being commissioned to create someone’s likeness, for example senior portraits or photograph a client’s wedding day, then you ought to be concerned with your appearance. What we present as photographers essentially is an image; the image which is to be a final image. What we present to the public is the image that we want them to see. Most who are photographers do not just take a photograph and then sale the photograph exactly how it came out the camera. Most photographers nowadays feel the need to tweak their photos before we will let the world see it. I, for one, am no exception. I, just like every other photographer out there, photo shop every image that I give a client. I don’t want them to see the image straight out of the camera. I want them to be captivated by the image and often times they will not be captivated by untouched pixels. So the point is, if we are concerned with what our clients think about our images, we should be concerned with our overall appearance, which is also part of our image.

Looking your best is part of being professional. It's part of giving your customer 100% of yourself. I try to dress this way for every session we do.
Dressing up is part of being professional. It is part of the overall “image” we are trying to sell. I try to dress like this on every photo shoot we do.

We ought the be concerned of our “image” be it the image on the print and the image in everything else. Do we think that somehow our personal appearance and hygiene is different from that of the image we produce in a print? It is different or can be for that matter if we are fine art photographers or nature photographers, but when our craft is that which involves people such as portraiture or weddings where the majority of the time creating the image for the client is actually being around them, then of course the thought should cross our mind that we need be concerned with our personal appearance.

While I don’t believe it’s necessary to be dressed in a tuxedo every time you deal with your customers, you ought to look as best as you can for that given situation. For example, it would be appropriate to wear a tuxedo for most wedding receptions, yet it would be out of place and silly to wear one during a labor and delivery photography session. And while it would be perfectly normal and acceptable during a senior portrait session to be dressed in stylish jeans and a rock concert t-shirt, it would be in appropriate to be dressed that way for a high school prom in which you were the photographer. Now the interesting thing about that is that in both cases, your clients are the same exact people, age group and demographic. You get the idea.

I think it is important to note that I am not saying that you should dress in the most expensive clothes or that somehow by dressing nice that makes you a better photographer, but what I am saying is that you can dress professionally without wearing expensive name brand clothes and you can look professional with just making sure that you look like you mean business. Also no, dressing professional will not make you professional. But it will help make the point if you are already professional. Also, I am not saying it’s unprofessional to dress artsy. But there is a difference between dressy artsy and having style and then just not having any care for your own appearance and hygiene. Make sure everytime you interact with a client, you’ve got your act together.

Also, it should be obvious that at all times your personal hygiene should be top notch. It’s never appealing or professional to have body oder or not to brush your teeth or to have messy or wrinkly clothing. Take pride in your appearance. That would even extend to your physical appearance such as your weight and physique. I know this will seem strange or unfair to say, but it’s true. We work in a field where we are judged highly on the physical. This not only includes our portraits but also our own look. If we are competing against someone who is equally qualified as ourselves in all respects, yet the only difference being our competitor is dressed attractively and is fit and athletic, yet we are not, then unfortunately as unfair as it may seem they will normally be chosen.

It may not be fair but it is the way things are. People generally come to conclusions when they see people’s appearances and make judgments based upon those, right or wrong. It’s just part of the game we all play. The truth is if you are disciplined enough to work out and eat healthy you probably are more disciplined in all respects of life to include your work ethic and business and so sometimes subconsciously people make judgments based upon the things that they observe, weather they know it or not. On top of that, people will make judgments that are prejudiced about people based solely upon their appearance.

All this to say, when working with the general public, it is important and crucial that we think about our appearance and make sure we act upon that by looking our best. It may be the difference between photographing customers or not. Looking your best also helps you to feel good physically. It’s been proven scientifically and I know this experimentally. When I dress the part, I feel the part. When I am a mess, I feel like a mess. To be completely understanding of this concept, just think to how you perceive people when you walk into a business establishment and their dress does not fit the mood or profession. You notice and judge based upon those preconceived ideas. It is no different with a professional photographer. Do not be fooled. Personal appearance is important, so dress the part. Be professional.

One last thing I would like to share is a while back I saw an instructional video in which the legendary Monte Zucker was teaching a fairly large group of professional portrait photographers how to photograph subjects and how to do facial analysis, something he was very well known for. He presented, on the DVD, the fact that he was instructing a group of professionals. What struck me about this DVD more than anything was that this group of professionals, appeared very messy and not very well dressed; not professional in appearance at all. Now, I realize that they were at a workshop, not on a job, but still their overall appearance was not what I expected. The interesting thing I have noticed over the past ten years of being in professional portraiture, is that most professional portrait photographers don’t really put a lot of work into their appearance. I think this is a shame and lessens the thought that people have about us. I think that as a whole if we all raised our standards of personal appearance, it would in turn affect the way the general public percieve who professional photographers are. Remember, photography is all about the final image and our appearance is part of that “final image”.

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