Read the rest of the posts in this category here.
Happy New Year, everyone. OK, in addition to being less nerdy. I have some more serious resolutions for 2012. In addition to the usual resolutions such as to ski and ride my bike more, loose weight, and spend more time with my family, this year I want to pay special attention to my art. Read More…
Engagement sessions are a great opportunity for couples to get to know their photographer. The engagement session gives the photographer a chance to understand what the couple is looking for in terms of photos, and it gives the couples a chance to see how their photographer works. I like to think of it as a practice run before the wedding.
I like to start the engagement session off with some posed shots like the one below. A posed shot can be static or dynamic, meaning I might have a couple sit still, or I might give them something to do like walking along the beach.
10 Tips for Photographing in Boring Locations
I am very fortunate that I get to photograph weddings in some of the most amazing and gorgeous locations in the world. However, every once in a while I end up photographing a wedding that isn’t on a California beach or the mountains of Colorado or Nepal. In those cases I need to reach in to my bag of tricks. The following are ten tips and tricks for photographing when your location is less than ideal.
The number one rule in photography should be to follow the light. This image was made in a very small bathroom. I liked the light coming in through the blinds on the shower curtain, so I had the bride sit in a chair in front of it. Then I pulled the shower curtain over her shoulder. The result was a lovely high key portrait.
When used properly, lines are a very powerful element of an image. In this image the lines made by the bridge lead the eye directly to the couple. Although not everyone has access to a ironwork bridge, think about similar objects such as a hallway or tunnel. An object does not have to be pretty to add beauty to an image. Read More…
What should I name my photography business?
Chances are they do not evoke much of anything. People asking for help with naming your photography business is probably the question I see most often in photography forums. I end up answering it 3-4 times per day. Many new photographers struggle over what to name their business. They feel pressure to come up with something cute and catchy. However, the more time and energy photographers put into the naming process, often the more cliche and unappealing the names become. Consider names like these:
This list goes on. My question is, ‘What images do these names evoke in your mind?” Chances are they do not evoke much of anything, because the names are too vague. “Through the Lens’ could describe just about about any photographer. No individual comes to mind, and that is the beginning of my point.
The Problem
Photography is a business of individuals. it involves individual clients connecting with individual photographers. The name and personality of the photographer are crucial to the identity of the brand. In nearly every way, the photographer IS the brand. Any type of catchy name just dilutes that brand in the eyes of potential clients. Look at the following example to see what i mean:
Let’s say the aforementioned Storybook Photo Studio is owned by photographer, John Smith. Now, let’s say Jane is a client that hires Storybook Photo Studio to photograph their wedding. John Smith is the photographer who shows up and does a fantastic job that Jane, the client, is very pleased with. She ends up telling all her friends how wonderful John Smith was to work with. Now John Smith gets a reputation has a great photographer, but the name of this studio is Storybook Photo. Many clients will not link “John Smith” with “Storybook Photo.” Much of his good reputation will be lost on the fact that people will not always link his name to the name of his business.
The Solution
The solution is simple. When I started my photography studio back in 2000, I really wanted to come up with a catchy name. Fortunately for me, I couldn’t think of one. And even if I could, I didn’t have the money or the business sense at the time to deal with the additional paperwork that comes from naming a business anything but my name. So, I ended up with Timothy Faust Photography. In hindsight, it was one of the best business decisions I have ever made. It was simple and effective. In three words I let the world know who I am (Timothy Faust) and what I do (photography.)
Not only does it simple and effective, it has also worked out very well for branding. When past clients want to refer someone to me, all they need to remember is my name, not the name of my business. When you Google “Timothy Faust” this website is the very first result. The next several results include my Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn, online reviews, and other blog and social networking pages. It makes it very easy for individuals to find me.
The Exceptions
Of course there are times when using your name, might not be the best method for naming your business. For example, if you are starting a studio that features multiple photographers that come and go over time, you want a studio brand that stays consistent. This is also a good idea if you plan on selling your studio one day, and do not want your name attached to it any longer. Also, using a different name can make your new company appear bigger than it is. For example, something like “Chicago Portrait Photographers” might give the impression that your company is the biggest in Chicago. It will also rank higher in the Google search results when people search for “Chicago portrait photographers.” However, bigger does not usually mean better. A name that attracts a high volume of clients will not necessarily attract the most money. Sears Portrait Studio is the highest volume studio in the country, but they operate on margins that are far to small for individual photographers.
If you have a common name, you might find that there are already other photographers with the same name. This can make things a bit more challenging. In that case, you can use a slightly different word than “photography.” For instance, If John Smith Photography is taken, try John Smith Studio, John Smith Weddings, John Smith Portraits, or even John Smith Photographic Arts. Ideally you will be far enough away geographically from the other photographer to not cause confusion. Also, do not worry about legal issues with using a similar name to someone else. Using your own name protects you against trademark issues.
In Conclusion
Using your name for your photography business makes you, your skills, and your personality a major part of the brand. It lets clients know that you are willing to put your personal reputation on the line when it comes to your photography. It is simple and effective when describing to clients what you do. Putting your name up front will also help clients find you using internet search engines. Unless you have a compelling reason to do otherwise, you are probably best off just using your own name in your photography business.
Further Reading
Great Article from Not Your Normal Photography School: http://www.nynphotoschool.com/articles/busine…
“Capture the Moment” is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot by wedding photographers. In my opinion it is used far too much, to the point where I have even seen new photographers use it in the name of their businesses. When I ask photographers why they use it so frequently, I usually get a conversation like this:
New Photographer: “I want to set myself apart from the competition.”
Me: “Does your competition not capture the moment.”
NP: “They do, but I want customers to know that I don’t just do boring stiff wedding photography.”
Me: “Does your competition actually advertise boring wedding photography?”
NP: “Well no, but…”
I want to challenge your preconceptions about wedding photos A lot of times we have a lot of preconceived ideas of what wedding is supposed to be. Some of those preconceptions are good, like the idea that the day is supposed to be a celebration of the couple’s love. Some of those preconceptions are bad, like the ceremony has to follow a predetermined formula.
What I want to do now is challenge your preconceptions about wedding photos. I want you to abandon the idea that your only choices are formal posed photos with your friends and family in a line and candid photos. In reality, your photos can be whatever you want them to be, and I want to throw the idea at you that your wedding can be the perfect time to create something beautiful and different. If you want, you can help create some truly artistic wedding photography.
Regular readers of my blog know how I feel helping emerging photographers find their way is my way of giving back to the photographic community. I regular answer questions regarding photographing in several forums across the internet. Recently, I cam across this post:
My external hard drive crashed, how can I get the pictures off anyways?
I am a photographer and lost a couple’s wedding because of the crash, I really need to get them back. I heard you can download some programs that can do it? I have an iMac and it’s a ==brand name withheld== external hard drive.
Often “shoot and burn” photographers will burn the images on to a CD, send them to a client, and then delete the images. Well what happens when that CD gets lost in the mail, or if the client loses it? Unfortunately hard drive crashes are just part of the nature of digital photography. However, loosing a couples wedding photos is completely unacceptable and completely preventable. In the next few paragraphs I want to point out possible ways digital images can be lost, and explain my workflow which, in over a decade of professional photography, has not resulted in the loss of a single image.
Read More…
I love shooting children. And in this particular case, let’s assume by shoot, I mean photograph. Children are really wonderful precious things, and I really think they make a wedding wonderful. Why then is it sometimes so difficult to photograph them? I’ll try to break down some of the problems and try to suggest some ideas for overcoming them.
First, children have been told to smile over and over again when they are being photographed. The result is that kids instinctively put on a toothy grin that is anything but natural and authentic. The forced smile is apparent in the photos. So my first suggestion is stop telling kids to say cheese or smile. Ask them to look at the camera and and allow them react how they want for a more authentic image.
Rather than sit in the front pew during a wedding, I like to follow the bride down the aisle. This enables not only enables me to get a photo of the groom’s face the first time he sees her, but also to photograph the reactions of guests as the turn around in anticipation of seeing her. This is a great time to photograph children.
Any time you try to force a kid to look a certain way, the resulting image will always look… well, forced. Allowing children to relax and be themselves is the key to photographs that go beyond the “say cheese” look to create a truly evocative image. One way to do this for kids and adults is to take a photo and tell everyone to relax while you change film, cards, batteries, etc… Then when people are relaxed, I turn around and get a shot that is more natural and authentic.
As a photojournalist, I try to avoid images where the subject is camera aware. One of the best times to photograph children are when they are doing something else. These can be the most powerful and natural images of all. As always, the key is always being ready. I carry two cameras with me at a wedding, and one of them always has a long lens that I can use to capture images that might be too far away for me to get with a wider lens. Always being ready for anything is a must at a wedding. Often times, you only have one chance to get the shot because once the subject becomes aware you are there, you loose the chance to capture an authentic moment.
Children photograph best when they don’t know they are being photographed. That means that often you only get one chance to capture an authentic moment before the sound of the shutter causes the subject to be aware of the camera. This means that a photographer really has to be on his or her game. You need to be confident and fast to get the image right, because perfect moments are fleeting. You also might have to resort to dirty tricks by telling your subjects when you are done when you really aren’t. Whatever you do, stop saying, “Smile!”
A lot of photographers have no idea what to charge. However, you should probably charge more for weddings than you think. Raising prices is always a scary thought. It always has the potential to alienate your current client base, not to mention the fact that you are probably comfortable right where you are. You may not feel like your work, your location, or your competition will allow you to charge more than you already are. First, lets take a look at some price points, so you can decide where you fit in to the grand scheme of things.
Photographers put a lot of time and energy in to getting clients to choose them, but how much effort do most of you photographers put in to choosing your clients? After talking to a lot of my colleagues, I have concluded that most do none at all.
I don’t want to sound arrogant like I have so many couples beating down my door to photograph their weddings that I need to change my phone number. That is hardly the case at all. What I mean when I ask you about how you go about choosing your clients, is how do you identify your strengths and weaknesses and how do you go about choosing your clients that you can best serve.
Using myself as an example, I know I do not enjoy doing group portraits at weddings. I also don’t feel like I am very good at it. Therefore, my website does not contain a single group shot anywhere. That doesn’t mean I don’t do them. I think every wedding photographer does. I just don’t want potential clients to think that I am the guy that does those types of shots. If that’s what they want there are plenty of other photographers who love doing that type of photography, and they are probably much better at it than I am. So step one in choosing your clients is to only present the work that you are passionate about doing. Do not try to be everything to everyone.
Money is one thing photographers use when choosing our clients. As we get a little more well known more and more couples become interested in the same day so we keep raising our prices and let the market “work it out.” That is certainly a solution, and I know I charge a lot more now than when I started, but being too expensive can really limit the opportunities out there to photograph some great weddings. My solution is that I will never flat out say “no” to a potential client just because I am out of their budget if they have an interesting wedding planned. Instead I will offer to photograph it during the week or in my off season. Of course many couples can’t make changes to their plans, but sometimes the smaller interesting weddings can be flexible. That is what happened with a couple that wanted to know if I could photograph their snowmobile wedding near my home in Breckenridge. I gave them an 80% discount, because their wedding was on week day during my off season and it was so much fun to photograph.
Lastly, good communication between the client and photography is the most important consideration when choosing your clients. Photographer’s have to recognize when the client is asking for something that we can’t do, or can’t do well. A lot of us sometimes feel like we can do any job that comes at us, but that is not always the case. We have to recognize our strengths and weaknesses and be capable of telling a client that we are not the right photographer and they should look elsewhere. This can be tough for photographers, especially in difficult financial times, and it can be even harder for a potential client to hear. Perhaps this is my ego talking, but I think photographers are the most important vendor at the entire wedding. 50 years from now couples will not remember the food they ate, but they will be able to take out their photo album. We have a real responsibility to make sure that we really create something special that will be an important part of the couples lives, perhaps after we are gone. That isn’t a responsibility that a DJ or florist has. If we can’t meet a client’s needs, we need to be honest about that and hopefully point them to another photographer who can.
In conclusion, choosing your clients is not about arrogance, it is about presenting a portfolio that shows only the type of work you do best, relying on more than just high prices to filter out clients, and by using good communication to honestly access what type client you can serve best.
