Saving the World One Pixel at a Time

“The moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life they’re free”— B.G. DeSylva and Lew Brown,1925

I received an e-mail from a friend this morning telling me about a former newspaper photographer who has his own year long pro bono photo partnership. My friends comment s was that he hoped the person in question “picks some small non-profit in southeast Colorado, otherwise many photographers will lose more money should he partner with one of the larger non-profits.” His take was not only would this photographer be hurting himself but his fellow pros as well.

A TFP session with a Model is not free; it's a trade.

There is no more powerful word in the English language than free but while everyone knows free stuff is good, photographers have to realize there’s really no free lunch or any other kind of freebie. If you get something for free, somebody somewhere has to pay for it. One question I often hear from photographers competing against studios using freebies as inducements to new sales is “how can I compete with this?” You only have two choices and I prefer the second one. First, you can cave in and offer similar or better freebies to potential clients. This is a bad, bad idea because it starts a freebie arms race with your competition that can only end after one of you goes broke. Second, you can emphasize that your rates are lower because you don’t offer “free gifts,” an oxymoron as incongruous as “congressional ethics.”

It’s a business fact of life that clients like to feel appreciated and it doesn’t cost a lot of money to say “thanks” to them from time to time so don’t confuse freebies with expressions of appreciation to existing, supportive clients during the holidays. Around Halloween, Mary and I used to distribute small black boxes containing truffles from See’s Candies to our favorite business clients. The boxes had gold stickers bearing the studio name and phone number. By doing it in person, we also gave the clients an opportunity to discuss future projects under low-stress conditions.

Part of competing is knowing the costs of doing business and making that an element of your business plan. When I hear photographers moaning about profitability, I’m reminded of an encounter between noted photographer, Charles Lewis and someone attending one of his seminars. The gentleman asks Mr. Lewis, “I’m loosing $50 for every wedding I photograph.” Mr. Lewis looks him in the eye and replies, “You know what you need to do, don’t you?” Excitedly, the man replies, “Yes, I need to do more of them.”

Most of the time, “free” doesn’t work as part of a business plan, and using freebies to get new customers breaks one of Farace’s most unshakeable Laws: It’s hard to make money when you give stuff away.

 “…the one fixed point in a changing world.”—Arthur Conan Doyle

Quality, speed, price. Or as they used to say back in the old film days, “choose any two.”

Before digital imaging came along, the introduction of new photographic technologies had been gradual, with each new product building on—and backwardly compatible—with what has gone before. Computer companies, on the other hand, are driven by intense competition and the realities of Moore’s Law, which states that “the power of the silicon chip microprocessor will double every eighteen months, with a proportionate decrease in cost.”

Gordon Moore, one of Intel’s founders, predicted that computing power would rise exponentially over time. In practical terms, this means digital imaging product cycles are measured in months, instead of years for developing traditional optical and photochemical products. The digital camera you purchase today is quickly replaced with a newer model that produces higher quality images at a lower cost. While the recent disasters in Japan may have slowed down the rollout of some photographic hardware, that is the exception not the norm. And software innovation continues unabated.

For many people, this is the single most frustrating aspect of the digital imaging process. Since this trend is not going to change any time the near future, I have a few words of advice:

• First, get used to it. This pace of  development of new camera may slow slightly because of the last year’s tragedies in Asia but it’s not going to change any time soon.
• Second, don’t go broke upgrading to get the latest hardware and software unless you can cost justify any productivity improvements that they can provide.
• Third, keep all this technology in perspective. The single most important photographic accessory is still the person behind the camera.

“Success is hard by the yard, but is a cinch by the inch”—Don Feltner

I’ve often said that success is hard but failure is easy but you can stack the odds in your favor by providing competition-crushing customer service. While this may sound like tactics from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” it’s more like common sense and common courtesy. The only problem with both of these commodities is that they’re not so common anymore, which is part of the reason why customer service for most consumer and even b-to-b goods and services has all but evaporated in today’s economy. That sounds bad, but is really the good news. The best way to make your customer service work better is to turn your last personal customer service experience around 180 degrees. Now, you’re off to a good start.

Nobody like angry customers and a verbally abusive client can be difficult for some photographers or their employees to deal with. When faced with such situations the only thing to do is ask in a calm voice: “What would you like me to do?” At that point, if they insist on being an idiot, there’s really nothing more you can do for them. One of the realities of life is that some individuals find it impossible to go through life without making everything difficult for themselves and all those about them. Sooner or later, you’re going to run into one of these customers and the best thing you can did is bid them adieu as politely as you can and send them on their way.

After you ask that million-dollar question, most reasonable people will want to work with you and, more often than not, what they really want is simple and easy for you to provide. Sure, sometimes you may have to eat a little of your profit and perhaps they may never come back again but the odds are in your favor because a happy customer only tells one or two people if they have a favorable business experience, unhappy clients tell ten people.

What’s more, you will find that when you ask that question, most customers are so amazed that you actually want to work with them and solve their problems—and don’t be naive, some problems are inevitable—that they will not only spend more money with you but will become life-long customers. One irrefutable business truth is that the manner in which customer complaints are handled is the mark of a company that has respect for their customers and themselves and are not the tactics of a fly-by-night, take-the-money-and-run operation that only cares about short term profits. Remember that you started your studio because of your passion for photography, don’t let it evaporate because of the failure to ask a simple question.

Joe is co-author of “Better Available Light Digital Photography” published by Focal Press. His self-published books can be seen at Blurb.com.

There are many Farace’s Laws but the most important one and one that is hard for some photographers to deal with is that your clients don’t care if you go out of business. Many years ago, a Photomethods magazine reader e-mailed me asking: “How can I make my clients love me?” My answer was simple: Cut your rates in half. They will love you but you will go out of business and they will continue to love you as they search for another photographer to do the work that you used to perform. Because, like it or not, the work is going to be done, the only question that remains is by whom?

It may be that all of the client education in the world won’t change the mind of somebody who has already made it up but you can apply some of the following suggestions to other, perhaps clients who just want the best job possible at the best price.

Keep in touch. I think any photographer’s fundamental job is to educate their clients and make them aware of how you use technology to help them do their jobs better. You can educate and keep in touch with clients by creating a client-oriented blog but don’t lose sight of “oldies but goodies” and occasionally mail postcards from companies such as www.4over.com or MOO featuring work you’ve that done. You will be surprised how long they’ll hang onto photo postcards or, better yet, pass along to others.

Forge a partnership. Make yourself invaluable by doing the little things that may not be extremely profitable to your studio but help build client loyalty. You want to make yourself so indispensable that when a client thinks “photographer” she thinks of you.

Don’t loose sight of what business you’re in. We’re imagemakers, first and always. The tools that we use to create those images are unimportant to our clients. What they want is images, when they need them, delivered at a fair price. Being available, being flexible, and being fair are all part of the package.

Remember, that keeping clients is a lot less expensive than finding new ones. Sure, it’s a lot of work but that’s what the business of photography is all about—work. If you wanna play, try golf.

It Business Friday the 13th and rather than trying to scare you with Freddy Kruger-like pontifications about how bad the economy may be—you already know that—I’d like to give you some food for though to get your creative juices flowing: I’m often asked where the ideas for the stories I write for magazines and blogs like this originate. Many times they’re a reflection of the projects and problems I face in my daily reality. Other times, I get ideas from readers. Recently I spoke with a photographer in Montana and he mentioned his frustration about the limited amount of creativity he was able to apply to current assignments.

Let’s face it, not all of the work we produce for clients might be considered “creative.” Sometimes the very nature of the project itself forces us to become merely passive recorders but I had a solution for him and although he knew deep down inside that it was true, he laughed when I gave it to him. To get the kind of unlimited creativity that we all crave, sometimes you just have to do the job for free. Before you think I’ve lost my marbles, let me explain. There are several kinds of projects that allow total in control of all creative aspects and here are just a few:

New Portfolio. When’s the last time you updated your portfolio? Sometime you get so busy with paying projects you can overlook the marketing tool that brought many of those clients to you in the first place Update that portfolio to include your personal work or self-assignments that demonstrate some of your capabilities that potential clients may not know about.

Client Mailers: While many creative types use samples of recent work as promotional mailers, it doesn’t have to be that way. If you want to obtain more assignments of a certain type, create one for yourself, then mail a copy to everybody and his brother. Since many people send holiday-oriented mailers, choose a less popular holiday. For many years, I did a Halloween promotional mailing featuring whimsical images, so be creative when you mail too.

Promotional Projects: After a friend completed an environmental portraiture workshop, she contacted a local bank suggesting they mount an exhibit of portraits of local professional women—starting with the bank president. She used that as an entrée to contact local businesswomen and made dramatic portraits of them under the photographer’s total creative control. She even talked a local photo lab into making the prints for free in exchange for “promotional consideration” as they say on TV. At the end of the two-month exhibit, several of the women featured in the portraits bought prints for themselves. It was a win-win situation for everyone.

Be careful: All this creative activity can become a money pit. You can easily kid yourself into believing you are actually working, when, in fact you’re not producing income. Being a professional also means you must make a profit from your creativity. Any promotional activity must be approached just like a client project: Set a budget, production schedule, and completion date. It ain’t easy being green but it’s just as difficult being creative on purpose.