Coping with the Client Pyramid
The following excerpt from my forthcoming book “A Life in Photography” and is mostly aimed at portrait photographers I think there’s a word of wisdom that photographers of all types might find interesting…or not. One reason there’s a McDonald’s on every street corner in America and not a Ruth’s Chris Steak House is that Ray Kroc wanted to sell lots of products to lots of buyers. The average diner isn’t going to eat filet mignon each...
Low Ball And Other Ways to Go Broke
Monday is Labor Day, so I wanted to post this as a reminder that photographers (and even us writer/photographers) should to be paid for their labors too. In Benjamin J. Stein’s book License to Steal he said, “The laborer, selling his labor in competition with other laborers who underbid each other until their wages just barely cover their cost of sustenance, also never gets rich.” These words sum up some thoughts...
Reality Check: A Few Business Tips
Over the years I’ve seen many great photographer’s businesses fail because will they were skilled image maker, they didn’t have any business sense. Similarly, I’ve seen more than a few mildly talented photographers become huge successes because they know how to sell. Of course there are some great photographers who are also great at business and you probably already know their names but the truth is that they...
Publish Your Own Photo Book
Blurb.com is a website that lets you produce your own photo books in quantities as few as one. I’ve always wanted to publish a coffee table book and Blurb lets you do that without suffering the multiple indignities of receiving enough rejection slips from publishers to wallpaper your bathroom. The Blurb website lets you create many different sizes in hard cover with a dust jacket or softbound versions. The most important thing to...
Protecting Photography as Free Speech
Along with many other, including my friend Jack Neubart, I’ve written about encounters with law enforcement over making photographs in public places. It seemed like photography was being treated as a crime and photographers as terrorists and it also seemed that wee didn’t have any friends that could help until now. On January 2, 2015 Steve Stockman (R Texas) introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives includes...
Change is the Name of the Game
If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts—Albert Einstein (1879-1955) One of the advantages of being a small studio or a single entrepreneur is that you’re small enough to make a quick U-turn. One look at the bloated bureaucracy of a company like GM (“let’s kill Pontiac”) is that it takes too long to make changes in the way the company operates. Photographers can make a complete circle in less time and space than a Mini...
Which Form to Use and When?
Guest Post by Jason Anderson of Canon Blogger When starting a photography business, there is so much to consider that’s completely unrelated to photography and actually taking pictures. Topics range from financials to marketing, advertising, demographics, and the legalities of the business. If you don’t take measures to protect yourself and your business, things can get dangerous fast! It helps to have the help of an attorney...
