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Rant: photographers, know your sh!#

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I admire birth photographers.

I don’t engage in birth photography myself, but I marvel at those who do it well. The emotional climate is always changing at a birth, and so a photographer must not only be prepared in their own heart and mind, but also bring to the birth a level of patience, compassion, and skill that allows them to adapt to any and all changing conditions. The photographer is there to document what is in front of them and has very little to no control over the situation. They can’t dictate to the doctors or midwives what they need:

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This is how you respond to clients who say you’re too expensive

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Anybody who’s tried to do any kind of creative work for paying clients has come up against this at some point. I have, all the photographers I know have, I’m sure you have, if you’ve ever charged money for your photography. And if you haven’t, that means you’re too cheap. I’m talking about being told that you’re too expensive.

I have some of my own answers to this argument, but here’s a video from brand strategist Chris Do for The Futur. In it, he role plays himself talking to a client who’s trying to negotiate on price. For each statement and argument the client makes, Chris has a counter. During the video notes will pop up to explain the strategy he and the client are using during the conversation.[Read More…]

Why photographers fail

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Recently there has been a spate of very sad, and ultimately defeatist articles decrying the “death of photography”. We have no shortage of examples. Seriously.

In all their pain and detailed examples of how the art and business of photography have been “ruined” (their words), I can find little to no examples of the basic, most important reason that photographers are falling behind.

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Don’t just sit there, three ideas to kick-start a photography business

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[editor’s note: So, you have some time… Clients are not coming in. Instead of pouring your heart into social media, how about you do something. Here are three ideas that can kickstart a photography business. Will they work? I don’t know, but any of those sure bits sitting on your bottoms complaining about the state of the industry on social media.]

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Business Email Etiquette – 5 Simple Rules for Managing Email Without Being An Ignoramus

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There are a few simple business email etiquette rules that you can follow to make your life a whole lot easier and save yourself from being an email ignoramus.

Sure, business email is a necessity, but I think we can all agree that email is a colossal pain in the a$$. A lot of that pain is caused by ignoramus’ rampant misuse of email.

Sure we might not be able to save the whales, the rain forests, the ozone layer (wait, we’ve done that haven’t we?) or elect a functional human being as president – but, if everyone could just follow these five simple rules for business email, the world would be a much better place…

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Are we entering photography’s “Golden Age”?

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[This article is for commercial photographers and not intended for consumer shooters]

Shoot, I don’t know. Seemed like a good headline made to interest someone enough to engage. A headline that asks a question, a provocative question seems to be the way to get clicks and saves and ‘likes’… all that really important stuff.

And there is a bit of controversy as well. There is a large group of people for whom the word photography means visual connection and a group for whom it means “my business” – although the second group is far smaller than the first.

There will be some photographers who will come to this column ready to fight that statement of “golden age” filled with wonderful stories of how it used to be. Legendary poems will be offered to film and darkroom trays and exclusive access to the joy of making an image. They immediately seque into how the current climate sucks for photographers. The whining may indeed be epic.

And some will come wondering just what a “golden age’ looks like. What will that mean for them?

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How I Wasted $10,000 Plus What I Learned and How It Applies to Business

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You can’t learn anything in life unless you make mistakes. Some mistakes are obvious. Some mistakes are a lot more subtle.

In this article I will share a subtle mistake that cost me over ten grand (plus a few other ongoing mistakes that are costing me money right now) and what lessons can be learned and applied to running a photography business.

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