Posts in this category on theLightMatters Blog look at the business side of being a photographer. Topics will cover such areas as…
…and that’s just to start.
Been a bit quiet around here of late, so much so that I had to move the tumbleweed out in order to get to the “New Post” button. There was a reson for this though – I’ve been way too busy of late with photoshoots, the David Hobby “Strobist” seminar and of course putting together a new wedding package.
The latter of course being the subject of this post :-). All the details can be found after the jump but as a front-page teaser, I’ve been figuring out how I can give an iPad away to my clients.
Funny business is the stock industry, and by that I mean photographic stock and not the city markets. The role of the stock library is very simple. Its a repository of images that a picture buyer can search to find and buy images for their projects. They supply an enormous range of clients and picture needs from newspapers to advertising to cards and calendars. Every time you flick through a book or a newspaper, or see an advert, card or calendar you’ll probably find the images they use were actually purchased from a stock library rather than being commissioned for the job. That isn’t true in every case but you’d be surprised how common and prolific it is.
If you’re interested in finding out a little more about this field, read on.
It always gives me a pleasant feeling when I see one of my adverts in the wild. I stumbled across the photographyblog.com this evening when trying to check up on someone’s references. Lo and behold, this popped up when I later read one of their articles about marketing.
The downside is that this appeared on a website targetted at photographers who aren’t necessarily looking for someone to shoot their wedding. I know it’s appearing on other sites though so it isn’t all bad. I’ll review it shortly to ensure that I am appearing on more female centric sites too.
Writing content for this blog has definitely helped me to consolidate my thoughts. I recently described the entire range of photographic activities that I’m working on, and it is bigger than just the portrait and wedding work that I undertake. Over the years I’ve taken many thousands of photographs, a few of the more recent digital ones are now available through my print and fine art site: QTImages.
QTImages predates my other work by several years. It was one of the first serious websites that I built with a view to marketing my images and is now in its second generation. I use it as an outlet to market a selection of images that clients may buy as wall art. Every product is printed/manufactured to order by a lab that specialises in supplying professional photographers. I’ve compared prints from them to those I’ve had made by other, cheaper labs typically favoured by most people and the results speak for themselves. Obviously there is a cost associated with this which eats into my margins but nevertheless, I’d rather bring the client something they cannot get on the High Street.
QTImages offers the client stretched canvases, framed and unframed prints, and heavyweight giclée prints. I’ll be updating the range from time to time to introduce new products and images to the site.
If you’re in the market or know someone who is, wander over to http://qtimages.co.uk and have a look 😉
There is a definite art to selling. There are definite DO’s and definite DON’T’s. When you come across a great salesman/saleswoman, someone who really knows what they’re doing rather than push-push-push, it’s a really great experience for BOTH parties. Sadly you don’t find these people very often which is a real shame. I touched upon this subject in a recent post, here and my change in attitude towards telesales, here. This post expands on this a little further.
This afternoon, I had a telesales call from someone at BT trying to sell me advertising on an internet directory. After initially posing as a customer I quickly established that this wasn’t in fact a enquiry but rather was going to cost me. How did I, as the prospect feel? Annoyed and feeling that this wasn’t someone I could trust. He’d already lost me. At this point I’d already made up my mind I wasn’t interested but more importantly, I wasn’t going to be parting with any money. Continue reading A lesson in sales… »
Hi, I'm Gavin the photographer.
I used to work in IT until a few years ago. I was under a lot of stress at work and getting really p*****d off. Then one day I chose to give it all up and follow a dream. Everyone I knew thought I was nuts, that just made me try harder :-)
I believe any photographer can do what I did, earn money from their photos, maybe even start their own business.
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