Building your brand

Should you buy a Nikon D4?

"Simple: I earn my living with this every day, and in this highly competitive real world, if you're doing enough business to justify $6k for a small competitive advantage for the next few years, it's a no-brainer. In competition, sometimes only the slightest advantage is what wins the race."
and
"The professional advantage of the D4 has nothing anything to do with "picture quality," it's about getting the shot someone else won't."


In other words, if you are a pro and a D4 will make you do your work better, faster, etc. than the competition, then buy it.
Read the rest here (Monday 30 January 2012).

Rates

Who is in control?

1. Learn to say no when you need to but always follow up with a fair alternative.

2. Believe in the value of your work. If you don’t, no one else will either.

3. If you go in as the new/cheap alternative that’s often exactly where you will stay.

4. Know who you want to be. This is such a critical step that most new photographers are skipping. I did. Sit down, study, evaluate and determine what it is you want to accomplish.

5. Market yourself! Create a company image that’s worth a double take!

6. Sometimes you’re UP, sometimes you’re just not. If you’re stuck feeling low – find a way out! I know that’s so much easier said than done but you just can’t be productive when you’re down. It’s the fastest way to kill creativity.

7. This is your business. Don’t be a copycat, it’s the originals that last the test of time.

8. Grow. Always be looking for new ways to learn! What ever your education budget might be… use every penny. That may mean late fees at the library or workshops on the waterfront but it’s critical that you invest in your growth!

9. Give! You didn’t get where you are all by yourself. If your reading this blog I know that’s true! Don’t be afraid to share your services and your resources. When I’m on a low it’s the friends in the industry who always bring me up the quickest… And most of the time it’s you, yes you for leaving cheerful comments that lift me up!

found it here.

Jasmine * video!

It is a great presentation. A very inspiring video!

CreativeLive with Jasmine *

Find more information about it here.

On pricing (from Jasmine *)

"I received the best advice from my dear friend David Jay shortly

thereafter and he said if

I was learning more,

going to workshops,

and investing in my business (which I was),

I had to continually raise the package prices

because

I was becoming a better photographer,

and, therefore, was worth more.

He encouraged me to raise my prices $300

for every three weddings I booked.

In 2007 my wedding business mushroomed and I booked 38 weddings,

so my prices have changed a lot since then,

as well as a lot of things in regard to my packages."

read the rest of the post here.

And You Call Yourself a Professional?

The point I was really trying to make was

that people who call themselves

professional photographers

should think about industry standards

when they sell on the cheap.

Denis Reggie once said,

“Don’t price yourself on

what you can afford

It was years before

I could afford myself!“

and

"The single biggest mistake

most new pros make is under-pricing,

not under-exposing."

read the rest of this excellent post here.

Quote: "When not to shoot"

"One of the differences between

a professional and

an amateur photographer

is that

a professional knows

when NOT to shoot."

found it here.

Steve McCurry's advices

• Insatiable Curiosity
• Hard work
• Leave home
• Fortitude and Determination
• Dig Deep
• Evolve, reinvent yourself, grow
• Don’t wait for the phone to ring

Read the full post here.

Going Pro

After finishing this excellent book, I read the following:

• Have a plan
• Have a style or a vision
• Be a marketer first and a photographer second
• Start small
• Do it right

Read the rest here.

Cheap friends

He comes close to me and starts poking his finger into my chest saying,

"Let me tell you this, kid.

If you do a cheap wedding,

they'll recommend their cheap friends.

Shoot expensive weddings and

they'll recommend their rich friends."

You know I took that advice to heart and started to do just that.

Found it here.

Somewhere else

"If you’re headed for a life that’s

only involved with making money

and that you hope for

satisfaction somewhere else,

you’re headed for a lot of trouble."

found it here.

What Every Aspiring Photographer Should Know

What Every Aspiring Photographer Should Know

These are my thoughts, nothing more and nothing less.

I get asked all the time, during workshops, in e-mails, in private messages, what words of wisdom I would give to a new and aspiring photographer. Here’s my answer.

- Style is a voice, not a prop or an action. If you can buy it, borrow it, download it, or steal it, it is not a style. Don’t look outward for your style; look inward.

- Know your stuff. Luck is a nice thing, but a terrifying thing to rely on. It’s like money; you only have it when you don’t need it.

- Never apologize for your own sense of beauty. Nobody can tell you what you should love. Do what you do brazenly and unapologetically. You cannot build your sense of aesthetics on a concensus.

- Say no. Say it often. It may be difficult, but you owe it to yourself and your clients. Turn down jobs that don’t fit you, say no to overbooking yourself. You are no good to anyone when you’re stressed and anxious.

- Learn to say “I’m a photographer” out loud with a straight face. If you can’t say it and believe it, you can’t expect anyone else to, either.

- You cannot specialize in everything.

- You don’t have to go into business just because people tell you you should! And you don’t have to be full time and making an executive income to be successful. If you decide you want to be in business, set your limits before you begin.

- Know your style before you hang out your shingle. If you don’t, your clients will dictate your style to you. That makes you nothing more than a picture taker. Changing your style later will force you to start all over again, and that’s tough.

- Accept critique, but don’t apply it blindly. Just because someone said it does not make it so. Critiques are opinions, nothing more. Consider the advice, consider the perspective of the advice giver, consider your style and what you want to convey in your work. Implement only what makes sense to implement. That doesn’t not make you ungrateful, it makes you independent.

- Leave room for yourself to grow and evolve. It may seem like a good idea to call your business “Precious Chubby Tootsies”….but what happens when you decide you love to photograph seniors? Or boudoir?

- Remember that if your work looks like everyone else’s, there’s no reason for a client to book you instead of someone else. Unless you’re cheaper. And nobody wants to be known as “the cheaper photographer”.

- Gimmicks and merchandise will come and go, but honest photography is never outdated.

- It’s easier to focus on buying that next piece of equipment than it is to accept that you should be able to create great work with what you’ve got. Buying stuff is a convenient and expensive distraction. You need a decent camera, a decent lens, and a light meter. Until you can use those tools consistently and masterfully, don’t spend another dime. Spend money on equipment ONLY when you’ve outgrown your current equipment and you’re being limited by it. There are no magic bullets.

- Learn that people photography is about people, not about photography. Great portraits are a side effect of a strong human connection.

- Never forget why you started taking pictures in the first place. Excellent technique is a great tool, but a terrible end product. The best thing your technique can do is not call attention to itself. Never let your technique upstage your subject.

- Never compare your journey with someone else’s. It’s a marathon with no finish line. Someone else may start out faster than you, may seem to progress more quickly than you, but every runner has his own pace. Your journey is your journey, not a competition. You will never “arrive”. No one ever does.

- Embrace frustration. It pushes you to learn and grow, broadens your horizons, and lights a fire under you when your work has gone cold. Nothing is more dangerous to an artist than complacency.

By PhotoDino. Found it here.

VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography

You can find more information about the book here. I pre-ordered it a month ago :)

Amy Wenzel's equipment

"Secondly, I wanted to take a moment to answer one of the most frequent questions that comes to me on a regular basis….”What equipment do you use/recommend?” First let me say that I can’t recommend a Canon over a Nikon for the simple fact that I’ve never picked up a Nikon in my life. All I can say is that I love my Canon to death and it does everything I want it to do, so I have never needed to look elsewhere! Here’s a list of what’s in my bag:

• Canon 5 D Mark II
• 85mm 1.2 L
• 50mm 1.2 L
• 24-70mm 2.8L

One of the best decisions I ever made for my business was to upgrade to the pro lenses. I previously shot on the 85 1.8 and 50 1.4. The difference in upgrading to the 85 1.2 and 50 1.2 was ASTOUNDING. It was like having a whole new camera. I could have wept eternal tears over the tremendous quality increase. When you pay for the 1.2 you aren’t just paying for a faster lens, you are paying for professional glass. You will see differences in the contrast, light distribution, creaminess, sharpness, and tons of other technology related things that I don’t know names for. I realized how much time I was previously wasting in Photoshop just trying to compensate for what was coming off my camera. The nail in the coffin was when I rented the 50 1.2 for day, and once I saw the difference I could never go back. And oh my soul, I would have sold an organ on the black market to get that new lens. So I did. (Got the lens, I mean, not sell an organ). And I like to use fixed lenses because they are so much sharper. I plan to replace my 24-70 2.8 zoom with the fixed 35mm 1.4 very soon. (I borrowed the 35mm and now need to sell another organ. dear, me.)

Upgrading to the 5 D Mark II was the same hysterical aha moment of “Oh my gosh, my life just got 10 million times easier and now my photos are finally coming off the camera the way I want them too!!!!!” There really is that much of a difference. So that is me on my soap box telling portrait photographers everywhere, that yes, it’s worth the investment, and yes, if you can do it you definitely should!"

found it here as I was browsing on the Internet.

Three Photography Books

After a long time, I read three books from cover to cover. They are the following books:

The first one is more practical whereas the other two are sources of inspiration.

The best Camera

This is a new book by Chase Jarvis. I have already ordered it and I am anxiously waiting to read it.

The bottom line: the best camera is the one that you have with you!