Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook Competing on price is tough when what you’re selling is your time. Your business model is different Visa,MasterCard and Paypal make huge amounts by clipping a tiny percentage off every purchase we make. Lucky them. Microsoft and Adobe make a fortune by charging hundreds for something that costs them less than a dollar to produce. You’re not that lucky. You have to charge hundreds (or thousands) for something that nobody needs, and only a handful of people want. So … what do you do? How much? There are two questions To View More >>

Previous |  Contents | Next Download the eBook There’s no room in this business for cynics. Ambassadors of Love Sure you love photography … but then this whole business is about love. Love and other emotional drivers — like the desire for connection, significance, family pride, and the human need to remember and be remembered. My Dad wanted a photo of my mother to fit in the breast pocket of his battle tunic in North Africa. Eighty years later I still have it. They married after the war. We have a few formal group photos. All us kids can do is try and judge what To View More >>

Someone asked the other day why some photographers using Print Shop seem to be selling their prints “quite cheaply”. "I can understand that there is potentially volume in art prints that isn't there with portraits. But I still wonder how a client might feel if the price is significantly lower for an art print." I think there are a few questions here — does the difference in price matter? Are people undercharging? — and anyway, how much should you charge? I'll leave the last one for later, but meantime… 1. Why might you need to charge differently for your art versus To View More >>

When we first launched Print Shop in Workspace people asked, “How do I know which images will sell? And which products?” They're excellent questions — and yes we do have ideas about what works, because we print and create the products! But we can't generalise. Every photographer is different and so is every photographer's work and audience. You need to find what works for you. Let's be clear, this is not expensive. It's not like you're stocking a shop with stuff that might or might not sell. In Print Shop everything will be printed and handmade To View More >>

There are only a few weeks in Winter where the setting sun can beam its light all the way through New Zealand’s Milford Sound, and I was dedicated to getting the perfect photograph of it. But when I set that goal I had no idea it would take me four years to accomplish. After three years of trying, my fourth trip to the Sound left me with some of my strongest memories, and taught me a lot. It was my last, eighth day of waiting: getting wet in the bush, heavy rain clouds hanging above me, and no signs of any light passing through the sounds. Disappointed with my fourth unsuccessful trip, I To View More >>

Jessica Reeves claims to have been "very average" at school — "never did badly, never did amazingly well". But after two years as a photographer she's come to believe that this is something she can be great at and love at the same time. Ideal foundations on which to build a career! The biggest lesson she's learned is very simple: make friends. "Running your own business can be pretty lonely, especially at the beginning when you feel you are running along with a blindfold on. Making friends with other photographers, or others in the industry, takes a huge To View More >>

THE DOLPHIN, THE GAZELLE, THE CHEETAH AND THE LION Originally published on The Candid Eye, what makes this post by James Yeats-Brown so compelling is that its passion comes from James' clients as much as from him. A lovely and revealing insight into the motivation behind family photography. - Ian When I arrived at Mike and Clare’s house, Mike was wielding a pen-knife in boy scout fashion and excitedly removing an old sepia photograph from a crumbling frame. The image depicted a formal group at a wedding, a family gathering posed in a static arrangement to allow To View More >>

By Megan DiPiero   Frustrated with this situation? You’re talking with a hot lead. Conversation is going smoothly. She loves your work! She’s excited about the possibilities for her shoot! And then her biggest question arrives: “How much will this cost?” You tell her your “starting at” prices and then… crickets. Hmmmm… maybe she didn’t love your work as much as she thought. The convo quickly wraps up and you have this pit in your stomach knowing that another one just bit the dust. : ( What to do? Here’s a sales adage for ya. “If To View More >>

Last week I wrote about the latest David Jay hate war, and said that if a courtroom attorney asked whether I agreed with his Shoot and Share strategy - and demanded a Yes-No answer - I’d have to say, “Yes I do.” Why? Because social sharing is a reality whether we like it or not, because social sharing is a powerful new form of word of mouth, and because Shoot & Share is a big step up the social scale from Shoot & Burn. Also I don't like hate wars. But this is not a TV courtroom drama, so if you're thinking of building a career in social photography, we believe the typical Shoot and Share To View More >>

I got a few pats on the back for my "check your files" post. Chris Meiklejohn, our lab manager, liked it so much that she wanted a sequel. In fact she wrote one! The funny thing was my team mates had already got me one started on a follow-up, and the things on Chris' list were pretty much the same as ours. So, drum roll… (If you like this, I wrote it. Otherwise, it's Chris!) 8 ways to better print files Would you love to have your albums arrive on your doorstep faster, hassle-free, and beautifully printed? You put a lot of work into them, so they might as well be perfect. We definitely want To View More >>