Commercial, Corporate and Architectural Photography
Not much to say on this one, just something to show you. I made this for a client to give a virtual tour of his home. This is an extension of the Estate Legacy Products that I offer on www.estatelegacy.com and I can do this for you and your family too. I also offer leather bound, high end books with both photography and written word to tell the story of your house and home. Contact me and let’s capture the legacy that is yours.
Take a look…
I just read a post from a photography coach that says “the sale of photography is an emotional one†(full article here: http://www.zenologue.com/blog/2011/09/photographers-who-click-connecting-with-your-client/). Well I have to disagree. I will agree with Nigel that there is definitely an emotional element to photography and that the desire of any image is to instill an emotion in the viewer or have them react in some way whether that is to buy the image (portrait, wedding etc.), buy a product, or just support the views and/or opinions of the subject of the image. But to say that all photography sales must be an emotional decision is insulting to you my client.
Yes you want any image that I create for you to be one that drives your project towards its goals. We all know that this can be done effectively with emotions. But what about product photography? Does Nike care if you get emotional about images that show the style and design of a pair of sneakers? Does a golf ball manufacturer care if you get emotional about their balls? Yes they want some sort of buzz or excitement but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the marketing department is going to get emotional about the imagery.
In business there are needs and some of those needs are not emotional as much as they are practical. When you come to me so that I can create powerful images for your project or campaign I will work with you to generate the end results and those results are carefully calculated to generate success. I know that you are working with me to solve a problem, to fill the need of images. If that is something that generates an emotion then I can do that, I can create an image that moves you or your client to a certain place mentally that supports your message. At the same time if you need to just show the design, size, shape or style of something I can do that too.
Words can tell a very good story or we wouldn’t use them. Images tell a good story too and they are more ingrained in all that we do. We see our lives and we translate what we see into words to better help others understand that which we see and feel. Words were invented by humans but we are given the gift of sight and we see long before we speak. So to an extent images do have an emotional meaning but at the same time they are just a part of the overall intake of information and not emotional in and of themselves. The content of an image determines whether the response is emotional or informational. You decide what the story should be and I as the professional photographer, will help you put in the content as well as the create context to drive the reaction you need.
How do you want your clients to react to viewing your campaign or project? Let me help you tell that story with images.
I just got back from a road trip with a client where we had 3 shoots in 2 days in 3 cities. Oh, and one flat tire. It was a great trip and a fantastic shoot! During the trip we covered a lot of miles and a lot of roads – over 600 miles to be exact. On almost every road, around every turn, we saw signs of the times: real estate “For Sale†signs.
The neighborhoods changed every few miles; small homes, big homes, estates and even condos but the single thread going through it all was those signs. All I could think of was how hard it was when I sold my house just over a year ago. I had a very small place where I used the basement as my studio. It had a small back yard but a nice deck I had put on, and with all the problems you have with a house the best part was that it was mine.
 
All those for sale signs reminded me of why I created the Estate Legacy Products that I offer. Â More and more people are selling the homes that their children grew up in. The memories are still alive and well in these places: the idea of the children running around the yard, perhaps a brother tormenting a sister with a frog or some other reptile, then that same scared sister putting a bandage on the scraped knee after the brother slipped and fell all live large in the memories of our parents and ourselves. Where are those memories going to be when that home is gone?
Often our parents have resigned themselves to letting the house go. We hear them saying that “it’s too big. It was different when you all were kids.†Or they say something like “Your dad doesn’t feel like keeping up with the yard work anymore. He would rather go play golf/fish/read/etc.†In their mind that’s very true but at the same time it would be nice if they had a way to take those memories with them.
With the economy the way it is today who can blame them? Their home is all they may have left at this point. The investment they made 30, 40 or 50 years ago is still worth a lot more than they paid for it. Their financial portfolio, that probably isn’t doing as well. However if they sell the property they may be able to weather this financial storm. But what about all those memories? How do they save the investment they made in you, your childhood, the education and most of all their family?
That is why I came up with the Estate Legacy Products. This is my way to help people find a way to preserve those memories and to document what was. Through my photography and special way of capturing the feel of your home I, along with one of my writers, document not just the house but the home and its history, its legacy. I can incorporate family photos and old pictures of the house and property with the new images I create. The writer will sit with members of the family and write a brief history to go with all the imagery and I combine that into a personal book that becomes more than a keepsake; it becomes a living physical representation of all your memories.
Give me a call and ask me about how I can help you preserve your family memories for generations.
Photography has many different categories and business models. There are photographers for weddings, portraits, seniors, events, architecture, commercial, fashion, nature, fine art, stock, the list can be virtually endless; if you can think of a category I can probably name a photographer that specializes in it. With each specialty there seems to be a different payment method and in some cases it makes total sense.  A portrait photographer probably should be paid at the time of the photo shoot and a wedding photog should get 50% down to book the date and the balance the day of the wedding. But when these payment models are applied to other types of photography I begin to wonder.
I specialize in high-end estate and portrait photography but that is not the only work I do. I have different payment terms for each part of my business. Also how I get paid depends on who I am working with, not just the type of photography I am doing. If I am doing portraits for an individual, model or just regular family type portraits, I need to be paid at the time of the shoot. The reason is simple; I may never see that client again. They can just up and disappear. Corporate portraits are a different story.
When I am doing corporate work, whether it is for the annual report or headshots for the company website, I don’t expect payment upfront or at the time of the shoot. I can do a Purchase Order (PO) or just a straight up billing at net30, depending on my client’s accounts payable model, not my billing model. I work with you not against you.
I understand how business is done and that does not usually mean getting paid up front. Many vendors feel that they should be paid at the time that services are rendered rather than when the final product is delivered and I understand that but that isn’t normal in the B2B world. For the longest time things like POs at net 30, 60 and occasionally 90 were the norm. Today there are corporations that are demanding net 180! Really? Net 180? Ouch!
Net180 has multiple purposes and it’s not because they don’t want to pay their bills. This is usually for very large corporations and what they are doing is trying to qualify their vendors and filter out the little guys that can’t carry a burden for 6 months. The odd thing is that many of the smaller vendors actually do this all the time; at least some photographers do. Stock photographers carry a net180 or more all the time. They shoot with no idea when, or even if, they are going to get paid. Many a stock photoshoot has sat for long periods of time waiting for those one or two clients that need that image. Stock images don’t make themselves; good stock images are made by good stock photographers who have the ability to see the future of the client’s needs and make the investment in studio time, models, makeup artists, props, etc. to make an image that is desirable next week, month or year.
Although I am not a stock photographer I also make an investment in your future as well as mine. I usually don’t ask businesses for payment up front. I want to do business with you and I want that to be as stress free as possible. What I do is I ask you how you want to handle the payment. I work within your current business model, I take the time to learn how you do business and I do everything in my power to make sure that your business with me goes as easy as possible. After all, having to make special arrangements and having to jump through hoops to get the images you need is not what you want. In today’s business environment the idea is to make doing business easier. That is my goal when you choose me to create the images your company needs.
Let’s make it easy to push your business to the next level, together.
This morning I read an article by Beate Chelette, (http://PhotoBizCoach.com), titled “Advertising Under Fire for Doctored Images†asking photographers where they stand on the issue of retouching images and the ethics of doing so. Click the links above and read the story. It’s short; I will wait here for you.
Tap, tap, tap…. Oh you’re back. Sorry, I got distracted.
If you read the article you may have seen my response as well: “Some retouching is a good thing, too much, not so good.â€Â I whole heartedly believe that and I live it with my work too. I am not opposed to doing whatever my client wants. If the client wants china doll skin, I can do that. However I prefer to keep the image looking real.
Recently I was asked to bid on a rather big job and to be honest I was very excited to do so. The job required travel, multiple shoots in multiple locations and, while not out of reach for me, would still present a challenge and give me an opportunity to be creative.
While working with my client we did the usual overviews, strategy planning etc. I took the information given to me and I worked up an estimate and presented it to the client. When I spoke to them a few days later the client was a bit taken back over the cost. Although they knew that their original budget was very, very low they didn’t expect the cost to be almost 4 times the planned budget.
Which is more important: consumer value or being a valued customer? It’s true that every person wants to get a great deal.  After all, who doesn’t like saving money? One has to ask though, is that more important than being valued as a customer?
As our world gets smaller the distance between individuals seems to be becoming greater. Personalized services are becoming more valued due to the fact that they are indeed getting rare. In an age of mass marketing, cookie cutter solutions, assembly line products and one size fits all where has personal service gone? It seems that very little is made or done for individuals any more. More often than not things are marketed in a way that is supposed to be personal when in fact the product or service is not personalized at all.
So how do I try to provide a personalized experience for you, my client? Easy, I work with you.
I think I have said it before on this blog, my first job in life was working for a family business gutting fish all day – week old fish at that. That job taught me a lot of lessons when it comes to my business and a lot about life in general. When you work for family you are not just another employee. You are expected to do twice as much for less than half the paycheck and no recognition.
Today I run my own business and I want my clients to think of me as that family employee. I am going to do as much as I can, as often as I can, for as long as I can and I want you to get the credit. My goal is to make you look as good as possible and the only way I can do that is to understand your wants and needs. That means I have to work with you, understand the problems you have and help you find solutions that solve those problems.
My wife is a huge Harry Potter fan and hasn’t missed a single book or movie. She follows the info on the internet to get peaks into how close the movies will be like the books. She gets lost in the books and movies and she is a huge JK Rowling fan.
So in honor of my wife, JK Rowling and the last Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, I wanted to say that I think that Harry Potter is actually a photographer. Let me do a little comparison.
A couple of weeks ago I posted an article called Recipe Of Light where I made an analogy comparing photography with cooking and great photographers with world class chefs.  The comments ranged widely from photographers, clients and mentors. Each had something to say about my points and views. I heard everything from “You should use the analogy of an automobile because people can relate to how cars require gasoline and maintenance,†to “Great quality is not a requirement for most people.†One photographer even pointed out all the ‘ingredients’ I didn’t mention.
Perhaps I did over simplify the idea a bit but of all the comments I received, One comment that I wanted to reply to was, “And all it takes to be a surgeon is a scalpel, so why is open-heart surgery so expensive?†half-jokingly I said “it’s the lights!â€Â For the physician it is obviously not about light but for photographers it is all about the light.
As a professional photographer I have studied the science of light, the subtleties, the colors, temperatures, angles, reflections and how light can make or break an image. Â For photographers it is indeed all about the light, its quality and how it can bring out the emotion that we want it to. I know many a photographer that has studied the science of light, the art and the craft of photography for longer than some physicians have been in practice.
To be able to create an image takes many skills. Knowledge of light is only one of the elements of a great photograph. As a photographer I am a man of many hats; I need to be a counselor, composer, laborer, manager, director, producer, artist and today a computer tech too. All of these things are wrapped into any good professional photographer. After all I have to relax my subject, design the right image first in my mind then at the shoot. Sometimes I have to construct the ‘stage’ as it were, direct the actors, process the images and do it all in an artistic way that conveys the message my client needs.
Above all of that I have to know how the light is going to interact with the subjects and how it will interact with all of the actors in my production. Â Light is a very good actor but it is one that has its own motivation; it has to be coerced into performing the way I need it to. To understand it, to speak the language of light, takes practice and a talent.
 
When you see an image where all these factors come together to create a wonderful image that tells the story the photographer wants told the talent is often over simplified. Non photographers will say “wow they are a good photographer.†Even other photographers will simplify the gift and talent by saying; they have “the eye.†They have the ability to harness the acting ability of the best, and the worst, actor of all: light.
Creating images that capture moments is easy: take off the lens cap and click, a moment captured. Capture a story in a moment? That takes time.
What story can I tell for you?
I hear it all the time and I wonder why. People are constantly asking the same question and I understand it but I don’t know why they are constantly asking the same old question. I mean, why wonder about it? Do something about it. It seems like I hear it even more frequently now too. You meet someone and you get to talking about this or that and then they say it. “What if…?â€
‘What if’ is the one question I have spent my life trying to avoid asking. Throughout my life I have had my fill of difficulties and I have gotten to those points in life where I have to choose which path to take. The question I ask myself is what path will lead me to the least what ifs.
When I left the corporate world, more with a shove than a step, I asked myself what is next for me? If I got another corporate position I would still make a good living but what good is that “living†if I have no life? Is it good to be able to pay your bills and not do what you love; to be unhappy, probably downright miserable, 8 hours (or more) a day? Would I be asking myself that question, ‘What if?’ The answer was yes I would.
I needed to pursue my dreams, my passions; I needed to do what made me happy, not some executive or manager. So I chose the path that asked the question the least. If I went back into the corporate world I would do well and I would pay the bills and, and, and. In my later years I would ask myself, “What if I had given it all up and started my own photography business? Would I have been successful?â€
I don’t want to wonder what life would be like if I made different decisions and I don’t do that when I work for my clients. If you hire me to do a job, whether that is shooting the headshots of all the C level execs or if it is creating images of your latest project, I won’t go in wondering what I am going to do. I will come in with an idea and a plan of action. I know the direction I want to take it. If we have planned it together and we have done the due diligence that we should do, rest assured that the images you need are going to be there and I am going to do my best to exceed your expectations. I am going to try to over deliver and I am going to avoid any problems I can.
My goal in everything I do, especially my work, is to avoid asking that question. Nothing gets to me more than if I were to deliver the high quality images I have created for you and then have you say, “What if you had shot it this way?â€
The best way for me to avoid the ‘What If’ is to ask a better question, “If I do it this way, will I have any what ifs?†if the answer is yes, then that is the wrong way. You can’t afford them and I can’t stand them. So let’s do something together that doesn’t ask what if but is your vision.