As you may or may not know, I’ve been a PhotoShelter customer for several years now. I love their service. It is, by far, the BEST way to show proofs to clients and deliver high rez finals. It also easily fits in to my digital workflow with Lightroom via a plugin, so using it saves me tremendous amounts of time and energy. Time and energy that I now spend focusing on my business, rather than mundane tasks that waste countless hours like creating Adobe web galleries, FTPing files, or (cringe) burning DVDs.

Every job I’ve delivered since 2010 is online high rez. Not only can my current clients redownload their images at any time, but I can quickly share and relicense available images to new customers. As a bonus, it also serves as an offsite backup in case something every goes terribly wrong at my office (knock on wood).

Anyway, when Lauren Margolis of PhotoShelter asked me to do in an interview about my architectural and interior photography, I jumped at the opportunity. I was totally flattered and I think the interview came out really great. Click the link below to read it on PhotoShelter’s blog:

Architectural Photography: Just Like Playing Tetris…Right?.

The art of doing nothin’ is probably one of the most profitable things you can do, because it sets you up to be doing something.

When you are thinking about accepting an assignment where the fees will barely cover your costs, or giving in to an excessive rights grab with the justification that “it’s better than doing nothin’,” that’s a good time to reflect on Guthrie’s advice.

By John Harrington via Why Selling “All Rights” Is Wrong for Your Photography Business | Black Star Rising.

NPPA: Cost of Doing Business Calculator

I think one of the most challenging aspects to being a commercial photographer is the marketing. It’s ironic because we are in a commercial marketing environment, yet reaching the people we want to hire us can seem voodoo and difficult. In my experience, no matter how good you are or how “cool” you are, if no one knows about you, then you’re never going to get work. I’ve tried all kinds of photo business marketing and read many opinions about what you should or shouldn’t do. I thought I’d share what has worked for me.

1. Portfolio – It all starts here. What do you like shoot? How are you different than the million other photographers out there? Who do you want to shoot for? Does this shot suck? These are just some of the questions that you should ask when you edit your portfolio. And don’t try to do it alone. Ask peers and mentors to help you make the edit or hire a photography consultant and get an honest opinion on your work. A second pair of eyes will make all the difference
2. Website – Your website and your web presence is so critical. I can’t stress this enough. Your website should A) be easy to navigate, B) have big photos that download fast, and C) have your contact information on every page. If you’re site is in Flash, make sure you make your contact footer is in HTML so that visitors with smartphones can at least call or email you from your website. Better yet, make a mobile site to compliment your Flash site.
3. Blog – Blog about what you’re shooting. Blog about what new clients you have. Blog about anything related to your business. Google LOVES blogs, especially one’s that are XHTML compliant (i.e. Blogger, WordPress, Live Journal, etc.). The more your blog, the more search engines will visit your site and that makes you more relevant. Also, make sure you link out to specific phrases, not just “click here” or “this article”. For example, Lincoln Barbour is an awesome architectural photographer.
4. Source Sites – Here are some of the top sources sites you should get into: Wonderful Machine, Workbook, The Black Book, Alternative Pick, Le Book, PDN Photoserve, and Creative Hotlist. There are a bunch of others, but I would say these are fairly well known and trusted. I’m not even paying to be on PDN Photoserver and I’ve gotten work from being listed there.
5. Professional Photographer Organizations - You absolutely must join either ASMP, APA, EP, or (ideally) all three. It gives you credibility because not just anyone can join these organizations. They are only for working photographers and you have to peer reviewed before they let you in. ASMP, APA, and EP have built outstanding reputations as a source for excellent photographers and being associated with them makes you look like the professional you are. Not only that, but you’ll learn incredible amounts of photo business knowledge and get some pretty sweet discounts on everything from computers, to insurance, to car rentals.
6. Direct Mail & Email – A necessary evil, but you should do it. A good schedule would be a print mailer every 4 months and an email campaign every 2 months. Use Adbase or Agency Access to build a targeting mailing list and focus on clients you want to work for. For example, if you shoot food, don’t send a promo to Car & Driver.
7. Social Media – There’s a good way and a bad way to do social media and if you do it right, you’ll be rewarded with web traffic, great feedback, and a sense of interconnection to clients and colleagues. As a business, your social media interactions should stay on message, stay positive, and be useful to your followers. Nobody that will hire you cares what you had for breakfast, how rad this party is, or how much you hate rush hour traffic. And please, for all that is holey, don’t tweet about the weather. Use your judgment, be real, and keep personal separate from business.

The real trick is knowing that not just one marketing tactic will get you work. You have to do all of it, all of the time, forever and ever. It’s part of doing business. Yeah it’s expensive, but make it part of your CODB and charge a rate that covers it. As my Dad use to say, “It takes money to make money.”

Dear bloggers, writers, designers, illustrators, anyone that wants my photography on their website:

Here’s the deal. If you want to talk me up or talk up my client, I don’t mind if you use my photography in a bloggy editorial kind of way. I just want a heads up. If you take my photography to promote yourself (even if by bringing traffic to your website where you sell products or services), then we have an issue. These photos are my intellectual property and are protected by US copyright law. All rights reserved means I decide how and who uses the images.

If I just took your car (or your horse) to run some errands without asking you, you’d probably be upset. Sure, no harm was done to your car (or horse), but it’s your property and you would like to know where it is. You’d probably want me to pay some gas money or feed it, too.

I feel the same about my photography. People, innocently or not, just lift my images all the time to promote themselves. In some cases, this is could be a very bad thing. For example, say someone said negative things about my best client and used my photography to prove their point. This puts me in hot water with the client and could even be interpreted that I provided the images to them to slander my own client. Thus, the reason I want a heads up before you use my images.

Hope you understand where I’m coming from. I’m not trying to be a jerk, I just am trying to look after my business. After all, I do this for a living and I can’t eat a photo credit.

Unfortunately, I didn’t win the scholarship and since the seminar is not coming anywhere near Portland, I’ll have to wait till the next time it comes around. Hopefully it’ll come here or in Seattle.

What Chase offered was incredibly generous and I really admire what he did. Not only did his gift simultaneously bring awareness to the conference and its importance, he also inspired many other photographers to give back. I know in the future, when I have the means, I will do what I can to follow his example.

My sincere congratulations to all the winners and I hope the seminar serves you well now and into the future.

And my deepest thanks to the following people for writing a nomination on my behalf.

• Andy Batt
• Philip Beaurline
• Lauren Brooks
• Michael Shay
• Christopher Shay
• Bob Villalobos
• Ed Hetherington
• Grayson Barbour
• Dan McLaughlin
• Rob Brooks
• Erin Grace
• Henry Covey

Your words touched me very deeply and I’m glad to surrounded by such great people.