Parts of this post are part of an encore from almost three years ago, but the real issue is that I just don’t get it. I completely understand everyone having their favorite things to photograph and their specialty, but in the hierarchy of why people hire a professional photographer the ranking is brides, babies and pets.  Pets is part of the winning trifecta and in this economy diversity is giving many photographers the edge in maintaining their business.

I’ve heard it a thousand times – “I don’t want to photograph pets!”    Well, if you’re one of those people who’s had that attitude it’s time to think again.   You don’t have to make yourself a full time pet photographer, just practice enough to get your skill set at a level where you can create outstanding images of that one special member of the family!

“Three-quarters of dog owners consider their dog like a child or family member and more than half of cat owners say the same…Americans own approximately 73 million dogs, 90 million cats, 139 million freshwater fish, 9 million saltwater fish, 16 million birds, 18 million small animals and 11 million reptiles.”*

The market potential is huge.

“…gift giving to pets continues to rise with eight out of 10 dog owners buying dog gifts and 63 percent of cat owners purchasing gifts for the family feline.”*

Still think it doesn’t make sense?  Check out Ann Hamilton’s work and her workshops on pet photography.  Then, if you’re still not convinced read Kay Eskridge’s Guest Post from a little while back about her Paws for a Cause program.  If I still haven’t successfully got you fired up to photograph pets now and then, visit Vicki Taufer’s site.  Vicki set the original standard with her annual pet event utilizing it both as a cause she wanted to support and a way to bring more people into her studio.

Since Vicki’s first pet promotion four summers ago, she’s become one of the best known pet photographers in her area and the business continues to grow.  It all started with a promotion tying together an animal shelter, a couple of local pet products sponsors and Vicki’s studio. (Note: Vicki and Jed Taufer will be joining us at Summer School in August as part of a panel discussion on couples in photography.)

Pets create an exciting opportunity for you to diversify your business, but still stay within your comfort zone as a professional photographer.  (Plus, the topic this morning gave me a chance to show off my favorite portrait of Molly the Wonder Dog again! LOL) And these days it’s not about survival of the fittest, it’s about survival of the most creative!

*PetPlace.com; courtesy of American Pet Products Manufacturers Association

Photograph by Bambi Cantrell

Your post this morning made me wonder if you had noticed another “epidemic” (for lack of better words). If I were to extend the title you used for your post, it should probably be called, ”When Togs become Divas”.

More and more I’m seeing people with an attitude which definitely could be described as biting the hand that feeds you. The people I’ve spoken to (or written to) in message boards, forums, or Facebook groups, seem to be developing a superiority complex, which goes above their customer! Self-taught togs are complaining about each and every client, makeup artist, or colleague they come in contact with.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone say, “If they aren’t happy they can go (insert expletive here) themselves”. or “If they don’t order by tomorrow I’m shutting their gallery down. Screw them.”  Posts on boards complaining, “Ugh my client had the nerve to cancel her appointment the day before the shoot!” or “Can you believe the client showed up without makeup on! Screw her. I told her I wasn’t shooting her and sent her home”. THIS THOUGHT PROCESS TOTALLY BLOWS MY MIND!!

I for one am SO grateful for every client who walks through my door. Last year I made some major changes in my business and have decided to shoot ONLY what I love; glamour & boudoir. I’m still honing in on developing the perfect business plan for me but I do realize that I am offering a luxury service. LUXURY in a down economy. Go figure. I’m only shooting 12-15 shoots per month (which I’m working hard to get higher), but I am grateful for each and every lady who walks through my door…Some are difficult and picky, but instead of making them feel like they shouldn’t be bothering me, I make sure I bend over backwards to make them happy, without compromising my business integrity. Like Tony Corbell always says, “I may not be the BEST photographer in the world, but I certainly can be the nicest”. Those are words I live by.  Chantale Perron

So, here’s the thing, these photographers just haven’t figured out that this is a service business and nothing spreads faster than word-of-mouth advertising, good or bad.  Yes, we’re a want-it-now society and your clients often suffer from wanting the same shortcuts to get their products as new photographers have in becoming working professionals, but great service will always win out.

Listen to any great photographer’s clients and you’ll hear stories about how their photographer exceeded their expectations. You’ll hear about how they made themselves habit-forming to their clients. You’ll hear comments that sound very much like the legendary stories we’ve all heard over the years about companies like Nordstroms, Lands End and L.L. Bean, just to name a few.

Matthew Jordan Smith’s clients talk about him as if he was one of their best friends, because that’s the relationship he’s worked hard to build. Bambi Cantrell has had clients send her flowers, thanking her for shooting their event, often before they’ve seen one single image. Aurora Daley, not nearly as well known, did a post for me on SkipsPhotoNetwork.com about a shoot she did for NILMDTS.  The mother of the child who died actually responded to the post, thanking Aurora for what she’d done.! I could write pages about photographers in our industry who simply went that extra step.

Bruce Berg was part of a post last year. His story was about going the extra mile after he had made the mistake. Bruce took his mistake and went far beyond what most photographers would have done to create a satisfied client.  This wasn’t just about providing great service, but about his personal pride in his work and reputation in the community.

In fact, at the risk of being criticized for a little shameless self-promoting, all of the instructors in this year’s Skip’s Summer School program (www.mei500.com) are legendary when it comes to the service they provide to their clients as well as their students. They look for opportunities to go beyond whatever the client is expecting.

It’s one thing to learn to be a great photographer, but just like my comments in my rant – there are no shortcuts to building your reputation for great service.

Here’s a quote from Gandhi that once again says it all:

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

Yervant loves to get his audience involved in his programs as he did in this shot from Skip’s Summer School 2010. It’s a sure fire way to make the presentation more fun and at the same time demonstrate a point. Photograph by Kenny Kim

Okay, we’re down to the wire and it’s time to wrap up the topic, but not without one last round. It seems fitting to wrap up with a list of things to be cautious about when you finally do get that opportunity to present a program at a convention!

• Keep your bio short! Until you become a true rockstar and get down to standing room only, nobody cares how you got started. So often speakers feel the need to spend half an hour talking about themselves. People have come to hear you speak because there was something in the description of your program they believed will help them in their business. Don’t disappoint them.

• Make sure your program matches the description. In an effort to spice things up many speakers will stray from their original topic, so much so that the presentation no longer is representative of what they said they’d be talking about. Stay with your topic – that’s the only thing people who don’t know you have to go on when they sit down to listen to your presentation.

• Jokes are fine, but – a few laughs are fine, but people want material and ideas they can apply to their businesses. They’re there to learn. There’s nothing wrong with a few laughs, just pay attention to your content. And, if you’re going to cross the line into off-color humor, be careful. There’s a very fine line between a little acceptable smut here and there and comments that are offensive.

• Don’t sell from the stage. There’s nothing wrong in having material you sell, but don’t pitch it from the podium! Stay soft sell and you’ll always do better than a hard-sell-tonight-only message.

• Keep a bottle of water close by and drink it whether your throat is getting dry or not. Your voice will sound better.

• Giveaways are always fun, but don’t spend a lot of time giving things away. Personally I’ve always liked a few business cards taped to the bottom of a chair or two for finding the winner.

• Remember your sponsors. So often I’ve seen other manufacturers hanging around speakers like vultures just before a program starts. At the last minute they’ll hand a speaker samples of their product and ask them to give them away during their program. The speaker, often relatively new, thinks it’s a great idea, after all, it’s not competitive with their sponsor’s products or services. The truth is, it’s simply inappropriate and disrespectful to your sponsors who have paid to be there.

• Meet and greet your attendees. This is one that Bambi Cantrell does better than any speaker I’ve ever known. At every program she’s there early and meeting people as they come in. This is not as easy as it sounds and for years I was uncomfortable doing it myself. The nice thing is, once you’ve met a few people in the audience, your presentation actually goes smoother. You’ll find it really nice to have a few familiar faces in the crowd who you can pull into your comments or questions now and then.

• Stay within your time frame! There’s nothing worse than a speaker who runs late and starts a log jam that affects everybody. If you run late on your program then the next person in the room after you starts late. By the end of the day at a national convention you could easily have programs running up to half an hour late getting started.

• Have a back up of your presentation. You’ve got to live by Murphy’s law and assume something is going to crash. Always have a back up presentation on a disk or jump drive.

• Get yourself a wireless remote to change your slides. Most of the time the AV department for the convention will have one, but just to be on the safe side it’s nice to have one with you. A wireless remote gives you freedom to move around the room a little instead of standing in one place for the whole presentation. And have extra batteries with you as I was reminded at my own presentation at the Kentucky PPA Convention last February! (Thanks Dan Dobbins for bailing me out!)

• Give people a way to contact you after your program. It’s nothing more than your email address if they have questions. For questions immediately following your presentation I love it when a speaker announces they’ll be in their sponsor’s booth. It’s a great way to show respect and support for a sponsor and drive traffic to their booth.

Most speakers have a love/hate relationship with teaching. It’s exciting, fun and really teaches you a lot about yourself. It helps build your network, but it takes time away from your family, your business and often your friends. Spending too much time on the speaking circuit, while it might seem glamorous, definitely falls into the “be careful what you wish for” category.

Your value as a speaker, especially in photography is dependent on always bringing something exciting and new to the party. Too often speakers have become so obsessed with speaking engagements they lose sight of their business. Once you become a full time speaker and are no longer able to walk the talk of managing your business, your credibility sooner or later will start to drop.

Great speakers are really hard to find. So, just like your photography, if speaking is on your wish list then work to make your presentation the very best, your material cutting edge and your images breath-taking! There is no room for compromise when it comes to making a presentation.

There’s a great line I heard once, if you screw up a portrait shoot you can always re-shoot it, but if you screw up a wedding you need to leave town! Speaking at a convention is pretty much the same. People won’t forget a bad presentation or a speaker who just wasn’t prepared.  In the “old days” it at least took a week or two for the stories about a bad speaker to make the rounds, but today with social media people will be tweeting about how bad you were before you’ve shown your next slide!

There is no substitute for practicing your presentation and really knowing your subject matter. There is no substitute for quality in your work. There is not substitute for sharing great information. If you want to be a speaker in today’s market then make sure you have the dedication it takes to teach, not just the techniques to be a great photographer!

As a combination of the tough economy and advances in technology, virtually anybody can call themselves a professional photographer these days. The market is filled with “wannabe” professionals who have absolutely no right to call themselves photographers, let alone professionals.  Every day we hear more horror stories of “professionals” charging too little, not delivering images on a timely basis and presenting images that aren’t any better than Uncle Harry would have captured.

The sad thing is there are so many places to get help and elevate the quality of their work.  Scott Bourne and I started the GoingPro project to provide new photographers with material to help them address the business and marketing side of photography. WPPI and IUSA, both coming up in the next ninety days, offer photographers dozens of workshops and programs to expand their skill set.  DIMA, sponsored by PMAis offering attendees two days of intense programming, including Kevin Kubota teaching a series of lighting techniques.

Then there are books and DVDs published by some of the finest photo educators in our industry, all available to everybody. Software Cinema and Photoshop Cafe offer great videos at reasonable costs. Kevin Kubota’s new Lighting Notebook is destined to be a best seller. Kenny Kim, Dane Sanders, David Ziser, Eddie Tapp, Jerry Ghionis, Doug Gordon, Matthew Jordan Smith, Bambi Cantrell andSandy Puc are just a few who come to mind with books, DVDs and que cards all designed to give you help.

Last on the list, are webinars, many of them absolutely free,  from companies like Profoto, X-rite and Creative Live, again, just to name a few.  And there’s even more from magazines like my favorite, RETV, with an entire series of interviews with great photographers, all designed to help you grow in the craft.

We can’t do anything about those people who jump into the industry claiming to be professionals and only looking for a fast buck. Every industry has them.  What we can do is encourage new photographers and established ones as well to take advantage of every opportunity to raise the bar on the quality of their images and their presentations.

There are more educational tools available today than at any time in the history of photography.  Are you taking advantage of all the opportunities?

Everyone reading this blog knows that I’ve been doing wedding photography for quite a while. I’ve seen lots of changes in our profession over the many years, but none have been so game changing as with the introduction of digital cameras.

In the wedding business, it even took a few years for many of the pros to make the switch.  I personally made the switch to digital in 2000. It was scary just like anything else you try that is new.  No problem, we made the switch, and I have to tell you, I would never go back to film.  

In the wedding industry, in the early days of digital, things were pretty calm.  Many were making their switch and the competition from  new photographers was a little more even keeled than in today’s market.

But things started to change about two years ago. Cameras got cheaper, Facebook got famous, everybody started blogging, Craig’s List became popular, and cameras got even cheaper still. Now everyone with a new Digital Rebel or Nikon D3000 wanted a piece of the wedding market.

Don’t leave yet – it gets even more interesting, hence the topic of today’s post – “How Much Of A Professional Are You?”

Last week a friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video of Judge Joe Brown lambasting into a so called “professional photographer”.  The bride booked a photographer and after seeing their images from their wedding, felt they were not representative of what the photographer showed as her samples. 

The bridal plaintiff basically wanted a refund of $1000 of the $1300 she paid to the “professional photog”. The judge awarded the bride, not the $1000 she asked for, but $2500 in damages!!!

My first intent was to post this as kind of a “humor” piece – lousy photographer gets what she deserves.  But, upon reflecting on it I decided it was a much more serious issue that that.  Here’s why…

The “pro photographer” was shooting the wedding with a Canon Rebel with a “kit” lens, had the images processed at WalMart, and delivered then to the bride in the WalMart parking lot.  The sign of a true “professional” – right? Wrong!!!

Judge Joe Brown didn’t see it that way either asking the photographer why she wasn’t shooting with a pro camera like a Canon 1D, 5D, or 7D.  It seems the judge knows his cameras and a little something about wedding photography, too. He didn’t come right out and say it, but it looked to me like the judge may  have shot a wedding or two.

OK, like I said, I planned to just post it for the “giggle” but then some thing happened while at WPPI.  I attended a program by one of the presenters and was surprised by what I heard.  Not by what the presenter said, but what I heard after she said it.

She mentioned that in her early days of shooting she used a Canon Rebel.  About 25% of the room cheered her remark – they must be Canon Rebel shooters too – at least that was my impression of their response.  It seems to me that this section of the audience felt vindicated by their use of this amateur camera for shooting events that should be shot with professional gear.

That seems both scary and sad to me. A wedding is a once in a lifetime event for most folks out there. When a photographer books a wedding, they assume a lot of responsibility for the outcome of their photographic result. How is it they can feel they are delivering “pro” results with “amateur” cameras.

DAZNOTE:

That presenter by the way, now shoots with Canon’s top line EOS Canon 1D cameras.

This whole attitude; “I’ve got my Canon Rebel or Nikon D50 and some business cards. I’ve got my Facebook page, I like shooting pictures, I’ve got my blog, etc. , etc., etc. I must be a professional.” To me it shows a total lack of professionalism when any photographer engages a client for the job of shooting the wedding and shows up as “Amateur Anne or Andy”.

We have been witnessing the “cheapening” of wedding photography over the last 2 – 3 years.  It has put good studios out of business, sacrificed quality photography for brides, created an entire era of paperless, picture-less couples, given wedding photographers and wedding photography a bad name, and does a major disservice to all the real “pros” in our business.

So to those who cheered the use on the Rebel as a wedding camera, I suggest you think twice before booking you next wedding.  I suggest you ask yourself just how much of a real “pro” you are. Do you really know your gear, your lenses, your lighting? Do you really know what shots to capture at the wedding? Do you know how to handle yourself in an emergency situation like when your gear fails?  Can you still capture the images? These are just a few of the questions real professionals know how to answer.

If you are having trouble answering any part of them, you may want to change that or you too just may find yourself in front of Judge Joe Brown.

-’Nough said          David Ziser

I was so struck by the fact that powerful images really do speak for themselves and in every language. As I sat with a translation headset, listening to Flavio Bandiera talk about his images and show a series of different slide shows and videos, I realized I really didn’t need a headset at all.  I don’t speak a single word of Italian, but the images did all the “speaking” I needed.

Flavio talked about the importance of shooting from the heart. Had the translator not told me what he was saying, I would have known it anyway. Every image set a standard for quality and emotion. Flavio, like so many of the outstanding photographers we admire, along with David and Bambi, is a magician, capturing moments out of time and making the intangible a reality. 

So, that leaves me with a few solid question for you this morning… Do your images represent the very best you can capture and create? Do you set a standard of never compromising on your quality and the products you deliver to your clients? Do you have a goal to always exceed your client’s expectations?

The year is fast coming to a close, but a whole new year is about to start. What if everyone raised the bar for 2012 and never compromised on a single image for next year? 

Everyone has that opportunity.  If your skill set is a little light you’ve got some of the greatest venues in our industry right around the corner with state and regional conventions, Imaging USA and PMA/DIMA. Even the last week of how-to pieces thanks to Photoshop Cafe and Software Cinema, gives you an opportunity to “improve your game”.

But, I’m back to where all of this started…nothing trumps shooting from the heart!\

Images copyright Flavio Bandiera

“Before the Internet I read five newspapers in the morning plus thumbed thru a few magazines or books on photography. Yes, it took a bit of time, usually about 90 minutes, but what a great way to supercharge the creative batteries! I preach this to all the young photographers who work with me and sadly I’ve found few, if any, do it and none do it daily. They’re always shocked when I say it only takes getting up an hour earlier to be inspired.”

I never really thought of it as a routine for inspiration, but that really is what more photographers need to do. You need a little breakfast to get things going every morning and feeding your mind for a little while is no different.  In GoingPro (the book, which starts shipping in a few weeks…sorry for the shameless promoting)  Ralph Romaguera makes a great point,

“So you want to go pro in the world’s greatest profession? First go to a baseball game, then go to a symphony! What happened before the game? What happened before the concert? They practiced infield, and batting basics; they played scales – the same thing they did the first day they picked up a bat or French horn!  I’ve made it for forty-two years as a photographer because of one daily routine – practice the basics.”

So what’s your routine? I do a lot of writing and in order to keep trying to build my skill set, I do a lot of reading, not of novels, but of various blogs and motivational material.  It’s the same as that ball player warming up before a game, except for you and me, there’s a new game virtually every morning. Every day is a new post, new email, new communications with different friends, associates and vendors.

For a professional photographer, it’s the potential for a new client, new files to work on, a new album or image to create virtually every morning. That means you need a warm-up routine and it should start with a little physical exercise just to get the blood flowing, followed by a little brain-food and then the start of your day.

• Start your day with something physical. Sheila and I started walking every morning and now it’s routine. I know a lot of you hit the health club or just jog, but whatever it is, you feel better after doing something more physical than just brushing your teeth.
• Isolate a few blogs from people who inspire you.  Some of my favorites in photography are Dane Sanders, Kevin Kubota, Matthew Jordan Smith, Joe McNally, Photofocus, Jerry Ghionis, Dustin Meyer, Bambi Cantrell, Roberto Valenzuela, Clay Blackmore, Doug Gordon, Jasmine Star,Joe Farace, David Ziser, Jose Villa,  Catherine Hall, and GoingPro, especially when Scott has a post, and the list goes on and on. These are just a few. Not everybody updates their blog every day, so it makes it easy to rotate through a fairly big list over a week of morning routines.
• Watch at least one video clip every morning! A number of publications have some great information being updated regularly. I mentioned RETV and Resource Magazine last week. Seriously, I can’t get enough of these short interviews, like Albert Watson from last week. I love content that brings great photographers right to my desktop! I’ve also mentioned just taking a trip through YouTube and searching for any photographer you enjoy by name. You’ll be amazed at how much you’ll find that’s previously been published.
• Last step of the routine…open your email and see what’s going on. This is more of a screening process and doesn’t necessarily mean you have to start answering. However, if you start answering emails and actually putting in the time to respond, then do your best to handle each email the first time. The greatest advice I was ever given in my career was “Handle each piece of paper only one time!” Okay, I’m dating myself, but this was before the Internet. Well, the same principle still applies – make decisions and move on. Don’t hang on to emails taking hours or days to answer. 

It doesn’t matter how you set up your routine as long as you at least establish one. You don’t necessarily need to get up an hour earlier as Terry suggested in the beginning of this post, just develop a routine that works for you and don’t let yourself go too long between feedings…of your head!

This post might be almost two years old, but great ideas never age! The challenge is how to make yourself stand out, but don’t forget the basics first. If you don’t know what you’re doing with a camera in your hands, then all the marketing in the world can’t fix bad images! Concentrate on the quality of your work, making sure you’re never compromising and then focus on the marketing and the presentation.

Any photographer, good or bad, can get that first client. The challenge is to get the second and the referrals/additional clients along with repeat business later on. You want to be so good and do such a great job of exceeding expectations, your clients return to you for help over and over again.  This is a word of mouth business – don’t let your potential growth be stunted by your lack of practice and understanding of the basics!

Here are several different scenarios from Chris Fawkes, Lori Nordstrom, Bambi Cantrell and Kathleen Chuparkoff-Hawkins.  You may have seen a couple of these on Facebook already, but that doesn’t change the importance of what they’re saying.  All four photographers have some great experiences and backgrounds in marketing.  They know how to make noise when it counts the most!

Another little known piece of totally useless trivia – the first Hasselblad University was a dismal failure, but the logo won an award! Designed by Kalmar Ad/Marketing,  Sweden liked it so much it became the trademark for all of their educational programs around the world. In the 90’s, Tony, along with a few different people from the company, were all over the U.S. doing some incredible educational tours with great photographers like Nick Vedros, Chris Ranier, Ralph Romaguera, Larry Peters, Bambi Cantrell, Lisa Jane and Roy Madearis, just to name a few.

Since we ran one light and two lights yesterday, it sure makes sense to bring in three and four light setups. That’s four different setups in the last two days and a great resource for you to reference. 

One of the reasons Tony is such a great instructor when it comes to lighting is simply he’s to the point. In less than two minutes he builds the shot, shows you the components and the effect of each different light and why.  Now it’s your turn to practive and develop the skill set to the point that it becomes second nature. Again, nobody does it better than Tony! A big thanks to Profoto and the MAC Group for creating and posting the videos.

Okay, this is just a bonus and everyone who knows Tony needs to watch this! It’s from the Texas School and when I found it on YouTube, I had to share it. Every year they do a tribute to something or someone from the entertainment world. That’s Tony playing drums with Joe Glyda and Walter Eagleton - I don’t need to say anymore, but I promise it’ll make you smile! (The fun starts at 30 seconds!)

The secret to success in this industry is twofold – being multi-talented and having a great sense of humor!

Ruben Villamil, our AV guy, is absolutely one of the best in the business, but here’s what makes him unique. He’s a passionate photographer as well. So, after three years of Summer Schools, he not only knows how to get the job done, he knows so many of the speakers and even a few attendees.

Bambi Cantrell coordinated all of this year’s models. It wasn’t in her contract and she didn’t have to do it – she just took over and said, “Trust me!” Then she and Cate Alivekios got gowns for the wedding models and somehow it all worked out. Few photographers believe in education the way Bambi does and it shows in every class she teaches.

Clay Blackmore headed out to take on the Las Vegas strip. Many of you probably haven’t seen the video that follows, but it provided a rare opportunity for photographers to see Clay in action and fine tune some of their own skills. And again, this wasn’t part of his program, but something he just wanted to do. Most fun for me was that he talked good buddy, Calvin Hayes, into coming to Vegas for Summer School.

Alex, Aurelie and Adam from Resource Magazine gave us some great insight to how a story is put together. Doing an upcoming story on Summer School, Adam’s skills as a journalist really came shining through. I’m nuts about the magazine, but even more impressive are these key members of their staff! This is about passion and all you had to do was talk to them for a minute and you picked up on how much they love what they do. They loved talking to so many of you as well.

Brent Watkins, within a day or two of getting back to Ohio had a facebook page set up for Skip’s Summer School and then upgraded the music on Clay’s video so we could all continue to enjoy it. There’s a reason why I’m so excited to see him on the board of PPO. Brent just gets stuff done.

Tony Amat, new to summer school, probably holds the record for the most pictures ever taken of me at Summer School. You name it he captured it, but it’s the enthusiasm that’s come with each posting that has made it such a kick! Summer School is about new friends and expanding your network. What a kick to have Tony involved and so many of you new to the program.

Special friends, who I’ve hung around with for years, jumped into the attendee list with Helen Yancy and Nancy Carr. Brian Palmer bailed me out a few times with some extra needed help and then there’s Gokhan, Elena, Matt, Levi, Christy, Beverlee, Yasmin, Kellie and Yusuf, who all did their share to tweet about the event, before, during and after!

And no program could ever wrap up without a big thanks to Scott Bourne. The Summer School concept has grown thanks to Scott. He’s pushed me to think outside the box so many times and continues to help me think through so many different challenges in this industry. GoingProgets a few hundred thousand page views a month and 150,000 downloads a month on the podcasts. It’s been a remarkable journey, with the book due out in late October. Scott attacked the challenges of getting the word out on Summer School the same way he does everything – there’s never a compromise!

The sponsors this year were remarkable, especially with the panel discussion on Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. Just the fact that they were up that early without a table to sell anything says it all. I wanted the attendees to understand the level of expertise from the vendors and they shined with great ideas on customer service, staying focused and marketing, just to name a few.   It’s so important to include these vendors in your network, because they can help you in so many different areas, NOT just with the service or products they provide.

Last on the list is Michael Pishnery who helped with so many different aspects. It’s a challenge for any program when you hit a new hotel, but over and over again, he was behind the scenes helping to fine-tune the set up so that everyone got the very most out of each program.

Then there’s that one person, but really this “thanks” post is from both of us. Sheila is as much a part of Summer School as she is part of my life. So, while I want to remind her that so many projects of mine wouldn’t happen without her support, she’s also part of the team thanking all of you for your support and sharing so much of your photo-lives with us.

That’s it until next year, although there just might be a few surprises before then!

Thanks again to so many people who made Summer School the best one yet! We get by with lots of help from our friends!

Skip and Sheila

You don’t have to lose the momentum, but it does take time and energy to stay focused. Here are some more ideas to add to your list of energy boosters!

• Get involved in your local guild, PPA chapter, etc. Whatever there is in your community that involves professional photographers getting together on a regular basis, be a part of it! You need the combined energy of other photographers dealing with some of the same challenges you’re facing.
• Start following a few different blogs from other photographers and educators in the industry. Obviously a few personal favorites are Photofocus and GoingPro, but check out David Ziser, Matthew Jordan Smith, Doug Gordon, Vincent Laforet, Bambi Cantrell and Kevin Kubota for a start.
• YouTube is an incredible resource and everyone seems to forget about it as an educational tool. Hit the search box on YouTube and type in the name of any industry icon. You’ll be surprised at what you might find!
• Check out local workshops in your area, focusing on programs to help you stay charged. Here are a few going on right now in different parts of the country.

Mackinaw 2011 Workshop:Put together by Greg Schrader, his workshops in the past have given participants a chance to learn, shoot and interact with each other. He’s got a great schedule lined up for this fall in October. One of the things I like best though is the opportunity to bring your spouse or an associate along for just $100 more.   From  HS Seniors, to an engagement couple to bridal, Greg and his wife Brandi, also heavily involved in the business, will cover it all.

Find Your Focus   Here’s a program put together by Texas photographer Chris Duncan and it includes the company of some incredible industry icons…It’s a chance to be inspired by Yosemite while in the company of Tony Corbell, Roger Daines, Jeffrey Woods, Joe Glyda, Chris Duncan and Trey Homan. Yosemite is incredible, but for me, I’d go just to hear Joe Glyda’s jokes!    

Turn the Key with JB and DeEtte Sallee together with Lori Nordstrom still has nine cities left and is definitely worth your time. They’re covering a little of everything hitting hardest on marketing, business, technique, even a little on some quick and easy pointers on album design. I spoke at their Columbus, Ohio program last Sunday and they had a good crowd of enthusiastic photographers plus sponsor tables staffed by OnOne, Album Epoca, WHCC and PreeVu.  

WPPI’s Road Trip - They hit the road starting yesterday in Long Beach, CA. Cities for this year’s tour include San Jose, Columbus, Chicago, Philly, Boston, Austin and New Orleans. Each stop on the tour will give you a chance to learn something new in marketing, business and technique, while at the same time help you build and expand your network! 

These are just the tip of the iceberg in great programming going on around the country. You don’t have to lose the momentum of that last great workshop you attended and, if you’re afraid of missing something, track events going on nationally through the Rangefinder Magazine calendar.     

Already in his late seventies, I once sat next to Don Blair in a seminar by Nick Vedros. Don never slowed down on taking notes as he kept repeating, “This guy is incredible!” And when asked what was the best photograph he’d ever taken his answer was simply, “I don’t know, I haven’t taken it yet!”

Photography is both a skill set and an artform. You never stop learning and there are new tools and techniques being created every day that only increase your ability to be a greater artist, but you have to take the steps to maintain the momentum!