So, here’s the challenge…how do you keep building your network and find ways to stay on top of the constant flow of new ideas, techniques and technology?  What’s cool is there’s an easy answer…get yourself to a Smug! Just in case you’re not familiar with the concept and stolen right from the SmugMug site:

A SMUG is a place where you can learn, teach and meet up with other photographers who share your passion. It’s also how we can tell you what’s happening in our world and discover what’s happening in yours. SMUGs are a great way to connect with other photographers and add a few weapons to your creative arsenal.

Actually, the challenge runs much deeper than just building your network, your education and staying on top of what’s going on – this is about recharging your battery. You know how to focus your camera, but do you know how to stay focused on your goals and dealing with the day-in day-out challenges of business today? None of us do it well and before long you start to realize you’re spending too much time worrying about business and not getting out enough in the photo community. You start to get stale. Your creativity is stifled by just the effort it takes to run a business.

Everybody has the same issue. We’re all too close to our own business, so you need to get out once in awhile. Smugs are free and only cost you the time to be there and get involved. Even more fun is the opportunity to meet not just photographers from your area, but all of the Smugs at one time or another bring in special guest speakers. Roberto Valenzuela spoke at a Smug in San Francisco not long ago. I did a marketing program at a Smug in Detroit last year and will be in Jacksonville, Florida on June 26. Scott Bourne has brought in special guests to the Las Vegas Smug.

It’s a big country, but check out how SmugMug has it covered!

If you’re not currently involved in your local Smug, here’s the link. I’ve written a lot about SmugMug over the last few months and even ran a couple of great videos they’ve produced, but out of everything they do, what I enjoy and appreciate the most is the ability they’ve given us to stay connected!

Get yourself involved in a Smug – being part of something bigger than just your own business in the photographic community is only a click away!

On June 8-9 I’m doing two days of my marketing workshop for professional photographers. It’s a free webinar, but you have to register at www.creativelive.com in order to attend. Thanks to a whole bunch of sponsors we’ve got some pretty slick door prizes to give away as well. Nik Software, SmugMugPro, Album Epoca, WHCC are all coming to the party and I’ll be giving away a scholarship to Skip’s Summer School. All the doorprizes, or should we call them “cyberprizes,” will tie into the tweet stream during the webinar.

We’ve also got some fun prizes for those six brave souls who give up two days to be in my audience. A live audience makes the presentation itself so much more effective, but even more important they’ll represent the typical profile of professional photographers, part time or full time, who deal with so many of today’s biggest marketing challenges.

During the two days we’re going to spend a lot of time talking about building an effective website, becoming your own publicity machine, creating a marketing calendar, identifying your key demographics and ways to establish a stronger reputation in your community and that’s only the beginning!

Here’s the link to enroll!

See you in Seattle…or in cyberspace!

I absolutely understand how hard it is to decide on what programs to attend these days. Everybody seems to be on the road and then there are webinars and videos. In the end you’re buried in a barrage of programs, topics and everybody is telling you theirs is the “must attend” program of the year.

Well, as much as this post this morning is absolutely self-motivated, this is about what you’ll get out of this year’s Summer School.

• It all starts with your website review. I’ve been amazed at how many people missed that in the initial description. Essentially it’s a $250 consulting makeover review of your website with some good add-ons, but it’s included in your registration.  I’m doing website reviews because I didn’t want attendees to have to wait until August to start getting a benefit from being part of the Summer School family.  I’ve done about forty of them already, averaging about an hour each. From the feedback I’m getting every review session is creating new things to think about and several photographers have already begun to make some of the changes we’ve discussed.  Your website is your storefront and unfortunately most photographers just built it because they knew they needed a website and never really thought through what they were going to put in it.
• This year’s sponsors are an outstanding group and tied to the value of the educational benefit are some gifts that keep on giving with a 40% discount code on your SmugMug support for a year, but you can only activate the benefit after I’ve given out the code. You only get the code after you’ve had your website review. Along with SmugMug will be other companies with soon to be announced Summer School discounts.
• This year’s faculty and topics may be the most relevant yet, although I admit it, I say the same thing every year. However, this is our first program that’s this intense.
• Summer School is a network builder. After a year, there are 108 photographers who are involved in a Facebook forum started by the attendees themselves and that’s one of the most valuable things about Summer School. This is about working together and forming a bond to help each other. Watching the conversations on this page has been remarkable with everyone literally helping each other with new ideas, solutions to problems and support all year long.
• Why Chicago? First was the request from past alumni to do something more centrally located, but second is what happens when you do a workshop like this outside of Las Vegas. This is about total immersion photography and teaching. Every attendee is going to have the opportunity to really dig in to their challenges and leave with a whole set of new solutions and expanded skill set, not to mention friendships with some of the most outstanding photographic instructors in the country. Remember, we will NOT allow more than 20 people per hands-on program.
• Resource Magazine is in the house! It’s the hottest magazine in photography right now and if you haven’t seen their digital issue, here’s the link for the extended free look. This magazine is outstanding and the senior management team are going to be with us through the entire program. And, some of you just might find yourself published or be part of a story on this year’s Summer School program. One thing Resource brings to the table is your chance to really meet some of the most talented people in publishing.  And here’s the video Adam Sherwin from Resource Television produced following last year’s Summer School.

• The cost for Summer School attendees to attend WPPI next year for a full registration, including all platform programs and events is only $75, which in itself is approximately a $200 savings. Even more if you’re not a WPPI member.
• If you’re an alumni the May 1 early bird deadline was dropped a few weeks ago, giving you more time to figure out the scheduling and book your trip to Chicago and still save $100 on registration.

So, what you take home from Summer School, as sappy as it might sound, is a series of life-changing experiences in building your skill set, marketing and business, networking and even film-making. This is about expanding your network, your experiences and being part of something far bigger than just your business.

Summer School is an experience that goes all year long and it starts with that first conversation we’ll have over your website. Yeah, I’m excited about Summer School and while I know it’s not easy for you to figure out the schedule, make all the arrangements, get yourself registered and book the hotel, I can promise you’ll never be disappointed.

Looking forward to seeing you in Chicago!

When I was a kid, and I’m sure all of you have the same story, people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. The sad part for me is that I still haven’t grown up and there are days when I still don’t know what I want to be! That’s fine for me, but it’s not fine if you’re a professional photographer and your site reflects your confusion when a potential client comes “into the store” for a look at the merchandise.  So, here are some tips for your website galleries:

• Spend some time soul-searching and decide what you want your business to look like. You might have several different specialties you really enjoy and that’s fine – just think it through for your website.
• Once you’ve decided what you’re primary specialty is going to be, that should be the first gallery on your website. If you lead with weddings then you can anticipate getting calls on weddings. If your focus is high school seniors, then that’s your lead business. Whatever you lead with is going to wind up being your profile as time goes on.
• In terms of the graphic design elements on your site, everything should follow the same theme as your specialty. For example, I was on one site of a photographer who wants to focus on kids and sports. The potential market is huge, but the first image you saw was a landscape shot. While the image was beautiful, it had no relevance to what he wanted his core business to be.
• Limit the number of images in your galleries. You don’t need to show everybody everything you’ve ever photographed. Bambi Cantrell often uses Tiffany’s as an example. Walk by Tiffany’s and you’ll see just a couple of pieces highlighted in their windows. They don’t show you their entire inventory, but they do show you some of their most beautiful pieces. I personally believe that 10-20 images in each category are enough.
• Don’t give your visitors too much to choose from. For example, my vote is to just break weddings into two parts, “Engagements” and “Weddings”. Everyone knows how a wedding plays out, but I was on one site recently that broke it out into ten different galleries: Getting Ready, Details, The Ceremony, Leaving the Church, The Kiss…it became maddening! After each section, in order to get to the next gallery you had to go back to the home page and open the next gallery. Make it easy on your potential clients. Don’t make them mine for images.
• I’ve written this so many times before – make every image in your galleries  a “wow” print. If they don’t “wow” you they don’t belong in your gallery. Think of it this way…every image has to at least be better than what Uncle Harry can shoot. Don’t repeat images of the same subject. Show a variety of techniques. When you shop in your favorite department store they show as much variety as they can. However if you went to buy clothes and they only showed one style and in only one color you’d never bother to shop there again!

If you’re looking for a little help in the process, check out SmugMug. Last week’s post on Matthew Jordan Smith’s new site, built by SmugMugPro, got a lot of great feedback. Read the post and you’ll see what I mean.

As you mouse over each of three galleries on Matthew’s site the topic comes up. It’s neat, clean and the simplicity is stunning. His site does exactly what he needs – it presents his work and every image has the “wow” factor!

Here’s the bottom line. You can’t be in business today without a website. Your website is your storefront, studio and at times even your office. Make the experience for every client memorable and you’ll have them coming back over and over again. And last on the list, remember whatever you put up doesn’t have to be there forever. If down the road your interests start to change, your website can morph along with you!

It was the PPA convention in Orlando and I had a meeting with Dean and his right hand, Tony Corbell. We were all at the Peabody Hotel and I had spent the morning at the pool. I went straight to a meeting in the coffee shop still in bathing attire and t-shirt. It may not have seemed professional, but it was summer time and most of the photographic industry was poolside.

To this day, Tony and I still laugh about that first meeting. It was one of the only times in their lives that Dean and Tony had ever put on suits. They showed up, dreading a meeting with some knucklehead named “Skip” from Polaroid, imagining that Hasselblad was about to move to aisle 7 in Kmart. After all, what could a guy from Polaroid possibly have to offer the number one professional camera company in the world?

Well, they were there in jacket and tie and I was there in flip-flops, cut-offs and a tank top. I know I at least had a legal pad and pen with me to look professional.  Thank God first impressions don’t have to rule relationships the rest of our lives! In all honesty, I don’t remember a thing about that first meeting except I knew I’d just met two people who were going to become important in my life, but I could never have guessed they’d both become two of my very best friends.

This summer Tony Corbell is teaching two days at Skip’s Summer School’s Hands-on Intensive program. Since that first meeting, almost 25 years ago, there are few people I’ve learned more from. Tony is typically referred to as the King of Lighting and there’s nobody that teaches it better.

The video below really demonstrates Tony’s passion for photography, for lighting and for never compromising on quality. Even better is the way he teaches and the fact that he’s never said “no” to anybody who ever needed help. I love this short video on his philosophy, but there is an important qualifier. First, if you’re thinking about taking his hands-on workshop at Summer School, both days, August 6 and 7 are already half full. We will not allow any workshop to go over 20 people.  Second, Tony went to work on getting in shape and he’s back to his fighting weight, having dropped 140 lbs over the last three years. I couldn’t run this video without sharing a more up to date head-shot!

While a big part of the importance of Summer School is about improving your skill set, a bigger benefit is expanding your network with some of the finest instructors in professional photography today. Right at the top of the list of somebody who should be in your network is Tony Corbell!

This year’s program is in Chicago, August 5-8, and the instructors are outstanding. Tony Corbell, Clay Blackmore and Calvin Hayes, Roberto Valenzuela, Michele Celentano, Kevin Kubota, Jerry Ghionis, Bobbi Lane and those are just for the hands-on segment. Ross Hockrow and Jeff Medford will be doing film making and rounding out the platform programs are Catherine Hall, Scott Bourne, Melissa Ghionis, Sal Cincotta and a special panel discussion on couples working together in photography with Kevin and Clare Kubota, Vicki and Jed Taufer and Bob and Dawn Davis. Plus,there are two lunch programs featuring this year’s sponsors and the senior management team of Resource Magazine.

Everybody has lots to choose from when it comes to education these days, but there’s nothing that compares with Summer School. See you in Chicago!

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!

Then comes the number of great photographers on the road, like Michele Celentano who I talked about yesterday.  JB Sallee, Clay Blackmore, Bob Davis and Sal Cincotta are all on the road and they’re all doing some great programs. Each of them are different and offer you a different set of benefits. You need to attend every one that you can.  They all have one thing in common, all of these top photographers know what they’re doing in a workshop environment.

So, back to the challenge that started with yesterday’s post – how do you get ready to land your first speaking gig?

Tony Corbell, the “King of Lighting” is a regular speaker at conventions all over the world.

Let’s assume you’ve got a great message. Your presentation is terrific and you’ve now spoken at a few local guild meetings and a state convention or two. What’s the next step? Often people think it’s sponsorship. They’re in a rush to get that first “big” speaking check from a sponsor, but there are a lot of steps in the process.

Kevin Kubota is a prime example of a photographer with incredible skills with or without a camera in his hands. He’s an outstanding teacher, speaker and writer as well. Photo by Kenny Kim.

Just because you’re an outstanding photographer and have created award-winning images doesn’t mean you’ve got the ability to hold the attention of a room full of people. So, here are some things to think about:

•    What’s your message? I know it seems basic, but having lots of friends, being likeable and knowing what you’re doing with a camera in your hands isn’t enough. What are you actually going to teach people to do?
•    How’s your message going to be different from other photographers already on the lecture circuit? You need a “hook”, something to get people interested in what you have to say that’s different from other people they’ve heard already. In this economy, whatever your message, make sure it relates to revenue, growth, efficiency or just plain survival.
•    How are you going to get your presentation seasoned? There’s nothing worse than a speaker who “um’s” you to death and is uncomfortable the first few times out. But this is easy to fix – it’s called practice. Start with a small group of friends for your audience and then move up to local guilds or affiliates. Work to get yourself to a comfort level resulting in a presentation that’s smooth, showing no more stress than a conversation over coffee with a friend.
•    You need just the right mix of visuals and speaking time. Think about all the programs you’ve attended. Most of the time, what made them great was the content, the images and what you were able to learn. Remember that as you practice your own presentation.
•    Once you really know your presentation, do it without one single slide. You always have to assume Murphy’s Law, if something can go wrong, it will. If you know your material, you should be able to talk about it with the same enthusiasm with or without slides!
•    Be comfortable sharing your “secrets.” After all that’s why you’re there in the first place. Don’t hold back and definitely don’t pitch books, CD’s, other workshops or DVD’s from the stage. Years ago a speaker was asked a question and answered, “You’ll find that answer on my second video, which my crew has in the back of the room, on sale today only.” That was the last time that speaker spoke for that particular organization.

Once you’ve done the program a few times, assuming you’ve gotten a good response and done all your fine-tuning you’re ready to go after sponsorship and a speaking gig at the next convention and that’s where we’ll start Part II tomorrow.

“I used to go to workshops and programs like this and wonder how many years it would be before my work didn’t suck!”

Take a couple of minutes out of your day and check out Michele’s promotional video for her current educational series. This is all about teaching aspiring professional photographers how to create outstanding images and raise the bar on their quality. Even more exciting for me is Michele is teaching at Skip’s Summer School in August. Every attendee will have an opportunity to shoot hands-on for the day with two different instructors and a class limited to just twenty people on Monday and Tuesday, August 6 and 7.

Whether you can join us in August or not, watch the video and pay close attention to each image and Michele’s uncompromising quest for quality. They’re not just stunning images, but she’s creating fine art portraits and working closely with each client right down to the wall space where she’ll eventually hang their creation.

In the mean time, Happy Birthday Michele! Thanks for your contribution to the industry and your never-ending enthusiasm for education, Summer School and raising the bar on quality!

New photographers don’t realize how small the industry really is. While Michael and I share a whole bunch of mutual friends, we’ve never had any time to just sit and talk. In fact, the only real conversation we’ve ever had was on a couple of podcasts at GoingPro. What made the evening worthy of a post is the variety of topics we hit, the most fun for me, being some of the stories we exchanged and so many common paths and friends.

• When Michael was 14 he knocked on Richard Avedon’s door, literally. Interested in photography, he was able to meet one of his idols.  I was 50 when I met Avedon in Tucson when he turned over his archives to the Center for Creative Photography. We wound up that night in a little all-you-can-eat Mexican bar. Over the years that followed I’d catch up to Avedon every few months in New York.
• The late Dean Collins was an inspiration to Michael and he’s got Dean’s full series of DVDs. Dean and I met in 1987 and we were absolutely the best of friends. Tony Corbell was Dean’s right hand at the time and there’s another friendship started. Tony and I did the introductory video for Dean’s DVD collection.
• Michael “studies” two hours every day. He experiments with new techniques, reads about new ideas and finds himself obsessed with constantly learning. My good buddy, Don Blair, was still taking notes in other photographer’s programs right up to a few months before he passed away in his late 70’s. He was convinced that as a photographer he could never stop learning.
• Michael photographed Sal Cincotta’s wedding. Sal just agreed a week ago to be our closing speaker at Skip’s Summer School.
• Michael and I talked about couples in photography and two of his good friends are Byron and Wendy Roe. I met them for the first time at Photographer’s Ignite. They’re also friends of Kevin and Clare Kubota’s. Byron and Wendy are tomorrow’s guest post here at my blog.
• Michael was a professional chef and had his own business.  I love to cook and almost set the house on fire after a cooking class a few years ago.

Michael uses his own images on his stationery, a point I’ve been reminding photographers about in my marketing program for years.

Michael and I got going, talking about the industry. He got here at 3:30 and left after 11:00 and it seemed like only an hour. I’ve written a lot about the importance of industry friendship, but what makes them so special are the common denominators so many of us share.  The one topic we talked about the longest related to “good enough”.  The digital revolution has brought with it a lot of photographers willing to settle for mediocrity. Actually, they’re settling for crap!

I’m talking about those “professionals” out there who provide a client with images that aren’t any better than Uncle Harry produces.  Anybody can book their first client, but the key to success is booking your second client after word gets out about your work. It’s about that first client coming back again for more images or booking another event.

There is no substitute for quality and for knowing and understanding the craft! Each photographer has to decide if they’re building their house of bricks or cards…

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.” – Steve Jobs

“There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey”. ~John Ruskin