Yesterday I had a great conversation with a photographer who’s about to go full time. Her work is terrific, her website, while it needs a little fine-tuning is all in place and overall has a great feel.  Having been part time for the last four years, it’s that first jump “into the pool” that’s the hardest and she’s working through all the questions all of us have asked ourselves at one time or another.

Well, this post just seems to fit the issues so many of you are facing today… 

Robert Frost wrote, “Two roads diverged in the wood, and I – took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Diversity can take on many meanings. In this post – it means standing out by being great at what you do.

So, let’s talk about the different path you choose to travel with your business with one big question – are you taking the road less traveled or the one everybody else is always taking? By that I mean, are you like those who say “It’s good enough.” Or are you the one who says “It can be better.”

Quality:Are the images you’re showing on your website and in your albums the very best they can be? I’ve seen so many websites with images that photographers have just loaded in to fill it up, paying no attention to the quality. You’re much better off to show just a few spectacular images than everything you have! This is about the finest steak at Ruth’s Chris, not the big buffet at Stuckeys!

With every image ask yourself one question, “If this was the only image I could show, would I hire me?”

Style: Are you working to be unique? I’m not just talking about your images, but your personal style. This is about everything from being personable and approachable to the composition of your images, the look of your website, your logo, etc.

Products:Are you offering presentations that are unique or, when you work with a client do you show them the same things everybody has? Yes, I know they’re a GoingPro sponsor, but remember, we pick our sponsors for a reason! I love the new look of so many of Album Epoca’s products, (www.albumepoca.com). You need a final presentation that shines through and above what every other photographer is showing!

Mining:There still aren’t enough photographers building business off of their past clients, in new directions and it’s definitely a road less traveled. Here’s the point, if they loved your work on the wedding then why wouldn’t you want to be there when the first child is born? And, if you don’t like photographing babies and kids, then how about working with another photographer in the area who does, and building a referral business and cross-promoting each other’s work?

Your past clients are your greatest resource. They’re already believers in your work and you have credibility with each one of them, unless of course you did a lousy job!  So, assuming they loved working with you, then here’s another aspect of diversity. Send them a personal letter and remind them of your skill set.  Plant the seed for an updated family portrait, an on-location day in the life shoot of the kids or maybe a new business head-shot. It’s Marketing 101 and you’ve got the perfect target – a client who already knows how good you are!

The list could go on and on, but here’s the point: There are thousands of photographers all accepting mediocrity. What are you doing to make yourself and your work different? Have you chosen the right road?

I just spent an hour looking at images in the galleries of over a dozen photographers and in every one I found at least a half dozen images that I’m praying they stole from “Uncle Harry” just to fill up space!  Seriously, if it’s not representative of your very best work then don’t put it on your site!

Your website is your portfolio, it represents who you are. We live in a visual world and points made to the eye are more effective than points made verbally. So if a picture is really worth a thousand words, why are so many of you showing pictures that are barely worth a sentence?

We’re into the slow season of the business for many of you. So, here’s a suggestion: Take the time to review your website. Look at the images you’re showing and ask yourself one serious question.  “If this was the only image shown, would I hire me?”

This is a business about quality…Quality in your images, your relationships with your clients and the way you do business.  Don’t let yourself get caught up in the argument about showing lots of images just to fill up space. In fact, here are some suggestions:

• Show only your very best images.
• Group your images in categories that tell a story about who you are.
• Show diversity in your work.
• If you’re presenting work from different specialties then present them logically. If, for example, you’re a wedding photographer who also loves to photograph old cars, give them their own page, maybe even their own website.
• Keep your work current and change your images at least a couple times a year just to keep it fresh. You should also see a trend, especially if you’re just starting out. As you shoot more, your work is going to look different and better.

Vince Lombardi said it best, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”

So, make your commitment to excellence and never compromise!

I liked your post on the vets today. My father, also a veteran, just turned 86 last week. I have older parents since I was born several years after my oldest brother. My father was a Marine, served in the Korean War and was part of the “Chosin Few” due to his involvement at the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. He actually chose to sign up for the Marines so he could go fight for our country.

My aunt once showed a war photo to my family that she thinks is my dad but he said it isn’t of him. He is believed to be the Marine comforting the other one in his arms in the attached photo. Everyone really thinks it is him due to all of his features and comparing older photos of him. Once, when he was shown the attached photo and denied it was him, he started crying and changed the subject. So I’m still not sure if the photo is really of him but it did make me realize what memories and emotions war photos can stir up.

There are two thoughts that hit me with Brian’s email. First is Brian’s point about emotions and images. Images related to the war stir up emotion for all of us as does any crisis,  but there’s also the potential for a strong reaction to virtually every image you capture. It’s one of the key reasons you need to make sure you never compromise on the quality of any photograph.  You simply never know how that image is going to be used, viewed or perceived years later.

The second thought I had related to Brian’s father’s reaction at looking at the image. The image evoked such a powerful flashback that he cried. It doesn’t matter whether or not it’s him in the photograph, but the power of the image to take him back to one of the most difficult times in his life. 

My father never talks about the war, except for related stories about people he knew, situations that were funny and places he visited just after the war. Yet, pull out a few photographs from the 40’s of Dad in the army and he can tell you everything he did on virtually every day. He can tell you what he had for breakfast that morning, where he was when the picture was taken, how soon after the picture was he headed to New Guinea.

So, the point is simply the power of photography and your role helping people capture memories. It’s a big responsibility and one that deserves your very best effort every time. You’re not just taking pictures, you’re helping to turn intangible moments into something tangible, a reference point out of time. There is no room for compromise. There’s no room for error and no possibility for you to apologize if you miss the moment.

What an incredible priviledge it is when a client places their trust in you to be their eyes and sometimes even their hearts!

We’re living in the age of instant gratification. We text, we tweet, we abbreviate. Our spelling has become absurd, phonetically attacking a conversation for the sole purpose of packing a full paragraph into just 140 characters. Photographers have become “togs” & sum things R gr8 2 reed others rn’t.

We eat on the run, multi-tasking and getting a little work done so we can justify stepping away from the biz at lunch time. MacDonalds has two lines for the drive-in window and we can order combo meals, making the decision-making process even faster when it comes to the barrage of possibilities for our low nutrition intake of garbage.

New photographers, sorry “togs” jump into the market thinking because they understand Photoshop they’re perfectly capable of being a professional photographer. They shoot with wild abandon with a mindset, “No problem. I’ll fix it later in Photoshop!” The truth is, no matter what your skill set, if it’s a lousy image there’s one fundamental rule of nature, “You can’t buff a turd!”

The reality is that you can’t Tweet quality. There are no shortcuts to creating outstanding images. There are no shortcuts to building a relationship with your clients. There are no shortcuts to great marketing. All of this leaves me with one sentiment – it’s time for many of you to just slow down!

If you’re one of those shortcut, overnight, buy a camera and just add Photoshop photographers, here’s where you’re missing some incredible opportunities:

• You’re doing yourself a huge disservice and leaving a lot of great revenue on the table. A great series of images shown to an excited client has the potential to create not only more sales from the original job, but additional sales as your client shows your work to their friends.
• You’re doing your client a disservice, but not “being all you can be”. Yeah, it’s the US Army’s slogan, but it’s so dead-on, for every profession. You can’t compromise on being the best at what you do. When you present images that exceed a client’s expectations the excitement and goodwill you’ll be a part of will take your pride and theirs to a completely new level.
• You’re slowly undermining the credibility of an entire industry. The other night on the local news was a consumer protection story where a woman wrote to the TV station for help getting her wedding images. Look, mistakes happen and there are always extenuating circumstances, but when what should be a quietly resolved customer service issue gets so out of control the local news media gets involved, the business entity just didn’t do their job!  Think about the number of people who watched the story and got a bad impression about professional photographers. Even worse, think about the credibility boost the story just gave to all the Uncle Harrys and all that gear they just bought!
• You’re making it harder to build your business than it has to be. Anybody can get their first customer. The trick is to get the second, third and fourth customers along with getting that first customer to come back. Being a successful photographer is about building trust with your clients.  When that trust is violated the entire model collapses. On the other hand, when you exceed a client’s expectations you’ve got a customer for life, not to mention one more member of your word-of-mouth publicity machine.

Okay, so let’s end this little rant this morning with a few suggestions. Slow it down and pay attention to the quality of your images and the quality of your relationships. Build your business one client at a time and treat every client as if they were the only person who was ever going to pay you for your skill set as a photographer.

Focus on being the very best photographer with a mindset that Rangefinder Magazine wants to do a story about you, but you told them to wait until you had the images you wanted!   And as always, NEVER compromise!

You’re part of an amazing industry and there’s help every step of the way, providing you respect and love the craft.  And trust me, if you respect the craft, there is no way to describe the return on your investment!

This morning I’m unable to access my email and once again I spoke to a customer service rep who was as polite as can be, but could do absolutely nothing to resolve the issue. In fact, he suggested a different way to access my account, which worked for him. He had that arrogant tone like the IT Guy from Saturday Night Live skits years ago, essentially saying by his tone, “Hey dummy, just do it the way I told you and you’ll get into the account!”

I was appreciative, though skeptical – and got into the account his way. Oops – he never checked to see if he could actually access any of the email!  So, I challenged him once more and instead of just saying, “I’m sorry, I hadn’t checked that!” he got arrogant again, “Why would I open your personal email?”

So, knowing how I love to try and squeeze at least one drop of rational thought out of situations like this, let’s look at the Network Solutions system and see if we can come up with some ideas to help you with your own customer service model.

• To be in business you need a product that works! Network Solutions doesn’t have that, but now apply it to your business model. This is about the quality of your images and presentation on line or in proof form with your accounts. Don’t show your clients anything that’s less than perfect!  As a photographer, the Network Solutions model would suggest it’s okay to provide a customer with out of focus, over and under-exposed images with a comment like, “We’ll get them cleaned up later, but at least you can see them when I promised!”
• When you do have a complaint, show a little empathy and then fix the problem. The Network Solutions model suggests you should apologize every time an angry customer describes any aspect of the problem. In the end in comes off as incredibly condescending and patronizing. I finally said to the rep, “Do NOT apologize one more time. It’s not your personal fault. Just tell me when it’s going to be fixed!”
• Get your facts right when talking to your customers. The Network Solutions rep told me the system was down for routine maintenance, which starts at 11:30 a.m. EST.  He had no comment when I reminded him that it was 5:30 a.m. EST six hours earlier.
• If you don’t know the answer to a question, just say so. Don’t make things up to sound intelligent. The best answer of all is honesty.
• Don’t pitch the customer on new ideas before you’ve resolved the old issues. This point is really a sidebar issue:  I had to wait fifteen minutes to talk to somebody on the help line, but when I called sales and hit the prompts to suggest I was a new potential customer I got through immediately. The Sales Department, selling an obviously inferior product, was open for business and ready to sell immediately, but the already established customer is forced to wait for help.  I understand the model here, after all, I’ve already taken the bait!
• I will give the rep credit for one good thing he did – he never responded to my reference to their technical group as a collection of jackass developers!

On that note, the real challenge with Network Solutions and their Customer Service Department is something you can easily avoid if you just don’t compromise on quality – quality in your images, quality in your relationships, quality in your promises and quality in the vendors you choose to work with.

The good news about my email challenges this morning?  They gave me a terrific subject to write about and the proof one more time over the importance of delivering what you promise!

Happy Friday everybody – if you’re trying to contact me via email you might want to wait until later in the day! Have a great weekend!

I’m going to use ”Black” as a derivative of the Black Plague that goes back to the worst health disaster in history from the 1300’s!  It’s a retail pandemic, as company after company tries to jump on the band wagon and capture what we all have left in our wallets.

Macy’s new mailing came yesterday and there were 6 different cards all with different variations of purchase discounts!  I get 20% on one purchase, $20 off on another, a special discount if I shop home goods – the only thing they’ve missed is a special discount if my cholesterol is too high following Thanksgiving Dinner!

Here’s the point this morning when it comes to photographers – let’s learn from the retailers out there who thought they could skate by all year long with inflated prices (Restoration Hardware is doing $100 off $500 or more – I wonder how people feel who bought throughout the year at some of their absurd prices – I love the store, but their furniture pricing is out of sight!).   Many of these retailers rarely focus on service, only to try and dazzle us with brilliance three weeks before Christmas!  Let’s stay focused on the challenge of delivering service and quality without discounting.

And there’s one more lesson to learn and I’ve seen Vicki Taufer* do it year after year.   Look for promotional ideas that run all year long.  She’s created more reasons to get a portrait done of your kids than Hallmark has reasons for you to buy a card.  Every month there are new ideas to get Mom thinking about an updated portrait. 

I found a few quotes that really make the point…

The best ad is a good product! Alan H. Meyer

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.  William A Foster

And from the Gucci Family…Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.

*(Vicki is currently in Nepal with her daughter. She and Jed are battling it out with State Department to be allowed entrance back into the US following a change in overseas adoption procedures. We’re praying this crisis, which has been going on since August, is over soon!)

In the beginning of the blog he quoted my grandfather, who I never knew, passing away long before I was born.   There was one sentence that really hit home: 

“…the most important thing in one’s life is to be honest with one’s self. “

Matthew Jordan Smith, when he spoke here last summer talked about the importance of finding your own voice.  Dane Sanders takes a similar position in Fast Track Photographer.  I’ve written before about one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from my wife Sheila, who lives by Shakespeare’s line, to thine own self be true.  Kevin Kubota and my GoingPro partner, Scott Bourne along with dozens of other photographers, have talked about creating images from your heart.   The list goes on and on, with just about every major speaker you could ever listen to in a workshop, all having a similar theme with the importance of listening to that inner voice that speaks volumes, but we so often don’t hear the whispers.

The importance of finding your inner voice and then listening to it is a theme my grandfather passed on to Dad over 70 years ago.  It’s the key to success in business and even more important to finding happiness.  It’s the “gold standard” and it’s never changed, nor will it.

It’s the Friday before Thanksgiving and somehow, before we all get caught up in what we’re making for the holiday, packing for the trip if you’re travelling or anticipating the reunion with family and friends it somehow seems an ideal time to just kick back and have a reunion with your heart and soul. 

Take the time this weekend and just think about your career in photography.  What do you need to change to put a smile on your face every day?  What skills do you need to fine-tune in order to create the very best images?  Who are the icons you’d like to meet in 2011?  What’s the one thing you’d like to change about the most important person in your life, you?  I guess I’m suggesting you make your New Year’s resolutions six weeks early – so you’ve got time to implement them without the risk of breaking them.

We’re all part of an incredible industry and if I’ve learned nothing else, over and over again, I’ve repeatedly seen the impossible become possible!

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. Robert H Schuller

The following day, along with Scott Bourne, we were involved in our first GoingPro Bootcamp and what a trip! (Okay, it’s a dated expression, but I can’t find a better one to describe the enthusiasm of the attendees, the great questions and the excitement and willingness of the vendors to help launch this new program!)  There were almost a hundred people present with a mix of photographers completely new along with those who had been shooting for a while, but needed new ways to build their business.

But the questions were all in line with concerns we’ve heard for years in this industry.  How do I close the sale? Should I show prices on line?  How do people know I’m here?  Then there were great suggestions on insurance, promotions and the importance of never compromising on quality.  The response from attendees continues to be pretty amazing, but the more I think about it, the more I realized their concerns are the same issues the most established photographers have had for years, which brought me full circle to wondering if things really have changed that much.

• You still need to produce a quality product!  While there are those who will argue most consumers don’t know and don’t care, I’m convinced that’s a cop out.  Every time I hear a photographer say that I can trace back his/her actions to missing something in customer service in their own business.  Consumers do want quality and when you take the time to show them the difference the majority of the time they understand, but it’s all in your presentation.
• You still have to provide a respectable level of Customer Service!  You have to anticipate your customer’s needs.  You have to listen to your clients.  Most important of all, you need to meet their mindset and exceed expectations.
• You still have to provide a pleasing representation of the client, the products, whatever it is you’ve been hired to photograph.
• You still have to market yourself to get through the noise.  I’ll admit it’s harder than ever to build brand awareness, but the necessity to do it is still there.
• I don’t care what the capture is on, be it film, digital or with a Crayola – you’re still being hired as an artist.  Unfortunately, there are too many photographers who forget they’re an artist and feel threatened by “Uncle Harry”.  It’s not the gear that makes the photographer!
• As a professional you still have an incredible network of support companies – from labs to albums to marketing partners to frames and online hosting, in the history of photography there have never been more tools at your disposal!  But you have to take advantage of what these companies offer.  Marathon Press, WHCC, Animoto, Asukabook and Kubota Image Tools and Nik Software were all at Bootcamp for the entire day to help attendees find the solutions to a more successful business plan.
• Your work still requires a passionate eye, a great heart and a quest to always look for that decisive moment.

Ansel Adams once said, “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.”

And that’s one more thing that hasn’t changed – as a professional photographer you’re still part of an incredible legacy of creative spirits like Ansel, Avedon, Scavullo, Karsh, Eddie Adams, Arnold Newman, Dean Collins, Don Blair and Monte Zucker, just to name a few.  They gave us a foundation that belongs to every professional photographer and while it might sometimes be challenged by technology and the economy, it remains a powerful tribute to pride, quality, creativity and art.

A big thanks to my two good buddies, Scott and Tony, for a terrific program that helped us all, me included, recharge our batteries!

Here’s what got me going on the thought – I was looking at some websites yesterday and was a little surprised at how many photographers compromised to fill up space.  Yes, lots of images are important, but not if any of them are less than your best work.  I actually found myself wondering about how their brains and actions actually connect.  What gave them the “okay” signal to post those images, when even Uncle Harry wouldn’t try and pawn them off as professional?

When I was a kid I had a red mustang and I was trying to sell it.  It had a fairly big dent in the door, but I didn’t want to bother fixing it.  Everybody that looked at the car loved it, but not the dent.  My Dad finally took the keys from me, got the dent fixed and sold the car for $200 more than I was asking.  He sat me down and gave me a life lesson I’ve never forgotten, “Whatever it is your selling, don’t apologize for anything!”

Mom and Dad by Cantrell Portrait Design

Well, think about that as it applies to business.  Whether you’re showing images to sell your photographic services or a house for that matter – don’t compromise.  Don’t show people anything that would require an apology or an explanation as to why it’s not your very best work. 

I saw image after image yesterday demonstrating all the traits of  filter junkies.  If the image is bad to begin with then there’s absolutely nothing you can do to clean it up unless, and I’ve said this before, your name is Eddie, Julieanne or John Paul, just to name a few Photoshop artists.  There’s a great expression I heard in the late 80’s and while I’ll get criticized by somebody out there, it sure fits right now… 

“Remember, you can’t buff a turd!”

If it’s a lousy image, don’t show it! Never show less than your very best work.  Never compromise on quality.  Most important of all, be consistent in everything you deliver!

From my Dad to my potty-mouth to Ansel Adams:

“A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.”

Make it a great weekend everybody.  Happy Saturday!

The ultimate photographs move people.  You can’t move people and create images that tug at their hearts if you’re not comfortable with your own heart.  So, it all becomes sort of obvious – it’s faith in yourself that creates confidence and builds your strength of character and gets your heart where it should be.

So, if the world around you has filled you with a little doubt now and then and challenges your faith, then how about thinking about the following:

1)      No career field, with the exception of modern medicine gives the world what photographers do!  What would a newspaper look like without photography?  Or, a wedding album? And the list goes on and on.

2)      A wedding album is the first family heirloom of a brand new family!  The dress will never be worn again.  The food is gone.  The band has stopped playing, but the wedding album will last forever, sadly,  longer than half the marriages performed today.

3)      Your images capture memories.  You’re the eyes for your client.  You’ve been hired to capture the moments they missed, whether it’s at a wedding or a day in the life shoot of their children.

4)      Your clients have hired you because they trust you.  Think about the meaning of the word “trust”.  No matter what you’ve ever done in your life, right or wrong, here’s somebody who simply has put their faith and trust in your abilities.

I’m constantly accused of being one of the industry cheerleaders, but honestly, this is an easy job.   What could be more incredible than working with people who put their trust in you?  What could be a more wonderful job than being a storyteller? 

Nobody can teach you to have faith in yourself – that church slogan is dead-on  in that it’s caught, not taught.  So, how to catch it and keep it?  Stay focused on your career path and your subjects.   Learn every possible technique you can.   Make it a point to understand photography before you push the shutter button.  Know your gear – know your lighting – know your lab – know your clients.  And never ever compromise on quality!

So from Edward Steichen: Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created.  It is a major force in explaining man to man.  

And from Harry Callahan:  I wish more people felt that photography was an adventure the same as life itself and felt that their individual feelings were worth expressing.  To me, that makes photography more exciting!