But here’s the real point of this morning’s blog – it’s a great way to remind you of two things – spring seasonality and senior photography.

In terms of seasonality in the professional photography business this is the first big opportunity of the year. You’ve got proms, graduation, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day all coming over the next 6-8 weeks.  So, what are doing to capitalize on every family’s need for an updated portrait?

Have you utilized your local network and looked for partners to help expand your reach? Limo companies, tux shops, florists, venues that specialize in a Mother’s Day brunch and graduation dinners are all ideal partners.

Doing a mailing together with a local restaurant and offering a portrait sitting creates an opportunity for you to reach more people while at the same time increase your brand awareness in the community.

A mailing together with a limo company providing a portrait sitting with a limo reservation is another chance at something out of the norm during prom time. Get the florist to also participate and you’ve got three partners splitting the costs for expanding your reach.  Holidays like Father’s Day, create the opportunity for you to plant the seed with Mom. After all, when was the last time Dad got an updated picture of the kids?

But I don’t want to waste you laughing at my senior shot without reminding you of the potential for senior work. It’s still one of the fastest growing specialties in professional photography and if you think about it, it’s probably one of the most fun. Back in the days when my mug shot was taken, that was our only option. (It’s right here that my buddy Scott Bourne makes a crack about Matthew Brady taking the photo for me! LOL)

Nobody did environmental portraits. Nobody cared about our interests and hobbies. Today you get to explore what your senior client is really all about. For many this is the first real experience with a professional photographer. If you’ve done your job promoting who you are in the community then you’ve got a chance to establish a relationship with several hooks – the parents, the seniors and their friends.

Kirk Voclain is one of the finest senior photographers in the country, but he goes far beyond just a head shot. The following two videos are of two different seniors he photographed, both posted on YouTube. The seniors share the videos with their friends, but most important of all, notice a lot of the expressions.

Every video Kirk does for his seniors is a little different, capturing their personalities and creating an incredible experience.

Here’s a secret Kirk has shared with hundreds of photographers in his programs and workshops about getting good expressions. He just gets them talking about their friends, their senior year, their hobbies. Before you know it they’re relaxed and just enjoying the experience. During those conversations he looks for natural expressions and that twinkle in their eye when they talk about something they’re passionate about.

It’s hard to imagine what my own session would have been like had photography progressed a little beyond a posing stool and two lights!

I’ll let you know who they all are next week, but here’s a hint - only four of them missed WPPI a few months back!

If you want to stay on top of the trends and challenges then you need to have each one of these icons in your network.  So, if you can join us at Summer School in August terrific, but if you can’t, then make it a point to keep in touch with each of these photographers.  Read their blogs, look at their teaching schedules, keep track of what they’re doing.  They’re teaching because they love education and they believe in the growth of professional photography…so get to know them.   And today I get to introduce you to Kay Eskridge!

Kay Eskridge:  This year’s Summer School theme is about diversity and few photographers are more diverse than Kay!  She’s a marketing and branding machine, looking for new ways to support the community around Phoenix.   Over the past year her studio work has branched out into the pet market, boudoir and Seniors, not high school seniors, but the Golden Age senior crowd.  

Think about that for just a second.  It takes a monumental effort to get on the radar of the Golden Age crowd, but there isn’t a grandmother on the planet who doesn’t complain about not having pictures of her family and virtually none of them have images of themselves that are up to date.    It’s a unique opportunity, well worth working to develop.

When it comes to developing new concepts and testing out new ideas, Kay’s secret weapon is her enthusiasm!  She’s a family photographer with incredible energy and creativity.  Best of all Kay walks the talk and is constantly looking for new ways to expand her business.   She loves to teach, is a terrific instructor and proof that hyper-active kids grow up and have great careers!

The only sad thing about Kay is that she has my Arnold Palmer signed putter hanging over her fireplace when it belongs in my house…it’s been over ten years since she outbid me at a PPA Charity Auction and after years of therapy I’m almost over it! LOL

Want to learn more about Kay?  Visit her website, Images by Kay.  You’ll find her on Facebook too.  And if you’re on Twitter, you’ll find her there too!  She’s also got a great blog, well worth reading on a regular basis.

Monday, I’ll hook you up with Kevin Kubota!

I’m convinced, as are thousands of professional photographers, part of the answer is in diversity in your business model.  It’s tough to be a one trick pony in this economy, but a little diversity brings in new clients, new applications and challenges your skill set.

Have you thought about the high school senior market?  You don’t need the entire school system, just a handful of enthusiastic seniors.   But you need to do it right – and nobody does it better than Larry Peters , Ralph Romaguera and Fuzzy Duenkel , just to name a few.   Check out the look and feel of their images – all different, but each with his own style.  You can catch all three of them on the speaking circuit and it will be well worth your time to pick up ideas on how to get started with seniors.

Years back I spent some time on the road with Larry through a Hasselblad University program.  One of the techniques Larry was using at the time was to photograph a half dozen or so seniors free of charge and then send them out as his ambassadors.  It’s marketing brilliance at its best.  These kids had a blast – they worked with one of the finest photographers and they wrapped up their high school years with a portfolio that captured their personalities.

It was a LONG LONG (notice the use of double “longs”) time ago that I had my senior shot done.  And, I want extra points for having the nerve to share the image here!

Notice how the glasses hid the unibrow.    My left ear used to stick out even farther than the one you can see, but that’s the way it was.  The photographer came into the school and sat us down one at time, knocking off the entire senior class in half a day.  Photographs came in an envelope with the usual combo of 8×10’s, 5×7’s and wallets.  Everybody’s images looked exactly the same.

Today, it’s all about personality and capturing who the subject is as an individual.  You still have to know how to do a more traditional head shot, but for the most part it’s about the interests of the senior.  It’s about capturing who they are more than how they look.  It’s about their hobbies, friends, achievements and their aspirations.

Most important of all, think about the impact you might have on a future client.  In most cases a full portrait session for a high school senior will probably represent the subject’s first truly professional photographic experience.  If you do it right, it might just open the door for future business from Mom and Dad or the student themselves, when they get married or have other needs for a professional photographer.

Check out the story of one of Don Blair’s seniors 20 years later!  I wrote about it in an earlier post last year.  He absolutely remembered Don and was actually excited to see him again.

Photographing seniors and doing it well expands your skill set, forces you to learn and understand lighting/posing, even photojournalism and best of all gives you an opportunity to fine tune your creative skills!  It’s a new year with lots of the same challenges, but it’s not about survival of the fittest any longer.  It’s about survival of the most diverse and most creative.