The second thing that started to help define my work was my ability to use light to improve moments.
My photos defined what I could do for clients.
I continued to grow and try new technology to solve the problems of clients trying to connect with their audiences. I added 360º panoramic interactive pieces for the clients to put on their websites.
I then started to add just audio to slide shows that were easy to host on almost any website and more economical to produce over traditional video. [ Click on photo above to see the Slide Show with Audio.]
Am I just a "photographer" any more. I am a problem solver. I am at the core of what I do an expert on understanding an audience and the subject and figuring out a creative storytelling to connect the two.
When potential clients get to see what I do, they hire me. The trick is to lead with visual examples. I want to be "Remarkable" and to do this I must spread ideas. To get the concept of what that means watch this TED Talk by Seth Godin.
Maybe I need to tell people I am a "Communications Handyman" who is there to solve your problems. I not only can come in and diagnose your communications crisis and understand the problem I can fix it.
The downside to "Communications Handyman" is it sounds like you are going to fix your problems the cheapest way.
Maybe I could use "Special Forces Communications Operative" but then you may think I just do war photography.
While I have picked for now "Visual Storyteller" people want to jump and then say so you are a photographer.
Maybe I take a risk and target an audience that I am best equipped to serve and find a title that works with that audience. Maybe with my seminary degree I go after the religious market and call myself "Visual Evangelist" or "The Visual Preacher."
Successful Communication has four components
So you are shooting picture for a publication that is geared to women in their 40s and 50s and you go and shoot a Punk Rock Band. How you cover it shows either you understand your audience or you do not.
So taking the photo above shows my emphasis on subject and medium. Using lights to create just a cool photo.
This is another example that I have taken a really cool photo.
Here I even am showing how popular they are, but am I connecting with my audience. Why would middle age women be interested in the bands.
But then I take this photo and now I have my hook for the audience. My wife loved this photo so much she used it as her profile photo on Facebook. The story for the publication audience is how these bands who can look scary and make you wonder if you child should be near them is to explain why they appeal to your children. This is of interest to the audience. I would actually lead with this photo before I would lead with what are cool photos first, because this connects to the audience.
You the Subject
If professional team were to work with you and help you be more successful then you become the subject, but who is your audience? Too many photographers again fall in love with the medium. I like making pictures.
Two Approaches to be Big Fish in a Small Pond
Move. Lets say you are a wedding photographer in Atlanta, Georgia. It would be easier for you to find another city to move. Atlanta may have as many as a thousand or more wedding photographers. Maybe you look for a place where the number of photographers per the population is lower.
Specialize. It is better to find a subject that few photographers if any are providing services. Mark Johnson, the head of the photojournalism program at the University of Georgia, told me about one of his students that double majored in photojournalism and horticulture. They went to a horticulture company and sold them on why they needed to bring them on board to be their communication specialist. Now that company has a better website showing their product to their audience.
The formula for success is simple. You have a subject and an audience in mind. You need to have ideas worth spreading in this arena. So go out there and be remarkable.
The downside to "Communications Handyman" is it sounds like you are going to fix your problems the cheapest way.
Maybe I could use "Special Forces Communications Operative" but then you may think I just do war photography.
While I have picked for now "Visual Storyteller" people want to jump and then say so you are a photographer.
Maybe I take a risk and target an audience that I am best equipped to serve and find a title that works with that audience. Maybe with my seminary degree I go after the religious market and call myself "Visual Evangelist" or "The Visual Preacher."
Successful Communication has four components
- Audience
- Communicator [photographer]
- Medium
- Subject
All four must be addressed for success. Too many photographers often forget one or more of these. They can get caught up in the medium [gear head] or often emotionally wrapped up in the subject with all their time.
Your purpose is to connect the audience and the subject and get yourself out of the way.
Now use this same model to address your marketing of you to an audience. You are the subject and the audience are your potential customers.
Now lets go back to those four elements again. Often a photographer is wrapped up in the subject and forgets about that audience.
So taking the photo above shows my emphasis on subject and medium. Using lights to create just a cool photo.
This is another example that I have taken a really cool photo.
Here I even am showing how popular they are, but am I connecting with my audience. Why would middle age women be interested in the bands.
But then I take this photo and now I have my hook for the audience. My wife loved this photo so much she used it as her profile photo on Facebook. The story for the publication audience is how these bands who can look scary and make you wonder if you child should be near them is to explain why they appeal to your children. This is of interest to the audience. I would actually lead with this photo before I would lead with what are cool photos first, because this connects to the audience.
You the Subject
If professional team were to work with you and help you be more successful then you become the subject, but who is your audience? Too many photographers again fall in love with the medium. I like making pictures.
Two Approaches to be Big Fish in a Small Pond
Move. Lets say you are a wedding photographer in Atlanta, Georgia. It would be easier for you to find another city to move. Atlanta may have as many as a thousand or more wedding photographers. Maybe you look for a place where the number of photographers per the population is lower.
Specialize. It is better to find a subject that few photographers if any are providing services. Mark Johnson, the head of the photojournalism program at the University of Georgia, told me about one of his students that double majored in photojournalism and horticulture. They went to a horticulture company and sold them on why they needed to bring them on board to be their communication specialist. Now that company has a better website showing their product to their audience.
The formula for success is simple. You have a subject and an audience in mind. You need to have ideas worth spreading in this arena. So go out there and be remarkable.
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