Why Instagram is great for photographers

Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them either publicly or privately on the app, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. – Wikipedia

How do you find work?

To get hired you need to find your audience. This is where your potential clients are that you want to show your work.

Many years ago the way photojournalists and photographers got work was by flying to places like New York and making appointments at as many publications or agencies that they could pack together in a few days to a week.

It was common for a person to spend $3,000 to $6,000 on transportation, hotel and miscellaneous expenses to just show their work. Most photographers would have a few books. Each of these books cost were a few hundred dollars or more to produce. You often would drop off your book and hope they would give you a call. So having a few books was important to get your work out there.

Today clients are more likely to just ask you to send them a link to your website. Face to face meetings are more reserved for the actually projects than just seeing people's work.

How do you get their attention today?

Now if you are a writer then Twitter might be the best way to get your work noticed.

Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". Registered users can read and post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them. – Wikipedia

It is important to note the difference between Twitter and Instagram. Twitter was established to share TEXT and Instagram was setup for PHOTOS/VIDEOS.

While you can post photos on Twitter the audience is expecting mainly text. Instagram requires an image or photo because that is what the audience is expecting.

People like Instagram because it is visual and this is the audience that will appreciate your images.

Your Target Audience uses Instagram

The odds are pretty high that your audience [Potential Customers] uses Instagram. Take a few minutes and go to Instagram.com and type in the search box the names of the companies you want to work with in the future.

Here I searched for Delta Air Lines and before I could finish typing it popped up first.

When you then go to their account they tell you to share your travel pics and use the hashtag #Delta.

Hashtags are a pound sign immediately followed by a keyword. They’re used for categorization on social media.

Instagram is another hotspot for hashtags, and the good news for those who love to extensively tag photos is that there doesn’t seem to be a saturation point.

Interactions are highest on Instagram posts with 11+ hashtags.

Now here is another tip. If you use @Delta then whoever manages the Instagram feed for Delta gets an alert/email that you have tagged them.

This is because @NAME is the account. Only the account holder will get an email, whereas the hashtag is something anyone who follows that hashtag will see.

Believe me there is someone at Delta paying attention to those posts. If they like it they may share your post and if they really like your style they may end up hiring you to shoot material for their Instagram feed and other projects.

Relevance!!!!!!

While I just showed you the backdoor to getting your work in front of potential clients it is important that you use this technique in such a way as to be relevant to your potential client.

If you tag your photo with @NAMEOFBUSINESS be sure the image is something that they would post on their account.

Here is a post where I and tagging Coca-Cola.

Here is a post that I tagged Nescafe.

I also used hashtags for the country and region of the world.

Now just remember that because you are using the correct account name and hashtags to get in front of your potential customers that doesn't mean success. Your images must be compelling and they must think your style of work is worth pursuing.

Now here are some of the Instagram accounts I follow because I think they are relevant and reaching an audience:

• Yerwa Documenting bits and pieces of everyday life in Borno State, Nigeria. 
• E S T H E R H A V E N S Humanitarian photographer: Lover of people : Nomad : Visual storyteller : NGO story consultant : Speaker
• Gary S. Chapman Photographer Because impacting lives matters, I help organizations tell their stories visually.
• Humans of New York New York City, one story at time.

I follow many others, but this is a good sample. Most of the successful photographers using Instagram in my opinion marry the text and images so there is a short story.

I have noticed that those who are most successful tend to stay on theme for their Instagram posts. 

Be careful how you evaluate Instagram accounts!!!! Do not base your opinions on what you think about their work alone. I highly recommend taking the time to analyze an account and figure out why they have 40K+ followers. Humans of NY has 5.5 million followers. Now if you are a trained photojournalist you may find fault with the work of some of these Instagram celebrities. Don't discount them. Learn from them and then put your personal touch on your posts using some of their techniques.

I shoot Theater–Who would have guessed that one?

Today it just struck me that I probably have enough content for a Theater category in my portfolio.

While I have been asked to shoot theater productions through the years it is when my daughter became really involved in theater that had me shooting a lot as just a proud dad.

Nikon D4, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 2500, ƒ/6.3, 1/8000

This is her dressed up as the Witch in the play she is doing in a few weeks Into the Woods. By the way I must promote the musical and encourage you if you are in Roswell, GA to come to it. Here is link for it RHSIntoTheWoods.com.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 6400, ƒ/5.6, 1/400

Now besides getting photos of the actual productions I am also doing headshots for the programs.

Having a consistent look for all the headshots makes a huge difference in the quality of the programs and promotional pieces.

Nikon D4, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 140, ƒ/1.8, 1/100

I try to capture some shots of the audience and overall stage at some point. Most of the time I concentrate on the actors as I did in the performance of Steel Magnolias.

Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM S, 2x, ISO 1100, ƒ/5.6, 1/100

I am using my Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM S with a 2X converter to shoot these from the very back of the auditorium.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/420

I even have the opportunity to work with professional companies like Georgia Ensemble Theater, which is conveniently near my home in Roswell, GA.

Access & Interest

What often will make up your portfolio is things you shoot because you have access and a genuine interest. I not only wanted good photos of my daughter in these performances I knew I would be judged by parents and the theater companies about my work. 

They knew I was a professional photographer and I had to deliver. Well for the most part everywhere I am shooting I am getting consistently the best images of the productions that they have ever seen. How do I know? They are telling me. 

I have been doing headshots for actors for many years, but now taking more interest beyond just the headshots and the productions. I am now very interested in helping with the marketing of these plays.

I helped by shooting the promotion photo and created the banner for Into The Woods musical at Roswell High School.

I knew we were onto something when we were shooting the photos. We could not tell anyone what we were doing before February 22 this year, because of contract. We could post the photo. 

I teased folks with the photo and asked them what musical they think they are doing?

Pretty much everyone guessed it. That is when you know people driving by and see a banner or see the posters in stores around town will know instantly what they were doing.

With Atlanta growing in theater and TV productions I guess this might just be a good category to toss my hat into.

Your photography gets better when you synthesize

Teaching in Lisbon, Portugal. [photo by Jeff Raymond]

Synthesizing is the combining of two things for something completely new. I have discovered through the years some things that by combining things in teaching is making my photography better.

Storyline

I have discovered that as I came to understand Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey as a framework for telling stories, I could not only analyze a project and make it better I am also able to apply this storyline to my own life and make changes.

Studying the concept of the storyline helped me to then do a better job throughout the storytelling process. I was able to do a better job for pre-planning and in the midst of the shooting of the story adjust more quickly and improve the storytelling due to understanding of the power of the myth of The Hero's Journey.

Steve Johnson did a great job a few years ago talking about how synthesis takes place in ideas.


Teaching

I really have enjoyed teaching a lot more than I thought I ever would. I was terrified at first, but over time learned to thrive.

Teaching students in the Storytelling workshop in Lisbon, Portugal. [photo by Jeff Raymond]

I have shared in many of my past blog posts about how teaching is the highest form of the learning process.

Combining photography, video, audio and writing I have been able to tell stories more effectively than when I was just doing photography.

When I started to teach I was perfecting my storytelling skills. I was having to connect the subject with the audience. Often that audience is just one person. I would have to understand enough about the audience to know how to choose the right metaphors to engage them and to teach different complex concepts.

[photo by Jeff Raymond]

One thing I noticed is that when I showed the audience something the understanding increased over just talking about it. I was synthesizing [combining] the visual and the spoken word to create a more meaningful and understandable presentation.

I have had many "Aha moments" where what many might consider a failure was a calibrating moment. You try a metaphor and realize this did not work with that audience. You may use it later, but then you must come up with another way to connect with the audience the subject you are trying to teach.

When pros take photos their first pictures they make in a studio, for example, is to check the exposure, white balance and often checking a composition. They then look at the photo and analyze it. Does it need to be lighter or darker? Is it too green or magenta? Do I need to do a custom white balance to fix it?

Teaching storytelling has me teaching a variety of subjects. Here are some of the topics I am teaching for example:

• Software like Adobe Lightroom, PhotoShop, Adobe Premier or Final Cut
• Lighting— Hot shoe flashes, studio strobes, radio remotes, flash metering, custom white balance, high speed sync, slow speed sync
• Camera — ƒ-stops, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, EV, White Balance, composition, lens choices
• Subjects — Sports, Fashion, Portraiture, Science, Features, Photo Stories, Environmental Portraits, 360º Panoramics, Landscape
• Audio — microphones, setting levels, natural sound, voice over
• Video/motion — formats, audio, story boarding, scripts

There are more topics, but you can see when I start to teach multimedia storytelling I am synthesizing all of this into the class. You cannot teach a subject effectively if you do not know it inside and out. The reason is once the student starts to ask questions on thing you haven't thought about you must be able process the question and pull upon all this information to help formulate a response.

When you are able to answer the students questions and help everyone learn you get invited to teach more and more. You then get exposed to more and more questions which often may have you saying let me get back to you on that question. I then might find myself with a camera and working on a solution to the student's question.

You see when you teach you will synthesize the material and through the process of combining the content you create new content. You will start to CREATE new IDEAS. These new creations are what will make your portfolio stronger and help you get more work.

Since I don't always have a class to teach I use the blog as a way to help me continue to synthesize content and improve my skills. This is how you build a better portfolio—combining ideas.

How are you getting better?

Advice to photography students

Downtown Lisbon, Portugal [Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 25600, ƒ/2.8, 1/160]

To get work you need a portfolio not a degree. Yes you could have saved yourself a lot of money and not gotten a degree from a great school. Based on some of the work I continue to see by students graduating from photo schools all over the world many have just wasted a lot of money.

How do you start if you are not in a photo school? Well that is the catch. You see you need someone to help introduce you to the tools you need to master and to teach you some of the standards. Most every school does teach you how to operate your camera to get good exposures and they teach you how to use the latest software as well. Most schools do a great job of exposing you to the work of the masters in the profession.

'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'

I think this is what a good education will do for those who want to learn how to be a photographer. They show you what you need to do. They give you assignments that teach you how to create those elements that will help you make a portfolio.

Passion not Assignments

Your portfolio needs to communicate to those that you wish will hire you that your work will grab their attention. No matter the subject you really need to SURPRISE them with your photos.

First 100 attendees at the Chicago Chick-fil-A grand opening playing Face the Cookie where they use the muscles in their faces to move the cookie to their mouth. [Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 9000, ƒ/10, 1/100]

Too many students are just shooting the assignments that they are given and then pull the best from their assignments and put them into their portfolio. Why is this such a big mistake?

First of all the assignment work given to you is seldom something that speaks to your passions. You then work hard at finding out the standards for the grading and then shoot to get a good grade. For a very few people this is enough to create a great portfolio image. However for the vast majority of the students they are just going through the motions to complete the assignment. Often which they waited till the last moment to shoot.

If you were not doing photography what would be the one thing you would be wanting to do? Maybe you would like to be going to soccer games and watching them. Maybe you are a foodie. You like going to farmers markets and finding the local food and going to restaurants that buy local as well. Maybe you would be spending your time working with a nonprofit and building wells around the world.

Follow your passion and build your portfolio around it.

[Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 12800, ƒ/8, 1/160

If your passion is music then do more than just go to concerts. Pick up an instrument and master it. Learn music theory so you understand music at a much deeper level.

[Nikon D2X, Sigma 120-300mm with 1.4 converter, ƒ/6.3, 1/2500]

If you like sports then play in a league. I used to play basketball three times a week in pickup games for more than 20 years.

Those that will hire you are experts already on their subjects. They will not respect you unless you show a similar passion for the subject as they do.

They are most likely aware of most of the best photography in their industry. To SURPRISE them will be hard to do. You have to or they will continue to use who they have shooting for them now.

Show Me!

"Show me the money," Tom Cruise, playing Jerry Maguire said in the movie in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire. The point was talk is cheap to football player who hired Jerry Maguire to be his agent. He needed a good contract.

Show me your portfolio is the same request that your potential clients are asking you to deliver to them. Your work better SURPRISE them, because they already have photographers shooting for them. You have to impress them to want to use you.

Passion NOT Assignments

The easiest thing to do is to give me your best effort for all your assignments. That kind of work seldom competes against a photographer who is passionate about their subjects.

School vs Real Word

If your photo school ran all their classes like the real world then every class would be pass/fail. Everyone would hand in their assignments and then only one person in the class passes. The best photos for that assignment as perceived by the teacher would get the passing grade. Everyone else would fail.

My friend Dr. Bob Carey, department chair for the Department of Communications at Gardner-Webb University, said he toyed with the idea of doing just that for an assignment on creating an estimate. He said he did tell the students about his idea, but wanted them to understand that is the way it will be once they graduate.

Mark Johnson, Senior Lecturer of Photojournalism at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has created identical camera kits for each of his students. This way when they are given an assignment everyone in the class is on equal footing.

Pat Davison, Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill creates workshops overseas to give real world experiences for his students.

Dennis Fahringer, who runs the photo schools for the University of Nations, brings in working professionals to teach segments and also takes his advanced photo school overseas for a month on assignments.

All of my friends who are teaching at taking those horses to the water to drink. The assignments they give are typical assignments. The problem for the student is seldom will they be as passionate about those assignments. They need to give a self assignment on something they really care about.

Take what you learned in photo school and now go and apply it to your passions. Then you will have an outstanding portfolio.

The Portfolio Presentation: Mistakes photographers make and how to avoid them

There are many ways you may get to show your work to someone. What you need to know is that you never know who is the actual person who may end up hiring you. While this person is having their work reviewed by the legendary Dave Black, two other people were watching.

I know that one of those looking on was probably more likely to be the one who could hire the person than any of the others, including Dave.

Photographers are often given the opportunity to speak to groups and many of those groups are other photographers. Here Joanna Pinneo, National Geographic Photographer, speaks to a group of photographers. In the room were a few of us who would hire Joanna to do work for some of our clients. I know I called her and had her shoot some work for Chick-fil-A.

Every year at the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in Fort Worth, TX one of the biggest highlights of the conference is the 2-minute shows. Here is a link to the rules for the two minute shows.
Here is one of my 2-minute shows that I used one year.


One of the best things about the 2-minute show is it really helps you to get your thoughts focused and presented in a timely fashion. I believe every photographer should have at least one or more 2-minute shows that are self contained. This is where you might voice over the photos to help clients know what you do and can do for them.

Today clients may not even give you 5 minutes for an in person interview. Just send me a link to your website is what you will hear a great deal. So, why not direct them to the 2-minute presentation you created just for them?

Why did we use 2-minutes as a standard?

We used the elevator pitch as the one thing most of us should be able to do at a moments notice in order to get jobs.  Here is Chris O'Leary's outline for you to understand the core essentials of the Elevator Pitch.

What is an Elevator Pitch? 
A quick definition of an Elevator Pitch is as follows...

An Elevator Pitch is an overview of a product, service, project, person, or other thing and is designed to get a conversation started.

Why do I need an Elevator Pitch? 
You need an Elevator Pitch for one reason: time. Most people are extremely busy and simply won't give you much time to get their attention. As a result, you must get your point across in an extremely rapid manner.

What is the purpose of an Elevator Pitch? 
The purpose of an Elevator Pitch is to get the attention of the person you are talking to and convince them to keep talking to you.

How long should it take to deliver an Elevator Pitch? 
In general, the less time the better. More often than not, that means 30 seconds or less (the time-span of the typical elevator ride). However, in some cases an Elevator Pitch can run as long as one or two minutes.

What are the characteristics of an effective Elevator Pitch?
An effective Elevator Pitch is nine things...

1. Concise
2. Clear
3. Compelling
4. Credible
5. Conceptual
6. Concrete
7. Customized
8. Consistent
9. Conversational

I highly recommend every photographer to go to the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference and do a 2-minute presentation. The goal is to hook people in the audience so they want to talk to you. Then the other thing is to have a folder of images [20 or so] that you can sit down with people and get your work reviewed.

Many who come are editors and are looking for hiring people for projects through the year. This is a great time to show your work, get some feedback and then make those changes to improve your presentation.

Tips for photographers who want to get hired more often

Treat every presentation you give as an opportunity to show the audience how you help clients improve their business.

Tip #1 Start on positive
Never start your presentation by apologizing. It sets a negative tone for the entire meeting, and it also makes you look like you're shirking your responsibilities. Customers like to work with agents - not victims.

The only thing worse is an apology with strings attached. I'm sorry I am running late, but I still need the full time.

Tip #2 Focus on the client
"I have 15 minutes left, and I'm only through 20 of my 58 PowerPoint slides, so I'm going to be going through this last bit a little fast." Sound familiar?

Guilting your audience into paying attention not only doesn't work; it's insulting. Don't try to force your customers through your agenda. Your presentation needs to focus on their needs - period.

Tip #3 Avoid Excuses
Talking about yourself instead of your customer's needs will only waste their time. Who cares where you were last night, how long your flight was or how late you were up? Get over yourself, quit whining and start focusing on your customer.

Tip #4 Start with the hook
Please put all your customers' issues, problems and objectives up front, and save your corporate marketing material for last. Believe me, your customer isn't even slightly interested in hearing about how great you are, unless they first hear about how you understand their problems, and how you can solve them.

Tip #5 Smile
Don't forget to smile. You need to continue to show how excited you are about what you do and the opportunity to work with them.

Tip #6 Remain visible
Be very careful to not turn your back on the audience. This is really important for you not to read your PowerPoint slides to them. People are reading your expressions and body language while you talk. Help them see you.

Tip #7 Watch your speed for talking
Talking too fast or too slow can be a turn off. Keep your speed conversational as if you are having a cup of coffee with a friend.

Tip #8 Use real examples
Do use real life examples, quotes, stories and testimonials. They're critical to making your story come alive, and persuading people to buy your products or services. Just make sure that these stories are as specific - and as relevant to your customer's situation - as possible.

After all, no matter how much you love that favorite anecdote about what happened last year at a friend’s house, unless it involves your customers' problems, challenges or your solution for them, a business presentation probably isn't the best place to tell it!

Content AND Presentation

Too many photographers think their pictures alone will be getting them jobs. They may even have the work on the level of the best in the industry, but you must also be able to package your content [photos] in a way that is digestible for the audience.

If you are ever given a time frame to stay in for your presentation, always stay in it. Arrive early and test everything so you know it is working.

Practice your presentation many times before giving it. Do not ever give a presentation that you haven't run through before. Try to find someone to listen and give you feedback to your presentation.

Presidents take a few months to work on their State of the Union Address. Comedians take a year or two to prepare for a show. Musicians work for a long time before they take their concert tours on the road.

Successful photographers prepare just as much. Those who can't find jobs are the ones who are not prepared to present their work.

Getting and keeping attention of the audience requires a Total Package

I just read this article this morning "What You Can Learn From The World’s Best Violinist (And His $32 Pay Day)" and it made me think about how often photographers really think it is all about their images.

I have to photograph a lot of meetings and even being in a room I find many people checked out. They are a captive audience, but still those running the meeting have to do even more to get their attention.

As photographers we often think our images alone will get jobs for us and as long as we continue to produce great images they will hire us over and over. Well I hate to break it to you, that just isn't the case.

This is an interview I updated recently with Greg Thompson on what corporations look for when hiring photographers. Listen and see how many things he mentions other than photos that are important and why they are important.



It is the total package that is more important than any of the individual parts.

So how do you turn people's heads and keep their attention?

Parts of the Total Package for the photographer

1. Distilled message: You need to have a strong understanding of who you are and what you are wanting from others.
1. Elevator Speech
2. Know who your audience is — Not everyone is your audience.
2. Eye catching
1. Your images need to be strong enough to engage the viewer
2. Your image needs to be good. Well groomed and in fashion can really help.
3. Presentation - Your materials from business cards, estimates, invoices, emails all need to be visually solid
3. Ideas  —  You need to have ideas of what you can do for your audience. The more specific this is to your client the better. 
4. Voice and Tone  —  No question that many people rise to the top due to the quality of their voice. Having James Earl Jones (Darth Vadar's voice) is quite commanding. You need to speak clearly and develop a tone that engages depending on what the message is about.
5. Relationship focused  —  people detect if you are using them. You need to genuinely be interested in the audience to engage them.
6. A collaborator  —  someone who is looking to help your clients reach their goals which intern helps you to reach yours.
7. Pricing — You pricing needs to be clear and understandable from the client's perspective and meets their needs and maybe even create desire
8. When and Where? — You need to target your audience to find them when they have the time to give to you.

You may think of more things to add to the list. The point is simple, you cannot make it as a professional photographer as a career with great images alone.