Photographers are hired for brains and not gear

Surprise

It is quite common for me to show up on a photo shoot and find out that the person hiring me has a lot of camera gear themselves. Most of my main customers have some great gear and we often talk shop.

The reason I mention this is too often when I meet amateurs they talk to me about what they don't have and what they have in equipment, as if when they get enough gear is when they can turn pro.

One of the groups that hire photographers pretty regularly are agencies. Most all these agencies have camera gear and shoot a great deal of the photos for their clients. When they hire a professional photographer, rarely are they ever hiring them because of their gear, they have that gear just down the hall in their small studio.

They hire the photographer for their experience. Here is the concept, now make it better while still accomplishing their intended goal for the photo.

Take this really simple photo of a mobile phone. I just shot this a few weeks ago for a website. The reason the creative director hired me for this photo shoot wasn't because they didn't have the gear to take the photo, they hired me to light the phone and create the 3-D feel and be sure the elements they needed to highlight were easy to see.

No glare on the screen and then you needed details in all the black areas of the phone, which was primarily a very dark gray to almost black phone.

I saved them a lot of time of lighting the phone and getting what they needed very quickly.

I am often hired to photograph black objects. The reason is they are some of the hardest subjects to light and reveal the shape of the object.

Often once I have done this for clients they will go out and duplicate the gear and no longer hire me again.  As long as they duplicate the setup they are fine, until they come up on something new, then I get that phone call again.

Creativity

I am often hired for science and technology shoots, because what I am asked to photograph hasn't ever been photographed before. They need me to engage the audience with something which is often quite stagnant.

The photo of the researcher holding up the micro-needles on his finger was my idea of how to communicate how small those needles were. When this first came out the photo was picked up by the media world-wide. Many talked about the ouch-less needle.

Another assignment I met the researcher during time when all his gear was just sent away. All we had was his laptop and a spare LCD. He told me his work entailed giving an audience flashlights that they would wave in the air and he had cameras that would pick up those lights and his software would translate this into music that was played live by orchestra on the stage.

I had a Mini MagLight in my camera bag and I asked him to wave it around. I converted the flashlight to candle mode and this helped tell the story in the one shot.

I had to figure out the three different exposures for the photo and combine them into one photo. the exposure of the computer screens, the flashlight and then the strobes on the subjects face and then two more strobes to add some color to the photo.

Those are just a few examples where I used my brain to make the photo. The camera gear didn't make the photo on "P" mode.

Even if you know how to use the gear and make it work this isn't what they are hiring you to do. They are hiring you for your ideas, not just to execute their idea. They can do that without you.

What do you bring to the table other than your camera gear and lighting gear?

Advice to the Humanitarian Photographer on Getting Published

A young boy in the village of Konadouga, Burkina Faso where the native language is Senara and the formal language taught is French. This is just a mile or so from the Ivory Coast boarder where rebels had been fighting.

Photographers for the most part are some of the most compassionate people you will ever meet.  They want to help organizations they encounter, but often find most of their photos never seeing the light of day.

Pretty often I am getting emails of photographers returning from overseas and having a collection of photos they want to share. They want to get the stories in front of people.

A typical email will look something like this:

"I would like to ask for your advice. I want to send the photos to different magazines and newspaper with the hope that the photos will help generate interest and donations for the organizations I covered. How should I approach these media outlets?"

Here is my advice for anyone wanting to do humanitarian photography and want to help those organizations by getting their work published.

Remember throughout that your purpose is to connect the audience to the subjects. If at anytime you forget one of these you will be unsuccessful. Why should your audience care? Why do the subjects need their story told?

Letzia stays at home and her husband works in the fields in Akil in the Yucatan region of Mexico.

Before your go

The time to connect with media outlets is before you go and not after for many reasons. The major reason is that had the media outlet knew you would be doing the coverage they could have given you valuable direction that would increase the chances of being published.

If you can write or do video as well then be sure and offer these skills as part of the package. I know many humanitarian photographers who offer some of these skills for their clients:

• Twitter feeds while on the field
• Blog posts when they return for the client 
• Multimedia package
• Audio recordings for the web

Very often an editor might direct you to cover a certain angle that would appeal to their audience. If you are really interested in getting interest for the organization then you do what you can to get the organization in front of the audience.

The story will change before you even go if you take time to reach out to as many media outlets as you can. It is quite possible that they may have a story for you to cover while you are there as well.

These boys are enjoying the stream just outside the village of Konadouga, Burkina Faso.  They were a little surprised at seeing the white man with the camera taking their photo.  In just ten miles we went through 30 different languages spoken by the tribes in the area. 

While you are there

It is rare that I have ever been on an overseas trip that the story we thought we were going to do doesn't change after we arrive. In some form or another they will tell you that you just missed it or that doesn't happen while you are here.  This doesn't matter if you did all your research to perfection. Often people heard something different than what you said, or they just didn't want to risk telling you the truth and you not come to help them.

Be sure you get names of people in the photos, the places you were when you made the photos and a good description of what is going on in the photo that isn't always understood when looking at the photo.

Types of photos

Everyone smiling and looking at the camera are snapshots and memory joggers. For the most part this is not what the media is looking for at all.

I have written on the three types of photos: 1) "Literal" Snapshots; 2) "Artistic" Snapshot and 3) "Expressive" images that are taken for others and not yourself. for more about those three styles you can read this earlier blog post:

Visual Storytelling: Three Stages of Composition

Feb 27, 2011

We all start with the literal snapshot and often revisit this stage of photography. These literal snapshots are primarily taken for the photographer. These photos are "memory joggers." They help you remember the moment.

http://blog.stanleyleary.com/

Here are some major mistakes photographers make while doing what they call is "humanitarian photography."

I wrote about them before but I think this warrants repeating here again.

Street scenes in Tikul in the Yucatan, Mexico

Some clues that you have crossed the line into narcissism:

• When asked why you are doing the photography your motivation is about you having a good experience.
• When your conversation is all about the gear you are using. This is an indication of self-indulgence.
• When you are evaluating a trip if you have that country stamped in your passport.
• When you cannot tell the stories of the people you just met on the trip.
• When you cannot explain how your photos are helping further the work of the people in the photos.
• When you are taking people’s pictures and rarely have ever asked permission or care to ask permission.
• When you ask people to look at your pictures.
• When you evaluate the photos based on how artistic they are for your taste.
• When you are pushing all the time to go with teams on trips.
• Have a mentor and ask how well you are doing.

You really need to pause and be sure the reasons you are doing the coverage are for the people that need the help. The more you serve them it actually is more rewarding than serving yourself.

Mexican side of the border in Agua Prieta, Mexico which borders Douglas, AZ.

How to keep a healthy ego

• You know your purpose for photographing on a trip.
• You know the subject really well.
• You have taken the time to get to know the people you are photographing.
• You are asking permission to photograph people.
• You always have in mind your audience when making photos.
• You have people calling you to be involved in their project.
• You are concerned that the photos you made are making a difference.
• You are concerned about exploiting people and their situation for your personal gain.
• Have a mentor and asking what you can do to improve.
• You know when someone else would do a better job and you step aside for now.
• You know you need to improve and feel the burden to improve for your client's sake.

Night time along the Mexican and US border in the town of Douglas, AZ.

When you get back

Contact those who were interested in running your work. Maybe a quick photo as a teaser and then short message that you just returned. You will be getting your work to them by a certain time.

Some editors will have given you a deadline before you go. Always try and not only meet the deadline, but exceed it and get the material to them before they asked for it.

Be sure to explain if the coverage had to change and why. If they have traveled at all they will understand. What they may not understand is if it is not at all along the lines of what you talked to them about and in this case it might not run in their media.

You can always go back to all those editors who turned you down, which I highly recommend, and let them see what you have. They may change their mind.

Should a photographer list their prices on their website?

Yes and No: It Depends

This depends on what type of customer you have. If you are shooting for the public portraits and weddings then yes you should have your prices listed.

Another way to think of it is are you doing B2B or B2C? B2B is contemporary shorthand for a longtime sales practice called business-to-business while B2C represents business-to-consumer. In essence, B2B deals primarily with other businesses, not the general public, and B2C provides products and services directly to the end user.

Having your price listed helps you and the customer.

How it helps you is as a filter. Once the customer has gone to your website and seen your prices then when they are calling they are already aware of your prices.

When I am looking for a gas station I use the GasBuddy App to help me locate a station and also see the prices before I drive to them.

If you choose to tell people to call you, then you better be ready for phone calls during dinner time, bedtime or anytime.

For the most part many of your portrait and wedding customers want to know if you are in their budget before starting their conversation with you and frankly most photographers want qualified leads.

Two ways to list pricing

First you can put your full menu of prices up. What you charge for a sitting fee and your print prices is perfectly fine to post.

If the fear of the photographer down the street seeing your prices and undercutting you is your greatest fear, then you have a lot more problems. You see they can always get a friend to call and get your prices.

There will always be someone cheaper than you. This is very true once you have been in the industry a few years. You have to raise your rates sooner or later if you have kids at home to feed.

Second, you can also indicate that your prices start at $300 with an average order of $500. Be careful that you are truthful. Don't try and get them in the door with a low price that is so insignificant that they must go up in price to get what most people need.

Be sure not to use a link to a pricing page and then just give them prices starting quote.

You can also list your basic packages and what they include and then state to call for higher end packages. Remember how you word this can make those upper packages more desirable.

21 Jewel High End Railroad Pocket Watch Hamilton 940--Not your $19.95 Timex Watch

Sidebar about Prices

There are customers who have the ability to go very high end. One of the reasons they like to buy things like Rolex or a Lamborghini is they don't want what they get to be what all their friends have. They want the exclusive package that is not easily attainable.

There are photographers who list their prices, which are out of sight to go after this market. If you can pull off the high end service necessary to go with this type of photography, you might just be able to lure people with your prices.

Commercial, Advertising and even Editorial photographers

Due to the nature of the clients and how they will use the photos is not boiler plate you are best not having any prices published.  This is not because of your competition finding out, but the number of variables to figure a price makes it almost impossible to have standard prices.

A portraits could be used for mug shot on a website to accompany the bio of a sales person. The very same type of photo could be their brand and using it for a national ad campaign. You might charge $1,000 for one use and $5,000 for another use and then even $30,000 for another kind of usage.

Yamaha YTR-735 trumpet

How do I find out the going rates?

You might be new to charging for your photography. I get calls all the time from beginners wanting to know what they could charge.

First of all there is no going rate. If photographers got together and decided what they would all charge for headshot in a market then that would be illegal.

For comparison purposes, just think if you were just starting out as a construction worker. It might take you a day to do a job that after about five years of experience you could do in a couple hours. Also the quality might even be better with all that experience.  If you always charged a day laborer rate then the person hiring you will most likely get ten times more work from you in five years than they would when you first started for the same day rate.

Remember there are a lot of things affecting what you can charge. Your experience, quality of your work and expenses can all impact that price.

My advice to those starting out is to keep your overhead as low as possible. Don't buy the most expensive gear, most expensive car, most expensive house and eat out all the time when you are beginning. Do just the opposite.  Cut out every luxury you can so you can charge a rate less than those with years of experience.  Be sure your rates will cover all your living expenses and ability to run your business.

The first few years you will have suck it up until you have enough clout to charge higher rates and actually get them.

Jay Maisel, Bernie Boston, Hugh Morton & George Tames at the Southern Short Course in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 10, 1986. 

Warning About Other Pros

Too many seasoned pros try and tell those beginning to charge rates similar to their rates. Remember until you are established it will be difficult to get good rates. With this said, you also need to be sure you are charging enough to make a living. This is why I recommend keeping your overhead as low as possible when starting out.

Tips for contacting professional photographers for help

Ways to connect

You can reach out to photographers in so many ways. First I think it is important for you to know some basic etiquette for connecting.

Introduce yourself

Tell the person who you are and why you want to connect. "hi my name is—after reading about you I noticed we have a few things in common" or "hi my name is—I have been following your blog and really liked your post on ..."

Give the person a reason they should want to connect with you!

Tell them about you. When you reach out to someone and tell them very little and they go and click on your profile it needs to help them.

If on Linked-in I highly recommend a professional headshot. This goes a really long way to show you are a real person, rather than a blank avatar. The blank avatar makes you look like a creeper.

You really need your profile to be up to date and helpful to those you are reaching out to for connecting. Make it easy for people to see why they should respond positively to you.

The point of the about me section is to show yourself as an authentic person and a great way for people to want to connect with you. We are not interested in a sales pitch. Things about your hobbies and interests go a long way to help people want to connect. If you were an Eagle Scout this helps others who have this background connect on a different level with you.

The about section is all about you and a great way to introduce yourself to others. Fill this out as best you can or otherwise many of those requests for connecting will be ignored.

@ email

If you choose to email a photographer, be sure you follow a similar protocol.  Keep the letter short and to the point. 

I think three simple questions you need to answer in the email in some way:

• Who are you?
• Why are you contacting me?
• What do you want me to do?

Connect the dots for the recipient. Don't make them have to figure out what you are saying.

Be willing to pay

There are many places to go for someone to critique your work. There are camera clubs, workshops and seminars where photographers will give you some of their time.

The expectation of a private consultation where you are getting career advice is something you should be willing to pay. Free advice is often worth what you pay for it.

It would be great to spend half hour each week having coffee with Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin or Jeffery Gitomer for free. You know this might actually happen for a couple people and most likely they are already good friends with them.

Good mentors are hard to come by and getting good advice that can save you time and money in your career is worth every penny.

Unless the person you are contacting is on staff with a regular salary, they make their living through photography—shooting or consulting.

Good mentors have connections which this alone can change your life forever. A few years ago I had a young college student who was about to graduate ask me for an internship. We talked for a while and the next day she sent me a thank you note for taking the time to talk with her. She also thanked me for some very specific points from our conversation.

Needless to say I was impressed with her character. I was not in a position at the time to pay her and I let her know I would give her time to ask any questions each week. She went with me just about everywhere for about two months.

My client Chick-fil-A was as impressed with her as I was and offered her a job as a writer. 

She paid me for my time by helping me and due to her investment landed an incredible job.

Stanley and Knolan Benfield in Kona Hawaii for workshop on lighting.

Workshops

Early in my career I went to numerous workshops with NPPA and ASMP. There were two major workshops where I shelled out about $5,000 per week to study with two of the icons in the industry.

I went to the Maine Workshop and studied with Steve McCurry from National Geographic. The total cost of flying, hotel, food and the workshop was just under $5,000.  I learned a great deal from that week and not just from Steve, but from others in the class with me.

A few years later I took another class at the Maine Workshop with Jeff Smith studying location lighting. Again I learned so much from Jeff and the classmates.

I offer personal workshops for people who are interested in this profession. I charge $125 an hour with a two hour minimum for whatever they want to learn from me. I have taught people one-on-one how to organize their images. I have done personal workshops on using hot shoe flash off camera for portraits. I have taught people business practices and/or marketing.

If you know of another professional photographer that you would like to learn from, then approach them and if they don't offer workshops propose to them they do for you.    

If you are not willing to make an investment in your career, why should anyone else want to either?

I am switching to USB Flash Drives and I advise you to do the same

Apple kills Flash for websites

I have a Love/Hate relationship with Apple. When the rolled out their iTouch, iPhones and iPads they refused to support Flash. In affect killing it as a platform.

If your website used Flash, you either updated your website to html5 or just started over. You couldn't afford to have people come to your website looking to hire you and not be able to see your work or maybe your contact information.

Apple may kill Optical Drives

Apple may have similarly sealed the fate of the optical disc drives back in October 2010 by leaving out the optical drive in their Macbook computers. Soon, it will go the way of the floppy disk.

Today most people are connecting to the internet for software rather than buying CDs. Adobe even went so far as to move most all of their software to the cloud. There is just less need for optical drives than a few years ago.

It's a common misconception that burned digital media's shelf-life is infinite. Unlike pressed original DVDs and CDs which are near invulnerable to degradation, burned media have a relatively short life span, typically between 2 to 5 years depending on the quality of the media and the handling of the discs. Had this not been the case there might not have been the move away from them.

USB Flash Drive as an alternative

What will you use going forward instead of the optical drive? The USB Flash Drive or deliver your images through the cloud with online galleries or something like DropBox.

I ordered my USB Flash Drives from http://www.usbmemorydirect.com/ and had my logo put on them.  The more you order the cost per unit does go down quite a bit.

Over a year ago I was getting ready to do this and asked USB Memory Direct for a quote and they sent this to me:

Below are additional pricing options for our classic styles.

Quote 7/24/2012

I wrote back to them late July this year and asked for a quote for quantity of 50 for the 4G drive.  The price went up a little.  

Quote 7/29/2013

I ordered my on July 31st and they arrived at my house on August 5th. They didn't promise them before August 12th, so I was pleasantly surprised on the quick turn around.

While I will continue with some clients to deliver on DVDs, I am seeing these to slowly being phased out.

You don't have to order in bulk

While buying a couple hundred will save you on unit cost USB Memory Direct will print on quantities as low as 20.  My recommendation is to buy the size you most likely will use the most in a larger quantity and then a few in larger capacities in smaller quantities.  Hey buy 100 2G, then maybe 50 4G and then 20 8G size in an order.

My recommendation is to start small and test the supplier for turn around time, quality and durability.

USB Flash Drive Benefits

There are a few benefits to using the USB over the DVD or CD. Speed to put images on the USB is so much faster than burning a disc.

Another benefit is I believe the USB is a much more stable platform than the DVD. I have gone back to earlier DVDs that worked a few years ago and today do not. I have never had this problem with a USB, but with all digital if it isn't in three places it doesn't exist.

Once the images have been taken off by the client and put on their computer or network then the USB can be used for other things. They may use this over and over and every time they do they are reminded of me. It gives me a similar impact of a postcard I send to them that they put up in the office.

USB Flash Drive as deliverable and not archival

I am sure the images are about as safe on a USB Flash Drive as an SSD drive for example. But the best solutions for archival is a system that has the images in three locations.

My use of the USB Flash Drive is to be able to give clients their images using this rather than DVD due to optical drives being less standard on computers.  

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.