by Gavin Seim — With winter coming on, as well as an economic downturn (at least in the USA), you may find yourself looking at the numbers in horror. OK maybe I’m going too far, but I have seen people chatting about grabbing new work their schedule. I am blessed, and while I’m booking weddings well into next year, I still need more on my calender.
I’m going to keep this short and list six tips to help bring in bookings. I also found a nice article by Sean Clayton about this very thing.
I’m not the chief authority however. What works can vary greatly by your situation. What are you doing in your market to drum up photography business? Share your tips. There’s rarely a magic bullet, but we know business is hard work. Share your ideas in the comments.
- 1. Send a newsletter:
I collect email addresses of clients, and people who sign up at weddings and events. Then I send an occasional newsletter. I’m about to send my fall edition to over 800 emails as a way to get past and future clients thinking about my work. If you want to see mine, you can sign up on my photo site. Sending a newsletter is a great way to put your business in front of many eye’s for a low cost. It does take time to build your list, but it’s worth it. Just don’t email too often, and don’t buy lists of emails or you’ll be marked a spammer for sure.
- 2. Send Images to Venue’s:
Sending out prints with your logo or name on them is a great way to make venues remember you. It’s also a great way to use that extra time during the slow season. This year I plan to send a simple venue packet with a letter, some free images taken at their venue, and plenty of business cards.They’ll appreciate the free images, and you may well get some free advertising, and that’s the best kind.
Continue reading ‘Freaking Out In Slow Season? Build Your Photography Business:’
It was bound to happen sooner or later, but sooner finally arrived A bit later that some had expected, but it came. The Canon 5D MK II is official, and looking really good. It’s been announced for Nov release. Here’s my favorite highlights.
Update 11/08: The MK II is said to be shipping mid to lat November. The date is not solid as of this update.
- 21.1-megapixel full frame sensor:
- DIGIC 4 processor, significantly lower noise, ISO range of 50 to 25,600:
- 1920 x 1080 HD video capture with mic input:
- 3.9 frames per second (14 frame Raw burst):
- 15-point Autofocus:
- 3.0-inch Clear View LCD:
- Live View Shooting:
- Auto Lighting Optimizer (helps even out harsh lighting):
- 10.0 & 5.2 megapixel sRaw mode:
- Integrated Cleaning System:
- Update: IR Wireless Trigger
- Update: Auto ISO settings
- Update: Image copyright metadata support
UPDATE2: With MK II Samples
Delivery is scheduled by the end of Nov. Body only price will be around $2700 USD. Kit version with EF 24-105mm f/4L IS lens will be around $3500 USD
On a personal note I can say that I can’t wait to get this in my hands. Canon took too long to get it here, but from the look of it they’ll be back in the contenders ring with Nikon. Since this is their #2 pro body. I’m curious what the new 1D will bring us. It can’t be far behind, since the specs on this would turn the current 1D into an electronic oldie. There’s a few more views of the new MK2 below. What ya think? Lets get the comments rolling.
Canon also announced:
Continue reading ‘Canon 5D Mark2 is here: Canon bites back (UPDATED)’
<<Click To Listen - Pro Photo Show #50
Like the show? Rate us in itunes, or Vote on Podcast Alley
Host, Gavin Seim; Seim Photography - Seim Effects
Show notes…
Pro Photo Show #50 Forum Discussion
Join the forum discussion of recently announced cameras, DRM, canvas wraps, long exposures, surpassing customer expectations and more. Also see the Should Photographers Be required to be licensed thread.
-Canon 50D is official plus a new 18-200 EFS 3.5-5.6
-Seim Effects FB fan page. Get free goodies if your an SE fan.
-New Canon Bodies soon! Hopefully the 5D MK2. The Canon Moon ad is a great way to get people talking.
-Nikon D90 is confirmed and has HD video.
-Sony A900 full frame DSLR coming soon. Will they contend with the big boys?
-Adobe CS4 to be announced on Sept 23rd. Do we really want it yet, or is this an Adobe cash cow.
-Blow Up 2.0 is out from Alien Skin is out.
Gallery Wraps. Who do you use? Here’s a guy reviewing then on Flickr.
- Pixel2Canvas
- Collages
- Canvas On Demand
Talking about impressing clients, and surpassing expectations.
The Purple Cow 
is a great book to help you get ideas on being remarkable in your business.
Photographers Edge photo cards.
Rice studio supply for studio materials.
Pick of the week…
Cable Releases
Podcast subscription feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/prophotoshow
(UPDATE) There’s also a Canon teaser that shows an image of an unknown camera. Apparently this teaser is active. The moon gets a little fuller each day, and when it’s gets to a certain point you can see the Camera. Kinda silly, also a good way to get attention (thanks Mad’s)
Apperentally Canon is feeling the heat of Nikon’s fire these days, and they want people to know their working on it and that good stuff is just around the corner. Either that or their just trying to be Apple!
Their promoting “something soon” in the on some of their sites. One banner reads “The EOS story continues… See the future of photography… Stay tuned. Not much, but at least we know something on the way.
If the rumor mill is right, we should see new gear announced around the 9th of this month (Sept) Time will tell however. I’m inclined to think that’s right. Thanks to on friends at Camera Dojo.
UPDATE: Here’s a pretty good post on Northlight Images with a roundup of various rumors.
Gavin Seim
We already get a significant amount of traffic from photographers across the globe. It’s easy to be so used to your own language that you just think it’s normal for everyone. English is automatic for me, but not for everyone.
I was reviewing stats last night and decided it was time to look into more choices for our non US photo friends. In the last 30 days PPS has had visitors from 126 countries.
I was up till 2:30 last night and now if you look to the left you’ll see the language panel. Just click your a flag, and the page will be translated into one of 21 languages. Thanks to the Global Translator The system sends the text to a translation engine, and then the site caches it. For that reason you may have to return in a few minutes to get the translation. Here’s and example of our popular Lightroom Preset Directory translated to Spanish.
Are the translations perfect? I doubt it, but it brings us one step closer to each other across the globe and I’m pretty excited about it. I’m also working on implementing this feature on our sister site Seim Effects. There’s still more to be done of course. The podcast is English only of course, but we making progress, and who knows what future technolighy will bring us.
Gavin Seim
<<Click To Listen - PPS #46 with Kevin Kubota.
Like the show? Rate us in itunes, or Vote on Podcast Alley
Todays Panel…
Kevin Kubota ~ Kubota Image Tools, Kubota Photo, Kubota Blog
Gavin Seim ~ Seim Photography - Seim Effects & LR Presets
Todays Show…
A big thanks to Kevin for coming on the show. We start out talking about Kevin’s photo tools and how he got started, and then move in techniques, and photography tips. Kevin gives us some thoughts for lighting, marketing, and branding and plenty of other good nuggets inlucding using your personality to interact with your customers.
Comment here, or join the PPS #47 Forum Discussion. You can find out more about Kevin’s workshops by going to his website (above)
A few links to things mention on the show.
Podcast subscription feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/prophotoshow
