I don’t know quite what inspired me for this podcast, but I thought it would be interesting (and so it proved to be) to invite someone onto the podcast that really does understand relationships and the language that people use. Every day in a portrait photography business, we’re facing families and couples, watching their behaviour, listening to their conversations and creating beautiful images of them and their loved ones. I wondered if there were techniques we could use to improve …
You’ll be happy to hear that this episode is recorded in the peace and quiet of our studio – actually, I had intended to record it in the studio garden as the cool and the smells of late summer and early autumn are so seductive. Sadly, about a million drills, chainsaws, strimmers, lawnmowers and jackhammers ruined that for me. It wasn’t nearly as peaceful as I’d hoped! Goodness knows what our neighbours are building! Still, we’re lucky to have a …
Today I am musing (and, additionally, interrupting myself – not once but twice!) on being beholden to my diary. It is, of course, completely to be expected when you run a successful portrait photography business but that doesn’t make it easy. Instead, you have to find strategies for keeping motivated, keeping the excitement and keeping up the creativity. PS. there is a slight irony in today’s recording that, having had a massively scheduled day, I felt the need to add …
Along with thousands of other students, Jake, our son, has just had his ‘A’ level results. An interesting time to put it mildly. However, it did get me thinking about how incredibly hard he worked for his mock exams (it’s lucky he worked as hard as he did as it has meant he HAS been given a place on the university course that he desperately wanted!) and the parallels with our industry. It is always easy to look around and …
Life as a photographer can feel like you’re working on your own – all those hours with the camera, lights, with Photoshop and the complexities of your own business. But, of course, the truth is a little more nuanced than that: we may be here in our studio on our own, but we have a wealth of talent around us – our suppliers. Every day, I sell their products, their talents, their ideas to our clients, whether it’s a frame, …
In this episode, I get to chat with the guy behind the software behind the business – Light Blue Software. We’ve used this software for over a decade and it is the one application that each of us here is guaranteed to log into every single day. Tom asked if I would help spread the word about an offer that Light Blue extending to all of their customers (new and old) to help through these difficult times and so I …
So, how are things with you? Still in lockdown? Well we are here – just trying to make the best of things. Anyway, good news (for me at least!): we’ve been listed as the top Portrait Photography Podcast on Feedspot (https://blog.feedspot.com/portrait_photography_podcasts/) which is lovely! I only started this podcast for fun (and because I simply love audio nearly as much as I love photography – though I freely admit I’m better with the camera than the recorder!) We’re also a …
Still here, still in lockdown, still working like crazy to make sure we’re ready for when things eventually open up again, as they must, inevitably do. Right now, things are busy: we’re re-designing our website and rebuilding a platform for our portfolio – a wonderful opportunity to go through images old and new and to decide which images we’ll use for the next year or two in all of our literature and articles. It’s great fun but hard work! This …
There’s not always an overlap between what you want to shoot and what your client will buy. As always in life and business, there’s a compromise to make. Imagine a Venn diagram, with ‘what you love to shoot’ in one circle, and ‘what sells’ in the other. I know of many full-time portrait photographers who prefer nothing more than shooting landscapes and wildlife. Unfortunately, they struggled to make a living from them, Please log in to view this page. If …
Relating to your client is a key skill in social photography – and there is no escaping it. Whatever it takes, you need to find ways of having a meaningful conversation even if you’re client is (literally) a rocket scientist! Right now I am sitting at the 2020 Societies Of Photographers Convention, typing this in the hotel bar, watching photographers laughing and joking as we begin the annual print judging. Always fun. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to record daily …