Wootness | the blog of christine walsh-newton

What I am about to say will probably tick a lot of people off. But I’m going to say it.

Go get your family portrait taken NOW.

Grab the kids and run down to Sears.

How much money is in your purse that you can spend? $72? Find someone who can give you something for $72. Do not wait until you can save up the bucks to get a fantastically huge enlargement for over the couch.

Do not go out and buy matching outfits.

Do not wait until you can ALL be together.

Grab as many people as are available and GO!

Then when you get home, drag out the camera manual and learn how to take a photo using the automatic timer.

PRACTICE. PRACTICE. PRACTICE!

And then assemble your family and take your own photo.

And then do it EVERY.SINGLE. MONTH.

And don’t decide that it’s too hard to position the camera and set the timer and you’ll just take the photo yourself.

I WANT YOU TO BE IN EVERY SINGLE MONTHLY FAMILY PHOTO.

Why am I on a tear about this?

Because last week it was my job to collect photos of my mother-in-law for the funeral home to arrange into a slideshow tribute to be shown during calling hours. I gathered together photos from family members and my own files and we sat down to cull them down to 40 – the maximum number allowed by the funeral home.

I was not in the slideshow.

There were NO candid photographs of me with my mother-in-law. Because I was always behind the camera.

And I am a hypocrite. I constantly lecture my classes about this and one of the assignments in Photography 101 is to learn to use the self-timer and take a self portrait. I talk about the time my husband and I went overseas for 9 days and the resulting photographs look like “Dwight’s Trip to Ireland.”

At a time when I really didn’t need any more stress, I learned a huge lesson. There are a handful of group photographs that we are in together, but there are none of just us.

Don’t learn this lesson the hard way. Pay for a family portrait as often as you can and learn to use your self-timer. Learn to let go of the camera and hand it to someone else to take a photograph of you and someone special.

Set it on”auto” if you need to, I won’t tell.

I’ve been in the middle of a LOT of conversations with other photographers that boil down to someone exclaiming “Our clients just don’t value photography!” and then there are lots of nods of agreements from others listening and perhaps several others launch into their own woe-is-me-I-lost-another-client-to-a-newbie story.

For a long time, I agreed with this. And I made an effort to educate my clients, but my client base is small compared to all the clients that exist in the world and my efforts at education were barely noticed in the grand scheme of things.

So then I began thinking… and decided that part of the issue was with the newer photographers who didn’t value their own photography. Perhaps it wasn’t at a level yet where it could be valued as highly as a pro photographer, or perhaps they just hadn’t crunched the numbers well enough to realize they weren’t making minimum wage.

And that’s why I started Wootness.

BUT, back to the subject….

This morning I was thinking to myself about this whole “value of photography” conundrum. And suddenly it hit me.

Our clients DO value photography!

If folks didn’t value photography, would the newbie down the street be booked solid with appointments for their $50 everything on CD special?

Nooooooo.

It’s not that folks don’t value photography, it’s that:

• they don’t realize that at times it needs to be an investment
• they can’t tell the difference between amateur and professional photography
• if they can tell the difference, it doesn’t matter enough
• they just plain can’t afford professional photography prices

So, the next time you’re tempted to exclaim that people just don’t value photography, stop and think a bit.

• If no one valued photography, there would not be so many photos uploaded to Facebook.
• The new photographers would not be so busy.
• There would not be chain photography studios popping up all over the place.
• Digital camera sales would not be so high that every department store has a large area devoted to their product lines.
• People would not be standing knee-deep in the WalMart photo kiosk area at 7:30 AM. (True story – last week I swung by WalMart very early in the AM and the ONLY department with more than one or two customers in it was the photo department, and there were about 20 people in line).

If you have a client that goes elsewhere for photos, stop and think. How much did they spend the last time they came to you? $500? $750 $1000+? Thank your lucky stars that they came to you, and accept the fact that you photographed their important moments and that perhaps the budget was tweaked so that you could be afforded. Ignore the fact that the not-so-important moments were captured at a chain studio or with someone more affordable. And welcome them back with open arms when they come back again next year for their family portrait.

We cannot expect to corner the market. Sure, it would be nice and sure, there’s photographers out there that speak across the USA and tell you that your client base should be small and clients should return for multiple sessions per year. Uh-huh. Then why are they out speaking about it and not doing it? And did you notice that they were based in a major metro area where the expendable income was double what it is in your community? We are not all in that same situation and those types of business goals are not only lofty, they are damn near impossible. Let’s get realistic.

So, here’s the plan:

• Ignore when your clients go elsewhere for photography. As long as they were happy with your work, you don’t have an issue. Stay in touch with them and think about offering a “loyalty” bonus of some sort for returning clients.
• Make sure that you are offering what the clients want. If they are going elsewhere for affordability purposes, that’s one thing, but if they are going elsewhere because you don’t offer what they want, then take a look at our offerings and see if your product line needs tweaked. Again – stay in touch with your clients so you are aware of this.
• Work on a promotion that will help introduce folks to your studio. Maybe a mini-session that’s reduced time, poses and offerings, but only slightly more expensive than the more affordable folks will be enough to convince folks to give you a try. Don’t make your reputation into the one of awesomely good photographer but hellaciously expensive, so don’t even bother checking the prices. Don’t purposely erect barriers between yourself and potential clients.

I’ll be back with more thoughts along this line, but for now, this is plenty to get you thinking.

The other day I wrote a general article about some of the photography workshops out there that I wasn’t too enamored with. Now, I’m going to talk about a workshop that was HANDS DOWN, THE BEST WORKSHOP EVER.

As per my usual review policy, these guys have no clue I’m reviewing them, I have received nothing from them (other than some stellar education) and they haven’t promised to buy me a beer.

TrCoast is a team of photographers from Texas. At the time I took their workshop (March 2010), the team consisted of Mike Fulton and Cody Clinton, with assistance from Pete Quinn.

The workshop was about OCF (Off-Camera Flash) and was a 5 day event through the Triangle Institute of Photography in Pittsburgh, PA. If you are lucky enough to catch these guys at a PPA affiliate school, DO IT! If not, they travel and offer 2 and 3 day workshops on the subject. See information here: TRICOAST WORKSHOPS.

My initial introduction to the topic of OCF was through TroCoast’s manual on the subject: TTL FLASH GUIDE. Yes, it’s $99. Spend it. You won’t be sorry.

Since the workshop, they have also come out with a 2 Set DVD. I do not own this, YET. It’s on the list. I have no clue what’s on it – but I”m going to go out on a very short limb and say you’ll probably want to get it too, and right now it’s on sale for $99 (use the code INTRO during checkout), too: WIRELESS FLASH TTL 2 DISK DVD SET

These guys, their book and their workshop saved my butt. I was just getting ready to drop outdoor shooting from my offerings, but now I can confidently shoot outdoors and know how to do my settings and what to do with my equipment so as to get the best possible shot.

Below is a review I wrote of the workshop shortly after its conclusion:

I had the utmost pleasure of being a student of TriCoast’s for a class they conducted at the Triangle Institute of Professional Photography March 21-26, 2010.

The title of the class was “Cutting Edge Lighting Techniques.”

I emailed Mike Fulton prior to the class, since the class was OCF techniques and I had very little experience with this and wanted to make sure I would not be at a disadvantage. He replied promptly and assured me that with a 5 day class schedule (as opposed to the 3 days they normally cover these concepts) that we would have plenty of time to cover the basics to make sure that everyone understood them.

Part of the description of the workshop used the phrase “no secrets!” That is 100% correct – there were NO SECRETS. Everything that was asked, was answered and there were no pitches to “buy my product” to learn it all. In fact – although TriCoast has their own line of products that they were selling at the instructors selling night / swap night, they did not mention this product line in class. The only indicator that they had a product line was on a banner in a corner of the classroom.

The class was organized into 1 evening orientation, 4 full days of classroom and shooting and a final 1/2 day of classroom.

The first day was spent covering all of the basic concepts of off-camera flash using TTL and E-TTL. We were encouraged to get out our gear and walk through the settings as they explained them, so that we were comfortable with that part of the process. Originally, the first and second day was to be 1/2 day class room and 1/2 day shooting, but the 1st day weather prohibited that plan and the first day was all classroom and days 2, 3 and 4 were spent shooting.

On Day 2 we reviewed the concepts presented on Day 1 to clear up any additional questions and then we headed out to a local church with our models.

There were 19 photographers in class, 5 Nikon/Fuji shooters and 14 Canon shooters. I was in the Nikon group, which worked out very well as we were able to combine our gear (flashes) so that those of us with only 1 flash were able to try out methods that used 2 and 3 flashes. I assume the Canon groups did the same.

On Day 3, we each brought 5 images from Day 2’s shooting to review in the morning. We then covered how to use the Radio Popper system with our flashes. The previous day we had only used line-of-sight IR methods. TriCoast then passed out Radio Poppers to everyone in class to use for the day. I was astounded, knowing the cost of these units. How gracious and trusting of TriCoast. And how awesome that we were given the opportunity to “try before you buy” although there was no push to purchase these. Line-of-sight will work in a lot of cases, but the Radio Poppers help immensely.

After class time, we headed out to shoot outdoors, again with a bunch of models. The models rotated through the groups so that we had a variety of subjects to practice on. Occasionally we had a period of time without a model during the rotating – no big deal, if we found ourselves with out a model or were waiting for the next model to show up – we just practiced on each other.

During all the times we were shooting, each group had an instructor with them to cover any issues or questions. Cody spent a lot of time with the Nikon group, since he was the instructor most versed in Nikon cameras. At times there were model-specific camera function questions that he couldn’t answer – but a quick Google check on his internet-capable phone would solve the problem.

On day 4 we again reviewed photos from day 3’s shooting and then covered how off-camera flash can be combined with studio flashes by incorporating a different type of Radio Popper. We were free at this point to practice these methods or any method presented previously in the week. OR we could come to the classroom with specific questions that weren’t covered. I spent most of this day practicing the off-camera flash techniques with my group. Again, we had several models to work with.

Day 5 (half day) : We reviewed photos from Day 4 and then spent the rest of the morning in class while Mike. Pete and Cody presented their school-photography system. I believe the subject matter depended on what we wanted to talk about, and the majority of the class was interested in this topic.

I can’t say enough positive things about the TriCoast crew. I went to the class, knowing that OCF techniques were my weakest skill (to the point that I was going to eliminate outdoor sessions from my offerings) and left the class with full confidence that I can now handle these types of shoots.

All 3 instructors were highly knowledgeable and very personable. They were down to earth and their primary focus was that we understood what we were doing to that we were able to do the techniques on our own.

5 stars across the board!

And of course, 5 Wootness! points:

I’m going to tread back into the waters of hot topics and ask a very serious question…

If you are in business, do you have insurance?

If the answer to the first part of the question is “yes,” then the answer to the second part better damn well be “yes,” too.

And don’t give me any of that namby-pamby crap about how your homeowner’s insurance and auto insurance covers you. That answer is UNPROFESSIONAL and IRRESPONSIBLE.

I have two policies. One is an indeminity policy through my membership in the PPA and the other is a business liability policy through State Farm. It gives me 1 million dollars of liability as well as an additional “rider” that covers my equipment.

You NEED insurance. Your clients NEED you to have insurance should anything go wrong during a shoot. Your FAMILY needs you to have insurance in case your business is sued. If you operate under a sole proprietorship – your family home and assets could be at risk.

I am NOT an insurance agent and have never played one in a movie, so I recommend you consult with the professionals. Hill & Usher is an insurance company that has special insurance packages for the photographic industry. I do not work for them, get credit for referrals for them and they haven’t promised to buy me a beer. I’m just familiar with their name, so it’s a good place to start.

Here are some links for further research:

INTRO TO PHOTOGRAPHY INSURANCE

WHAT TYPES OF INSURANCE SHOULD A PHOTOGRAPHER BUY?

THE NO-COST EXTRAS YOU DO  NOT WANT TO BUY

Yesterday I cautioned everyone to not buy new equipment without knowing fully the capabilities of the gear and whether it meshed with your personal photography interests and skills.

I’m now going to present a series of articles that go through the equipment I have in my bag and why I purchased it. Perhaps it will be of some guidance to you.

Part 1 will  review normal lenses and standard zoom lenses. Part 2 will cover special purpose lenses. If you have the lenses outlined in Part 1, you are doing fine and can probably pause your purchases until your interests and skill level becomes more refined. I’m not saying you need to have everything I outline here – this is just a god point to stop at if you have purchased multiple lenses.

The first lens that I recommend anyone to purchase is a 50mm lens. This lens will approximate what you see with your eyes, unless you have crazy peripheral vision capabilities. Sometimes the 50mm is referred to as a “normal” lens for this reason.

If your budget only allows for one lens – this is the one I recommend you have.

Depending on your budget, you will need to decide between the 1.8 and the 1.4 version. I have both. My first purchase was the 1.8, but since I shoot weddings with 3 cameras and one of those is manned by a 2nd shooter, I found the need for an additional copy. I found a used copy of the 1.4 for the unheard of price of $125, so I scooped it up. I also specialize in a specific type of photography done in low-light situations, so the 1.4 works better in those situations.

The next lens you may find valuable is a mid-range zoom. I currently use a Tamron 28-105mm 2.8 lens for this purpose. It is the lens I have on my camera 75% of the time. That lens is no longer being made, so when the day comes that it needs replaced, I would probably go with the 28-75mm 2.8 or the Nikon 17-55mm 2.8 if the account can handle the purchase.

The final lens in this category is a longer range zoom. I have the 80-200mm 2.8. In the beginning, I used this lens for sports photography when I was a newspaper photographer. It helped immensely, especially when shooting football. I then began using the lens when shooting weddings. There’s nothing worse than a wedding photographer acting like TMZ paparazzi, so I shoot discretely from a distance during the ceremony. I also use this lens in the studio, although the size of my studio does not allow me to use it at the full 200mm length.

Check back soon for part 2, when I’ll be covering the “fun” stuff.

 

Oh, how a woman loves mirrors, especially if she’s young and beautiful. But add a few years, a few wrinkles and a few gray hairs and we stop looking so closely. We give mirrors the briefest of glances to make sure our eyeliner is on straight and our hair is combed and quickly look away because seeing how we’ve aged is a truth we don’t know how to wrap out heads around. So, we look quickly and pretend we don’t see what is really there.

Last week I looked in my mirror. Really looked. I don’t remember why I looked, but once I did, I was sucked in. When did my hair turn completely gray? I was shocked. And saddened. But it is what it is. I can leave it gray or color it and since I don’t like to fuss with upkeep-type items, gray it shall be.

When you read the articles at Wootness!™, I’d like you to consider them a mirror.

Do you recognize yourself in a story or example? Does something I say strike dangerously close? Do you feel a little bit uncomfortable sometimes?

I know you – you’re a woman. If I didn’t strike a real nerve, I struck an imaginary nerve. Face it – we are dramatic creatures – so let’s not waste time protesting. It is what it is.

If anything I have said makes you squirm, makes you mad, makes you “unsubscribe” – stop for a moment and think. Did you peer into the Wootness!™ mirror and see yourself before you were able to quickly look away?

Embrace the glimmers of discomfort. Recognize the mistakes you have made or are about to make. Learn from the mistakes *I* and others have made.

And yes, I’ve made nearly every single mistake that I’ve talked about here. But to constantly tell you “One time I did this…” would be a pretty boring exercise, so sometimes I talk about other people and reference other situations. If you see yourself in my stories, embrace the fact that I thought you would appreciate having the lesson you learned shared with others. We are all fighting the same fight. We are trying to forge our path into this business that so so many others are forging along side us. Take these time-savers for what they are; HELP.

Be comforted in knowing that although you may have learned a lesson the hard way – you are helping other women (and men) like yourselves to not make the same mistake. And then go onto the next lesson, and learn from someone else’s mistake.

Yep, I come across as a sassy, mouthy, irreverent woman.

And I am that.

Here.

Because that is how I teach.

And that is how you learn.

Oh, how tempting it is to buy buy buy! We pore over the B&H catalog or compile an online wish list. We can’t send the link to anyone because no one can afford a thing on the list. But there it is, waiting, just in case Ed McMahon pays us a visit sometime soon.

Every spare cent is spent acquiring the latest piece of gear. We’ve got a long way to go to get caught up to our photog buddies, so we put our heads down and work work work.

I’d like you to stop. And don’t buy anything new for a month. Yes, seriously. One month. I want you to get out your camera bag and completely empty it. Find the manuals for each piece of equipment that you have and place it with the item. If you don’t have a manual for something – download it from the www.

Now, learn how to use what you have. Learn it inside and out and then learn how to use it in the dark.

Take the batteries out of your camera and flash and stick the batteries in your pocket. Then close your eyes and put the batteries back in. Bet you can’t do it. Come back when you can.

Learn how to adjust your shutter speed and aperture without taking your eye from the viewfinder.

Go through your manuals and learn everything you can. Use your lenses at both ends of the aperture scale.

After you know everything about what you currently have, sit down and make a list. Decide what you still NEED.

NEED, not WANT.

I teach a couple of beginning photography classes. The introductory class is designed to learn on your current equipment. The only suggested purchase during the 4 week class is a $2 sheet of project board from the drug store for reflecting.

I have a philosophy that you should learn to use what you have to the best of your ability without making additional purchases. There is nothing more frustrating that paying tuition for a class to only be told that you must spend more money.

In my 102 class, I still don’t require additional purchases, but I do have each student bring every piece of gear that they own. In a recent class, one of the students brought the four lenses they currently owned and discussed the purchase of an additional lens that had caught their fancy.

I was familiar with the photographic interests and style of this student. They shot mostly floral macros and family photos of several children. The lens currently being coveted was a 30mm lens owned (and for sale) by a relative.

I asked the student why they wanted this lens. Although several reasons were given, none of them had anything to do with the capability of the lens or the meshing of that lens with the student’s particular interests or styles.

I think, too often, we think that more is better. I’m sure that folks taking a look into my camera bag right about now would accuse the pot of calling the kettle “black,” but there is not one lens in my bag that sits unused. I did buy a 10.5mm fisheye purely for fun and I do use it for 4-5 shots at each wedding, but it would be the first lens offered for sale if I got into a financial bind. Other than that – all my lenses are used on a regular basis.

There is no need to run out and buy the latest and greatest piece of equipment if you don’t truly NEED it.

I’m a big supporter of considering ROI (Return on Investment) when making purchases. If the item in question will help me make more money, then the purchase is warranted. If the item in question will add to my coolness factor or because the ROCKSTAR du jour has one, put it on the backburner until you’re rolling in the bucks and need to spend some money for tax reasons.

 

 

I belong to my fair share of photography forums, and sometimes it’s enough to make me puke. More and more lately, the topics are NOT photographers wanting information to help them become better photographers, they are photographers complaining about their competition:

• My competition is copying my locations! The last time I checked, your locations were all public property. If you truly desire “private” locations that you can pee all over and call yours, invest in putting a shooting park on your property. If you don’t have property, then suck it up, them’s the breaks.
• My competition is undercutting me! Price-fixing is illegal, what’s your point? Everyone has different offerings at different prices. Them’s the breaks, suck it up!
• My competition is stealing my clients! All is fair in love, war and sales. If your clients are going elsewhere, then they weren’t your clients to begin with. Obviously, the competition is offering them something that you were not. Either cater to their needs, or suck it up!

Are you starting to see a pattern?

Our competition is not our enemy WE ARE! We are sitting around bitching and moaning about something that’s part of the economic business circle of life. This is how it is in the real world. Do you see Sam Walton or Donald Trump sitting around crabbing about their competition? Heck no! They’re constantly studying their competition and learning lessons from them.

Our competition pulls tactics that makes us reconsider what we’re doing and change up the way we do business in order to stay competitive.

Instead of complaining about the competition, study them, figure out what they’re doing and why they appeal to clients you would like to have. Then suck it up and adapt.

OK, Nicole pulled a fast one yesterday (see article HERE) and introduced you to a vendor before I could, so I’m going to follow-up with a full-fledged review.

Continue reading “REVIEW: the album cafe (Photoshop template vendor)”