May 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

These 14 marketing essentials are the building blocks of a thriving photography business

Jessica Schlamp photography

In this first article from photographer Jessica Schlamp, she discusses the 14 building blocks of a thriving photography business.

My name is Jessica Schlamp and for the next while I will be contributing articles to Canphoto.Net on business development and marketing for photographers in Canada. My five year background in marketing communications and brand development for corporations in North America has provided me with a unique perspective on this exciting industry we work in. I have chosen to apply my proven skills toward understanding, and helping you understand, the building blocks of a thriving photography business in Canada.

As photographers there are distinct marketing challenges we face and I’ve identified several which I will be addressing in upcoming posts. These include:

1. Understanding your marketplace(s) and the competitive landscape in which you operate. What identifies your target audience and who/what may be competing for your space.

2. Differentiating yourself in the sea of professionals targeting the same audience. What is your unique value and how do you assert this.

3. Building a successful and honest Brand Identity. What is a brand identity, how can you assess the effectiveness of yours and where do you begin to develop or improve it.

4. Communicating your brand identity through effective messaging and visual mediums. These include things such as copy writing, tag lines, informational content, logo development, website, portfolio image selection, colors, typography, graphics, business cards and other promotional pieces, photo albums, presentations and packaging. I will be specifically focussing upon each of these facets in articles which I write.

5. Networking with other photographers and related industry professionals. How can you combine forces to enhance your effectiveness.

6. Social media. What are your best options and how can you most productively utilize these tools.

7. Online and print advertising. Where to start and what is really worth it.

8. How to get your work seen. Promotional display, trade shows, exhibits, contests and more.

9. Search Engine Optimization. How to make your website visible in search engines, improve your page rank and keyword density, increase keyword conversions and maintain status.

10. Events and special offers. Ideas and inspiration to get you started.

11. Client resources. Suggestions to develop your own set of custom resources for wedding, engagement, newborn, maternity, family, and professional portrait clients.

12. Assessing and minimizing risk. Identifying and closing gaps from where you are to where you should be. Exercises to positively influence your business environment and increase your competitiveness.

13. Building and maintaining customer loyalty and word of mouth referrals.

14. Ongoing Business Development. Resources to strengthen your business and enhance your productivity.

My ideas have been gleaned from thousands of hours on challenging marketing projects for land developers, consultants, real estate professionals, manufacturers and self employed professionals in an array of marketplaces. They also arise from personal experience and a lot of trial and error, as I have sought to develop my own photography business over the past 2 years. I can not possibly understand everything on the above topics however, and invite your input and feedback so that together we can learn, inspire and be inspired. My posts are simply extended to you as a complimentary resource to get your gears turning and encourage discussion. I earnestly hope the upcoming articles will be an asset to you.

You can connect with me at jessicaschlampphotography.com, on twitter @jessicaschlamp, on facebook facebook.com/jessicaschlamp or LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/jessicaschlamp. Feel free to also share your suggestions in the comments below on topics that you would like me to address in the future. I hope to connect with you.

Until my next post… Happy photographing!

Filed Under: Business, CanPhoto Original, Feature post, Marketing
May 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Learn to light like a pro with Martin Prihoda’s Big Lights Far Away workshop in Toronto

The Canadian Photographers Network is very proud to announce that we are partnering with acclaimed photographer Martin Prihoda to bring his Big Lights Far Away workshop and lecture to Toronto this summer! As a special bonus, we have also negotiated a discount for readers of CanPhoto.Net. Please see the discount link below for more details.

Martin Prihoda is a Canadian born advertising and fashion editorial photographer currently living and working in Mumbai, India. He is a regular contributor to many international magazines and has shot covers for GQ, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Verve as well as fashion features for Elle, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

Martin Prihoda Cosmopolitan

Cosmo cover by Martin Prihoda

His advertising clients include JWT, Y&R, Cossette, DDB, Rethink Communications, Lowe Lintas and Weiden Kennedy. When not shooting fashion or advertising, Martin volunteers his time shooting for Childreach International, a UK based NGO with missions in India, Tanzania, Nepal and Pakistan.

The Lecture and Workshop:

Martin’s workshop series is called Big Lights Far Away, and he has conducted them around the world, most recently in Australia and at the Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai. The lecture and workshop will teach advanced lighting techniques and light theory, as well as the use of important photo equipment such as power packs and light modifiers.

The lecture will be loaded with lots of great information, but the 2-day, hands-on, Big Lights Far Away workshop will be one of the most effective ways of learning the skills necessary to take your photography from advanced amateur to professional quality.

In the intimate and intensive lecture and workshops Martin will answer the questions:

1. Why use big lights?
2. Why put them far away?

The physical properties of light are predictable and once you master them, you will be able to apply them powerfully and practically to your photography. Practical knowledge and experience in using multi-light setups is key to making your photos pop, and this course is designed to do just that. Join Martin as he dissects his photos and discusses his commercial shoots from the ground up.

Day 1:

We will start the workshop with a 3 hour evening class session for viewing & discussing Martin’s work. We will then begin discussing lighting theory and why light acts on a subject the way it does. This session will include using/placing light modifiers, balancing ambient and strobe light in an outdoor setting and working with your subject.

Martin Prihoda yoga

Using principles from a Yogic tradition, Martin’s beliefs are rooted in the principles of Self Empowerment, Confidence, Focus and Vision. He believes these values are at the core of his success as an artist and seeks to impart the same to his students.


Day 2:

We will be shooting two assignments on this day.
Assignment 1: Photographing a CEO for an Annual Report. In this module, students will use advanced lighting techniques to photograph a CEO for the cover of an Annual Report. Final images will be expected to look professional, creative and well lit.
Assignment 2: Photographing a music band/musicians for the cover of a contemporary rock magazine. In this module, students will be expected to create edgy, haunting, exciting and visually stimulating images for the cover of a popular rock magazine. Martin will act as Photo Editor and Art Director, over seeing the shoot in a realistic client setting.

Day 3:

Assignment 3: Outdoor Fashion shoot for a leading women’s magazine (Eg: Vogue, Elle). In this module students will be expected to do a cover shoot for a leading women’s magazine as well as 2 or 3 inside fashion story type shots. Students will work with a professional model to create imagery that is highly stylized.

Then we finally return to class for a review session of images and of the experience on location before we wrap up and call it a day.

student photo from big lights far away

Student photo from Big Lights Far Away workshop in Dubai

Who Should Attend:

You are a very confident camera user. You may be a passionate amateur photographer, aspiring professional, photographer’s assistant or professional aiming to sharpen your skills. You want to be introduced to new techniques that challenge you both technically and creatively and have an opportunity to work with professional grade equipment. You are also interested in being introduced to the process of professional photography from planning to finished image. You are confident user of lighting set ups. You are aiming to improve your techniques as well as be introduced to some new ideas and creative approaches. You are interested in learning how a professional photographer uses lighting to solve problems and create the desired outcome.

What to bring:

Your DSLR. Lenses that cover the range of 14-200. A Pocket Wizard if you have one.

Prices:

Early bird prices are in effect until June 1st, 2012. To purchase tickets and for complete pricing information please visit the BLFA website: http://blfa.ca/blfa-toronto-2012/

BLFA – Workshop August 4 & 5 – Early Bird CA$1,190.00, Handling Fee CA$9.95, HST CA$155.99

BLFA – Lecture August 3 – Early Bird CA$75.00, Handling Fee CA$2.87, HST CA$10.12

Special offer for readers of CanPhoto.Net:

Sign up for our newsletter using the link below and receive coupon codes worth $100 off the Workshop and $15 off the Lecture (Workshop tickets include the lecture).

Subscribe to our newsletter and received your discount coupons for the Big Lights Far Away Workshop and Lecture

Martin Prihoda Pune Warriors

The Pune Warriors cricket team by Martin Prihoda

Martin Prihoda Nike Jordan

Nike Jordan campaign by Martin Prihoda

To see Martin’s portfolios in depth, please visit his website!

Filed Under: Advertising, CanPhoto News, Commercial, Fashion, Workshops and Seminars
May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photographer Arnaud Maggs wins the $50,000 Scotiabank Photography Award

Arnaud Maggs 2012 Scotiabank Photography Award Winner

2012 Scotiabank Photography Award L-R, Anatol Von Hahn, Group Head, Canadian Banking, with SPA winner Arnaud Maggs; Jane Nokes, Exec. Dir. SPA and photographer Ed Burtynsky, Chair SPA. (CNW Group/Scotiabank)

Toronto artist Arnaud Maggs received the second annual Scotiabank Photography Award (SPA) at a ceremony held Wednesday evening at Toronto’s Design Exchange. Celebrating excellence in contemporary photography, the $50,000 award, a solo Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival exhibition in 2013, and a book deal with international art photography publisher Steidl, is Canada’s largest prize for an established Canadian photographic artist.

“To receive this award is an honour, and it too is an honour to be named in the company of my gifted peers, Fred Herzog and Alain Paiement,” said Arnaud Maggs. “Scotiabank’s work over the past years both through its involvement in the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival and now the Scotiabank Photography Award is helping to raise the profile of Canadian photography and the people and stories behind the lens.”

Best known for his multiple-grid, serial photographs of faces and collections, systems and historical ephemera, Arnaud began his career as an artist in the mid seventies at the age of 47, following success as a graphic designer and commercial and fashion photographer. Works, collections and exhibits include Complete Prestige 12″ Jazz Catalogue, Charles Stainback’s Special Collections and the Arnaud Maggs: Identification exhibition which opened at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa on May 3, 2012. Maggs is represented in Toronto by the Susan Hobbs Gallery.

Arnaud Maggs Self Portrait

Self Portrait by Arnaud Maggs

“Arnaud Maggs has made a unique contribution to Canadian art and photography with his clear and original way of looking at the world around him,” said Ann Thomas, Curator of Photographs Collection, National Gallery of Canada on behalf of the SPA jury. “Under his unswerving and affectionate eye, he brings to a new level of appreciation both the idea of human identity represented through the photographic portrait and the idea of cultural evidence garnered through the traces that everyday things leave behind. We are grateful to him for opening our eyes to the significance of ordinary things.”

The SPA was conceived and developed by Ed Burtynsky, one of Canada’s most respected photographers and Jane Nokes, Director of the Fine Art Collection and Corporate Archives at Scotiabank. Burtynsky serves as Chair of the SPA and Nokes is the Award’s Executive Director. Both serve on the Board of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, the largest photography festival in the world. The SPA 2012 was sponsored by Canadian Art, CTV and the Globe and Mail.

“Arnaud is the master of the archival image,” said Nokes. “His excellence as a photographic artist is a given, his extraordinary use of the ordinary is a wonder. Arnaud is all about archives, and as a professional archivist, I am in awe of his use of history to inform his work. His ability to bring the past into the present in a meaningful way makes him the archivist’s hero as well as the art curator’s dream.”

For more information about the prize please visit: http://www.scotiabankphotoaward.com/index.html

Filed Under: Contests and Awards, Exhibitions, Fine Art, Photo News
May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Jeff Wall photograph sells for record setting price of $3.6 million

Jeff Wall Dead Troops Talk

Dead Troops Talk (A vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986) by Vancouver photographer Jeff Wall sold for $3.6 million at Christie's on Tuesday night

A photograph by Vancouver photographer Jeff Wall has become the most expensive Canadian photo in history and the third most expensive photo ever sold. The image titled Dead Troops Talk is one of Wall’s most famous and the final bid at Christie’s in New York on Tuesday night was $3.2 Million US. The final price, including the buyer’s premium, was $3,666,500 US.

The large-format photograph — the full title of which is Dead Troops Talk (A vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986) — was estimated to sell for between $1.5 and $2 million US. The image depicts Russian (Red Army) troops killed in the Afghan war sitting up and talking with one another — some laughing, some looking in horror at their injuries. It is one of two prints created by Wall, according to Christie’s.

This sale breaks the previous record for the most expensive Canadian photograph, which was also held by Wall for an image titled The Well which sold for $1.1 Million USD at a 2008 Sotheby’s auction in London. The final auction price for Dead Troops Talk of $3,666,500 US makes it the third most expensive photograph ever sold, after Andreas Gursky’s Rhein II (1999) which sold for $4,338,500 US in November 2011 and Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #96 (1981) which sold for $3,890,500 US in May 2011.

Filed Under: Fine Art, Photo News
May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Win a free copy of “The Money Book” and whip your finances into shape for 2012

Money Book

Enter to win a free copy of The Money Book!

Last Monday was the deadline to pay your 2011 taxes here in Canada, and I hope everyone got them finished on time and had enough money set aside to pay the tax man. If you’re a self-employed, freelance photographer you know that no one is deducting money from every cheque you get and setting it aside to pay your taxes at the end of the year. And if you’ve been self-employed long enough, you’ve probably had years when you found yourself short on funds when tax time came around. When your income is erratic, it can be difficult to know how much of every cheque you should put aside for income taxes, let alone things like retirement, emergency funds, etc, etc.

I’ve experience these problems myself, and like many freelancers I’ve over-spent during good times and paid bills with credit cards during lean times. Fortunately, I discovered a book last year that really helped me get a handle on my finances and put a system in place to manage my cash flow in good times and in bad. It’s called The Money Book for Freelancers, Part-Timers, and the Self-Employed and it’s the only book I’ve found that so clearly covers the financial problems freelancers have to deal with. The authors are American and some of the retirement info is only applicable to freelancers in the States (hence the picture of Ben Franklin on the cover), but the vast majority of the advice will work for Canadians as well.

I highly recommend this book, and I’m happy to announce that the authors have generously provided me with two autographed copies that I’m going give away to two lucky readers of CanPhoto.Net. I’ll cover the postage to mail them to anyone with a Canadian address (that’s the only restriction) and there are several ways to enter:

1. Copy and paste this tweet: Canadian photographers enter to win “The Money Book” from @canphoto by RTing this! #canphotofreebie http://bit.ly/K8ZVEc

2. Write your own tweet, but be sure include our twitter handle @canphoto, the hashtag #canphotofreebie, and the long or short link back to this page: http://bit.ly/K8ZVEc

3. Write a post on your own blog about this contest, include a link back to this page, and then add a comment here so I know where to find your post.

4. Sign up to receive updates via email.

5. “Like” CanPhoto.Net on Facebook.

The contest will run until May 31st, and after that I will pick two random winners who will receive a free copy of The Money Book. Please remember that you must have a Canadian mailing address to win. Good luck!

If you don’t want to wait until the 31st to see if you’ve won, you can also show your support for CanPhoto.Net by purchasing the book from Amazon.ca using the link below.

Filed Under: Books, Business, Contests and Awards
« Older Posts