Stairs

You could say professional relationships are a type of marketing. But there is always a personal touch to them. When large sums are involved.

That's been my experience, anyway.

MLKstudios wrote: You could say professional relationships are a type of marketing. But there is always a personal touch to them. When large sums are involved.

That's been my experience, anyway.

Agreed it's a part of marketing. Marketing is huge these days.

Your images are your marketing tools. You won't see "Hire me, I'm a pro photographer" billboards on Sunset Blvd. But, you will see some great pics used in ads. If someone is interested, they find you from your work.

MLKstudios wrote: Your images are your marketing tools. You won't see "Hire me, I'm a pro photographer" billboards on Sunset Blvd. But, you will see some great pics used in ads. If someone is interested, they find you from your work.

Kind of.

We used to send out sample cards in snail mail, but I haven't seen anyone use those for awhile. Everything is web based now.

This is how some pros work. Rated M, for Mature (chas will like this):


Warning, bad humor in very poor taste below.

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The Smiths were unable to conceive children and decided to use a surrogate father to start their family. On the day the proxy father was to arrive, Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, 'Well, I'm off now. The man should be here soon.'

Half an hour later, just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer happened to ring the doorbell, hoping to make a sale. 'Good morning, Ma'am', he said, 'I've come to...'

'Oh, no need to explain,' Mrs. Smith cut in, embarrassed, 'I've been expecting you.'

'Have you really?' said the photographer. 'Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?'

'Well that's what my husband and I had hoped. Please come in and have a seat'.

After a moment she asked, blushing, 'Well, where do we start?'

'Leave everything to me. I usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the bed. And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You can really spread out there.'

'Bathtub, living room floor? No wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!'

'Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time. But if we try several different positions and I shoot from six or seven angles, I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.'

'My, that's a lot!', gasped Mrs. Smith.

'Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be In and out in five minutes, but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that.'

'Don't I know it,' said Mrs. Smith quietly.

The photographer opened his briefcase and pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures. 'This was done on the top of a bus,' he said.

'Oh, my word!' Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.

'And these twins turned out exceptionally well - when you consider their mother was so difficult to work with.'

'She was difficult?' asked Mrs. Smith.

'Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take her to the park to get the job done right. People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good look'

'Four and five deep?' said Mrs. Smith, her eyes wide with amazement.

'Yes', the photographer replied. 'And for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling - I could hardly concentrate, and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots. Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack it all in.'

Mrs. Smith leaned forward. 'Do you mean they actually chewed on your, uh...equipment?'

'It's true, Ma'am, yes. Well, if you're ready, I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work right away.'

'Tripod?'

'Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big to be held in the hand very long.'

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lol I know how the pro's work. I am one, and work with them on a daily basis (except for now, god bless vacations).

Onto more important things...

click on me for more important things

When's the full moon over? lol

Well if I'd really wanted that kind of money I probably would have chosen a different career path than teaching special ed. True, renting could be an option for equipment. And I found when I was shooting hockey I'd get questions and would you do me a favor type requests etc. so yeah, I think that your photos can more or less sell themselves. Either that or crazed hockey fans are just fanatic for hockey pictures. And if you're at ice level w/a camera people think you're the information booth.

Now on to new glass huh?

Photography covers everything we humans are interested in and there is always a market for ANYTHING you can photograph. For example, if you like model trains, you can make a living photographing HO's.

There are publications for just about every hobby and interest. The market is huge, but the number of people with a camera is bigger. You only have to be a little better than the average bear to get your work published. And you need to contact them showing your interest to be published. Still, your pics will land you the job. Not because you have an L lens, or not.

Of course the bigger publishers with bigger audiences have a bigger pool to pick from. You have to be really good to climb above that pack.

But selling work has nothing to do with how fancy your gear is or how many ads you put out. Simply take good pics, and they will sell themselves. If you're any good, people will soon ask you, "How much do you want to take my pic"? Or more often, "Do you shoot weddings"?

MLKstudios wrote: Photography covers everything we humans are interested in and there is always a market for ANYTHING you can photograph. For example, if you like model trains, you can make a living photographing them.

There are publications for just about every hobby and interest. The market is huge, but the number of people with a camera is bigger. You only have to be a little better than the average bear to get your work published. And you need to contact them showing your interest to be published. Still, your pics will land you the job. Not because you have an L lens, or not.

Of course the bigger publishers with bigger audiences have a bigger pool to pick from. You have to be really good to climb above that pack.

But selling work has nothing to do with how fancy your gear is or how many ads you put out. Simply take good pics, and they will sell themselves. If you're any good, people will soon ask you, "How much do you want to take my pic"? Or more often, "Do you shoot weddings"?

Cream rises to the top.

Scotty and shadow, PhaseOne is offering a $7K discount:

www.phaseone.com/en/Camera-Systems/645DF/645DF-Info.aspx

Only $30K. Get them while they're hot!