Wednesday Wisdoms

Photographers, if you are like me, you want this career to last long and not be a one-trick pony blip on your path. 

As important as your work may seem, that fades. Bring the deeply satisfying joy into your career now; that is the road to stay on. 

I have a personal insight to share with you, and maybe you can relate. The more I’ve been in this job—over 25 years now—the more I realize how much I love it and how passionate I am about being a rep, both in this role and in social media. However, as I grow older, I also see that life is bigger than just my job and career. Other things in life are more significant.

So, how do I navigate this? I find that by continually shifting my career to include what I love—like working with certain photographers, building meaningful client relationships, and engaging with you—I feed my passion and maintain my excitement. If I didn’t truly love it, I don’t think I could keep doing it. My advice is to keep loving what you do and direct your career in a way that allows you to stay passionate about it.

Thanksgiving Holiday Assignment:

• List 5 ways your business is right on track. 
• List 5 areas where your business needs your attention.

Ageism is Not about AGE. 

Ageism is any age photographer who gets tired, stops pushing the boundaries, and stops testing and exploring. 

Younger photographers don’t own the exciting, hot, trending markets, but they often seem more available to lean into newness with an open mind.

Being freelancers doesn’t mean we have to do this alone, protecting ourselves from our competition. 

The defensive stance of guarding our experiences blocks the one source of spot-on bona fide feedback.

Put this in our business toolkit: 

In the midst of crazy production, the human element cuts right through it and can speak volumes. Impress our crew + clients with sincere kindness during stressful intensity to make the best of it and create a lasting impression. 

You are up for a job. Bidding and negotiating is the open door opportunity to get the client to understand how you are best for this project based on your approach. Our challenge is to align our ideas to match what they are going for. I see it like a maze of gated doorways as we look to follow the one that opens. Throw out your ideas and see what sticks with a question format allowing them a chance to redirect your ideas toward their goal. 

PORTFOLIO means the collection of images defining the clients you work with and the style sensibility you will provide clients to reach their goals. 

Continuously striving for this long-term past and future balance will land you jobs. 

Business lulls in the creative field are a part of the norm. What we do with them can help us wake up those creative spurts, feeding the machine and opening new avenues to more unconventional unexpected new ideas. I like to take a step back, change my ways and notice something I didn’t see before.

Photographer’s office hours can be challenging as it’s not exactly what we signed up for. Or is it? “Office hours” keep us plugged into work mode with random actions motivating us to keep going. Have your resources and your people, and reach out to those you want to connect with for no clear-cut reason. Plug yourself into all that keeps the office activated.

When we get bid requests asking for our price, but they don’t have the project information, I hear, “I don’t do this often, I don’t know how this works, and I expect you to do most of our job – so inform us what our $500-$3000 budget will get us.”

Four ways I respond:

1. I cannot give a cost without more information. 
2. It sounds like this will end up being between 10k-30k, give or take some, depending on your job specifics. 
3. This may be at least 10k, so we can discuss this to get more exact if that is near your budget. 
4. I am available to help create this job for you, and here are my option ideas to git within the 3-8k budget or the 10-12k budget range.