7th Edition of ASMP's Professional Business Practices in Photography

I've been waiting for this book to hit the shelves for a couple years now. I almost bought the 6th edition when I first started out almost three years ago, but opted not to since it's last edition was in 2000. Many things have changed in commercial photography in the last seven years. Like Digital cameras? and Photoshop version 100 it seems. In retrospect, I probably should have bought the book anyway. It's literally the bible for photography business and I've started to dig into it.

One of the biggest challenges for commercial photography is pricing. Prices are all over the place and not everyone values a photograph the same. This book has detailed chapters on pricing and negotiating that alone make the price of the book insignificant. Every photographer selling images should have this book at their side. I hate to think my pricing structure is polluting the commercial photography waters with out of bounds pricing or keeping me from being competitive. There are many photographers out there virtually giving their work away. Work they made using $5000 worth of camera, computer and software. It costs a fair amount of money to produce an accurate, sharp and conceptualized photo.

As 2008 slides into fall, I am focusing my photography education on the business side of things. This book will pretty much be the text book for this chapter of Tim Broyer Photography, LLC.

Props To Logan's Nursery in downtown Raleigh. I had a wonderful Pistachio Chicken Salad sandwich while enjoying my new book.

Daisy

A shot from a recent wedding.

I've gotten several questions about my blog and the recent lack of post & photos. I'm very back logged with post processing of some large weddings and I'm spending my time trying to catch up and put these orders out. Once I'm complete I plan to do a portfolio review and update the main website. Thanks for the concern everyone!

Bland Landscaping

For an upcoming issue of Lawn & Landscape magazine.



Here is a link to the Gallery

Software News: Adobe updated Lightroom to 2.0 yesterday. I've downloaded it and started using it. It's a whopper of a change and significantly reduces my need to get into Photoshop proper. But is it a hog on system resources? I'm starting to think so.

Pickled Jalapenos

105 VR Macro in natural light.

couple more from Cameron

Here is a gallery containing more from Cameron.

What a cute little bugger this guy is. I just had to post a couple more. He could be the Gerber baby!

Kurt Bland

I had the pleasure of photographing Kurt Bland, General Manager for Bland Landscaping. Bland Landscaping is a leader in the landscaping industry when it comes to environmental concerns and energy awareness. Kurt was a pleasure to work with.


We had a great portrait session with some very cooperative warm sunlight.
I'm sure GIE Media will be pleased.

through the viewfinder portrait

Continuing my portrait project with Sandra Dubose, she asked me to do a through the viewfinder shot. Part experiment for me and a twist for Sandra, we set up the shot at Apex's chamber of commerce. Pretty neat and unique. I think it will work nicely for Sandra's overall design.


A few previous ttv shots.

Cameron rules the roost

Cameron, just shy of one year. He was a pleasure to work with.


Regular readers of this blog might recognize some of the folks here. I particularly like this shot because Cameron is looking at the camera while everyone else is not. It's usually the other way around when working with babies. The black and white enhances the look as well. I had a great time shooting Cameron and his family. Cameron runs things in the household, he just doesn't know it yet.

Good stuff!

Sandra Dubose Portrait session, round 1

I had the pleasure of working with Sandra Dubose yesterday evening. Sandra is a rising actress, film maker and entrepreneur who recently relocated from NYC. We planned to head downtown for some environmental shots but a very powerful thunder storm rolled in and put a kibosh on that. We had a relaxed shoot in her home and I also got my butt kicked in Wii Tennis by her daughter.












I am impressed with Sandra's drive and determination to market herself and put herself in a place she want's to be. I can totally relate to that. We rescheduled our outside shoot for this weekend.

I also took a cue from Joe McNally's book and shot the hands. Good tip!

10 Reasons Why Professional Photographers Charge What They Do

While searching for business inspiration on the PPA site, I found a link to Lori Osterberg's Blog and these 10 reasons. I thought they were worth sharing and also posting on my blog for future reference.

10. Professional photographers are in business, and as a business, need to make a profit. Because they make it their career, they dedicate themselves to becoming the best they can be, and share that knowledge with their clientele.

9. Professional photographers have to buy professional equipment. Nope, they don't just pick up a point-and-shoot from Wal-Mart and declare themselves a professional. They spend thousands upon thousands of dollars getting multiple camera bodies, the finest lenses, flash equipment for every situation, tripods, light stands, backdrops, props, carrying and storage cases. And then when you think you have it all - you need to get backups for everything to make sure you never miss an image.

8. Professional photographers continue their education, and learn as much as they can about the business. They join groups like Professional Photographers of America or the National Press Photographers Association. They attend seminars and training by some of the best names in the business. They concentrate on becoming the best they can be.

7. Professional photographers don't just snap a picture, they create a photograph. They understand positioning. They understand lighting. They understand placement. You're not just paying for the ability to place a finger on the trigger and snap a picture. You're paying for the years of experience it took to create the perfect image.

6. Professional photographers can spend hours producing one professional photograph. Time can include:
creating the marketing
answering emails and phone calls
meeting with the client to talk about the event
setting up for the event
drive time to and from the event
time for the actual photographing
running to and from the lab
meeting with the client for previews and decisions
processing the image
retouching the image
mounting the image
framing the image
packaging the image
dropping off final images
production work
follow up work
Add it all up, and you can see why one portrait session may include hours worth of work. It's impossible to stay in business if you only make a few pennies per client.


5. Professional photographers have to be more than photographers. They have to be CEOs and marketers, and bankers, and salespeople, and production workers, and janitors, and buyers, and negotiators, and networkers, and drivers, and organizers. And photographers. That's a lot of skills for one person to master.

4. Professional photographers will do it all. Want to get married at the top of a 14,000 foot high mountain, where the only way up is a 30 minute ski-lift ride? A professional photographer will be there. Want a portrait running through the waves on a Southern California beach? A professional photographer will be there.

3. Professional photographers aren't just order takers, they provide total customer service. Professionals photograph dozens or even hundreds of clients a year. They understand what looks good, how to put together albums, and how to group multiple photographs together. Their goal is to provide you with what you need and what's best for you - not just have you sign on the dotted line.

2. Professional photographers watch for the newest, most innovative, creative products available. They stay up to date on industry news, and find things that perfectly match their clients taste. They don't try and fit you into something you don't like - they find out what you want and search the world over for the perfect things. They are the professional.

1. Professional photographers have the knowledge and the skill to make you look the best you can be. I can buy a hammer for a few dollars at the hardware store. Yet I spent hundreds of dollars for a handyman to repair my deck. I can buy a needle and thread for a few dollars at the fabric store. Yet I spent over $100 on alterations at a local tailor. It's not about the tools; it's about the outcome.
Sure, anyone can buy a camera and take a picture. You can head down to your local discount store, wait several hours and have a minimum wage clerk place you on an X and snap a few pictures. But they can't get what a professional can get. They won't concentrate on expressions. They won't advise you on outfits and locations. They won't provide 110 percent customer service. You won't get a professional portrait.



I agree Lori

Nancy Davis

Head shot session with one of my brides from last year, the lovely Nancy Davis.

This is the old camera I've been using for the Through the Viewfinder series. I bought it at the Raleigh Fairgrounds flea market.

The photo is nothing special, but I was waiting for a client to show up and was using this subject to get the lighing right.

Brandon Leffel 2008 Senior Portrait

I was approached by a past client to shoot a senior portrait. I don't do many senior portraits although it can be a very lucrative and fun style of photography (I certainly had fun doing this one). Since she was one of my favorite clients, I accepted but on some unique terms. I wanted to make not only some great photographs but also a multimedia presentation that Brandon could put on his social networking site, email to friends and family as well as leave a unique portrait behind of this young man. Knowing that Brandon was also a musician was a catalyst behind the idea. I could use his music!

The project developed into three separate photo shoots to cover what I thought would show the real Brandon.
With the help of Brandon, his girlfriend and a buddy we headed to downtown Raleigh in the old warehouse district for a fun shoot with a gritty, urban feel. We came away with some sweet stuff!
I followed up the urban shoot with a quick family session just outside Brandon's home. I wanted to add some family photos to his presentation. I think it's an important part of a young person and I think you'll agree that it adds to the presentation rather nicely. I also spent some time with Brandon, Mike and Jordan as they jammed in his room. These photos really helped capture the musical side of Brandon and his love of art. I left my Edirol R-09 digital audio recorder behind for Brandon to record some of his bass guitar music. The last shoot was to capture some of Brandon's artwork to use as backdrops and intersperses of the presentation.

Armed with over 200 photos and the audio files I proceeded to edit them all together into a 13 minute DVD presentation using ProShow Gold. It's a rather unique portrait in my opinion and not something every high school senior would have done. But it offers a dimensional approach to someones character and opens the viewer up to a larger picture of this young man. Don't get me wrong, I like a nice (school type) portrait print but this is much, much more. I think you will agree.

Knowing that the average attention span of people online is very short, I edited a 3 minute version for Brandon to put on his MySpace page.
On to the show...
http://timbroyer.com/clients/BL08/

Big thanks go to Brandon and his family for allowing me to do something different. We very easily could have stopped after the first shoot and still came away with some cool senior portraits but that wouldn't have been very challenging now would it?

Carolina Barbecue Sandwich

Slow-cooked, chopped pork sandwich with vinegar based cole slaw on it. A true North Carolina classic. Taken as part of a portfolio exercise.

It tasted great!



Lighting info? One SB-800 to camera left in a 36" soft umbrella set at 1/8 power. White foamcore board to sandwich right for fill. Another SB-800 to camera right and lighting the back wall. It was set to 1/64 power. All fired via pocket wizards on a D300/105 VR macro with tripod.

http://the-photographer-directory.com/

http://the-photographer-directory.com/

A link I picked up from John Harrington's site that offers free directories for photographers. If you're a photographer with a plank out, you need to be on it.



Does your food smile?

a Memorial flatbread

A few outtakes from yesterday.

Another fine shoot with the creative team at Bella Monica Flatbread Co. for their packaging needs. Corbett Monica was there to offer precise input and our food stylist, Billy Raney was on hand to sculpt, process and dress the flatbreads. It was quite the production.


Here is a shot of the set up.

Billy doing his magic.
This job is really fun and coming together nicely with a great creative team. The two business owners, photographer, food stylist, art director and an assortment of other characters are all working towards a common goal. Good stuff.

Bella Monica Flat Bread Co. garnish shoot

A peak at a commercial shoot I did this past Friday with Trevor from Bella Monica Flatbread Co..

We had a small set-up consisting of a shooting table and three lights. Nikon D300 with either a 105 VR Macro or my favorite 50 1.4 prime lens. We rolled through the shot list in 4 hours and had a groove going until we met Mr. Mozzarella. For reasons I have yet to figure out, I just can't get the mozzarella to photograph nice.



We came away with some killer photos that not only will work for their packaging needs but we might just print up a few real big!

Deviled eggs....

Chef Mario challenged his crew to a last minute exercise in creativity and flavor. They prepared a deviled egg for taste and presentation. I stopped by to photograph the winner and socialize a bit. I was flattered to be the celebrity judge. The competition was real close with many flavorful recipes but cool hand Luke made the most eggscitement to score the victory. His eggs had a sweet taste at first and a bit of heat towards the end. I loved it.


Luke's winning deviled egg.


A portrait of the winning chef.


Chef Mario's creation. I love the visual properties of this egg. Simple and effective. A fun time photographing this crew!

Published in Cary Living & Midtown magazines.

I had several photos published in Cary Living and Midtown magazine as part of Chef Mario's monthly article. They were from a salad shoot we did last March. I was pleased with the results then and even more pleased to see them published. I'll be doing more work for Chef Mario's monthly article in the near future so keep an eye out for them!

A big thank you to Darcy at Chef Mario's for the opportunity. It always taste better when someone else cooks and the photos always look better when your food smiles.

bangin' heads

Sometimes you get clients that rock.. in more ways than one.

Spinach & Tomato

Fun shoot with Trevor yesterday for his business, Bella Monica Flat Bread Co.

Hunter of the Shadows is rising... Brandon portrait session

Portrait session in downtown Raleigh with Brandon and a couple of his friends. A fun shoot for a good guy on a project that I'm really stoked about. This is the first part of a three part shoot that will produce a custom portrait session via DVD slideshow. It's going to rock.



Mike and Emma joined in for a couple.

A couple pieces (or pizzas) that I've been working on lately.

Bella Monica

If you want some good food, head on over to Edwards Mill Road and try out Bella Monica. They have some killer flatbread and Trevor makes a mean espresso.



More to come from this shoot...

Garlic, Mushrooms and herb concept photos for Trevor

These are concept photos for some packaging work. Specifically, they are for Trevor. Just a quick set up to capture the colors and look we previously discussed.

Carrot-Pineapple Muffin

A couple takes from my ongoing local project with a bakery in Apex.

Stick a fork in it, it's done.


And boy did it taste yummy. The cream cheese frosting... forget about it.

The images were taken with a combination of window light and two strobes. The window was camera left and rear. I supplemented the window with an additional strobe/soft umbrella. The other strobe was behind the camera to the left and bouncing off the white ceiling to bring the exposure up. Match all that lighting up to a 105 VR macro lens and cook it up in Adobe Lightroom.

BTW, Adobe just launched public beta test of Adobe Lightroom 2.0. I have it installed and played with it. I'm very excited! The masking feature will put it over the top. The best review I've read so far is here.

Stock Photography, Hunh? Microstock? not for me

Last fall, a new stock photography agency launched called Photoshelter Collection. I've been a member of Photoshelter Personal Archive for a couple years and use it to store some of my better photos off-site on their servers so when they launched the stock collection I was excited. They are quickly becoming a player in the stock photography market especially since the well documented demise of Getty Images. When the Photoshelter Collection was launched, I decided it was as good a time as any to enter the stock photography market. Their pricing seemed fair, sitting between the $1 microstock sites and the huge giants of Getty and Corbis with full premium fees. FYI on microstock: they sell images for $1-5 and the photographer gets 20% where Photoshelter and others are in the $50-250 range. I understand the draw from a buyers point of view. One dollar for a well crafted image is a steal. What I don't get is why a photographer is willing to sell an image for one dollar? Even if you sell it ten times you don't cover expenses for anything. I'm sorry, I have thousands invested in camera/computer gear as well as time in the creation of pro-level images. I could never stomach the idea of selling them for one dollar and making .20 cents each. Good luck to you if you sell via microstock. I personally think you are ruining things for lots of photographers and the market.

PhotoShelter: Fresh Stock Photos Served Dailly

I have close to 80 images listed with Photoshelter Collection now. The process of having your images judged is quite intriguing and I have yet to fully figure out their editing style and needs. I have not made a single sale in the six months I've been with them but I plan to stick with them for the foreseeable future. This is fairly typical in the stock photography business and I've been told I need an image collection in the thousands to start seeing some regular receipts. Let's compare this post again in six months to see if I make a sale or two.

I'm using stock photography as a filler in between commercial assignments and weddings and look for it as a longer term investment. It's very relaxing to conceptualize and image and try to create it. Keep an eye out for Photoshelter images in any publications or websites you read. Hopefully one day the image will have been purchased from me.

Maggie, Aidan, Will, Reid and headshot for Heather

Lots of photos today. Maggie was a tough customer but Aidan was a true professional. It was quite the production with one photographer, an assistant (HB), two moms bribing with snacks, one grandmother for security and four kids looking in different directions. What a hoot!
These are a couple outtakes from the shoot although they are both pretty darn cute shots. I did manage to get several photos of the four kids together and all looking at the camera. I'll save those for later.

We had a setting springtime sun. I used two strobes. One main to camera left into a large soft umbrella that my assistant had to hold down. The second was camera right and behind the subjects. I gelled it 1/4 CTO and put the diffuser cap on it. This helped bring out the sunset feeling and provided seperation from the background. The location was Harris Lake Park.

Prior to all the monkey business in the park with the kids I had a head shot session with the beautiful Heather Waliga, the new weekend anchor for News 14 Carolina-Charlotte. Heather was a true professional which is probably why she got hired! It was a busy day.

Zoey loves cake

Zoey was more than happy to pose for me while covering a 50th Anniversary celebration for her great grandparents. I used an SB-800 flash, on camera, bounced off the ceiling/wall to camera right and a wide angle lens. One of over 300 photos from this exciting event.

Salads for Chef Mario

Chef Mario does a monthly column in a local magazine highlighting his unique culinary creations and nutrition. The team at Chef Mario create some extraordinary meals (I'm no stranger to his stuff, believe me). With Chef Darcy assisting, I shot five salads for them with a combination of natural and strobe lighting. We were going for a close up look with not a lot of styling and propping.


A mix of natural light and strobe on this last shot. My natural light was fading so I brought a strobe/soft umbrella outside and basically helped the sun out a bit. Also a couple reflectors on this. This was the hardest shot of the series.


Look for Chef Mario's column in an upcoming issue of an (undisclosed magazine) later next month. Once it's published I will post up the magazine shots. These are proof shots with little processing or cleaning up. It was great working with Chef Darcy and the staff at Mario's. We were in and out in under two hours. I even got to bring a couple salads home!

Margie and Alfred: 50 years of marriage

I met Margie and Alfred at their home in Durham yesterday to mark the celebration of 50 years of marriage. They have much to be proud of and it was an honor to photograph them both. Look for more photos this weekend as I cover their anniversary party.

Product work

Day 41



Photo of the day 2008: 41
Product Work

Filet Mignon with Blue Cheese crumbles

Tim Marotta is a great chef. I would put his grilling up against anyone I know. I had the privilege of photographing one of his specialties, Filet Mignon with blue cheese crumbles served with a lettuce wedge salad. I would really like to see Tim put together a cook book. Tim cooked the entire meal and helped style the table too. Thanks Tim.



I made a proof gallery that can be viewed here that illustrates some of the different angles and set ups.

Link to Flickr with notes on how this shot was made.

Pine cone was my stand in.

Day 31 of POD.

News 14 Talent Headshots

Some recent headshots I did for News 14 Carolina. I have set up information on how these shots were produced in this previous post.

Cupcakes

Day 15

I shot this for my food portfolio and I rather like how it came out. Simple, clean and yummy. I wish I could take credit for creating this butter cream jewel but I cannot. I purchased it from the Cupcake Factory in Raleigh. I would link to their website but I can't seem to find one. They should give me a shout as I can probably help them on that too. It made for a great dessert for the family and I.

Brasbonitas Amaryllis

Day 8

I shot this beautiful amaryllis for a local gardener. It's quite stunning and draws a lot of attention to any room it sits in. I'm particularly pleased with this shot as I was about to break down and leave when I took it. I was racking my brain to think if I really captured this flower properly. I grabbed a chair and took some overhead shots that became the final cut.