Just a quick reminder: the Early Bird deadline for this workshop is JUST two weeks away! If you would like to attend, please email me before the 25th to get the $450 rate. We do still have spaces available, and I am so excited about this workshop. Ellie's studio is gorgeous and we will have some great natural light to work with indoors, along with the studio strobes we will be using.
I sometimes say that the portrait world is an incestuous business. We all look at each other's work, and when we see something we like, we file that away for future reference. So you'll see these big trends (the giant teacup, the baby in a bowl, that terrifying-to-moms "baby dangling in fabric" newborn shot, etc) that suddenly EVERYONE is doing because we're all watching each other for the next good idea. There is a lot of inspiration and borrowing that goes on, and that is one of the things that makes friendships with other photographers and involvement on photography boards so great. If you're in need of a new promotion or a new set, there are so many options to choose from and you're sure to find something that will inspire you once you start looking around.
But after awhile, you start to see problems. Constantly finding inspiration in other photographers, particularly those in your own area, can be like marrying your cousin. It might seem like a good idea at the time, but somewhere down the road you realize that maybe the ties were too close and things are going wrong. (How's THAT for a terrible analogy?) To put it back into photography terms: if everything you're offering is a copy of someone else, where is your style? And what would make a client choose you over them? You'd have to do far superior work, or you'd have to charge much less to make it seem like a deal.
That leads us to the lesson behind this post. If you want to not just survive, but to succeed in the portrait world, you have to create your own look, products and brand. If you are doing custom portrait work, and "The 98 Portraits for $9.99 Chain Studio" at the mall starts offering what you do for a price that no small business could compete with and survive, you have to change what you do to stay ahead of the game.
Differentiate or die.
Now that's not a personal threat to anyone in particular, LOL. But here's the deal: we all offer the same types of promotions, because so many are seasonal or holiday based. We all offer some of the same products (although now that places like Costco and Best Buy are offering them at less than OUR cost at the pro labs and the high quality vendors, maybe it's time to rethink some of those). When I talk about pricing, I hear from so many of you who say, "but ShelbyLane [no one calls me by just my first name anymore] you don't know my area... there are at least 12 other 'location only' photographers who offer exactly what I do in my small town, and if I charge what I need to charge to stay in business, everyone will go to them cause they're cheaper." And those of you who have been to a workshop or a conference or have talked to me by email or in the line at Starbucks all know what I say to that: "Well what else do you do to set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd?"
For instance, if there are 20 other photographers in your area who have an "About Me" section on their site that says "My love for photography began with the birth of my first child, and as a mom myself I know the beauty of the everyday moments and am more sensitive to your needs as a parent" or whatever, does yours say the same thing? While it may be the truth, that is no longer setting you apart as THE choice for their portraits -- it's the exact same thing that everyone else is telling them. Maybe yours needs to change, just to set you apart from the crowd.
What inspires you in regular life? What makes your heart sing? If you had to describe your style, how would you do it? One of the best exercises I ever did was for a graphic designer. She asked a lot of questions about what moved me, what inspired me outside of photography, and what I loved. Those were surprisingly difficult questions to answer at the time. I had been describing my style, as many of you do, as "artistic and candid black and white natural light outdoor portraits of kids being kids." And after I typed that out, I realized that really didn't describe what I did anymore. Once I sat down and really thought about it, I realized that my style is heavily inspired by classic children's book illustrations from books I loved as a child. I just didn't really do the candid b&w look as much anymore. But I had never sat down to think about the images that I truly loved and what I truly wanted to shoot every day and offer to my clients as heirlooms.
So my challenge to you for 2008 is this: Learn to be the trendsetter. Look for inspiration in places OTHER than children's portrait photography, and definitely outside of your geographical area. Movies. Magazines. TV commercials. Books. Music Videos. Museums. Other types of portrait photography. Look at how people use light, color and texture in their senior or bridal portraits -- some might be too trendy and edgy for you, or two "old school" for your taste, but that doesn't mean you can't learn something from the beautiful lighting or posing or set design they use.
Or, take the inspiration from other children's photographers and make it your own. Don't rebuild their set in your studio. Take the parts you like, and change some others around to make it YOURS. I hear a lot of people say, "I love that set you did, but my studio's too small for it." Well think about what it is that you loved about that set, and then figure out how you can get a similar feeling in your own space. Will it be exactly the same? Nope. But it will be all yours. You don't want to live your professional life as someone else's shadow.
So, since we're all revamping our pricing and websites and marketing pieces for the new year, take some time to look at your overall presentation. The quality of your work. How you're presenting it to your clients. The language and information you're using on your website and your blog. Your personal style. If you say "what personal style" then maybe it's time to start looking at those inspiration questions. What moves you? What do you LOVE? What is it about the images that melt your heart that makes them so special? If you can answer these questions and incorporate them into your own business, you'll be closer to finding your own unique look.
So here is this year's Winter White set. We're running these special white sessions for the next two weeks, and we can customize the set for families and individuals. We also have a special "add on" for little ballerinas that includes the barre and Tim Teddy in a tutu (Charlotte was very very upset that I would force a boy bear to wear girl clothes, but the promise of chocolate was enough for her to overlook the insult).
This is set up on our north light wall, and we're shooting everything we can with window light. Sometimes, with a family, this isn't really practical so we go ahead and drag the softbox over. We still get the nice, soft window light look, but I have to work harder to light the background to keep everything looking natural. So for individuals, as long as we're getting enough light, we'll shoot with the window as our main light for these sessions.
I knew we'd be using a rough wooden barre for the ballerinas, so I wanted the rest of the set to be soft and flowy with shades of white and tan. The background is netting curtains from Ikea on a background stand, pooled at the floor. The barre is a wooden dowel attached to some old light stands, which are covered with soft white material as well. This set still needs something for the little ballerinas... I think some pink rose petals and some satin ribbon will help finish it off for our sessions this week. The background is set back about six inches from one window, and the barre is set back about a foot from what we're using as our "main light" window. The barre and the background are about 6 feet apart. I'm also using a 4x6 silver reflector for some fill on the shadow side. I metered Charlotte's face and shot by those readings -- today was very darkly overcast, so my readings were ISO 320, 1/80th (shooting from a camera stand) @ 3.5, shooting with the D200 and the 85mm lens. With a more active kid, I would have had to bump up that shutter speed to avoid kid motion blur, OR I would have used the strobes to make life a little easier. Charlotte is a good model and knows to stay (mostly) put, so I knew I could shoot with window light for her, even with less than ideal lighting conditions, and still get sharp images. Plus, I knew that a little grain would be okay, because I wanted these to have a handcolored, more filmy look.
I always shoot in RAW, so in Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw I added contrast and then opened them in Photoshop. These have a Kubota BW action applied and then backed off to about 70%, and I brought back a tiny bit of additional spot color in the cheeks and lips. Then I added one of the Kubota grain filters to complete that ambient light/high speed bw film look that I was going for. I will post some family images using the strobes on the studio/client blog later on this week so you can see the difference in the overall look as well as in how we will process those. It is very easy for me to move my equipment around in the studio, so if we decide we need supplemental/artificial light it's right there -- I just change my meter back to strobe, meter, change camera settings, and go.
A big thank you to the fabulous Jen Hillenga for the inspiration. :)
We have only 9 spaces available for the Minnesota workshop! Here are three of the closest hotels to where we will be meeting.
Country Inn 763-684-4225 in Buffalo, MN
Super 8 763-682-5930, also in Buffalo.
Sheraton Minneapolis West Hotel in Minnetonka 952-593-0000 (this is about 10 minutes farther out from Angie's studio, but a little closer to the Twin Cities).
I am trying to get back into gear after the little holiday break! We will be back in the studio starting tomorrow (1/3). We are still taking registrations for Coeur d'Alene, Idaho! I can't wait to come out and see y'all (even though I have been warned that it will be cold). ;)
HOTEL INFO FOR COEUR D'ALENE:
We do not have an "official" hotel but our hostess has given me a list of several for you to choose from. I have found that we can almost always get a better deal on individual hotel rooms through travel sites (Orbitz.com, etc) than we can when we try to negotiate a group rate.
La Quinta (on Sherman Ave.) (208) 667-6777
Ameritel Inn (Ironwood Ave.) (208) 665-9000
Holiday Inn Express (brand new hotel on Seltice Way) (208)667-3100
Remember that January 25th is the last day to get the early bird registration fee ($450) and that we are only taking a maximum of 15 attendees for this date. This is our only Northwest date this year!
The studio is closed till after the first of the year, so if you're calling for workshop info, I will not be there to answer. If you email, I am likely to get it, though! It just may take a few days. I'm trying to get my house and the studio back in order after the Christmas Craziness.
Just wanted to update, though:
Coeur d'Alene, ID has 12 spots remaining
Delano, MN has 12 spots remaining
San Diego, CA has opened for registration
Chicago Area is still up in the air, as far as dates and location go. I'll give it another few weeks so we can get past everyone's crazy time and we'll see what we can do about pinning down a time, date, and place.
Here's a quick shot of some of our New Braunfels workshop attendees, for Valerie. Aren't they a cute bunch? I would love to show some of the lighting tests but I have to get some permission first. ;) Abbey showed us a good example of why the 50mm lens is not ideal for headshots, but I'd like to keep her as a studio employee so I'll have to run those by her first. Hope this posts okay... it looks icky on the preview so I might have to run my little "for the blog" action on it and reupload.
Happy Holidays, everyone!!!
It boils down to photography and business -- anyone who knows me can tell you that I can't talk about one without talking about the other. My two day workshops are split about half and half between the two. We will have models and will be doing some shooting, but we will also be talking a lot about business, marketing and pricing.
So here are some of the main points we talk about. It's a lot of information packed in to two days, and we bring in lunch so we don't have to stop learning. We usually have a mix of about half "newbies" and half established photographers. The pre-requisite for this particular set of workshops is that you know how your camera works and how to use it in manual mode. I would highly recommend bringing a light meter along with you!
Style, Philosophy, and Inspiration. Learn to look in new directions to find inspiration for your style, to help keep things fresh and updated while creating your own unique vision.
Simple Lighting and Posing. Good studio children’s work doesn’t have to look stiff and unnatural. Learn techniques to help make your studio light work look more like natural light and how to create clean, well-lit and posed baby and child images without losing the spontaneous feeling that is so popular right now. We will be working with one light and a reflector, and adding on an additonal accent light.
Outdoor Lighting and Location Choice. Making your life easier and shortening your post-production time by learning what to look for in a location. Using just "natural" light, adding a reflector, when you need fill flash and how to add it, and how using your strobe outdoors for family portraits can help take your outdoor portraits to the next level.
Shooting for Style: Lighting, Posing, and Simple Set Design to Promote Your Look. Find inspiration in new places! How to use what you see around you to help define your style and build unique but simple sets.
Tips and Tricks for Maternity and The First Year. Create images your clients will fall in love with and talk about all year long. Poses. lighting, and hints for some difficult to photograph ages, families, and techniques for making expectant moms look their best.
Pricing for Profit. No, it's not just guesswork. A step by step process for determining your break even point, and what you need to make to survive.
Creating Your Brand. It's about more than just a slick logo. Learn how the way you present yourself sets you apart from the rest of the pack.
Baby Plans: Little Blessings, Big Rewards. Your baby plan doesn't have to be a pain! Learn how to organize your program to offer good benefits to your clients without giving away the studio.
Relationship, Community and Web Marketing. Want to know how to find and keep those ideal clients? Learn simple, effective, and inexpensive ways to promote your business and your style to your target market.
The lovely and talented Melissa Perkins-Weisbrod will be our hostess for two days of learning fun in San Diego, CA this spring. Her studio is gorgeous and is located in the Little Italy section of San Diego -- so count on some good food! We are now accepting registrations and this workshop will fill up at 20 attendees. So all you southern West Coasters mark your calendars now for May 3rd and 4th!
Registration will be $450 now, $550 after April 1. As always, this includes the two day workshop, the 2008 materials kit, and lunch in the studio both days. To register, download the form below and email it to workshops@shelbylane.net We will call you to complete registration. Remember that all registration fees paid between now and the 31st can be written off on this year's taxes. ;)
Well, Twin Cities, you have a date by popular demand. :) Angie Kalthoff will be our host for a two day workshop on March 29th and 30th.
Again, we will cover lighting (both in-studio and outdoors), posing (focusing on first year, families, maternity), branding and marketing to build your business, making a baby plan work for you, and of course, pricing. Saturday night we will have an optional porftolio and pricing review. For more details on what we cover, check out the workshop end of the site. Registration will be $450 before March 1st, $550 after and we will be taking 15 registrations for this one as well. You can download the registration form at the end of this post to email back.
(Rock Island/Chicago -- I am still working on things. If you are in the Chicago area, we have had a generous offer from a Rock Island photographer -- please send me an email if you would be "in" for this.)
I took a class from Bruce at Texas School a few years ago and it was amazing. So when we heard he was coming to town for the night, Laura and I decided we HAD to go.
I'm so glad we did. Even though I spent a week learning from him, his one-night program still an inspiration. He covered marketing, getting organized with your business, outdoor lighting, and so much more. And we got a nifty little notebook to take home. :) One of the things that I love in his programs is that he urges you to create an Action List, which is kind of a to-do list with deadlines. I am really bad about jotting down ideas, even down to the "how we would implement this and what needs to come together to make it happen" details, but these inspirations often get stuck in the "in my dreams" phase. I have gotten more done, more efficiently in the past couple of weeks just by tacking a daily Action List to my wall. Thanks, Bruce!
His New Directions Tour is likely to be coming to a city near you. If you have the chance, GO. You will leave with some great new ideas and inspiration to get busy on your own "in my dreams" projects. :)
