The Pro Photo Business Forum

Business comes and goes, and sometimes we find ourselves staring at a sparsely populated calendar for a given week or month. So what can we do with our itchy trigger fingers? Volunteer! Find something that you like to do and volunteer your photography skills. I have done this several times and it has always been a satisfying way to (1) productively spend time that may otherwise have been wasted, (2) give back to the community, and (3) get into a situation to possibly drum up some business. Win-win.

Bryan Lindsey is an award-winning photographer based in Houston with professional experience nationwide, and he is the lead photographer for BCL Photography. To see more of Bryan’s work, visit www.bclphotography.com.

The business of photography is like a treadmill – if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Especially in today’s marketplace where all you need is a DSLR and a website to call yourself a professional, it is our tenacity, our “drive,” our stick-with-it-ness that will ultimately determine our success.

This is not a new concept for business owners. The dream of owning and operating a successful business is not without a price – long hours shooting, editing, refining skills, marketing, accounting, album designing, meeting with clients, etc. When many would-be photographers find out about this “price,” they will shy away and receede back into hobbyist mode. There’s nothing wrong with that – I myself am not willing to pay the price to be a full-time professional photographer. But realize that the difference between success and failure is likely our perserverence, our tenacity.

Bryan Lindsey is an award-winning photographer based in Houston with experience nationwide, and he is the lead photographer for BCL Photography. To see more of Bryan’s work, visit www.bclphotography.com.

I read something today in Modern Bride that caught my attention:

“We only had a professional photographer for the ceremony and formal pictures immediately following. In our invites we asked guests to bring their cameras, and our favorite shots ended up being the candids they snapped throughout the evening.”

Yeah. What did you expect? The ceremony shots and formals are pretty straightforward. Photographers are usually not given any artistic license during these events. So it stands to reason that the most fun shots are not going to come from the ceremony or the formals – OF COURSE the reception photos are your favorites.

The question is: who do you want taking your reception photos? If the bride quoted above had only compared professional images of her reception with the snapshots that she got, I bet she would be over-the-top thrilled with the professional images. The point is that the role of the photographer should not be underestimated – after the dances have been danced and the cake has been eaten, all that is left is the pictures. In 10, 20, or 50 years from now, what will you have to show your children and grandchildren from your wedding day? A quality wedding photographer will provide timeless images that you will treasure forever.

BCL Photography

How do you make sure to present your prospective clients with products that meet their budget needs? You ask questions that will give you some indication to their budget, without having to ask about their budget. After all, you wouldn’t want to scare someone off by offering them a $20,000 package when all they really need is your $2,000 package.

First, let me suggest that you do not put your email address on your site. Instead, make your contact form the only means to contact you, other than mailing address and phone number. This will ensure that you can ask the questions that you need to ask in order to present your prospect with the package that best suits their needs.

Asking your prospect where they are going on their honeymoon might be a good way to get an indication as to what package should be presented.

If they answer that they have no idea where they are going on their honeymoon, then perhaps it is to early for them to start thinking about honeymoon plans as they may not know how much they will be spending on the wedding. Perhaps with this potential client you would offer a package that was middle of the road.

However, if they know exactly where they are going on their honeymoon and they are very excited about the trip, then this could mean they have a large budget for their wedding. With this client you might want to think about offering a larger package. You might want to even offer traveling with them on their honeymoon.

Some additional good questions to ask…

“How many people will be attending your reception?”
“Where will your reception be held?”

If your prospect answers that there will be 350 people in attendance, and the reception will be held at the finest wedding reception facility in your area, you definitely want to offer one your finest products.

Consider adding these questions to your contact form, that way, when you reply to your potential client you can offer a package that meets their individual needs, and you are less likely to scare then off by offering something outside of their budget.

Happy Shooting.

However you decide to get the word out that your services as a wedding photographer are available, at some point, the phone is going to ring. If you are a beginning wedding photographer, you should know by now that your camera is not your most important piece of equipment. Make no mistake, your phone is your most important piece of equipment. Your ability to use it correctly will play a great part in your success or failure as both a business owner and wedding photographer.

If you’re just starting out, then I would suggest that you role play first with someone. Practice how you will greet your callers.

First, make a list of every question you can think of that will be asked of you. Make sure you can answer each of these questions without hesitation. If you hesitate in your answers, you may come across as a novice.

Keep in mind that each time you answer the phone you might be seconds away from making the biggest sale you have ever made. Smile before you pick up the phone. Have a pen and paper at the ready. Write down the caller’s name and use the name throughout the conversation.

Make a phone script and constantly change it to perfect your phone skills. Keep track of how many calls you convert into consultations. Only change one thing in your phone script at a time so you can better identify if the changes you have made are working for you.

Let’s go over some questions that might be asked of you and some suggested responses. When someone calls, for the most part, they will always ask one of the following questions:

• Do you have my date available?
• How much are your packages?

It is important to understand why these two questions are asked more than any other question. The people who call and inquire about your wedding photography services have more than likely never shopped for a wedding photographer before now. This means these are really the only two questions they can think of to ask. While you need to give the person calling you the answers to their questions, keep in mind if you answer with a direct response the conversation will be over.

When someone asks if you have their date available, inform the caller that you are looking up their date. While you are looking up their date, tell them you would love to know how they heard about you. Always ask how the caller heard about you and keep records of this information. This will help you to calculate cost per lead.

If the caller asks about their date first, their second question will be about price. It is important to understand that the caller really does want more information than just your price. They want to be educated as to what they can expect. They want to know all the questions they should ask in order to protect themselves and hire the best photographer they can within their budget.

Divert the conversation slightly. Ask a few questions yourself. Can I get your name? How did you hear about us? Can I tell you a bit about our products and services? Have you thought about what you would like as a final product? These are all great intros into a long passionate conversation.

Your goal, however, is to have a face-to-face conversation. Tell them that they really need to come in and see some of your award winning albums in person in order to get a real understanding of what you are all about.

Ask the caller where their wedding and reception are taking place. Have you photographed at either or both of the facilities? If so, tell a story about the last time you photographed at the facility in question. Inform the Bride-To-Be if she and her fiancé would like to come into your studio to further discuss their needs, you will have a slide show presentation ready of the last wedding you photographed at the facility in question.

Give them two or three times that you are available to meet. If you only offer one time, they will either say yes or no.

As you begin to photograph weddings, and begin to start blogging about your experiences, your online presence will gain momentum. This is not enough. The next step is to have other wedding professionals refer your services. This marketing technique can also be found in my e-book “Actions You Can Take to Promote and Protect Your Studio.”

Since we know that couples book their facilities before they book their photographer, make sure to take very flattering images of every reception facility where you find yourself. Make prints of these images, making sure to tastefully include your company name and contact information on the image itself, and then send the images to the facility free of charge. Include an invoice with the images. Show the value of the images on the invoice, and then show a 100% discount. List the reason for the discount as “professional courtesy”.

If the images are of good enough quality, it is possible the facility manager will use your images as a sales tool to reserve couples for their facility. In essence, the facility manager becomes your agent. When you have made your vendor images, be sure to deliver them in person. Use the opportunity to build a professional relationship and contact. Let them meet you face to face. Let them experience your passion and professionalism.

Now that you have this general idea of vendor prints, put it to good use. Send images to the florist. Who made the cake? Who made the dress? Who sold the wedding bands? Send them all images they can advertise with. I’ll bet they would love to show your images.

Do a search on Google for one of Houston wedding facilities, The Courtyard on St. James Place Houston. You will find that my studio, Solaris Studios, is listed as one of the top 10 listings. This is accomplished by including the wedding facilities name in our blog entries, throughout multiple blog entries.

When writing a blog entry about a specific facility you photographed, make sure to include the name of the facility. With any luck, when someone searches for that facility name on Google, your blog and site will appear in the search results. More than likely anyone searching for that facility is also in need of a wedding photographer. You can take this tactic one step further and include the company name of every vendor that participated in the wedding you photographed. Talk about who made the cake. Talk about where your client got her dress. Talk about where they got their rings. Talk about the florist. This may help your blog show up in search results for other search terms other than your own. If you haven’t photographed at a certain facility, but you want to shoot there, write a blog entry about that desire. Write the entry with the knowledge that once you post the entry, people searching for the name of that wedding facility on Google may now see your blog entry come up in their search result.

There is one more thing that you need to consider when writing a blog entry with the intention of including wedding vendors in the entry with the hopes of having your company name show up in search term results. Couples planning a wedding purchase and reserve the services of the wedding vendors they require in a certain order. Understanding this pecking order will make you more efficient.

The first thing a typical couple will reserve when planning their wedding is the location of their ceremony. The second thing they will reserve is the location of their reception. Sometimes the ceremony location and the reception locations are the same.

With their facilities safely reserved, they can then begin to shop for additional vendors. The reason couples do not begin shopping for vendors first, and locations for their wedding second, is because most wedding vendors require a retainer to reserve their services, and in most cases these retainers are nonrefundable.

Whether they know it or not, next on the couple’s shopping list should be the vendors that can only be at one place at one time. The photographer and the band are normally at the top of this list and I would say for most couples the photography is of course more important.

So what does this information tell us? It tells us when we make our blog entries we should always include the names of the facility where we photographed. Of course, we can include the names of the florist and the cake maker in our blog entries, but when it comes to the pecking order of how our clients shop, we know that they are going to normally purchase the flowers and a cake after they have reserved the services of a photographer. This means that you will get very few referrals from florists and cake makers. Your largest source of referrals is going to come from facility managers and catering directors.

If you know the name of the catering director or facility manager, make sure to include the person’s name in the blog entry and make them aware that you have done so. Let them know you are marketing their services. Simply send an email to the catering director with a link to your blog entry.

Happy blogging.

So I’m shooting this wedding a couple weeks ago. Ceremony is over, I am all set up for formals – manual mode, low shutter speed, camera on tripod. Just waiting for the family to get themselves rounded up. Over to the side of the altar, the bride begins interacting with the ring bearer and flower girl (both about 4 years old and super adorable). One of the bride’s aunts (or something) looks and me, points at what is really a great (albeit fleeting) photo and says “take a picture of that!”

Sigh. You and I know that as soon as I remove that camera from the tripod to take a picture of people who are moving, that 1/20 shutter speed will not hold up. Not enough time to get the settings right before the moment passes. Can’t shoot that scene with the camera on the tripod, or else you get the tops of everyone’s head.

So what did I do? I told the truth. ”I am all set up for the formals, by the time I set up to take a good shot of that (referring to that cute scene off to the side), it will be too late.” WRONG ANSWER. She looked at me like I was the dumbest photographer she had ever seen. How could someone charging thousands of dollars not fulfill such a simple request?

What SHOULD I have done? Taken the camera off the tripod and tried to take the shot. Click click, flash flash. Would the shot have come out in-focus? Maybe. Would it be completely blown out? Maybe, maybe not. But who cares? If it didn’t come out, the only person who really CARED about that shot was Aunt Bessie, so the future risk of “where’s that candid of the bride and kids?” was low. And even if they DID ask, the answer would THEN be “I was set up for formals and I did the best I could to get the shot, but the moment was too fleeting for me to change my settings and the shot didn’t come out.”

On rare occasions it is just easier to fake it instead of offering an explanation. Just don’t fake it when something really important is on the line.

BCL Photography, Houston Wedding Photographer

Magazine ads are expensive! But because you are now tracking all of the inquiries coming into your studio, you can calculate cost per lead. This gives you the information you need to tell you which of your advertising efforts is the weakest. Once you have identified your weakest ad, you can either change the copy, size, and/or layout of the ad in hopes of getting a better return on your advertising dollar.

Here’s a radical idea that might be a better way of spending your advertising dollars. It has worked wonders for my company: Cancel your weakest magazine ad and use those advertising dollars to take the top 15 catering directors and facility managers to lunch. Pick out 15 reception facilities that you would like to photograph on a regular basis. Contact the facility managers and invite them and their team to your studio for a catered lunch. Have a limo pick them up and bring them to you. Chose the limo company you use wisely. Find the most expensive wedding magazine in your area and see which limo companies are advertising there. Explain to the manager of the company you are hiring them to pick up catering directors from wedding facilities the limo company more than likely already services. The limo company just might give you a discount on their service.

When the facility manager arrives at your place of business, make sure to have everything looking as nice as it can so the manager understands this is what people will see should they decide to refer their clients to you. When your guests arrive, send out your assistant to pick up the food. During this time, you show your guests what you have to offer. Show them everything that you would show a prospective client. When the food arrives, you eat and tell wedding stories. When everyone is done eating, hand your guests a stack of 8x10s you have taken of their facility. Invite them to use these images as tools to help book events.

Establishing long lasting personal relationships with facility managers that can refer your services to their clients is much more powerful than purchasing a magazine ad which will some day expire.