julieawhitlock wrote:
The first three years in business I turned down every single client I didn't feel inspired to work with.
Sounds like you had the privilege of being in a position to afford to be so choosey ... maybe you had another job ... maybe you had an old man who worked.
D. Diggler wrote:
Sounds like you had the privilege of being in a position to afford to be so choosey ... maybe you had another job ... maybe you had an old man who worked.
D. Diggler wrote:
Sounds like you had the privilege of being in a position to afford to be so choosey ... maybe you had another job ... maybe you had an old man who worked.
Being a good at the business of photography gets snide remarks? Sounds like she is smart enough to find the right clients for her and network to give (and receive) referrals from other photographers.
There are plenty of successful photographers who've figured this out. There are others who never will.
Haha. I worked a full time job AND ran my business full time until i had a loyal enough following to go and stay full time. That's not a luxury. That's a smart way to start a sustainable and profitable business. I still turn down any couple I don't feel would be a good match for me. And I book full each year. Super happy clients who book me because they've been referred by other super happy couples builds a solid business.
lindabrowne wrote:
Being a good at the business of photography gets snide remarks? Sounds like she is smart enough to find the right clients for her and network to give (and receive) referrals from other photographers.
There are plenty of successful photographers who've figured this out. There are others who never will.
It's not easy. Trust me, the temptation to pick the low hanging fruit is always there. I just know if I do book that couple I don't like, wants me to do a bunch of Pinterest poses, wants different editing...whatever the reason I don't really want to book them...it's going to result in images that don't have the same feeling, don't show the same connection and they won't be recommending me to all their friends with enthusiam. Its a dead end booking. We wont stay friends. I'll just be the wedding photographer whose name they cant remember in a year. Also, I get booked a lot based on client care and building client relationships. Really hard to do that if you don't click. Short term pain= long term gain to me. I'm not saying its the way for everyone. It's just the way for me. And thankfully the hard part is over.
sozypozy wrote:
That's a great opportunity to have. Not all people get to choose their clients, you are lucky
Julia's not "lucky," she worked her ass off. it's insanely hard to really build a business while working another full time job. I know, I was doing that last year. I finally burned out towards the beginning of fall from working a full time day job AND trying to shoot weddings and build up my business. I ended up deciding I saved enough of a cushion to just go for it and quit the day job. It probably would have been wiser to do as Julia did and just cherry pick and do a damn good job with the weddings I *really* wanted while raising my rates.
Weddings are DUUULL. They are the same over and over. People think they are doing something different each time but everytime I think, my god, why do people do this to try and be different.
A couple are generally expecting the usual thing. Pictures of this and pictures of that. If you got creative on their day to get a few great and different shots. I am sure they might be very pi$$ed off that you didn't get the knives and forks or got a wobbly reflection but cool shot of her shoes.
On the other hand, which I have been thinking about lately is having a great photographer to shoot all the mundane things and I turn up to shoot the way I want and at my pace..
I drool over some of the shots I see on some sites, but these are few and far between, you visit the full galleries and there ya go...The same old same old again.
You are shooting for your clients. If you can tell them from the get go I don't do this, I don't do that and everyone knows where you stand that's fair enough otherwise you are going to be shooting the same old stuff time after time or a slight deviation from it...
RichardLavigne wrote:
Your reply sums it up quite nicely... if you're interested in being everyday and average, continue to book anything and everything that walks through the door.
Honestly though... I'm not actually suggesting turning away clients (okay, maybe that is the right thing every once in a while) but actually, I'm suggesting that you find a way to target your ideal client and design your website, your interaction with them, your presentation... everything, so that it attracts that client. If you do so, you don't have to turn away clients because only the right ones are coming to you.
That's ridiculous and I agree with the other poster. You can't turn jobs away. If it aint your main business fair enough, you can do that but if you are trying to pay the bills raise kids, how the hell can you turn jobs down. You can try to attract the right clients, I agree with that but turning work down....I don't think so...That is a very bad business plan and advice. If you are getting 1000 weddings requests a year at 5k each on a quiet year, then year, turn them down but I don't think any person will be turning them down until they get to that stage..
jammin wrote:
Weddings are DUUULL. They are the same over and over. People think they are doing something different each time but everytime I think, my god, why do people do this to try and be different.
A couple are generally expecting the usual thing. Pictures of this and pictures of that. If you got creative on their day to get a few great and different shots. I am sure they might be very pi$$ed off that you didn't get the knives and forks or got a wobbly reflection but cool shot of her shoes.
On the other hand, which I have been thinking about lately is having a great photographer to shoot all the mundane things and I turn up to shoot the way I want and at my pace..
I drool over some of the shots I see on some sites, but these are few and far between, you visit the full galleries and there ya go...The same old same old again.
You are shooting for your clients. If you can tell them from the get go I don't do this, I don't do that and everyone knows where you stand that's fair enough otherwise you are going to be shooting the same old stuff time after time or a slight deviation from it...
jammin wrote:
Weddings are DUUULL. They are the same over and over.
I drool over some of the shots I see on some sites ... you visit the full galleries and there ya go...The same old same old again.
I'm sure that wouldn't be true for the Big Names on this board, though.
Well. Sooooo far and I am new to the business I find them pretty tedious. I do throw myself into them and I try to make them work for me but it's all pretty much standard stuff. I personally need to deviate away from the norm or get those x number of safe shots, so I can be creative.
As I work my way up the wedding ladder, things might change, but so far they all follow the same old boring pattern, this is to do with my clients and also to do with me. I am still a little scared to step outside of getting those standard shots because I know at the end of the day, no matter who the client, they still want them. I am sure a full album of blurry fine art shots is not what someone is looking for.
I personally have some lovely unplanned portraits shots and other shots from each wedding but in terms of percentage these shots are very small in the grand scheme of images I present.
I view it as a job and not one I love I'm afraid but with each job I try my best for the client and for me, but it has become dull very quickly.
