LeeSimms Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Tough love, ahead.
> My site looks very nice, but my prices don't reflect upper end, where as some of the photographers in that middle bracket site matches work a little better.
Neither do your images. You're not a colorful photojournalist who's images feel like loving confetti. You're not an awesome conservative posed photographer, either — as judged by a ton of posing rules you break in almost every photo. I'm not sure who you're trying to be, other than a nice guy with a camera. I sense a lack of passion to truly excel in any area. I saw a photo of a bunch of guys on a tractor and one of them has a t-shirt ... nice idea, but that guy with the t-shirt blows it. Don't show that one. You should've shot one the eliminated the t-shirt guy for yourself. For your future marketing. We are have to be visual snobs who in a moment say "this looks good" and "this looks like crap let's change it." These images look like they are taken by a nice guy who doesn't want to make waves. You have to be assertive and say, "now one without t-shirt guy" ha, ha, ha, everyone laughs. T-shirt guys is pissed but WTF is he doing at a wedding in a t-shirt?
I sense you want to be a great conservative posed wedding photographer. If you want that client you have to show great posed conservative wedding photos which you don't have. There's a check list for posed photos they you blow, a lot. Before you shoot another wedding, or do any portfolio selection, I strongly suggest you read Roberto Valenzuela's Picture Perfect Posing. Then re-read it and test yourself on it. Now look at the initial images you're showing on your website. See all the rules you're breaking? Roberto's not the end-all / be-all on posing, but that book's the best thing that's ever been written on the subject. He was a teacher before he was a photographer and we benefit from it.
I think posed & controlled wedding work is WAY easier than photojournalism. You're in control and you check off a bunch of checklist items then just create a final zen-like hint of magic/sex appeal. Photojournalism is fishing. Put your pole in the right spot, know how the fish react, pray that they come to you. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't. Most wedding photojournalism is boring, but customers gravitate to it because they attended a friend/relative's wedding and the photographer didn't how to pose people and wasted everyone's time on a hot summer day with poor results. So they say "I don't want that" and go to photojournalism where at least they know they'll have a great wedding — even if the posed glory photos are sorta flat.
And tighten up all your web copy about yourself. You can't pick up a women at a bar by telling her you were late on a car payment 10 months ago. Your copy reads like that — WAY too much meaningless detail. No sex appeal. No passion. What makes you tick? If you hired a professional copywriter to write your bio what would they say?
>> tough love, now over <<
I'm not a 20-something bride, I'm a 50-something guy who markets to women. Talk to 20-something brides and they'll tell you what they want (if you read between the lines). It's marketing, it's branding. Know your client.
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