A year in the making, I was excited to ship my official introduction to nearly 300 of the top creative folks in the photo industry last month. After a successful 2008 and beginning of 2009, I realized my commercial work came mostly through word of mouth and that I had made no marketing efforts. I knew in order to take my business to the next level, I needed to start marketing myself on a national level and more importantly, I had only one chance to make an awesome first impression.
“As an art buyer, I get a lot of little promotional pieces. I am spoiled. BUT, yours was so well put together and well done that I stopped everything I was doing and went to your website. NOT to my surprise your work is just as thoughtful, innovative and touching as your promotional piece. I officially have a work crush on you. Please come and see us so we can put you to work ASAP.:)”
This promo would be the first time the agencies and art buyers would hear about me so I wanted to fill it with items that told something about who I was. The challenge was how to fill a box with multiple items and not make it feel like a junk box. I worked closely with Suzanne Sease and Rob Jefferson to find items that were relevant to the audience of art buyers and creative directors and compiled my mailing list with Suzanne using Agency Access. I needed every piece of this promo to have a wow-factor so I worked exclusively with the most talented Robb Major to design everything from the screen printing of the shipping box to the design on the matchboxes. To tie it all together, I included my “to-do list” which is below.
“Cool promotional box! So much so in fact that I feel compelled to use you for our next photo shoot. I have a client in ————. Are you available and interested? Wow, this just goes to prove the power of good advertising.”
“This is the most amazing promo I’ve ever received in my 12 years of art buying! I truly hope to work with you soon and I hope this gets you a ton of work! Its genius!”
“I just received your magic lunchbox and I gotta say it’s quite the spread. The San Cristobal just made my drive to NY tomorrow night that much better. If you’re ever in ——– for a job let me know and I’ll set you up with a portfolio review with my art producer colleagues so they can get to know you. Thank you and stay in touch.”
It took two snowy days and a dozen awesome friends to put all of these boxes together and shipped in early February. The response has been outstanding and I have received an amazing amount of free T-shirt cards back full of comments request for portfolios as well as phone calls. The big task now is follow through….. and thinking about a 2011 promo!
Want a retro (empty, sorry) lunch tin of your own? Leave a convincing comment below and I may just feel compelled to mail you one.
A common headache for photographers getting started with digital photography is keeping their images organized; if left untouched, images can get lost in the shuffle very quickly. The key to keeping images organized is to come up with your own naming structure for your images and folders. In this post, I am going to explain my process of keeping images organized.
The goal is to have all of your images named in a way that if they are all put into a single folder together, they would all be in order by the date they were taken. Same for all of the folders we keep the photos in. Often, your camera will come with a photo editing software you can use in taking your photos off of your memory card and onto your computer. You can also use Apple’s iPhoto, Windows Live Photo Gallery, or for more advance photographers, Apple’s Aperture or Adobe’s Lightroom.
If you use a program such as Camera Bit’s Photo Mechanic to download your images, you can use this in your naming window:
{iptcyear2}{iptcmonth0}{iptcday0}_YourEventName_{seqn} = 100302_YourEventName_001
or
{iptcyear4}{iptcmonth0}{iptcday0}_YourEventName_{seqn} = 20100302_YourEventName_001
It is also important to keep your images similarly organized in the program you may use to organize your images such as Apple’s Aperture, Adobe’s Lightroom or any other program that may be provided in your camera’s software. Below is how I keep my Aperture library organized.
I’ve received several request to give simple camera/post-production/shooting tips so here is my first of many weekly photo tips. Please feel free to leave comments with questions as well as suggestions for other photo tips. Enjoy!
Cloudy White Balance, My Go-To
Starting photographers often complain about dull or blue tinted photos that make their subjects seem lifeless. My cure for this is to start using cloudy white balance. This setting can be found on most digital point-and-shoot as well as DSLR cameras and uses a cloud symbol. I use cloudy white balance when shooting in direct sunlight, when using a flash, indoors with natural light coming in from windows as well as any other situation where my images seem too cool. This works great for natural skin tones.
Below is an example of a piece of finished wood that is inside near a window, the difference is stunning.
I am excited to present my brand-spanking-new lifestyle book. With the help of Suzanne Sease I was able to condense and organize my library of lifestyle images into one portfolio book. This was made possible by using Apple’s Aperture to easily comb through 100,000+ images and organize and pair them with other images in the book layout program. Printed by Pushdot Studio and presented in a Lost-Luggage binding and cover, I wanted to keep the printed book consistent with my brand; clean, image-focused and organic. I chose a hardboard and extra thick matte paper to soak in the colors of the images.
Additional portfolios are available so please contact me if your agency would like to have one shipped to their office or if you would like to request a meeting.
I am thrilled to announce two 1-month internship opportunities with Casey Templeton Photography for Summer-Fall 2010.
Position Summary:
The program will require assisting on a variety of on-location photo shoots, handling various production and office responsibilities. Additionally, the chosen applicant will be required to select a personal project during the program and will be advised throughout the completion of the project.
This is an opportunity to work in a broad range of environments and with a broader range of clients. Photographers who wish to gain experience in on-location commercial photography will find this opportunity particularly beneficial. This position will also give the participant unique insight into the challenges and strategies involved in maintaining a photography business.
The first 1-month internship will take place between May and August, while the second will run between September and December. The participant must be available for six days a week during their assigned four week block. $1,000 will be provided to help cover living expenses during the internship.
Skills:
The best candidate is a driven individual with experience, either through education, work, or both, in photography or video and a desire to advance in the field.
An understanding of basic functions and principles of the camera and photography is a must.
Proficiency with Apple computers is preferred.
Proficiency in basic web design and Video and Audio capture is a plus but not required.
Firm grasp of social media management preferred.
*NEW* Win 1 of 5 copies of Aperture 3.0! You can enter any of the following ways:
RT the following on Twitter:
RT & follow @caseytempleton by March 15 for a chance to win copy of Aperture 3.0 | details: http://bit.ly/b5xleY | #ApertureRocks
Post a comment anywhere on my blog and finish your comment with “+APERTURE ROCKS!”
Post a comment on the Casey Templeton Photography Facebook Fan Page and include “APERTURE ROCKS!”
I was excited to hear that Apple released Aperture 3 this morning! I am equally excited to see that a number of my images were used on the website, instructional videos, etc! Since I started using Aperture in 2007, my image library has been revolutionized and the ease of organizing, editing, and delivering images to clients has taken my production process to the next level. Press release below as well as link to a free trial. Please never hesitate to hit me up with questions on getting started!
Aperture 3 Released by Apple
Press Release from Apple:
Apple Releases Aperture 3
New Features Include Faces, Places & Brushes
CUPERTINO, California—February 9, 2010—Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto® ’09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organize large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.
“Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets.” Continue Reading
Tis the season for holiday cards to be bought, signed, shipped and forgotten. To fight this un-merry trend, I teamed with Adam Mead and his crew at The Creative System to produce a holiday card to be enjoyed by all.
Here is how I had to shoot it:
The wood panel wall was super reflective so I had a hard time keeping streaks of light from appearing. I placed 2 side Canon Speedlites pointing directly to the middle so they wouldn’t hit the wall, only the models. I wanted all the images to have a gold tone to them so I had a 3rd Canon Speedlite aimed away from the scene and bouncing off a the gold side of my 74″ Impact reflector. To light the wall, I used 2 simple shop lights that helped to add to the gold tones.
I had the opportunity to photograph a great Virginia-based band, Louisiana Territory (myspace | Twitter | Facebook). Their new album is called, “Traces of Gold” so I worked with coordinator, Rob Jefferson, and stylist Molly Todd, to capture images that carried the “Traces of Gold” theme.
The guys wanted to stay away from typical band photography and were willing to try almost anything. This gave me the freedom to incorporate unconventional methods and experiment with some new ideas. Continue Reading
I had the great opportunity to work with Louis Uchitelle on a story about pilot, Bryan Lawler, and the adjustment of supporting his family on 50% of his previous income: Read Story and View Multimedia
I was thrilled to receive my new business cards in the mail today! Robb Major and Brad Frost designed the cards and ToraGrafix in California created them. I had two different cards made, same design, just different website addresses. This one is my general card that provides a links to caseytempletonphoto.com which is a splash page linking to both my main site and my wedding site. My other cards that I will provide to my commercial clients, will have a link to only caseytempleton.com.
I am a Richmond, Virginia-based commercial photographer specializing in providing a clean natural approach not only to the clients’ required images but also for a body of work. Because of this, I excel at developing image libraries for various national and international clients, particularly companies in the process of rebranding.
