I rarely keep a camera by my side when I’m not working.  Some may find this a bit odd but I think it adds to my creativity. When walking around with a camera, I end up looking for things to photograph and the images often don’t come naturally. Without a camera, I freely start framing and seeing images. I recently made the switch from the ol’ Blackberry to a Droid with a great camera app on it, FxCamera.  It has been a bit of a “visual rebirth” for me.  I have the best of both worlds now; no camera hanging off my shoulder with the pressure of finding a perfect picture,  but a quality micro camera that enables me to act on my creative whims and urges. Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: “But there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go. When I see this way I sway transfixed and emptied. The difference between the two ways of seeing is the difference between walking with and without a camera. When I walk with a camera I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my own silver gut. When I see this second way I am above all an unscrupulous observer.” Here are a few images I grabbed while on a job in Nashville last week.

I am always on the lookout for new clients, however, I put just as much effort into keeping my existing clients happy. In the commercial/advertising industry, a photographer out of site is most certainly a photographer out of mind.  So here are a few things I do to foster my existing client relationships and keep my name at the top of the list for upcoming projects.

• Under promise, over deliver.
• Be quick to deliver the work and make the process of your clients obtaining your files quick and easy (see “Utilizing your FTP“).
• Handwritten thank you notes for all jobs, small or large.
• Be responsive and accessible – answer emails and phone calls quickly.
• If you haven’t heard from a client in a while, send a note, email or quick call.  Don’t say “What gives!? Why aren’t we working together?” Just check in.
• Before submitting an estimate, be considerate of their budget if they have one. You don’t want to lose a client because you assumed the job was much bigger than it is and you submit an estimate that is twice the size of their budget.  This could send a client walking.  It never hurts to ask what their budget is.
• Never drag your feet on providing an estimate and with a returning client, try to be more flexible with your prices than a first time client.
• Be consistent with your estimates and do your best to consistently complete a project under budget.
• Keep good record of receipts to provide an all encompassing invoice.
• Always remember you are representing your client when on a job.  Show up more dressed up than you think you need to be.  Stay calm, cool and collected.
• Don’t friend a client on Facebook, let them friend you.
• Find your client’s personal comfort level of talking about business and personal issues and don’t cross it.

Your goal is to have your clients come to you and single bid the jobs.  But know the moment you get a new client is the moment you start losing them (Mad Men, I think). p.s. It may be a bad idea to submit your clients emails to http://clientsfromhell.net/

Back in college, I heard rumors about a JMU student winning College Photographer of the Year, and interning with National Geographic Magazine. I started following his blog and loved his willingness to give business advice, and his seemingly easygoing personality. Before long, and most of all, I truly began to admire his work. I first learned about an internship with Casey Templeton during a class lecture about branding yourself {2010 Promo}. I decided to apply because I would have just finished an 8-month intensive photography program with Boston University’s Center for the Digital Imaging Arts, and the “specs” for the internship seemed right up my ally.

I accepted the offer to come along side and learn from Casey and hopefully be able to contribute. I didn’t know what to expect because each photographer is different in the way they work. Would he be hard to get along with? Would I be getting coffee and stuffing envelopes? The internship proved to be nothing of the sort. My time proved to be extremely educational, fun, lots of work, and a great look into how he does business.

Photography: We had a wide range of work from a portrait shoot with Miss America, commercial shoots with Dominion Power, and a few wedding and family shoots. One thing I really appreciate about Casey’s work is that he doesn’t use lights solely for the purpose of using lights. He works with what he needs. All we need are light modifiers? Great. Pack the reflector. With lighting, one thing I learned was how to use speedlites on fully manual mode to achieve studio quality results on location. Apart from assisting Casey, I also worked on a personal project–recreating lighting from great photographs with a “bride and groom” twist.

Business: OH where to begin…interning with Casey was like taking a 4-year business degree and smushing it into a month. Here are some key words that I will ‘Post-It’ all around me: Set Goals. Network. Brand Yourself. Network. And Brand Yourself. It is most important that everything you create has a flow in color, look, feel, and name. And it is important that people see you and meet you and talk with you. You and your work are the best things that you can use to market yourself. Casey said, “Be as good of a business person as you are a photographer.” Do it. Live it. And family first. Some of the specifics that helped immediately was learning to utilize FTP {Photo Tip – Utilizing Your FTP}. If you are like me, who had NO idea what FTP even was, posted below is a great tutorial Casey put together. Using my website in order to send and show work is really a great tool to have. It is not only the easiest way to have clients view and download files, but  constantly directs people to your website!

After leaving, I feel super prepared to go out on my own. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but setting goals is really helping to spur me forward. From here on out, it is purely self-motivation. Sure, others will encourage me and give me advice, which is indispensable, but only I can take those steps of making it happen.

**Ali Black worked with me for the month of May after graduating from Boston University’s Center for the Digital Imaging Arts program. She wants to focus primarily on lifestyle wedding photography. The following is her recap of her time working with me and a few images she produced while working on a personal project. Take a look at some of Ali’s great work on her website: http://www.alisandraphoto.com/

Every photographer has a website these days, but very few are utilizing their website to its full ability.  A website consist of multiple files that are “hosted” online in a directory. To access your directory, contact your website hosting company and ask for your FTP information.

What FTP information looks like:

• FTP Server: ftp.yoursite.com
• FTP Username: exampleusername
• Password: samplepassword

Once you have this information, you can use FTP programs such as Fetch, FileZilla, Ubermind for Aperture, even some browsers have built in FTP such as Firefox FTP, to organize, store, deliver files, create web galleries, etc.

Basic way folders/directories work on your FTP:

Inside your directory, you have multiple folders and they are split up by the “/” and you can have various folders and images on your FTP site that you can access from anywhere you can jump online.  This can also be a great spot to store files you need while on the road and you can access them from any computer.  Notice below how the URL shows the path to the files.

Click on this link to see what the main directory of “ftpexample” looks like online: http://www.caseytempleton.com/ftpexample/ Here you can see that the other files on your website are safe because when you click on “Parent Directory” it takes the viewer to your main website.

Send large files to clients:

Sending large files is made extremely easy when using your FTP rather than emailing or using other file sharing programs. I believe this is also much more professional and keeps your client inside your brand. All you have to do is send them a single link and when they click on it, a window pops up and ask where you want to save the file. Try it below.

• Select a file, folder, or multiple files
• Right click and select “compress”
• Drop it on your FTP
• Send complete link to client ( ex. www.casytempleton.com/ftpexample/bigfile.tif.zip )

Post Web Galleries

You can set up folders for your clients and create web galleries showing your work or takes from a shoot. Programs such as Aperture, Lightroom, and Photo Mechanic are great programs to create web galleries. When you export a gallery using these programs, it produces a folder and inside has an index file, folders to hold your images and other files the site requires.  You can rename only the main folder and simply drag this into your main FTP folder. See below how this example gallery created in Aperture will look in your directory: http://www.caseytempleton.com/ftpexample/clientA/