livebooks blog

There’s nothing more ego shattering than interviewing a photographer who is as old as my career is long and finding out that she has kicked my ass in a market place that I coveted for years. Shooting book covers for literary works is downright respectable in a bizarre, pseudo-erudite sort of way.

“Did you read Rolling’s Recalcitrant Ruminations of Ruskin?”

“Why no darling, but I did shoot the image for the cover of the hardback.”

“Oh, bravo. Glass of sherry?”

I tried to get into that publishing circle for years. To say that they didn’t give two shits about me is, to be honest, crediting myself with one shit too many. Which brings me to my guest, photographer Claire Rosen. She was recently contacted by the boutique global publishing firm Random House to shoot the cover (left) of Sarah Addison Allen’s book The Girl who Chased the Moon.

The folks at Random House were intrigued by Miss Rosen’s distinct style of photography when they came across it at one of her gallery openings. The assignment (I’m not joking): Read the book and pitch some ideas of how the cover should be shot. The folks at Random House chose one of the ideas and Claire was, (I promise, I’m not joking), free to go shoot it and send in the results.

That kind of paid creative freedom with a high-profile client is practically nonexistent in contemporary society. Not only do you get paid to do your creative thing, you can window shop at a Barnes and Noble on a date and feign surprise when you see your book cover. If I want to accidentally-on-purpose show off my book cover I have to start a fire in the café of the book store, convince my date that it’s safest in the photography section and then use my book to fan away the smoke. “You okay? Hey look at that!”

Gigs like Miss Rosen’s can become a wonderful source of work. In just a week since receiving her first assignment, she has landed another book cover. If you’re interested in doing this type of work, you need to keep one thing in mind: The people at publishing houses who are green-lighting covers aren’t looking for photographers. They are looking for covers.

I reached out to a senior art director at Little, Brown Books to find out what he’s looking for from photographers. He suggests going to the bookstore to find covers, illustrated or photographic, that are similar to your narrative style. Check the imprint names on the books’ spines and contact those publishers to get the name of their art director.

The best way to reach out art directors is by mailing a hard-copy promo with an example of your work. Email promos have become the bane of art directors, my contact said. The barrage of email promos from listing services has resulted in a backlash, and they are routinely deleted out of hand.

One phrase that stood out in my interview with the Little, Brown art director was “cover appropriate.” Take the time to do your research. If your work doesn’t look like any cover you’ve seen, then don’t send it to the publishers.

With all that in mind, take a day and hang out at the bookstore — you could find a whole new direction for your photography business. Just please pretend not to notice if you see a guy in the café torching a pile of coffee beans.

“Client’s remember these things and they’ll tell their friends.”

Northern Gannet male bringing nesting material to mate. ©Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

In his  RESOLVE video, Art Wolfe mentioned that the percentage of his income derived from the big stock agencies is a fraction of what  it was a few years ago. Before 9/11, BIRDS AS ART w as making  about 50% of our annual income from leasing the rights to photographs  for publication; that now  generates less than 10%. Lot s of people complain, “I don’t get assignments anymore; no one wants to buy our pictures; there’s a million hobbyists selling their pictures for next-to-nothing; how can we compete?”  Realizing that things had changed, we looked elsewhere and came up with several new ways to generate income.

Two burrowing owls. ©Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

The first was the sale of educational material, usually in digital form.  That  has  been tremendously lucrative for us and very helpful for the people who are just starting in bird photography. In 1985 when I bought my first lens, the first and only class that I ever took ran two hours for each of eight Tuesday nights. I remember begging the  instructor to explain exposure to me. He was a studio photographer and he knew how to get the right exposure but he could not explain what it was or how he did it. He was and is a great instructor and became a long time friend, but boy, was I confused back then. One big thing that has helped us contribute to the wealth of information that now exists about all kinds of photography was to get away from traditional publishing. We now self-publishing, often selling stuff online as PDFs or formally manufactured CDs. Doing so has swung the profit margin from the publisher to us.

Another important piece of our income pie is selling equipment and accessories online. George Lepp’s son Tory was marketing a flash projector for telephoto lenses years ago and Walt Anderson, who is from Chicago, came up with something much more compact that was easy to travel with, folded flat, fit in your pocket, and gave you the same three-stop gain in flash output. We sent a sample to a guy in the industry named Brian  Geyer.  He said, “Hell,  that ain’t no Flash X-tender, it’s a  Better  Beamer.” And thus the Better Beamer became the  very first BIRDS AS ART mail-order item. Now 15 years later, we’re doing five-to-six hundred thousand dollars annually with our mail-order business. The secret to our success there has been answering thousands of equipment and accessory questions each year via e-mail and phone, providing honest and accurate answers, and actually teaching folks how to use the stuff that we offer.

Atlantic Puffin in flowers. ©Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Aside from the sale of products, I’ve made a tremendous amount of money teaching others to photograph nature, especially birds. My formula is a simple one: Pick a place where the weather is going to be good most of the time and the birds are going to be  both numerous and relatively tame. When I started as a birder and I went out every morning for seven years before school. I changed my prep period to coincide with my lunch so I could go watch birds  in Forest Park. Being a birder for seven years and being a good teacher was a great combination. I’ve often said, “If I can teach 4th graders who can’t read how to do long division, teaching  photography to adult is is child’s play.”  I’ve put a lot of energy into helping other photographers and sometimes it’s a little draining, but the rewards are great.

Then, more than a year ago, a couple friends asked me to get involved with a new educational site, BirdPhotographers.net. There are a bunch of different sites where you post images for folks to comment on —  and pretty much it’s all  “great shot,” and pats on the back. So I said, I’ll get involved with BirdPhotographers.net on one condition: that everybody agrees to do honest critiques, gently. We’ve got to stay away from “great shot” and really teach these people. It’s been a tremendous success and now gets about five million page views per month.

One of Ann's signature dog images. ©Ann Hamilton

Miki Johnson: Tell me about how you got started in photography.

Ann Hamilton: We all have turning points in our lives and, for me, it happened in January 2000 when I was laid off from a dotcom company. A few months later, and still unemployed, I was interviewed by a reporter from U.S. News & World Report about my experience working at a dotcom. During the interview, the reporter asked what my next plans were. Without thinking, I said, “I’m going to be a professional photographer.”

My only experience with a camera was a disposable plastic one. I didn’t know what an SLR was, or what “aperture” or “shutter speed” meant. Subconsciously, though, I think I had always wanted to be an artist. And having worked in the corporate world for nearly 10 years, I was ready to start a business of my own.

The article hit the newsstands in May, and the following month I interviewed with a local portrait photographer who had done a handful of weddings on the side. I had no portfolio or any knowledge of photography, but I was willing to learn and very enthusiastic. I told the photographer that I would work for free in exchange for experience. I was hired on the spot and wound up assisting all summer, getting a taste for weddings and learning about every aspect of photography. In October, I photographed my very first wedding, in Mendocino on a bluff overlooking the ocean. That was the day I fell in love with weddings.

Now dog portraits also make up a significant part of my business. That became viable in 2005 when I opened a storefront studio with my colleague and friend Gene Higa. Gene encouraged me to launch my dog portrait business, and having a permanent studio to work in made that possible. My logo of a bride walking a dog (left) was inspired by my pug, Bogie, who was the inspiration for my dog portraits and was by my side since the inception of my photography business.

MJ: How were you able to parlay the skills you learned as a wedding photographer to photographing dogs?

AH: I’ve always been attracted to clean lines, natural light and negative space in my wedding work. It was only natural for me to use a clean background for my dog work too. I also use a single strobe because I don’t want the images to look too artificial. I had to adapt to shooting my dog portraits in a 330-square-foot storefront studio, cutting down a 9-foot roll of seamless to 6 feet because of the small space. Having to work within certain confines also helped define my shooting style.

At weddings, I crop everything in camera, so what I deliver to my clients is the full-frame image. But with dogs, because our studio space was so small, I would shoot everything wide and crop later. Now, I’m working out of a new studio space, a tri-level loft in the Dog Patch neighborhood of San Francisco. The new space has afforded me more room in which to work, with the added benefit of being able to work out of my home, with a separate entrance for my business.

As my dog portrait business grew, I found that I needed to define the two areas of my business with two different brands. I hired the Collective Lines design firm to create a logo specifically tailored for my dog work. The result is a clever dog tag design (below).

Now that my wedding and dog brands are distinct yet complementary, it  is easy for my clients to cross over. Many of my wedding clients have dogs, and I end up doing dog portraits as well as shooting their wedding. And it’s not uncommon for my dog clients to inquire about my wedding photography services. Plus, having a niche has helped set me apart from other wedding photographers in the Bay Area.

My dog portrait business has become an important supplemental income to my wedding photography business. Weddings are seasonal — dog portraits are year round. By diversifying, I’m able to maintain my normal wedding rates and not feel pressured to booking every weekend throughout the year. It allows me to have a greater level of flexibly and balance in my life and work.

Ann's beloved pug, Bogie. ©Ann Hamilton

MJ: Is it a harder sell to convince people to spend significant money on dog portraits?

AH: Dogs are the new “fur babies,” especially here in San Francisco where there are so many services catering to dog “parents.” Doggie acupuncture, massages, and hotels are the rage. Photography is another of those services.

It’s important for me to market my business to the right client — someone who understands that a dog portrait session is a luxury item, yet someone for whom price is not the deciding factor when booking a session with me. There is value in what I’m offering and my clients understand that. The photographs are something to remember their dogs by, now and long after the dog is gone. I know this all too well as I recently lost my beloved Bogie.

MJ: Do you have advice for photographers who are considering expanding into dog portraiture?

AH: Dogs are not always easy to photograph, but I’m always up for the challenge; I never go into a shoot thinking I’m not going to get the shot. My dog clients come to me with certain expectations. They want their dog photographed just like the images they see on my website. Sometimes the dog has other ideas, though. Especially when I’m shooting a puppy or more than one dog, getting the dog to stay focused can be a challenge. It takes a lot of patience. Dogs can also sense if you are a dog person or not. You have to have really love and respect animals to do this.

My advice to photographers considering dog portraits as a career is to follow your passion, work hard, and be original. Take a photography class or workshop, attend a convention like WPPI (Weddings & Portrait Photographers International), or shadow a few photographers whom you admire and absorb as much as you can. Be prepared to put some time and effort into your career. A photographer I apprenticed with when I was starting out once told me that there are no shortcuts in business. In an industry where we all have access to the same tools, it’s very easy to be influenced. The challenge is to be original.