livebooks blog

• The Online Photographer highlighted a brilliant idea for goodwill marketing this week: Minneapolis photographer Scott Streble is doing a one-day free portrait shoot for anyone in the area who is unemployed. Noticing the poor quality of pictures he saw on his unemployed friends’ resumes, Scott hoped to improve his friends’ chance of landing a job by providing them with better headshots. See more details at Scott’s blog.

• Arctic glacier expert and photographer James Balog and his Extreme Ice Survey will be featured on PBS’s NOVA next Tuesday March 24. State of the Art also reminded us about an audio interview James did with Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross — insightful, as usual. Want to learn more about photography in the Arctic and Antarctic? Check out Chris Linder’s series, Tips from a science photographer.

• We want to congratulate PDN for receiving TWO Neal National Business Journalism Awards. The announcement came yesterday (March 18) from New York that PDN had won best single issue for their September 2008 Book Issue, and best blog for PDNPulse. Way to remind the world that photography is still a business, and still thriving.

• The Telegraph reported that four Spanish schoolboys, aged 18-19, are taking the term “science project” to a whole new level. Armed with a heavy duty latex balloon, made-from-scratch electronic sensor, and a digital Nikkon camera, the team from IES La Bisbal school in Catalonia managed to take amazing photos of the stratosphere in February. The helium inflated balloon flew the equipment to 20 miles above the ground and took atmospheric readings and photographs, while mapping its progress using Google Earth.

World-renowned conservation and fine art photographer Art Wolfe is in the process of reinventing his business model — upgrading to a liveBooks website and selling his stock images directly through a Photoshelter account that is linked to it. Art will be contributing to RESOLVE regularly, but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to record a few words of wisdom while he was visiting last week. We shot the short interview below with Art and Jim Martin, executive director of Art Wolfe Inc. and an accomplished photographer himself, near our San Francisco office.

When Art started to see diminishing returns from stock sales years ago, he reworked his business around selling images himself through his website. Understanding that “fur and feathers” stock photography was not sufficient to keep his business afloat, he also did what many photographers are now learning the value of — he diversified. On top of stock and print sales, Art is also reaching millions of viewers through his TV show Travels to the Edge and is reworking his workshops for more intimate, challenging classes.

©SAS Becker

4. What are some ideas for what a photographer’s initial marketing push might look like, considering things such as re-branding, making new contacts, and re-energizing old ones.

I think (and many others would probably agree) that a photographer’s most important tool is their website, so start there. Look at a bunch of websites. (Here’s mine.) What do you like — or hate for that matter. Check out ProPhotoResource.com. They have a lot of valuable information on do’s and don’t for websites. What is your look? How do you describe your work?

Once your site is completed, decide what the best way is to get as much traffic to it as possible. Online advertising and print ads are favorites. What about your local markets? Can you do a joint advertising project with local vendors? Maybe some cross-marketing with the local florist and bakery? Provide free pictures for a photo credit at places such as schools, churches, doctors offices, even the YMCA; anything might lead to work. I volunteered to shoot my daughter’s Girl Scout dance held at her elementary school. It may not have been the most glamorous event, but those girl scouts sure love pictures of themselves. It drove a ton of potential clients to my site, and I looked like a super mom at the same time. Unlike commercial photography, portrait and wedding work touches everyone. Everyone has a family and will at some point know or be a bride. So carry lots of cards in your pocket, and get out there!