livebooks blog

©Lou Lesko

When I made my first TV pitch, I was less than a nobody in Hollywood. I was able to get a meeting with a TV somebody only through the help of another huge Hollywood somebody. The Bravo Channel producer, who had a reputation for deciding the fate of a project based entirely on the pitch meeting, granted me ten minutes of her time. The advice I received from other industry veterans was to practice my spiel, tighten it up, and practice it again. Producers at this level hear so many pitches, I would only have sixty seconds to grab her attention. In spite of the confidence I gained from hours of practice, at the end of the meeting I had two puddles in my jeans pockets where the sweat dripping from my armpits had pooled. My pitch propelled the project to the next level, but it ultimately didn’t make it. I didn’t mind. I had learned one of the most valuable lessons of my career. Being able to deliver an effective pitch is as important to your business as knowing how to make an image.

Photography is an industry of cold callers and connection hounds. Even with a solid introduction to a heavy weight advertising person from your brother’s, cousin’s, ex-girlfriend’s cell mate, you need to make a solid, swift impression with your first contact. A pitch. Doing so requires that you take a few minutes to prepare.

Email is the easiest. You can write, read, edit, read, and edit some more. Yes. Edit that much. Also, if you’re thinking about employing a grammar school business letter model, they are totally outmoded. Consider the following:

Dear Super Heavyweight Person who could get me a high-paying gig,

I’d like to introduce myself, my name is Lou Lesko. As you may have heard from our mutual friend, Miki Johnson, I am calling on you in the hopes of setting up a meeting to show you my portfolio. I’ve been a photographer for 25 years with extensive experience in the fashion and lifestyle genres. I feel confident that I would be a valuable consideration for any future jobs at your agency, and I am ready to meet you at your earliest convenience at a location of your choosing.

Contrast that to:

Dear Super Heavyweight Person who could get me a high-paying gig,

Our mutual friend, Miki Johnson, let me know that it would not be a problem to contact you to set a meeting to show you my portfolio. I appreciate you offering your time. Please let me know the earliest date and a location that is convenient for you; I will make myself available. In the meantime, some of my work and my career background can be found on:
http://loulesko.com

The first example isn’t bad, but it’s about as dry as a Saltine cracker on a hungover morning. The second one is a bit more in your face, but it identifies in the first sentence the individual we both know and the reason why I’m exploiting the friendship. The rest shows that I’m reasonably polite and accommodating, but if the reader skipped reading the rest of the email, they would still know exactly what I want and why I feel justified in asking. And that is the pitch.

Leaving a voicemail requires the same pitch-style communication. Articulate why you’re calling in the first sentence, followed immediately by your contact info. A person you don’t know that’s listening to your message will not want to drudge through a long drawn out treatise about “how great it is you know the same person and, wow, we’re both in the same industry and, boy, I could sure use a shot at that new account your agency just won.” Conversely that first sentence can’t be a brash assault on the recipient’s voicemail, and should have a dash of your personality. Unless you’re an ass. Then fake it.

In pitch situations, when I’m a bit nervous, I have a dreadful propensity to mumble. To avoid doing that, I leave a few practice messages on my own voicemail. I know it sounds a bit like a high school boy practicing a speech to get a date with a girl, but it is totally effective in polishing my pitch.

The same tactics will also prepare you for the contingency of (oh my gosh) the person picking up the phone when you call. I’m not saying you should be as disengaged as you would if you were leave a voicemail, but having taken the time practice will put you a in a great position to start a great conversation that could lead to more work.

One last tip. If you’re sending a web link in an email, test it first by sending the email to yourself. One of the most common mistakes is to place a period at the end of a link because it closes a sentence like this: And you can see my articles on http://loulesko.com/articles.

The period at the end of the sentence will make the link fail. That’s why in my example above I put the link on its own line without any closing punctuation.

That’s my pitch, thanks for listening.

Wetlands in Alberta, Canada. ©Garth Lenz

One constant during the course of my career has been a close association with environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). As an environmental photojournalist, motivated by a deep concern for the environment and the need to protect intact wilderness, working closely with committed activists and knowing that my images will play a significant role in their efforts has been one of the most rewarding and inspiring aspects of my work. I believe this has been a mutually beneficial relationship. My images have helped to shape public opinion and provided organizations with the material they need to advocate in a visually compelling way. In many situations, ENGOs have very graciously credited my work as being instrumental to their successes. In turn, the knowledge and contacts provided by ENGOs has greatly assisted in my understanding of these issues and has provided critical knowledge of various locales as well as the logistical support so important to successful fieldwork.

On occasion, groups have also directly commissioned me to produce imagery, and I have also raised money independently to undertake projects in order to furnish ENGOs with the images they need. Many of my most interesting and long-term projects have been possible only as a direct result of my longstanding relationship with these groups.

I have also given a number of visual presentations and tours in order to build support for some of the issues I have photographed and feel particularly strongly about. This has provided me with the opportunity to directly share my images with a large cross-section of people. Their feedback and response has helped me better understand the power of certain kinds of images, and that has been a great asset in my field work.

While my work with NGOs has mostly been with ENGOs, I think that any photographer whose work is devoted to promoting positive change, whether in environmental, humanitarian, or other issues would greatly benefit from a close relationship with NGOs dedicated to furthering these same goals.

©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!

Students at the National Geographic Photo Camp in Rajasthan, India, learning to use a camera for the first time. © Ed Kashi

1/5/09

The first day of the workshop was frustrating due to a selfish teaching assistant. I was tired and cold and wanted to go home. Until then the workshop had not been satisfying; the kids were too timid, unengaged with us, and the conceit of the structure of the workshop began to show through for me. The power and importance of education is what I learn from these experiences, not always smooth or easy.

This workshop was a challenge, to bridge the gaps between us and the students, as well as between the city and rural kids. By day three the magic had begun, with the shy and nervous rural kids finding their voices and comfort levels, expressing themselves more openly to the instructors as well as their urban workshop mates. Likewise, the city kids began to shed their pretensions and superiority complexes, opening up and letting themselves just have fun.

By the end of the workshop the kids had made new friends, the shy had come out of their shells and the smart city kids had shown tremendous teamwork and supported their non-English-speaking rural peers. It was heart warming to see how well the two groups coalesced to support one another, had fun by sharing music and other teenage things, and ultimately moved past their previous stereotypical impressions of one another. Breaking down barriers is what this workshop and my life are dedicated to.

During the workshop’s graduation ceremony, my team of 5 students created and presented me with a poster; I’ve included a few of my favorite comments from it below. I love the first one, written by a stick-thin and very shy village girl named Deepika, who was crying the first day trying to hold a camera to her face and close one eye, something we photographers take for granted but for her was an impossibly weird and discomfiting thing to do.

Deepika…“I like your nature and behavior. I love the way you talk. We were able to learn lot from you and I even like you.”

From another student…“You teach us really nicely. You are very joyful person, which keep us energetic.”

Darhmendra….”I love your style of photography and how you solve our problems.”