Since I was gone for a week, there are a few extra links to explore, as a few are slightly older posts or ones that I found before I left town. I hope you enjoy them.
From Black Star Rising: 18 Tips for Being a Photography Original – With the premise that “the future of photography is in original, exclusive content”, photographer Paul Melcher gives a good list of Do’s and Don’ts on how to stand out & add value to your images and ideas. I did disagree with at least one of his 18 points, namely # 16.
Also from Black Star Rising; an older post: Should You Go Pro — or Keep Photography as a Hobby? What one photogapher / teacher tells his students about whether to go pro, or keep it as a fun ‘sideline’.
From APhotoEditor: Selling Stock Independently – Following on the heels of Art Wolfe’s recent announcement that he’s taking control over the sale of his stock images, Rob Haggart puts up a nice post about the dream most photographers have of being their own ‘agency’. As per many of his posts, a lot of good discussion is to be had in the comments section.
From Thomas Hawk: Think You Can Rip Someone’s Image From the Internet and Use it For Free? Think Again, You Just May End Up Sued and Lose – File this one as a great story on how it ‘should’ be. Why ‘should’? Because as a couple commenters note, this lawsuit for unauthorized use was heard and awarded by a local small claims court.
From John Mireles and the Photographers Toolkit: Ounce of Prevention, Commercial Clients – written “in the hopes of helping you to avoid future hassles, expense and day-late, dollar-short solutions. If you’re like many readers of the Business Coach, you’re a wedding photographers who really doesn’t do commercial work. However, you will find yourself doing some from time to time and that can easily lead to trouble unless you’re prepared.”
From Harry Nowell: Exposed! :: Five Myths of the Photo Business :: A nice little read; reminded me of Brad Templeton’s famed 10 Myths about Copyright.
From Professional Photography 101.com: Email marketing for photographers – photography emailers and photographer promotions. A good primer on the subject that hits a lot of the key points and considerations.
From Adam Barker Photography: An Inside Look at Shooting Outdoor Stock Imagery – If you ever wanted to know what goes through the mind of photographers while they’re vacationing in the great outdoors, this is a good post to check out. Reminds me of my own personal saying, “If the alarm clock goes off in your tent at 4:00am, it’s work, dammit!”
Bonus Links:
From Marc Silber & SilberStudiosTV: Check out this brief video with marketing guru Guy Kawasaki where he talks about how photographers need to cut through the “noise”, and some lessons from his days at Apple.
Finally: I’ve had this on my Professional Business Resources page for awhile, but someone else recently posted the link so I’d thought to share it as well. Check out the Cost of Doing Business Calculator courtesy of the NPPA. Plug in your numbers & see where you’re at.
