The Documentary Photographer

I’ve put myself forward as a candidate for the council of the Irish Professional Photographers Association (IPPA).

I’d love to be elected. There are three seats and six candidates, so I cannot leave it to chance. What follows is a political broadcast to IPPA members.

As professional photographers, we tend to concentrate too much on defending ground that is no longer central to our profession. Meanwhile, the real challenges facing professional photography are being fought elsewhere and often by non-photographers with whom we are not engaging properly.

As professional photographers, we need to realize that we are responsible for the state of our profession. The only reason the business of professional photography is struggling at present is because of things we as professional photographers have done, or have neglected to do.

Accepting that gives us the ability and opportunity to face these challenges positively and constructively.

Blaming others for our predicament, or pointing the finger at external factors, only undermines our ability to do anything about our situation.

By placing the blame elsewhere, we become victims.

By accepting responsibility, we gain control.

We have a wonderful profession. We should be connecting with each other and with our marketplace to enhance professional photography.

I would like to bring a sense of positive engagement to the IPPA council.

Please vote for me.

It’s a bank holiday weekend here in Ireland and I’ve taken the opportunity to spend time with my daughter pursuing shared interests. She loves painting and she’s developing an interest in podcasting, video and photography. I value creativity above all else, so I can’t encourage this enough. As a result, we spent some time messing around together and came up with the video I posted yesterday.

But why post any of this on a blog allegedly given over to the art and business of documentary photography?

A good question.

I hope I can give you a good enough answer.

I’ve stated before that I don’t see a future for video in my wedding business. But I can see a big future for it on the commercial side of things. I would love to be able to offer my corporate clients the option of video in addition to stills.

There is much to learn. Video photography is very different from stills photography – while at the same time being very similar. That’s the sort of paradox that’ll wreck your head.

To get anywhere near as good as I’d like to be as a film maker, I need practice.

That is what “The Cat Princess” was all about – at least on at technical level. On a human level, it allowed me to spend some time with my daughter and produce something together – a magical experience that leaves me quite emotional.

From a hard-nosed business perspective, it was all about the exercise, the training, the practice – the learning.

I can hold my own as a photographer. As a film maker, I have a lot to learn and a lot to experience before I can express my voice through moving pictures. Yesterday’s video is another step on that path. It helped me gain a better understanding of the tools available to me to produce a short film.

I’m already planning my next film, which will have a more documentary feel to it. Even then, it will only be the next step on the way to where I want to be.

I’m at a very interesting place in my career. I’m no longer at a crossroads. In fact, there never was a crossroads. It was an illusion. With the help of some very inspirational people I’ve come to understand that even the road-less-traveled is far too mundane. The road-that-wasn’t-even-there-until-you-came-along is the one to be on.

This has given my business outlook a remarkable boost. Firstly, I’m developing new products and services unique to me.  More about those as they come to fruition.

Secondly, it’s changed the way I view clients and how I approach potential business. I’d like to share a little of that with you here.

(c) Roger Overall 2010

The photograph above was taken as part of a trial shoot for a bakery here in Ireland. They have a lot of work for a photographer and I had been recommended. More or less, the business was there for the taking. However, I wasn’t sure that my style of photography was what the company was looking for. So I suggested a trial shoot.

The trial shoot, which cost the client nothing, would give them a good idea of how my style would translate their business into photographs, and at the same time give me a feel of how well we’d work together.

Why bother doing a trial shoot? Why not just take the money?

I deliver my best work when I collaborate with people who want to work with me. I already have this approach to the wedding side of my business. I am very open with potential bridal clients about what it is that I do, and how I approach a wedding. In the past six months, I have turned down at least half-a-dozen wedding enquiries, either on the phone or at face-to-face meetings. In these instances, I have been able to direct couples to photographers better suited to their needs and their tastes.

This transfers to the corporate environment as well. In fact, in this arena I hold a better hand. I can’t simply approach brides on the street. All I can do is make the market aware of my existence and hope I reach the right kind of couple. In the commercial sector, I can pick companies I’d like to work for and approach them with a proposal. My last two commercial shoots (one a medium-term documentary project, the other documentary shots for the packaging of a new product) were won this way.

As a result, my role as a photographer and my work is being valued. There is a real connect between me and the client, and between my work and their marketing goals. The respect I’ve been shown as a consequence has been wonderful. As a for instance, I’ve been kept in the loop about how my work is being used on the new product packaging. How great is that?

I want more of this (who wouldn’t?) and have a list of companies and individuals I want to approach with proposals, all of which excite me. At the moment I’m laying the foundations for what I hope will be some very interesting discussions in the closing part of 2010 and into the future. Some of these will lead to dream assignments with dream clients.

That is what I hope for beyond the horizon: assignments for clients for whom I am a perfect fit.

And the bakery?

Well, I have to hold my hand up. I called it wrong in a previous version of this post. I had taken a three-week silence to mean the match between us wasn’t meant to be. This afternoon, however, I received a very enthusiastic email concerning the trial photography.

Recording the latest episode of The Circle of Confusion, my co-presenter Peter Cox made an interesting remark. Having recently gained his Qualified European Photographer (QEP) qualification, he is now plotting his Fellowship with the Irish Professional Photographers Association (IPPA). He commented that he doesn’t yet feel he has a panel that is up to his standard.

That raises an interesting question. Who is the best person to judge how good you are and what level you’ve reached in your career?

A – Other professional photographers?

B – You yourself?

C – Your clients?

There is a case to be made for all three.

To me the most interesting one is the case that can be made for B.

While the recognition of your peers is nice to get, as is the appreciation of your paying customers, both of those can be a trap. They can lead you to complacency. That’s dangerous. Complacency kills creativity, and stymies development. That’s something you can’t allow as a professional photographer.

The only person who can guard against that is you, the photographer.

For me, this takes the form of a little voice at the back of my head – he’s a bit like a disapproving grandparent. He only ever says one thing: “You should have done better.” I’m glad he’s there. Otherwise, I’d be well on my way to complacency and irrelevance. I’m my own hardest taskmaster. I’m never satisfied. I hope I never am.

Yesterday, I wanted to impress a new client in London.

I wanted to shoot an assignment in the morning and have the proofs online for the client before they left the office for the day. In fact, before I even boarded my flight home.

The plan was to do the post-production at Stansted Airport and upload the picture proofs before the check-in desk opened. It would mean using a Boingo wifi hotspot at the airport. Expensive at almost £4 for an hour, but worth it to make an impression on a new client.

The shoot itself went smoothly. More than smoothly. It was a dream. We finished early and the files needed very little post, other than a small colour correction. The proofs were pretty much good to go when I got off the train at the airport.

The plan was falling into place.

Just after 3pm yesterday, I settled in behind a smoothie and panini at Costa Coffee at Stansted to upload the files to our proofing server. An hour’s Boingo time would be plenty. After all, 70-odd 200kb files take very little time to upload at home using Eircom’s feeble no-band broadband, so I reckoned I’d have plenty of time to check the Spain-Switzerland game on the BBC website once Boingo had zapped the files on to the server. (By the way, how did that result happen?)

Unfortunately, the Boingo connection was shocking. I mean back-to-the-days-of-dial-up-snail-band shocking. After 40 minutes only a handful of 200kb files had uploaded. And loading websites like the BBC and Hootsuite into Firefox or Safari took an age. After an hour, it was time to go to the check-in desks, and the majority of the files hadn’t left my laptop.

I wasn’t happy, and tweeted my feelings.

An hour and a bit later, airside, and now well past 5pm, I tried the Boingo wifi again at Starbucks, having earlier in the City got a loyalty card that gives me free access. Or it would do if Starbucks at Stansted actually offered the wifi the card is supposed to afford you. Anyway, that’s another story.

I ended up buying another Boingo hour. Just to see if I couldn’t get the files up. I was traveling to Dublin early the next day and wanted to get the London job proofed and off my plate.

This time, the speed was phenomenal. The remainder of the files uploaded in a matter of minutes.

Nevertheless, I’d still missed the opportunity to impress a new client by having the proofs online before they’d left the office and I’d left the country. That chance to impress will never come again.

But there is a positive to this story.

While the files were uploading @boingo got in touch via Twitter. How’s that for use of social media? Would I email, @boingo asked? I did, and quickly got an email back from Lauren, who was keen to “make things right”. She asked for information about my location at the time of the dud connection and said she’d look into my usage data.

I have to admit I was impressed. Lauren had monitored the Twitter feeds and responded quickly, inviting me to engage with her. Then she’d replied promptly to my email. And now my complaint was being looked into, barely three hours after I grumbled on Twitter. She was starting to turn adversity in her company’s favour. Simply acknowledging me was a big step.

We had no more contact before my flight left, but I left the UK in a happier state of mind.

This morning, there was a email from Lauren. It was friendly. She apologized again for the problem I had experienced and told me that Boingo had credited my account with the fee for the failed connection.

I am impressed.

This is a terrific example of a company using social media to monitor its reputation. It is also a textbook example of how to deal with a complaint.

I’m still disappointed at the missed opportunity to impress my client. But I have to admire how Boingo turned a negative product experience into a hugely satisfying customer service experience.

In Boingo’s case, the first impression wasn’t great.

But the second impression was. So much so, that the first one is almost forgotten.

I have no formal business training whatsoever. Nor do I have any knack for business. For me, it’s complex and daunting and overwhelming.

Not surprisingly, I am not very good at it.

I’d be a whole lot worse at it were it not for My Secret Weapon.

I’m going to share it with you.

Ready?

Here it is:

My Secret Weapon. (c) Roger Overall 2010

His name is Aodan Enright.

He runs facilitated learning groups for entrepreneurs.

If you live within an hour-and-a-half drive of Cork City, you should give serious consideration to signing up to one of his SmarterEgg programmes.

I’ve just completed his latest series, aimed at enhancing the online presence of its participants.

I could write volumes of praise. I’m not going to. I’ll just say this:

Life-changing.

We laugh a lot, and seldom cry. (c) Roger Overall 2010

At Tuesday’s closing session we had Frank Hannigan of Goshido giving us direct and insightful advice. He was one of four terrific internet entrepreneurs Aodan sourced as guest participants for the programme.

Guest participant Frank Hannigan joins in the debate last Tuesday's SmarterEgg group session. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I was in the Cubs when I was a little boy. Not for long, and not very successfully. I think I got a merit badge for tying knots, or being clean – one of the two. Anyway, I seem to remember the motto was “Be Prepared”.

Those words have been in my head for the past couple of days as I’ve tried to marshal my thoughts and resources for the week ahead. It’s going to be some week.

If all goes well – fingers crossed – it will go like this:

Planning for four clients, five cities, six days. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Monday

Fire-walking seminar shoot for EMC here in Cork from about 5pm to 9pm, followed by post-production back at base for a couple of hours. Send print files to the lab, ready for collection/delivery on Wednesday evening.

Tuesday

Fly to London in the morning. Possible shoot for a catering company run by friends in the afternoon in Twickenham. Yet to be confirmed.

Wednesday

Annual report shoot for the London P&I Club from 8am to 5pm.

Then it gets interesting. I’m booked on a 9pm flight from Heathrow to Dublin and on a 10pm flight home to Cork.

If I’m on the Dublin flight, then on…

Thursday

…I’ll be shooting in Dublin for a client I can’t yet name from about 10am until the afternoon. Then I’ll be traveling to Galway for a second-day of shooting with this client on…

Friday

The shoot in Galway will have to be done by 5pm, as I’ll need to travel back to Cork by train for a wedding shoot in Bantry on…

Saturday

On Saturday evening, I’ve been invited to celebrate the birthday of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. I shall need a drink after that week.

As I write this on Sunday evening, it is still unclear what is going to happen on Thursday and Friday. That makes planning the week erm… interesting. There are a number of issues to resolve. Not least balancing the range of equipment I take to London with airline baggage restrictions and the requirements of possible shoots in Dublin and Galway. I won’t be able to pop home to Cork if I find I’ve forgotten something.

I also need to manage the EMC post-production and delivery of prints in my absence if I do end up in Dublin.

And don’t get me started on the management of the image files. I have – touch wood – never lost a file from a commercial shoot. But if it is ever going to happen, it’s going to be during a week like this.

***UPDATE*** The Dublin and Galway assignments were confirmed this morning. Additional flights and rail travel booked. Catch me if you can: Cork – London (air), London – Dublin (air), Dublin – Galway (air), Galway – Cork (rail), Cork – Bantry (car). That’s the full set: Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

How do you attract attention in a busy marketplace?

Here’s one approach:

One a approach to catching someone's attention in the market. (c) Roger Overall 2010

That’s not going to work for everyone, though. Gun laws being what they are in most of Europe and all.

Moreover, clients are increasingly looking online. It’s a lot harder to pull a gun on the internet.

So how’s a fellow to stand out and be found amidst the hordes of photographer websites and blogs?

I’m in the process of finding out thanks to SmarterEgg‘s latest book programme for entrepreneurs here in Cork. Barely three weeks into the course, I’ve learned more about internet marketing than I did in the previous three years. It’s been a revelation.

Not everyone can enjoy the benefits of a SmarterEgg programme, so let me just say this one thing. Buy, beg or steal a copy of Gary Vaynerchuk‘s “Crush It!”. Better still, get the audio version – if you can handle three-and-a-half hours of Gary tellin’ it, yellin’ it, and riffin’ it. Utterly recommended.

A short post today.

I’ve been working on an update to my website.

If you haven’t been there for a while, why not have a look? You’ll see some subtle and less subtle changes, all indicative of a new online direction.

I photographed a wedding at the weekend where I was asked to stay a bit later and cover the speeches.

In Ireland, the speeches usually follow the wedding dinner, so I had a little downtime and a quick bite to eat in the hotel bar while the couple and their guests enjoyed their meal.

Not feeling very inspired, I ordered the beef burger and chips from the bar menu.

Now, I don’t know about you, but “Beef Burger” brings to mind an image. Quite frankly, to me it means the same as “Hamburger”.

This is what was put in front of me:

Beef burger and chips for €11. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I did a double take – and then checked the menu again. What you see is actually what was described on it. I hadn’t bothered to read the small-print description properly before ordering. I just assumed it would be a burger on a bun. My bad.

But that wasn’t really what bothered me. What bothered me was the price: €10.95.

That’s right, €11 for a patty, a slack handful of chips and a dollop of potato salad hidden under a slice of tomato.

Eleven.

Euros.

And the glass of Coke and ice you can see there? That cost €5.20.

Five euros! I can get a couple of two-litre bottles for that at my local supermarket.

The entire meal, with a coffee cost me close to €20.

Which raises the question of price in relation to product. It’s an important issue because my own services don’t come cheap. For instance, my couples pay very close to €3,000 to have me photograph up to the speeches. And I’m undercharging at that. I’m actually developing a wedding product at the moment that is unique (as far as I’m aware) and which I will offer at prices starting at around €5,000, possibly €7,500.

Now, you probably think I’ve become separated from my marbles. How can I complain about an €11 burger, even if it does come without a bun and minimal chips, when I’m charging that kind of money for my own work? Pot. Kettle. Black. Hypocrite.

The answer is value for money.

For €11, I’m practically expecting Mishima beef … Okay that’s an exaggeration. I’m guessing a Mishima beef patty would be an absolute steal at €11. But you get what I’m driving at. Provided the price matches the value expectation, the consumer is happy.

Let’s look at what my wedding clients get for their €3,000 investment.

They get emotive documentary photography of one of the most significant days in their lives. They get my respect, which means I step back from the day rather than trying to run it for them. They get to live the day as they want to, and I record it in such a way that they will treasure the photographs all their lives.

The album my couples get will last a century at the very least, most likely double that. Being very conservative, that’s 100 (years) x 365 (days) = 36,500 days (excluding leap year days).

€3,000/36,500 days = €0.08/day.

So for eight euro cents per day a couple gets a highest-quality book of evocative photographs depicting one of the most wonderful days of their life. Their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren also benefit hugely from that eight cents a day.

Tell me that isn’t value for money. Certainly compared to a €11 beef burger – which was as tough as boots, I might add.