11/4/10

Jasmine Star Is A Threat To Our Way Of Life – Part 1

If that headline doesn’t pique your interest, you may need to check your pulse.

The same applies if you don’t know who Jasmine Star is – especially if you photograph weddings for a living. Honestly, where have you been?

In all seriousness, if you are a middle-aged male wedding photographer, Jasmine Star represents a huge threat to your business. She is the thin end of a wedge that is going to be driven right between you and your customer base. She is going to make it harder for us to make a living. Some of us are going to find it impossible.

And that is a good thing.

A very good thing indeed.

The issue is customer identification.

Brides are the driving force in the purchasing decisions that accompany a wedding. We know that. Your average bride is going to be in the 20- to 35-year-old age bracket. Which makes them roughly a decade younger than someone like me at best; at worst two decades younger. Being truthful, that kind of age gap means that I have very little in common with most brides when it comes to most aspects of their wedding. For instance, I don’t get shoes. For me, they are functional. For many brides, they are religion. As for the dress…

Imagine, then, a female wedding photographer who is in the same age group as most brides. She will naturally “get” brides. They will be equals in so many respects. They will most likely be able to talk sensibly, passionately and at length about shoes with brides. They will connect in a way male, middle-aged wedding photographers cannot.

There’s more. Young female wedding photographers will, if they are photographing from their heart rather than copying others, be shooting work that connects strongly with their age group. They will be able to articulate the kind of photography that will have an innate, automatic appeal to brides. They have an in-built understanding of their market.

Wedding photography used to be an almost exclusive male preserve. That has been changing for a good while, but now there is a tidal wave on its way and I’m not sure middle-aged male wedding photographers in general can see it coming.

Just ask yourself this. If you were a bride, who would you more easily book: a photographer who is one of your peers and understands you instinctively, or someone who could talk golf with your dad?

In part 2, we’ll look at why this is a good thing and what us middle-aged fat-bellies can do about this.

10/29/10

BNI and I

From left to right: Paul Allen, Dominick Cullinane and Dan Morris (three of my former colleagues of BNI Cork City), breaking into my car after the Ireland National Members' Day in June of this year. Don't ask. (c) Roger Overall 2010

The end of a relationship is a sad thing.

This one had lasted six years and given me immeasurable pleasure and benefit.

It ended today at 08.30am, following a standing ovation I will never, ever forget.

The relationship began far less auspiciously. A business contact asked me to cover for him at his regular Business Network International (BNI) chapter meeting. Not a problem, I said. It’s a breakfast meeting, he said. Piece of cake, I said. You’ll need to be there at 06.45am, he said.

‘Scuse me?

06.45?

In the morning?

But I’d already said that I would, so I felt honour-bound to go. It would only be the once, after all. From there on in, he could find someone else stupid enough to get up before 6am to go to his stupid meeting.

Since that morning, I have had more 5am alarm calls to get to BNI meetings than I care to remember.

I’ve watched my chapter grow to reach the top 10 per cent in the world, turning over around €2million in business referred among its members annually. I had the honour of leading the chapter for six-months, and took on a number of other roles.

I made friends. I found comfort and advice. I discovered quality suppliers. I received business – €30,000 this year, I reckon.

I was also invited into the wider BNI network, becoming an assistant director in the southern region of Ireland, taking on a training role initially, later a role supporting another chapter. Both roles were hugely enjoyable and shaped me. I met impressive people, not least the founder of BNI, Ivan Misner, whom I photographed earlier this year.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. It would be wrong to suggest that.

We had our spats, BNI and I.

For a start, I never, ever enjoyed the early starts.

But now reflecting on my departure, I can only say this: “Thank you, BNI”.

You’re likely wondering why, full of such praise and having established a substantial referral income stream, I’ve walked away.

The truth is, I can no longer fulfill my commitments to my chapter or to the organisation.

My chapter meets on a Friday morning. As someone who earns a large part of his income from wedding photography, that has become a problem. Such an early start means I start to flag around 4pm, when there are at least a couple of hours of photography left to go on wedding days. So I decided not to attend on the days I had a wedding, sending a substitute in my stead. However, over the summer, that meant someone else was in my chair for 75% of the meetings. Successful BNI membership relies on regular face-to-face contact. Not attending meetings was impacting on my ability to receive and give referrals.

My Friday commitments are likely to increase in the future.

At the same time, I was elected to the council of the Irish Professional Photographers Association (IPPA). This is an opportunity for me to support my professional body and influence my industry, but it will be a challenging and time-consuming task. So much so, that I couldn’t see how I could combine it with my BNI assistant director duties, which were already demanding an ever larger chunk of my time.

Over a quiet, reflective beer in the Netherlands this summer, the truth dawned. Difficult though it would be, I would have to give up BNI.

It wasn’t an easy decision.

Fortunately, unlike most breakups, I can return to the fold – provided I can find a local chapter that meets earlier in the week that will take me.

10/15/10

My Legacy

Documentary words and picture wedding album

Legacy (c) Roger Overall 2010

My professional life has come full circle. My Legacy has arrived.

For the past few months, Anne and I have been working on a new type of wedding coverage – something unique to me. We’ll be unveiling it at the wedding show in Croke Park on 23rd and 24th October. Let me lift up the veil a little here.

Actually, I’m going to lift it up quite a lot.

I am a documentary photographer at heart. I love looking at other types of work, but documentary resonates deeply with me. Everything I do in the business is done on the basis of that documentary DNA.

When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I help my clients tell their story through photographs, regardless of whether they are corporate entities or private individuals.

I’m now taking it a step further. To do so, I’m drawing on a previous life.

For a decade, I told stories not through photographs but through words. I was a journalist and editor on maritime publications. I interviewed hundreds of people and wrote hundreds of articles. I also once climbed up the side of an ultra large crude carrier at night in a howling storm in the English Channel. But that’s another story.

The experience I gained as a writer has been invaluable to me these last few years. For instance, blogging is a cornerstone of my business and I use the skills I learned almost every day.

Moreover, Anne has been involved in editing for all of her professional career. She is very modest about her past client list in London. Let me just say this: you cannot think of a magazine bigger or more glamourous than the titles she worked on.

Today, I’m thrilled to announce that we are using these writing and editing skills to serve our photography clients even better, starting with our brides and grooms.

We’ve called it Legacy, and it is a unique wedding album – like no other that we’ve seen, anyway. Incorporating text as well as images, it is a coffee table book that tells and shows the story of the day, drawing on interviews conducted with the couples as they browse through their proofs. The result is a unique collection of images and the couples’ recollections and anecdotes, in their own words.

These albums will be incredibly valuable family heirlooms, I’m convinced of that. The combination of photographs and text is very powerful, and the print quality is first rate.

Of course, there is a corporate use for this kind of book as well. We have already produced a book along similar lines to market to our commercial clients, with several more in the pipeline.

I used to think that my time as a writer was misspent. What if I’d been a photographer for all of that time as well? How much further would I have traveled on my career path? The answer is: the same distance. I just wouldn’t be in a position to offer this exciting, new and unique service to my clients.

I’m very excited.

PS – A huge thank you to the two Wizards who taught me how to interview and how to write. It is one of the greatest gifts that I have ever received.

10/8/10

The Right Words From The Right Person At The Right Time

Photographers can be delicate souls.

This one is, anyway.

It doesn’t take much to unsettle us. Self-doubt enters through the slightest of cracks in our confidence, and then feasts heartily on our belief, reducing it to mush.

We’re a bit like actors. We need affirmation and adoration. We push our heads back, raise the back of a hand to our foreheads and whine: “Tell me darling, I can take it, how was I?”

If the answer falls even the tiniest hint short of absolute adulation, our spirits crumble and we lock ourselves in our dressing rooms.

I set off for this year’s IPPA conference in comparatively low spirits. Artistically, I haven’t been able to get it going this year, so I thought. My work has been dismissed during the preliminary judgings for the national awards, and my entry utterly failed in the FEP awards. Worse still, I felt that I was struggling to hit form during assignments.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, nobody seemed to be able to get me to see sense.

Not Anne, my wife, who is usually very good at telling me to stop being such a wet stick of celery.

Not Peter, a close friend and insightful photographer, whose powerful logic was blunted by my artistic self-pity.

Not my wonderful clients who sent me a string of enthusiastic emails expressing their delight at their photographs.

Not the supportive crowd of photographers, creatives and friends who reach out to me through social media.

No-bo-dy.

Nobody, that is, except Vinnie O’Byrne.

Vinnie is one of the great photographers working today.

He is also one of the great photographic mentors.

He terrified me the first time that I met him. He has an intensity and an aura that I found utterly intimidating at my IPPA induction several years ago. There was absolutely no way I was ever going to be able to pull myself together enough to have a coherent conversation with him. This man is a photographer to the gods. I operate on the level of mere mortals. Surely he could barely hear me speak from down here.

It didn’t take long for me to learn that while Vinnie is a giant of our industry, he is a very approachable one. Not only does he hear you, he engages. His passion for nurturing and encouraging new photographers is legendary. He transforms potential into being. He will fight hard for photographers he believes in – very hard indeed. We are blessed to have him in our association.

Since that first meeting at IPPA HQ, Vinnie has become very important to me – as he has to many of us who have joined the IPPA in the past five years.

Last Sunday, he worked his magic again in a short one-on-one mentoring session during the IPPA conference.

I sat down into the chair next to him burdened with doubts.

When I stood up again, the doubts stayed in the chair.

He didn’t actually say that much. A giant doesn’t need to.

Thank you, Vinnie.

08/6/10

Election Manifesto

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.

08/2/10

Blue Cat – What On Earth For?

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.

07/26/10

Beyond the Horizon

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.

Scones being loaded onto trays at a bakery

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.

06/28/10

Who Should Judge How Good You Are?

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.

06/17/10

A Second First Impression

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.

The Documentary Photographer

Putting Life In The Frame

Category Archives: Business