Image copyright Stacy Pearsall. All rights reserved. "Why?" is all about photographs and their backstories from some of the most respected artists in contemporary photography. While the series started as a way for you to meet more of the movers and shakers in the industry, each backstory has been from an artist who should be on your radar. With each episode they've shared a little piece of their heart and their passion for photography.
Stacy Pearsall joins me in this new episode. She's a photographer, author, educator, military consultant, veteran and the only woman to earn the NPPA's Military Photographer of the Year Award twice! She shares a lot of great insight into her passion for special projects, especially the Veterans Portrait Project. Click on Stacy's image above to visit her website. To date she's photographed over 6500 veterans in 27 states. With 23 left to go and thousands more veterans to photograph, finding out how you can help is just a click away.
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One of the things I love about working with the team at Photodex is their never-ending enthusiasm to keep finding ways to help you build better presentations, and in turn raise the bar on your skill set. I shared a quote on Twitter this morning that ties right into slideshows, along with other aspects of your business. Satisfaction is a rating. Loyalty is a brand! Shep Hyken Now, think about your clients. You've got two universal goals - to exceed expectations and make yourself habit-forming! Building great slideshows demonstrates your storytelling skills and adds to the strength of your relationships with clients. We're a word of mouth industry, and nobody can spread a good word faster than a happy client. Now think about that same client who's just been surprised with a 2-3 minute slideshow.And that brings me right back to the slideshow calculator shared recently on the ProShow Blog. Remember, keeping your presentation high-impact and within a short timeframe is your goal - so many of you produce slideshows that are too long. Keep them short and sweet and remember one other benefit of slideshows - they're easily shared by your clients! The more people who hear great things about your skill set, the more you'll build your brand. Click on either of the banners above to link to the slideshow calculator and the ProShow Blog. There's always outstanding information to help you build a stronger business. If you're still on the fence about building slideshows, check out ProShow 9 and take it out for your free trial and test drive. It's pretty remarkable and you can save 20% using SAVE20WITHSKIP in the code box when you purchase any Photodex product. Just click on the banner below for more information. There are so many outstanding projects in our industry, but now and then an artist comes along with a project and a series of stories I just want to share. Airing later this week is a new episode of "Why?" featuring the work of Stacy Pearsall. To date, she's photographed and shared the stories of 6500 veterans in 27 different states. There's no reason for me to share more of her story since the short video below will take you through her background as a photographer, journalist, educator, and veteran. She's working hard to get the project to Alaska this year, and she's set up a GoFunMe page, giving us a chance to participate and help expand the story she's telling about America's veterans throughout the United States. "The Veterans Portrait Project (VPP) aims to promote awareness of American veterans through the art of photography, videography, printed exhibits and community events." Click on any of the images in this post to link to Stacy's GoFundMe page if you'd like to help with the project. She's telling a remarkable story, and it won't take very much from each of us to help her achieve her Alaska goal and beyond. It's the first Sunday Morning Reflections of the new year. I spent part of the early morning hours lying in bed trying to think of a topic. This is a tough time of year for significant epiphanies since it's during what I think of as a flatline week. Think about it:
December is a flurry of activity for just about everybody. Regardless of what holiday you celebrate, it's the busiest time of year on both a business and personal level. The year comes to a close, and there's nothing you can do to slow things down. New Year's Eve arrives, you celebrate, eat and maybe drink a little too much - take the next day to recover and then *POOF* it's a new year. You're expected to be even more excited about a fresh start and clean slate than you were just 24 hours earlier! Then, to add to the pressure of wrapping up last year and kicking off this year, everyone makes a few new year's resolutions. Usually, they're things you should have been doing all along, but somehow we think because it's a new year, old habits will simply die and be replaced by new ones because we've willed them to be! Here's my point for this morning: I didn't make any resolutions for the new year, but I do have a few things I'm hoping I can do along with all of you.
There they are, five pseudo resolutions, and all things we should have been doing all along. Nothing earth-shaking, but if I've learned nothing else as I've gotten older it's that life is too short to not enjoy it to the max. This new year has started off with some pretty amazing projects and old friends coming back into my life. I'm not going to waste a minute and neither should you! Make it a day of chuckles and pat yourself on the back for a year in business that's been added to your foundation as a photographer, business owner or just part of the human race! Wishing you a day of peace and appreciation for everybody around you. I'm staying with those eleven-second hugs, and for those just getting to know me - I read an article a couple of years ago about longer hugs having therapeutic value. If you don't believe me, give it a try. What have you got to lose? Happy Sunday everybody! It's a brand new year, and I'm hoping I can convince a few of you to go a little retro on your communication skills in 2018. Email and texting are great for a lot of communication needs, but if you can't meet with the client in person, the next best relationship-builder is the phone! A few years ago I came across an article from Men's Health magazine. It was written by Gil Schwartz and called Flex Your Success Muscles. He shared six great tips, and number three was “Give Good Phone.” “We hit a tipping point a few years ago with e-mail. Once a real boon to business, email became a burden as millions of poor workers were forced to walk around like Jacob Marley in Dickinson’s A Christmas Carol, weighed down by heavy email chains. Really successful operators now know that a 2-minute phone call is far superior to a stupid e-mail chain…” Think about how you feel when you need help, and you get a phone call from the vendor! Even more relevant is that moment when you finally get through all the default prompts on a call to a manufacturer, and you get a live body. The point is you feel great! Now, put yourself in the shoes of a potential client who just sent you an email to inquire about your availability to photograph their family, wedding, golf outing, etc. Getting a call back from you, instead of what feels like a canned response via email, will pick up points every time. Email has its place, but it’ll never replace your personality, your voice and your ability to start building trust with your clients with the very first building block, a fast personal response. It’s also outstanding for the care and feeding of your network! Pick a couple of people in your network who deserve a phone call instead of an email, message on Facebook or a tweet. I’m not suggesting we all start making pests of ourselves and turn the phone into a series of business interruptions from hell. But, if you’ve got somebody you haven’t talked to in awhile, and you’re about to send them an email, think about whether or not a phone call is more appropriate. I use the phone all the time to talk to other photographers. There's so much more you get out of the conversation. It's not uncommon for me to call somebody who's tweeted or posted something supportive and find out more about them. We all share an incredible passion for the craft - you don't need to know somebody to make a call! Over and again I'm amazed by how much we all have in common with today's challenges. Let's make 2018 the year to get back to grassroots. It’s time to let your personal touch and handshakes beat out emails, no matter how poignant the words. Image copyright George Lepp. All rights reserved. "Why?" is all about the favorite images from some of the most respected artists in contemporary photography. Many of the images we've shared have also been gateway images to the start of some of the best known careers in imaging.
George Lepp joins me in this new episode with one of his earliest and most favorite images. He's a photographer, educator, author, and admired by so many of us for his never-ending passion for the outdoor world. As the Field Editor for Outdoor Photographer magazine, his monthly column will keep you in touch with nature photography. George was one of Canon's first members of their Explorers of Light program. If you're looking for help raising the bar on your skill set in capturing nature photography, check out his six hour seminar, available for streaming. To see more of George's work click on his image above and visit his website. Sometimes the perfect Throwback Thursday memory isn't so far back. My Dad was coming up on 92 when we made this video. He passed away a little over a year later. I'm sharing it just as much for my own fun, as well as a reminder about capturing those special moments in your lives. I miss my Dad a lot, but it's videos like this that keep me smiling and remembering I'm a chip off the old block...and proud of it!
With IUSA coming up in two weeks, I can't help but think back to trips with Dad when he'd come to the conventions with me. Twenty years ago he joined me at what then was called PPA National. We shared a room together, and one night he got up to use the bathroom. I heard him laughing to himself when he came out. It's a little uncomfortable to listen to your father chuckling in the bathroom by himself in the middle of the night. I asked him what was so funny. He couldn't have been prouder when he proclaimed, "I went to put the seat back down and realized your mother isn't here! So, I'm leaving it up for the whole trip!" We laughed then, and I'm still laughing now. My folks were married just a week short of sixty-three years before my mother died. Dad always said with a smile, the secret of being married to my mother for so long was, he always slept on his good ear! Wishing all of you a terrific first Throwback Thursday in the new year! Whether you share throwbacks in a blog post as a marketing tool or just have fun on your own trip down Memory Lane - never underestimate the power you have as a photographer to help your clients capture those special moments and savor them forever. Happy Throwback Thursday!
Images are spectacular for different reasons. Sometimes it's the creativity of the artist and the way a mind's eye vision becomes a tangible reality. Other times it's the beauty of the subject, the pose, and the lighting. There are times when it's the location as you struggle to understand how the photographer got the shot. Then there are times it's EVERYTHING!
This Profoto video and blog post was shared early in December, but I'm betting with the seasonality of year-end many of you missed it. If a picture is worth a thousand words then Christoph Jorda the featured artist, together with Steven Hanratty, who wrote the article, have come very close to the works of Shakespeare! Click on any image to read the complete post and enjoy the backstory!
Since introducing the Off-Camera Flash System, Profoto has shared some of the most incredible stories in photography about shooting on-location. Pick any one of them and you'll quickly realize what a game changer they brought to photography since that first B1.
If you haven't take the B1X for a test drive just click on Christoph or his gear below, and find the Profoto dealer nearest you. Isn't time you found out what all the buzz was about? Image copyright Mikel Galicia. All rights reserved. The most fun aspect of being in this industry has nothing to do with photography, but the people you meet and the passion everyone shares for the craft!
Mikel Galicia is in the SCU spotlight today. The fun part of the story is how we "met." Working with PhotoShelter on a new podcast series called "Beyond Technique," due to air on the third Wednesday of each month starting in January, I was looking through their website. I wandered into a very cool section called New Member Shoutouts. I went out for a scroll in cyberspace and found a lot of great images and decided to start sharing some of them here at SCU. The first paragraph on Mikel's about page hits a unique aspect of his background, being a freelance writer as well as a photographer: Mikel Galicia is a freelance writer and photographer in Dallas, TX. As a graduate of the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas, he has a strong background in journalism and has work published in Sports Illustrated, ESPN, D Magazine, Dallas Observer, Houston Press, Phoenix New Times, Central Track and more. Since graduating from college Mikel honed his craft as a sports and music photographer, but his skills extend beyond event coverage. Interested in seeing more of Mikel's work? Just click on his image above. If you've never visited the PhotoShelter website, click on the banner below. They're not only the leader in helping artists present their work, but a fantastic resource covering so many different aspects of photography to help you run a successful business, and they offer a free trial! Best of all, when you need help, they're just a phone call away at 212-206-0808. I love a company who can walk the talk when it comes to Customer Service! Most questions are answered on their website, but there's always a live body to help you raise the bar for your business. |
Our Partners"Why?"Check out "Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog. It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're over 100 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.
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