A Stock Conversation

Last week, I was in a meeting with a medium sized ad agency art buyer, showing her samples of my black and white work. She got enthusiastic about the work and started rattling off projects where this work would be appropriate.

As I watched, her face fell a bit when she tagged the conversation with, "But, we are having a hard time getting them away from royalty free stock images. Despite the fact that the images they choose keep showing up in [their competition's] collateral and ads."

I had another conversation over the phone with a head of a small design agency. She said that they used royalty free stock all the time. Yes, the images would show up in other companies' marketing materials. But, none of her clients were national, so it didn't really matter.

During a coffee conversation with an art director, he lamented that he was spending hours retouching and repurposing stock images to fit marketing concepts. By the time he was finished, he was billing as much in retouching fees as a custom shoot would have cost. And, the image still looked enough like the original that 5000 brochures were recycled when it showed up as the back wall of the competition's booth at a trade show.

I am not one to jump up and down and try to convince you that stock is bad and evil. It isn't. And, in some places, it is very appropriate. Even the royalty free stuff. Sometimes.

However, if you are working hard, spending lots of money and energy, trying to differentiate yourself - your company - from everyone else within your market, what is going to happen when the big national financial firm across the street is using the same image for their brochures that you have for yours?

Original marketing photography, like every other element of a company, is an investment. There is no get rich quick scheme. There is no short cut. There is no silver bullet.

And, in marketing, the payoff is directly related to your investment.

Great, original work will get you recognized. Great, copycat work... will get the other folks recognized...

The original image above was created to promote a production of "Anything Cole".

Restaurant Symetry

A while back, I had the privilege of creating image for the Fireplace Restaurant in Brookline.

This was one of my favorite images from that project.

What is cheap photography?

This is from another client conversation. We were talking about stock photography versus assignment photography.

One of his in-house designers kept wanting to use images from a royalty free disk. The boss kept adamantly saying no.

Here was his reasoning, as he said it to me.

1. The people always look like models, not our customers, or even an idealized version of our customers.

2. The concept always has to be warped to fit the royalty free image the designer found, which means compromises.

3. Our product is never in the shot. Or if there is something similar, it is still not OUR product. Or, we have to spend time and money retouching.

4. The selection is so big that you end up spending a day looking for the image, a day re-concepting and a day trying to make it all fit together. Again, with compromises.

5. If the designer happens to find an image that fits our marketing goal, it also certainly fits our competition's goal. And, the marketing plan of everyone else who bought the disk. Which means that the image is not unique to us and our customers.

6. If the customer sees that image on our competition's site after ours, who is he going to associate the image with? Not us!

7. Our brand, our marketing, and our company is worth more than a $10 investment. And, we will get a better return, more sales, with a good, custom image.

8. If that $10 image loses us just one potential customer, it has cost us a heck of a lot more than $10 dollars!

The ASMP have a great article about Royalty Free photography available to the public here.

People or Product?

Oh, the tough questions!

"I see you do people and products... and locations. So, what do you really like to do?"

This question supposes that I am approaching photography strictly from a subject stand point. That is, I am specializing in studio work or location work or whatever.

Actually, I approach it from a story telling stand point.

For example, the product photography that you may have seen on this blog and on my site is quite a bit different than what you might see in a catalog or Sunday newspaper. Those images, which require as much skill and finesse, are about commodities. The objects are there to be sold based on the description or at face value.

The images I create go one step further. They include a story about what the object is or does. More specifically, what problem does it solve for the potential buyer.

This goes around the buyer's question of which product is cheaper and goes to "I have this problem that is driving me crazy and this will fix it!"

So, what does this have to do with the gentleman in the image above?

His job is to install cabling for commercial network applications. He needed to look appealing to his target market, which were C level people. He needed to look like he knew what he was doing, was tough enough to get the job done and was a highly trained, highly paid professional who would make these C level people feel and look good.

I was told that the image was submitted with a press release to a major magazine for a business profile. It got picked up. The magazine's normal profile has a headshot that is reproduced about the size of a postage stamp, with a short paragraph to go with it. This image got them a half page space with two columns of editorial copy.

An effective marketing tool? You bet!

Oops! Or, how to justify a new lens.

The shoot brief was simple and dramatic: set up the product and shoot sparks over it for dramatic.

I have commented before about "simple" and photoshoot and how they generally do not exist in the same sentence. But, here is an example where things really got out of hand.

It took a little thought about how to get the sparks to fly in the right direction. Because of the direction of the spinning disk on the tool, we had to rethink the layout of the shot and actually flip it. Otherwise, the sparks shot into the background and were lost to the camera. Ah, reality vs scribbled layouts.

Once we got that part figured and adjusted the shutter to get the maximum sparks, it was just a matter of doing it over and over until the sparks looked just right.

This was one of those attempts where the machine slipped and shot a shower of sparks straight back at the lens... and photographer!

After the shot was done, we carefully cleaned the camera and lens and realized that the UV filter we put on the lens had actually melted. There were pinpoint black marks all over it where the sparks had hit the filter and melted into it.

Thank goodness we had the filter! $50 to replace it vs. $600+ for a new lens!

Where's the fun in that?

Okay, just so you don't think we are too serious about our jobs here.

This image was created during a real people shoot in Rhode Island. The project was for a training program and the client was using their own sales reps as models.

This is always a lot of fun, even when we have some reluctant "models".

One of subjects stated to me at the beginning of the shoot, "I don't know why I agreed to this. I really don't like getting my picture taken."

I nodded and said "Don't worry, we are going to have fun today."

And, we did!

Well, my crew and I worked our buns off, setting up and tearing down lighting, running to the next set, harassing my make up artist, Margina (who is great to work with, by the way!), and generally getting the shot list accomplished without blowing up my friend's house.

The point is that, with some good planning, the challenge is fun!

And, every once in a while, you need to stop and ask your models what they really think of the day!

Real People

I was looking at some older images, reflecting on where my work has taken me and came across this tear sheet from a few years ago.

What caught my eye was that this was another example of "real people" photography for marketing, something I seem to be doing a lot of lately. And, having a lot of fun with it.

Don't get me wrong, models are great and can give you great results because of their experience.

But, sometimes, the honesty of a "real person", someone who actually does the job that we are photographing, can be very refreshing.

Capturing, no wait, Creating the Moment

I have been doing some speaking engagements with local camera clubs, mostly because they asked me to come in and talk about my work. And there was a discussion in one about the difference between capturing the moment and creating it.

I guess you could make an argument that any image that did not have a set up or physical production is a capture. And, any time there is production involved it is a created moment.

Maybe it is vanity on my part, but I believe that I create the moments in my images, whether there is external production or if it is only internalized.

For example, the image above was created during a walk through at a conference center in Ohio. We were moving between sets and stopped for lunch. I saw the wall sconces and grabbed the camera and tripod. Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting down with the art director to a splendid turkey sandwich.

It was an unplanned stop but everything else about the image was thought out. I was even considering how the image would look as a banner or printed piece. I captured several frames from different angles to see how the camera was "seeing" the light. But, I created the moment through my on the spot planning and thinking through the composition and lighting.

Maybe it is all just semantics. And, I mean no offense to the wedding shooters who "capture the moment" all the time. If they are doing it right (and those I know who do it, do do it well), I still think they are "creating the moment".

Season's Greetings!

Imagine the excitement.

Imagine the anticipation.

Imagine the plans, late at night, under the sheets with a flash light and the dog-eared catalog.

Forget the hype and the pressure, that's an adult thing.

Imagine the conversations you might have, if you came downstairs and there was a big guy with a red and white suit standing in the living room.

Ah, ah! 911 is an adult thing!

Imagine two brothers waiting... on Santa Patrol!

Happy Holidays, to every one of us!

The Portrait Project Continues!

For the first time, in a very long time, I placed myself in front of the camera. And learned a bit of empathy for my own subjects.

In the middle of our tight schedule, we found a hole where we could fit me in. After all, I had been hanging around the club for years and made my own contributions by creating photographs for posters and brochures.

Setting up the lights and the position was easy. But, sitting there was not. Nor was the makeup or the direction from Joy, my make up artist, and Jessica, my assistant.

Not that they were difficult. In fact, they were quite supportive. It was my own anticipation of the light and the pose and my own ego in the way. Surely, I don't look like that! Where did that grey in my beard come from? Gosh, no more donuts between setups!

No, my crew was, as always, supportive and creative. Despite having to work with a prima dona like me!

My thanks to Joy for putting up with my complaining about makeup under my eyes. You were right, of course. And, thank you to Jessica for, ahem, pulling the trigger on this one.

Shay's Tongue

Every so often, one of my sons will walk past the studio while I am working. If I am just setting up, they might even stop in and hang for a couple of minutes. At least until they get bored with Daddy playing with his lights again.

This time, Shay stopped in and hung for a while.

I had a client coming in for a shot for a postcard. Since he wasn't there yet, I asked Shay to stand in for a lighting test.

He sat on the stool and grabbed the mic stand and, I swear, let out a shriek that Gene Simons would approve of.

I hear he is organizing a band in his preschool. His older brother, Hunter, will be running the sound board and managing.