Thursday, November 18, 2010

Gavin Blue!

Gavin Blue was another talk I missed out on, however I have taken the liberty of doing some research on Mr Blue.
From his website we can be assured he's worked with some pretty big names such as Qantas, Volvo, Telstra, Suzuki just to name a few, he seems to be sought after for his portraiture and has a distinct use of lighting which is evident across his gallery!

SYDNEY TRIP!

The excursion to Sydney was a real eye opener,
We visited three studios

http://www.gmphotographics.com.au/

This was a cute little office set in Mossman which seemed to have done quite well for itself.
The photographers were focused on high end wedding and portraiture with family photos, babies, engagements and weddings being a big feature.
The office space was set up well and looked aesthetically pleasing! If I was going to have photos taken I'd book thm.

SUN STUDIOS:
http://www.sunstudiosaustralia.com/
-Ah-mazing!
- We had a quick tour of what the studios have to offer, rental, shop, repairs, massive studios with cycs, catering, light and equipment and prop hire, an on site post production workshop!
- A quick lighting demo of the new broncholor lighting schemes and the massive umbrella flash! Woah.

A third studio in the city.
- Used for corporate
- Post production rooms above the studio
- Products and advertising
- Have done some work for pretty big brands
- Interesting!

HILARY!

This lesson's time was dedicated to our other teacher for this subject, Hilary Wardaugh.

Hilary is highly regarded in the AIPP, and is a master level photographer in the institution.

Like many of the other photographers that have visited us, Hilary focuses her photographic practices on portraiture and weddings.
She graduated CIT and then got out into the real wide world.

Like other photographers creating businesses,
Hilary suggests having contact number, e-mail, online networking (Website, facebook, blogs etc, and a portfolio of your previous work to show your clients or potential clients.

Hilary also gave insight into what to charge for your services and your products, and the types of things you have to take into consideration to ensure you are not undercharging.
Calculation of what to charge can be made by taking the following into consideration:
Knowing what to charge:
This can be calculated when you know all of your expenses such as:
Equipment you use; Camera, lights, flash etc etc
Insurance of your equipment
Staff wages: Assistants, post production etc
Rent: Space for your studio/office etc
Advertising fees; Yellow pages, magazine, online
Water and electricty bills
Phone bills etc

Her work and more information can be viewed here:
http://www.hwp.com.au/

Snowgum Studios

I was actually away for this lesson but I managed to do some research on the studios website.

Snowgum studios is a studio just out of canberra designed with carefully thought out sets where the subjects can be relaxed and photographed. The photographers specialize in wedding, babies, pregnancy and family portraiture!

The website for the studio creates a complete environment, with colours/images/sounds that all collaborate to create a certain feel which is reciprocated in their galleries of images.
Their images and more info about the studio can be viewed here on their website:

http://www.snowgumstudio.com.au/index2.php?v=v1

Dan O'Day

Dan O'Day was probably my favourite of the photographers that visited our class.

Emerging from public service, he became a fine art photographer that is now know by a huge spectrum of people winning many awards and exhibiting lots of work, as well has having it published.
His work is usually defined as 'Fine art' and he gave some tips on breaking into the industry just as he did.
His advice mentioned:

** Start and mantain a CV- Jotting down every time you get something published or exhibited, documenting paid and unpaid work experience, everything counts!
** Create an online profile - Easy to update and easy for your viewers to follow you, he also mentioned other image upload sites like deviantart and flicker to create exposure for yourself and document what you've been up to.
** Keep yourself inspired, read magazines etc

He also mentioned that he got his first work exhibited by just going into a gallery in Melbourne and presenting his work to the curator, proving that sometimes you just have to put yourself out there to be recognized.

His work can be viewed at http://www.danodayphotography.com.au/

Lindi Holly

Today's lesson was dedicated to one of the teachers business, Lindi Holly Photography!
Lindi's work is mainly made up of portraiture and is based here in Canberra.
She mentioned using Graphic designer to produce a logo for the business to sum up her style etc.
Lindi also talked about starting up a business and integral things you would need to achieve this such as using
- ABN
- Business Name
- Bank account
- Telephone number and other forms of contact
- Online networking like blogs and other things
Lindi also made a point that you should not offer the client just prints but a broader range of products especially for shoots like weddings, she bought in examples of her wedding packages which are displayed nicely in a box which is something the client can keep forever.
Lindi has an online gallery in which her clients can use a special client log in to view their shoots privately as well as general galleries in which potential clients can browse her work.
You can see these on her website which is:
http://www.lindiholly.com.au/blog/

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Ben Kopilow - Stock Photography.

This weeks lesson was based on the stock photography side of Ben Kopilow's photographic practice.

PROS:
* Get to work for yourself
* Freedom lifestyle (Shoot when you want)
* No difficult clients to deal with

CONS:
* Patchy income/stream/cash-flow
* Need a good agent -> Who take 50% cut of the income
* Hard to break into an established agent
* To make it big, need constant fresh input

Licensing models:
$1 downloads-> make your money on sheer volume
Royalty free -> Usually based on resolution =$50 - $500
Rights managed -> based on usage - Higher returns!

Basically stock photographer would be a good on the side job doing the $1 download volume income thing, however if you want to make a career just out of stock photography, you have to be willing to follow the trends of what people are wanting, take a high turnover of images and know what people are looking for.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Geoff Comfort

I didn't actually attend this guest speech, but have done some research on the photographer.

Geoff Comfort is a commercial photographer that focuses his photographic attention on areas such as aerial, architechtural, corporate portraiture, lifestyle, public relations and landscape.
He graduated from CIT and is a master at the AIPP, and often partakes in photographic competitions as a competitor and judge.

His website is as follows :

http://www.geoffcomfort.com/menu.html

Ben Kopilow - Wedding photographer

Ben Kopilow is a Canberra based wedding photographer, a member of the AIPP and the principal photographer of 'Fusion Photography.
His career started out at PMA trade shows where he would book a couple of weddings and then ended up with a reputable wedding photography business in which his own personal style is embedded and sought after.
Ben caters for most types of wedding budgets however prefers to shoot high end, boutique style weddings.

Shoot to burn - Dump cd + Negatives - $500 - $1200
Middle of the market - Albums, etc - $2000 - $3000
Top end - Go the extra mile - $12 000

A wedding with all expenses included costs Ben around $1500 at the bottom line, so he aims to price weddings at around $5000 minimum to make a justifiable profit.

The main thing I learnt from this guest speaker, as corny as it sounds, is to embrace beliefs and aspirations and rule out any self limiting beliefs.