Portraits

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Houston on May 3, 2008 at 12:55pm

how were you going to go about addvertizing for your business? I found that addvertizing can be a cuchle part of it !!

Permalink Reply by Andrew Ronaldson on May 4, 2008 at 11:25am

I also run a Club here at Gatwick and we have around 36,000 employees, I thought of advertising locally and through word of mouth, we have many local free papers that I can adverttise in and if the product is right and at the right price hopefully it should take off, I am not going to print the photos, instead I will offer them an a disk so they can do as they wish with them, there will be a miimum number of photos at any session and hopefully people can see the benefits of taking the picture and getting them an hour later, I intend to do it all within the Club ( its a family club ) and they can have a drink and see the facilities at the same time....................

Permalink Reply by Andrew Ronaldson on May 4, 2008 at 11:29am

Sorry,,,,,,,thats 36,000 employees at Gawick Airport..............not the Club !!................

Permalink Reply by Mark Rockwood on April 17, 2009 at 10:15pm

Well Andrew, I would suggest you shoot your ass off before you start to sell your services. The issue that arises pretty quickly for portrait shooters is one of just producing a product that you can sell or executing a vision. Are you trying to get people to look pretty enough to pay for what you do or are you trying to create an object which embodies you insight. The only way you can even ask the question is to have shot enough that you understand what the difference is and that you aren't fooling yourself about which you are doing. I guess that's not really what you asked for but it's a good thing to keep in mind from the get go. I'll attach a couple of shots of mine that are kind of between vision and pretty object.
Mark R

Permalink Reply by Kaisern Chen on April 27, 2009 at 9:19pm

Making a living and being success may be different. Use whatever you have on camera, lens and light (with or without), create a style that is recognizable then go from there.

Permalink Reply by Mark Rockwood on April 28, 2009 at 4:36am

Perhaps a little simplistic Kaisern? Make do with what you have and evolve a style that's recognizable? Not that it matters. You and I are responding to a year old posting.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Ronaldson on April 28, 2009 at 9:23pm

Hi Guys,
Here I am a year later and thank you both for relying to the post, you were both right in your comments, I did do quite well in getting them to pay me for the portraits, one problem with giving the photo on a disk is that you have no control over the quality of the print, I saw one I had done and was dismayed so I stopped giving them on disks of printable quality, they were good enough for a pc slideshow, I am now in New Zealand working comercially on a number of projects but still do thge portrait side, my style is developing and I will post some pics soon, the two you attached are very different from each other and both stunning, I am setting up a Studio which should be ready by next month so there will be plenty to do to ensure the style develops into what I am happy with, I have also just upgraded to the Canon D5MK11 and appropriate lenses, lets hope I can do them justice.....................

Permalink Reply by Mark Rockwood on April 29, 2009 at 4:46am

Congratulations on still being in the game and on pushing forward. Much good luck with your studio and the work you do in it.
M