Make no mistake about it photography is a business. The question is: which end of the stick are you holding? You are either on the end of the stick where photography is an outlay of funds or you have found a way to monetize (in your favor) this dichotomy of art and business that we call photography.

Not many of us need help in spending money on gear, that comes naturally. However, what we do need help with is monetizing our art form. In this posting I will discuss interaction with one recent client and the different aspects of photography that one must be able to bring to the table in order to successfully close a deal.

One of the important aspects of our business is presentation skill in the respect that you should not only be able to talk about your work but how it can bring value to your clients project. Selling work to clients is a cross between a standard sales call and a job interview because you are selling both your product and your ability. Your presentation should exude the ability to be able to complete the task competently without being cocky and certainly not discount any other photographer’s work; you should be able to talk positively about your work without speaking negatively about another. Every photographer has a specialist skill set but at the same time you must be able to creditably represent yourself in many other photographic skill sets in addition to displaying an adroit business sense. If you are not comfortable with other aspects of photography them find a fellow photographer who you don’t traditionally compete with and arrange some cross tutelage. Learning new techniques with a colleague of your caliber is a good way to gain knowledge in new areas and refresh your knowledge in others. Alternatively, I suggest joining a local photographic club, while the members are likely to not all be professionals the talent and enthusiasm in such organizations is virtually boundless; I’ve found this as a member of the Barbados Photographic Society. Failing that there are many excellent photography podcast online that will definitely provide food for thought in addition to inspiration; a few of my favorites are: Tips from the Top Floor with Chris Marquardt, The Martin Baily Photography Podcast with his regular assignments, last but by no means least the eloquent publisher of Lensworks podcast – Brooks Jensen.

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Foul Bay – Barbados

I recently got a new client in a roundabout way. An old friend and I reconnected on Facebook and a few weeks later he came to Barbados on business. On completion of the days business with his clients he called and asked me if I could pick him up; at the time I was on the beach relaxing. I immediately rushed home and did a Clark Kent – Superman transition; shaved and got into some more suitable attire. As you know, the best introduction is a personal introduction. I met the clients we got to chatting and I told them what I do and we exchanged cards. Over the next couple months, we met to discuss possible projects that I could contribute to. Recently the company, Albion Insurance Company Limited, wanted to upgrade their presence on the web, naturally they needed to have some photography of key personnel done.

Here was my opportunity to sell my product and services. For the layman a photograph is a photograph as professionals we know that certain standards have to be met; especially when you are presenting these images as your ‘face’ to the world. As a photographer who also has an extensive background in aviation, management and IT of some 25 years it was time to roll out the cavalry.

The primary purpose of any web presence is to inform and create interest in the product or service that is offered by the organization that the web presence represents. To this end the important things are not only to get people to your site and have content interesting enough to keep them engaged, but also to have a method to keep your name in front of them and also to keep them coming back to the site with a degree of frequency. Some sites have this ‘built in’ by their very nature, I.E. grocery store sites, retailers, social media sites; however, other sites need to create this through a variety of methods.

After discussions with Albion on methods of achieving the objective of keeping their name in front of people we decided to offer photographic desktop wallpapers of various scenes in Barbados available for free download. Why wallpapers you ask? For the simple reason that regardless what icons you have on your desktop your wallpaper is always there, the instant you minimize your programs and each time you boot your computer, voila! In addition to this users have to self opt to install their own wallpaper. It is not the undesirable situation where you are have to blanket the internet with offers to achieve your purpose. Since the advent of SPAM by two immigration attorneys in April 1994, Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) has buried many well intentioned companies and should be avoided like the plague. Use of the internet for marketing should by no means use UCE but instead should utilize a form of viral marketing, for Albion we choose a low

key viral campaign. How is it viral you ask? Face it, the majority of people surfing the internet are deskbound either in an office or at home and enjoy an inspiring/fantasy picture that they can glance at from time to time. Providing attractive free tropical landscapes meets their needs and encourages browsers to add them as wallpaper , beaches and sunsets are big draws, as is cricket for Commonwealth countries.

Using viral marketing in this method is a distant cousin of product placement. If you don’t know this technique you haven’t visited a supermarket or watched a movie recently. Product placement is that art of subtly keeping your name/product in the mind of your customer so when they have a desire for products in the arena that you operate within, your product is the first that comes to mind.

As a photographer you must represent the value that your work can bring to your client and seek opportunities that you can place your work. To do this you must think outside the box, If you don’t

someone else will! Inasmuch as this article is about my interaction and representation of my work with a client it is as much an article that we should read and look within our own operation to see how we can keep our name on the tip of potential clients tongues. The truth be told photography is as much about business as it is art. The question we need to ask ourselves is: “Is our art somebody’s business, or is our business somebody’s art?”. When you seek to make your work revenue positive You may find yourself gravitating towards photographing more saleable images and less artistic unless you have an established Fine Art clientele even then you may still focus on sales. We must remind ourselves through all this to look for new and unusual images and on occasion to go out there and indulge in our passion without a care about the business end of our profession!

Feel free to download the images for your own desktop wallpapers!