goldengod

Sara by Andrew Ferguson

Today’s guest post is written by my lovely girlfriend and secret blog editor:

Hello, my name is Sara, and I am not a photographer. Instead of trying to ad lib about cameras, I’m going to hold forth on writing about photography, based on observations I’ve made as goldengod’s resident grammar geek. The following suggestions are basic, but should be a good starting point for anyone who wants to become an internet-famous photography blogger.

1. Teach your readers

If you want a readership larger than your circle of friends, you have to write work that appeals to strangers. Luckily, photography is a popular hobby and many people will be intrigued by the possibility of improving their own photos. Instead of writing only personal interest, include information that could be of use to your audience.

For example, don’t just talk about the great pictures you took last weekend, describe the lighting setup you used to get that effect. Don’t say your new camera is the greatest, explain why it’s better than the other models. If your readers learn something from everything you write, they’ll keep coming back for more.

2. Tailor jargon to your audience

Photography comes with a vast lexicon of technical terms, but cameras do not come with vocabulary tests. Keep your intended audience in mind when choosing your words. Many photographers are self-taught, and there is no guarantee that your readers will know all the terminology.

This does not mean you need to talk down to everyone, but tailor your language to the expected audience. If you’re writing about advanced lighting techniques, feel free to mention matrix metering*. If your article is titled “What does ISO mean?” you’re better off sticking to simpler terms unless you want to include a long explanation.

3. Check your facts

Now that you have people reading your tips on photography, try to ensure you give the right tips. Your reputation as an photography guru will be ruined if your information is bogus. If you’re not sure about the definition of a term or how a technique works, look it up. You have the internet; this is not hard.

Sometimes you will be wrong, even (perhaps especially?) if you double-checked with Wikipedia. Try not to be a jerk when someone corrects you, unless being a jerk is your schtick. Being right most of the time and accepting corrections when you’re not will make you sound intelligent–like someone worth listening to.

4. Edit, edit, edit

Speaking of sounding intelligent: make sure to edit for spelling and grammar. Yes, this is the internet, and blogging is meant to sound casual. There is, however, a difference between casual and incoherent. Spend a little time choosing your words, and proofread before you publish. If English was never your strong point, enlist a literary-minded friend to look over your work.

There are resources both online and off that can help you with everything from the proper use of a semicolon to writing catchy headlines. Even if your command of language is lacking, you will improve with practice so long as you keep looking for ways to improve.

5. A picture’s worth

When you’re writing about photography, it only makes sense to include some photos. Use them to illustrate techniques you’re talking about, equipment you use, photographers you’ve met. If you don’t have any appropriate photos of your own, Andrew has a post about finding Creative Commons pictures.

These are all basic hints, but keeping them in mind can help if you’re just getting started writing about photography. Perhaps someday Andrew will let me write another guest post, in which I shall expound on the wonders of the thesaurus. Until then, get out there and take some pictures!

* I looked through previous goldengod posts and picked the first piece of jargon I didn’t understand. Andrew assures me it does relate to lighting. Now you know why I didn’t write about cameras.

This is a guest post that my friend Brian Larter graciously agreed to write. I told him I was heading on vacation and he leaped at the chance to air my dirty laundry while I’m gone.

However, that didn’t work out. Instead, here’s a post on what Brian has learned running his own photography business:

A little over a month ago I made the giant leap of quitting my day job to do photography full time. I’ll be honest, that wasn’t the main intention of quitting my job, but it is what happened in the end, and I could never have been happier with my decision. This coming September I will be attending Nova Scotia community collage to take photography as a full time student and that will consume the majority of my time I suspect. But between that and when I quit my day job I have been running my very own small photography business.

I have learned a lot of things over the past few months since Aperture Studios opened, from the good to the bad and everything in between. This is going to be a multiple part post as it is way too lengthy a topic to cover in just one session, and I would be doing it a disservice if I just skimmed the basics.

Me, myself and I

First thing you need to know when it comes to any sort of freelancing photography or photo business is that you are the product you are selling. You are selling yourself as a person as well as your talent and skills with a camera. Pretty much you need to be on your best behavior from this point on and be an upstanding citizen of society. Well not really, you don’t need to become the atomic family or anything, you just need to start watching what you say and do online and in certain people’s company. Anything you do in a negative fashion reflects on you in a negative way therefore reflects on your product in a negative way, and you will have no one to blame but yourself.

Everyone nowadays has two personalities. They have their real world personality where they are in a more conservative setting and then they have their online personality where they tend to let go and be free. This is the personality you need to start being careful of as they may come back and bite you.

Every post you make on a forum, every comment you have made or is made about you can be Googled nowadays. Anyone can look it up by simply typing in your name or your online handle and find all sorts of info about you. This isn’t a huge deal except to that potential client who wants you to photograph their children in the park. They may look up your name and discover you are a member of a forum where you made some comments on how you are disgusted with children and their snotty little noses….yeah, that client may find another photographer.

Now this is a bit of an extreme case and it doesn’t happen with every client of course, but it is always be to be safe when the product you are selling is yourself.

Just charge it to my client please…

One mistake I see photographers making over and over in my studio is they don’t charge their clients for the studio time. Studios and equipment cost money, that money needs to come from somewhere…make the client pay for it! During a photoshoot you are working for someone else, you are the product they just bought for a short amount of time. You have a job to do and that job is not to be spending your money to get their photoshoot done. You are probably not making a bucket load on this shoot anyway, so any small expense you cover is just less money in your pocket for profit.

Some things that I have found photographers covering themselves are studio time, rented equipment, products for the photoshoot itself, makeup artists and hair stylists. If a client wants to have a model shot with makeup they need to understand that they need to pay for that makeup artist and hair stylists.

When you finish with the photoshoot and you go to invoice the client be sure you include all of those expenses. You don’t need to go into detail on your invoice either, simply list them as photoshoot expenses and be sure to include studio rentals and equipment rentals in there. Be sure that the money you are making on a photoshoot is not leaving your pocket as soon as it gets in there.

This is the end of part one on running a small photography business. I am honestly not sure how long this could run as my list for brainstorming is pretty long.

Until next time…