Joe McNally: Da Grip

Famous US photographer Joe McNally doesn't only have a website. He recently published a new book ("The Moment It Clicks"), started a blog and even a channel on YouTube. Did you think you knew how to hold a camera rock steady? Let Joe explain you what's his trick. Learn the basics. Watch 'Da Grip'.



Blog: www.joemcnally.com/blog
Videos: Joe McNally on YouTube
Website: www.joemcnally.com
Book: The Moment It Clicks



Worth to have a look at!

Richard Overtoom Photography blogging now!

My good friend and famous Wedding and Wildlife Photographer Richard Overtoom just started his blog! Go, visit and leave a comment to give some love!

One Step Ahead

Now that I finished reading Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi (it's really great!), I started to read another famous book: Love Is The Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends by Tim Sanders.

That's what it is about. Another great book about business, networking and marketing. And how to become a person that will have a deep impact on other people's life. It was recommended to me by several US photographers and because I've already read The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life's Dreams by Tim Sanders it was no question that I will buy this book too.

In short: Tim Sanders believes love is the crucial element in the search for personal and professional success. His definition of love business is: the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles with your bizpartners. While our intangibles are our knowledge, our network and our compassion. Tim Sanders believes that these are the keys to true bizlove.

Read it and you will understand how right he is!

If you are interested to explore more go to stalk Tim Sanders' blog about business, culture and spirit: Sanders Says

Also watch Tim Sanders' videos on YouTube. I especially like The XBox Story he uses to illustrate the power of compassion. Watch it here:

Read this! Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi

Recently I noticed how important it is to read books. Not just novels for entertainment (currently I'm reading Harry Potter before falling asleep :) but also books about running a business. You can learn so much by reading a good book. A lot of great authors share their knowledge, their wisdom with you. Knowledge they elaborated over years and years of work. Profit from them! And start sharing too! (remember my post about sharing? **CLICK HERE** or for another post about the importance of sharing **CLICK HERE**)

If you run your own business you will notice how important networking is. Keith Ferrazzi is like the guru in this field. He teaches you that networking doesn't just mean exchange of business cards. But more importantly networking means connecting with people, making new friends and keep the connection with people you already know alive. Connect with people, share things with them and care about them. Truly. It is a skill you can learn. And you should do so.

I'm just reading Keith Ferrazzi's famous book Never Eat Alone. I recommend this book, it will open your eyes. Especially if you always refused networking because you thought it's a bad habit to use connections. It's not. It's vital.

Check also Keith Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone Blog if you are interested in some more information about networking and how it can help you to grow your business.

The book is also available in German: Geh nie alleine essen!

Post production

Clients often don't understand what "post production" means, why it is necessary and why they have to pay for it. That's why they negotiate to have the job done without. Normally just for the sake of saving some money. But would they be happy with the final result if they got the images without allowing the photographer to finish his work? I don't think so. They will say he's a bad photographer - while comparing his work with other photographers that certainly DO post production, of course! And they will neither book him again nor recommend him to other prospective clients.

So let's dive into the subject. Why does it need post production and what is it? Compare the two pictures below. The difference is called post production :)

This is the untouched photo straight out of the camera:



It's a nice, acceptable shot. Exposure, focus and colors are OK. But not more. That's what you get (or maybe less) if you hire just the cheapest photographer to cover your wedding or another high end event. Often they work the "shoot to burn" style: shoot the wedding and just burn the photos right from camera to a CD and hand them over to the couple, without any post production or retouching. It's obvious why "shoot to burn" photographers can offer their services for a very low price. They don't need expensive tools, not years of learning and acquire skills, no time at all after the wedding for finishing the pictures and no backup strategies. The photos are ready to deliver to the client at the moment they are shot. That's where their workflow ends.

And that's where the workflow starts for the "other" photographers.

This is what the picture looks like after some work in Photoshop, called "post production" (click to view it big):



The image has been lightened, converted to black & white, added some sepia toning and the texture of an old paper to give it the taste of an old photo. To make the picture something unique and special.

[Working with "textures" like this is very modern at the moment in photography, check out the website of the master of FineArtTextures, Jesh de Rox!]

In the previous post (open the link in a new window to compare the pictures "side by side") I used the same photo to announce the slideshow of Sibylle & Jan. The picture is in color but nevertheless did get some post production: lighten, color correction, contrast bump, a little vignette and sharpening.

Post production needs time, knowhow and sometimes special tools and software. That's what you pay the photographer for. Not just for showing up with his fancy camera for 10 hours at your wedding. Also cheap photographers can afford an expensive camera. That's not what makes the difference. It's the photographer's eye and creativity, his knowhow and professionalism and what the final result looks like. After post production (And that's also the reason why photographers are not payed for the amount of hours they are "on location").

If you're fine just getting average (or below) images of your wedding, go ahead to hire the cheapest photographer you can grab. But don't expect wonders and don't be disappointed afterwards.

If your main concern is the quality of your wedding images and the album, examine the photographers' work well and ask them the right questions before you sign the contract.

Every couple should choose the photographer that fits its needs, style and budget. And it feels comfortable with. It's OK to hire a "shoot to burn" photographer. If you know the difference and are aware of the limitations this might bring. But don't expect wonders. As everywhere else in business, what you pay is what you get! The choice is up to you.

Enjoy your wedding day! It will be an unforgettable moment in your life. Hopefully you picked a good photographer and will enjoy his work for a lifetime.

(If you are more interested in the photography business read John Harrington's great book Best Business Practices for Photographers or his blog Photo Business News & Forum.)

Sharing, part 2

Die Idee, dass man durch das Teilen von Wissen und gegenseitige Hilfe - selbst wenn man in der gleichen Branche arbeitet - nicht etwas verliert, sondern im Gegenteil etwas gewinnt und ALLE weiterbringt, vertritt nicht nur David Jay oder Gary Fong, sondern z.B. auch Paul Arden in seinem Buch "Es kommt nicht darauf an, wer du bist, sondern wer du sein willst." Er schreibt darin: "Wenn du sagst, was du weisst, wirst du noch mehr zurückbekommen. [...] Je mehr du weggibst, desto mehr kommt zurück."

Paul Arden arbeitete viele Jahre in der Werbe-Branche und man könnte den Titel des Buches auch missverstehen (der englische Titel ist präziser: "It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be"). In dem Buch geht es um Erfolg und Strategien zur Selbstvermarktung. Es geht darum, dass man das, was man sich vorstellt, als sein Ziel definiert, auch erreichen kann und wird. Im Vorwort schreibt Paul Arden: "Nur wenige reiche und mächtige Menschen sind besonders begabt, gebildet, charmant oder gut aussehend - Sie sind reich und mächtig, weil sie reich und mächtig sein wollen. [...] Zu wissen, wo oder wer du sein willst, ist die wichtigste Voraussetzung für Deinen Erfolg. Wer kein Ziel hat, wird kaum etwas erreichen."

Ähnliches hat Gary Fong wiederholt in seinem Blog beschrieben: In all seinen Unternehmungen oder Projekten hat er nie an seinem Erfolg gezweifelt. Er hat sich das positive Resultat, den Erfolg immer derart stark verinnerlicht und visualisiert, dass es schon fast real war. Und schliesslich auch tatsächlich Wirklichkeit geworden ist.

Das Buch ist kurzweilig und nicht nur für Werber interessant. Es enthält auch viele allgemein gültige Weisheiten von Paul Arden und Zitate von Beckett, über Konfuzius bis zu Churchill. Lesenswert!

Und der Blog von Gary Fong ist einerseits für Fotografen interessant, enthält aber immer wieder Wissenswertes zum Thema Business und Erfolg. Oder einfach nur Quatsch :) Gehört zu meiner täglichen Blog-Kost.

Not only David Jay or Gary Fong are talking about how sharing helped them to help others and improved their own business at the same time and even the whole industry. If you read the book "It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be" by Paul Arden, you will find the same ideas. He writes: " If you tell/share what you know, you will get even more back."

It's a short book that is easy and fun to read. Enjoy!

Gary's blog is not just interesting for photographers. He also talks a lot about business and success. Or just about his daily life. One of the blogs I read daily.

About blogging and sharing

Ich werde immer wieder gefragt (und belächelt), weshalb ich einen Blog habe. Ganz einfach!

Ein Blog (der Begriff ist eine Verkürzung des Begriffes "weB log", also etwa "Internet-Tagebuch") kann einfach nur unterhaltend sein. Blogs sind aber viel mehr. Blogs sind auch eine sehr gute Informationsquelle, die dem Austausch von Wissen dient. Und ein Marketing-Instrument.

Als Fotograf informiere ich mich in Blogs nicht nur darüber, was andere befreundete Fotografen privat machen, sondern v.a. auch woran sie beruflich gerade arbeiten oder wie sie die Entwicklung des Photobusiness einschätzen und es selber weiterentwickeln. Über Blogs wird Knowhow ausgetauscht. Und wer Wissen teilt bringt nicht nur die anderen weiter, die vom eigenen Wissen profitieren, sondern auch sich selber. Denn was man gibt, kommt auch wieder zurück. In den USA ist diese Erkenntnis weit verbreitet, in der Schweiz braucht es diesbezüglich noch Entwicklungsarbeit. Man hat Angst anderen einen Vorteil zu verschaffen und selber etwas zu verlieren. Wie kurzsichtig, solches Denken! Schliesslich nützt es allen, wenn man das Photobusiness weiterentwickelt. Auch in den USA hat es jahrelange Aufbauarbeit gebraucht. Als Lohn gibt es heute einen gut entwickelten Markt für Hochzeitsfotografie und Fotografen, die sich untereinander austauschen statt Angst vor der Konkurrenz zu haben. Es gibt diverse Magazine zum Thema Hochzeit, einen Markt für High End Hochzeitsfotografie und Kunden, die wissen, was es gibt und was sie wollen. All dies existierte in den USA vor einigen Jahren auch noch nicht. Mit vereinten Kräften haben die Fotografen dies erreicht. Und profitieren nun alle von einem Markt, der heute viel mehr Arbeit für alle ermöglicht.

Genau dies hat mir auch David Jay in unseren Gesprächen bestätigt: "If you don't share, you won't be successful!" Und: "You have to educate the brides." Man muss erklären, überzeugen, die Kunden "schulen". Und damit einen Markt aufbauen und ein Bedürfnis schaffen.

Und der Blog als Marketing-Tool? Das Führen eines eigenen Blogs kann Kunden einen persönlichen Bezug zu einem Fotografen geben. Man lernt den Fotografen näher kennen. Und wen man kennt, dem vertraut man auch. Und Vertrauen ist die Grundlage für eine erfolgreiche Geschäftsbeziehung. Durch die tägliche Aktualisierung der Blogs wird es für die Leser ausserdem interessant, immer wieder zurückzukommen. Ein sich ständig ändernder Blog ist interessant, eine statische Website dagegen nicht.

Und nicht zuletzt werden auch Blogs, nicht nur Websites, von Suchmaschinen indexiert. Man wird als Fotograf also auch über Blogs gefunden. Und dies führt irgendwann zu neuen, zufriedenen Kunden.

Ein Blog, den ich täglich lese, ist derjenige des US-Fotografen John Harrington, Photo Business News & Forum. John hat auch ein Buch zum Thema Photobusiness geschrieben und alles offen gelegt. Preise, Verträge, Verhandlungsstrategien, Kommunikation mit Kunden. Der Blog ist wie eine Ergänzung dazu. Das Buch ist statisch, wie eine Website. Es wurde mal gedruckt, das ist der Stand vor ein paar Monaten. Der Blog ist dynamisch und zeigt nun die Weiterentwicklung auf, den heutigen Zustand des Photobusiness. Ich empfehle beides zu lesen, das Buch (Best Business Practices for Photographers, Englisch) und den Blog. Viel Vergnügen!

I'm often asked why I write a blog. Very simple!

Writing and reading a blog can be just for fun. But more often they are a place to share. Share ideas, opinions, knowhow. And they are a marketing tool.

In the US a lot of photographers share not only their private life in a blog, they especially share business knowhow. Something you can't imagine in Switzerland...

But as David Jay told me, also in the US it was not always like this. It needed a lot of work to come to the point where the business of wedding photography is now in the US. He told me: "You have to educate the brides." To build up a growing market and a need for high end wedding photography. And you have to share your knowhow with other photographers, if you want to be successful.

Not only websites are indexed by Google and other search engines, blogs are searched too. That means that you will be found more often, if you write a blog and that drives traffic to your website too. Because blogs are updated daily, they are more interesting to readers than just static, never changing websites. And the readers come regularly back. They start to know more and more about the photographer and feel like they know him as a person. With knowing the person they also build up trusting this person. And trust is the basis for a successful business relation. Marketing tool.

One of the blogs I read every day is Photo Business News & Forum by US photographer John Harrington. He also wrote a book about photography: Best Business Practices for Photographers. Check them out and start sharing too!