How to pick a photographer

It is that time of year. Everyone is scrambling to get family photos taken and get the Christmas cards out. And you know it has to be better than last year. Every year has to be better than the year before.

For many years families were happy with the Wal-Mart or JCPenny cookie cutter photos, but times are changing. People want to be able to express who they are, and who their family is. They want more than a posed, and potentially boring photo. So now they are going out and they are finding photographers (which there are so many out there!) and discovering that there is more than studio shots to be had in the photography world.

Now I must admit there are some dangers in taking this wild leap into the sea of photographers available to you. First of all we are living in an age where anyone with a camera believes that they are a photographer. Be cautious of these individuals. If you are looking for quality and a great experience with your session you need to be very selective about how you pick a photographer.

The first people that you want to eliminate from being your potential photographers are the ones that say they are going to shoot your session with their phone. Yes.. people do offer sessions that are shot strictly with their phone, and they even charge money for it! Insane I know but people actually pay someone to do it. Please, I beg you, do not have these people take your most important photos!

Second I recommend jumping on Instagram. Believe it or not this is a great place to find photographers, and find their work. This gives you a chance to look at their work, with no regards to price, or feeling pressured to sign a contract or anything of that nature. You can just browse to your hearts content and make a list of photographers that you are interested in to investigated further. Now I am sure you are wondering, how am I suppose to browse to my hearts content? Instagram is famous for hashtags. Log into your account, and pick a location or city, for example lets say you live in Columbia, South Carolina. So in Instagram you search the hash tag #columbiascphotographers, and there will be photos that pop up for you to browse. You can click on photos that you like and it will take you to the profile that the photo originated from which will give you the photographer information. Some photographers will have their Facebook information, while others will have their website information. Either way this is a great starting point for you.

If it is not the photographer that you are worried about, but it is the location, you can do the same thing with Instagram. Look up the location via a hashtag and once you find photos of the location you can find potential photographers who have already been to the location using the same logic as discussed above.

Next you want to narrow down your list. Call at make appointments to meet with the potential photographers. Yes, I said meet with. This is not the point that you are going to book with them. You want to meet with them. Just sit down over coffee or drinks, and discuss with them what you are looking for, see what kind of ideas they have or suggestions they may come up with. Pay attention to how they talk to you. Do they listen to you? Do they take into account what you are looking for? Or are they set in their ways? Are they open to fun new ideas for photos? Most importantly do you and your family feel comfortable with them?

The last question is very important. You must be comfortable with your photographer in order to have an amazing session. Being in front of a camera tends to be very stressful for anyone and if you are not comfortable and trusting of the person that is behind the camera it is only going to make the situation that much more difficult for you and your family. You want this session to be as low stress and as fun as possible in order to get those amazing photos that you are looking for.

Once you have discovered
that photographer that you are most comfortable with it is time to book the session and start planning the session with them.

Sessions.... the fun begins here!

I hope that this information is useful. Please leave some further suggestions in the comments to help improve finding a photographer for other readers. Or if you have questions please leave them in the comments I would love to have a chance to answer them!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Christmas Minis!

I love taking the time to be able to Christmas Minis! Please take the time to bring your fur babies by if you are in the area and lets have a great time!

Where is the future taking us?

Like many of you I listen to podcasts on a very regular basis. To be honest I think it has come down to almost a daily basis. I have come to realize that while I am walking that I am able to think about what is being talked about, and it also gives me the time to ponder the information that is being given.
Today I listened to episode 752 from Tips from the Top Floor with Chris Marquardt. Chris is based out of Germany and is known as the man that has maintained the worlds longest running podcast.  Here is the link to the episode that I listened too, Augmented Photography. During the first half if the episode he discusses an interesting thought process of where the future of photography is going due to Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality.

Sounds strange that he brings out three different types of reality doesn't it? To be honest I really only was aware of one. I did not know that other terms were coined at this point in time. The first, virtual reality, is exactly what you think it is. What we are all use to it as being explained as. The removal of yourself from reality and being placed into a virtual world that may or may not have resemblance of the real world. The second is the Augmented Reality. This as Chris stated is like Pokemon Go. Chris explains it as an over lay of virtual reality on to the world of reality. Finally there is the mixed reality is another form of over lay, however I will admit from his explanation I was a bit confused.

Chris through out the course of the podcast sounds excited about what this kind of technology can potentially do for the world of photography. I can to an extent understand his enthusiasm but at the same time I wonder, what is something like this going to do to the world of photography?

For example I love the idea of being able to potentially place a photo into Lightroom someday, and than project it onto a wall, screen, what have you, and than literally virtually walk into the photo and edit it, move the pixels, adjust them as I see fit and such, however this is something that I see as being a long way off. The question is how far off? I did a quick Google search and I found this cute article which at the time was only nine hours old Apple Glasses.

So maybe this is something that is not to far in the distant future. But as I said, what does that do to, or what can it do to the camera industry? What will it do to photographers? If this kind of technology becomes as easy to use as Apple and others are leading it out to be, then where is that going to leave photographer, or the need for the photographer? Will there be a need for DSLR's anymore? Or will we all finally be reduced to our smart phones? Is this the kind of technology that can even be placed inside of a camera to make it more powerful or is this something that makes the DSLR as we know it obsolete as we know it?

I know that is a lot of questions to think about, but it something that I have thought about ever since the podcast. On the one hand I think that it is amazing that we are moving in the direction that we are for technology purposes, but than on the other, I wonder if this move is threatening my very hobby, and very happiness?

What have you heard about Augmented Reality?

What are your thoughts about Augmented Photography?

I would really love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Please share them!

Where are all the photography clients?

Are you just starting out in your photography business? Or have you been in business for a while but you are still struggling to find clients? Believe me friend, you are not alone. There are times it just seems like there are no clients out there and if they are, they are like Pokemon, and they just refuse to get inside of the Pokeball. (Please excuse the Pokemon reference.. this is all the rage in my house right now.) It can leave you frustrated and wondering if you are even really cut out to be a full time photographer. How do I know you ask? Well because I am right there with you my friend!

I have been in business for a few years and I have struggled from time to time. The last few years I have struggled the most. I was doing well at my previous location, but when I had to relocate and start all over, it has not gone well. I believe part of that is because I no longer live in a tourist location, however it just seems that I am no longer able to get my name out there. I have tried the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Thumbtack, and even advertising at a few local stores, however it just seems to not be working. I am slowly beginning to think that there are no clients out there for me at the moment.

Have you ever had that feeling? I understand that the market is EXTREMELY saturated with other photographers. Pretty much anyone that has a camera believes that they are a photographer anymore which makes it even more difficult for people like me and people like you, but there has to be an answer right? There has to be a way to break through and shine above the rest in order to get the ball rolling again.

I ran across this podcast from Improved Photography. It covers inexpensive ways that will help you get your work noticed. These are things that I am currently working on trying as well. Please take a listen. Give it a try and if it works for you or even if it doesn't please leave some feedback in the comment section so we can help each other grow!http://improvephotography.com/9954/7-inexpensive-things-you-can-do-to-get-your-photography-noticed-improve-photography-episode-33-podcast/