When you hire your photographer, review their work and look for someone who has images that show they are shooting all that is happening and not just the main stage.  

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/15

While you may think this is the photo I was talking about actually this is just the beginning.

Get there early and capture the people gathering and getting to know each other in the audience. 

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, ISO 320, f/2.8, 1/500

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, ISO 560, f/2.8, 1/500

Nikon D3, 14-24mm, ISO 6400, f/2.8, 1/160

I like shooting the fringes. The advantage of looking for these shots is you are not always down front getting the images on the stage.  So when some of the action happened in the middle of the room I was ready.

Nikon D3S, 28-300mm, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/400

Nikon D3S, 28-300mm, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/125

I actually lucked up and caught someone taking a flash photo and that helped complete the lower photograph.  Nice moment of the performer with the fire and then you can see clearly the audience.

Now don’t stop shooting the stage, just don’t shoot only the stage.

Nikon D3S, 28-300mm, ISO 4,000, f/5.6, 1/100

Nikon D3S, 28-300mm, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/160

Nikon D3S, 28-300mm, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/200

Nikon D3S, 28-300mm, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/60

Stanley,

“Is there any any any chance you can take out – remove the 1 slide at the very beginning that the slide show starts with that says… petting farm….- am just trying to remove petting farm any where i can find it on the website.”

I was thrilled to see something I did a few years ago can be modified and help my friend’s business. She just wanted to change the focus of her business.

Many businesses will add new things and drop other things and the cool thing with that slide show that I produced I just had to make one modification.

It wasn’t too difficult to make the change due to the format.  Had I shot this all in video I could still make the change, but the time would have been a lot more.

Have you visited your website lately?  Should you change your focus for your business?

 

I recommend looking every once and a while at what you offer and what you could offer.  Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is to stop doing some things. Some of those things may look like they are keeping you in business, but they could be consuming the time you could put into something more profitable.

Some photos are more timeless than others.  Look through your website, blog and other materials and see do the people in the photos look like how people dress and style their hair today?  If not you may need to create some new content.

One of my new clients is putting a new photo every day of the year up on their website.  It doesn’t rotate.  Guess what?  They now have increased their traffic to the website.  People don’t want to miss the photo since if they skip a day they miss out on some content.

By the way if you want to have fun at my friends farm then go here for information http://www.theartbarn.com/.

I just wanted to share some moments from our time going out to a Cowboy church last night where they gave use horseback rides, fed us and sang some songs with us.

ThinkTank Urban Disguise 60 V2.0 is the main bag I use everyday.

When I travel I use the ThinkTank bags to help protect my gear and carry all my camera and computer gear.

I use the ThinkTank Urban Disguise 60 everyday.  I always carry my Apple Macbook Pro and iPad with me.  I enjoy the fast response of the iPad to just see content and prefer to do work on my Macbook pro.

I always have a camera with me but it isn’t the Nikon D3S I am carrying all the time.  I prefer to carry my Nikon P7000 because it is light and pretty versatile if I just want a photo of something I came upon.

When I travel with my pro cameras and am flying I use the ThinkTank Airport Security™ V 2.0.  It is quite common to be stuck on a small plane and have to check my cameras at the door of the plane.  I have had good results with nothing ever breaking when flying with the roller bag.

ThinkTank Airport Security V2.0

I think it is important to carry what you need to a job and I find that I need a lot more than just a camera.  I need backup gear so I need two of almost everything.  That becomes a lot of gear.

In this example you can see 2 cameras, four flashes and numerous lenses and other gear.  I too carry a lot and need not only to be able to carry the gear, but work out of the bag once on location.  I find I can easily get what I need without having to empty the bag to find that piece of gear I am reaching for.

I recommend these two bags in tandem to get your gear on airplanes and to your location to shoot for your client.

This is the 20th Annual Southwestern Photojournalism Conference this week in Fort Worth, Texas.  You can read more about it here www.SWPJC.org

One of the highlights through the years is the “2-minute shows.”

Everyone’s got something to say, but can you say it in two minutes? We’d like to give you the chance to take the stage and share your vision in 120 seconds. That’s right, you’ve got just 2 minutes be it in photos (limit of six) or multimedia.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebyFDCuKmPU]This year I am using my 2-Minute Show to invite folks to Tibet with me. I would love some feedback. Give me your comments below.

We normally start at Billy Bob’s at the Fort Worth Stockyards on Thursday night with the students shooting the dancers.

I enjoy seeing my good friend Morris Abernathy each year.

Anke enjoys her friend Ashley Veneman

Louis Deluca and Garret Hubbard.  This year Garret is a keynote speaker.

Bill Bangham as you can see is a CLOSE personal friend.  He has a show hanging in Richmond, Virginia.

Jim Veneman is the driver of the SWPJC Bus.  He helps keep us on time.

Louis Deluca, Morris Abernathy and Jim Morris are up to something as always here in the Stockyards.

OK this was the moment I decided I wanted a Nikon P7000.  Jim Veneman looked like he had left his cameras at home and then out of no where he pulls this out.

Gary & Vivian Chapman talk with Kevin Vandivier

Garrett Hubbard is just a great guy and loves to help others by reviewing their work at the conference.

http://www.stanleylearystoryteller.com/2minuteshow/_files/iframe.html

Do you want to go here and take a horseback ride? If you do then I succeeded.

Telling stories sometimes is about capturing an essence of the place and creating a mood that triggers the soul of the audience. 

I think the best storytellers are those who can take a present moment and capture a nostalgic moment. The moment is so timeless that people are taken to their own memories.

Does this photo trigger memories for you from your summer camps?

I find that many of the memories from our past that we tap into from time to time are not moments of extreme exaggeration with camera angles. The compositions are more simple and straight forward, but yet they are very timeless.

I remember going to camp as a young boy and having fun playing in the pool and as well remembering finding a girl friend. For me this photo triggers those memories. Does it trigger your memories?

Some photos we take can be big picture like the photo of the horses near the lake. Sometimes the photos can be much closer and help bring us into those moments we remember of a horse ride through the woods.

I used a flash to be sure you see the person on horseback. I think her expression captures the relaxation and joy of horseback riding in the woods.

Many times photographers are communicating moments that do not trigger memories, because the audience has never had a similar experience. I believe if the photographer is truly in touch with their emotions when they are photographing and understand how to use light, composition, expressions of subjects and those defining moments they can communicate even to those who have never experienced these moments a desire to want them.

This is truly a snapshot of my daughter when she was 3 years old.  That is some 10 years ago. While I know this is mainly a memory jogger for me of my daughter, I know on some level it will connect with many people because they too have made similar photos like this.  I think the photo works only because I think you can tell my daughter is connecting with me in the photo.  Would I use this photo in a communication package–I don’t think so.

You need to start with the snapshot as I did with my daughter.  What in this photo makes me like it so much? It is my daughter and it means something on this level for me. I like the expression of Chelle in the photo as well. I think on one level many people would like the photo.

What is missing for me is that she is a little too far away for me in the photo.  I wanted to get closer and make it work better.  Do I have one showing that I did that, no I don’t.  I made this photo for me.  That is perfectly OK to do even for a professional photographer.

I do make a lot of snapshots for me. These are my nostalgic moments. I have learned they don’t connect as well as those photos that have taken a little more thought and time to make.

Are you in touch enough with how you feel about a place to capture it? Good communication photos help your audience connect to a location using visual stimulants that make a moment nostalgic and inviting. Hire a photographer who consistently shows this in their portfolio the next time you want to get folks to come to your event.

Keeping the Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech running all these years requires tender care by mechanics.  The car has been rebuilt completely a couples times.

If we worked with creative the way we get our cars fixed we probably would be more successful. The key is to find a great mechanic and when you do, you most likely will do everything to keep them–they are hard to find.

You have a problem with your car and you articulate your problem to the service person.  They listen and write down the symptoms and let you know they will check on it.  How many times do they come back and the problem is caused by something that surprised you?

You may think your transmission needs to be replaced because the gears are just slipping out.  They look at it and for about $50 they replace a sensor.  Other times you think it is something simple and they find a major problem.

To win races the car has to be pushing all the limits possible. To make this happen a mechanic must know more than the minimum, they must know enough to help think of possibilities to get the most out of the performance of the car.

What often are missing in the creative process are two steps I see every time I have my car serviced.  First, I articulate what I think is the problem. Second, they take the car without me over their shoulder and pop the hood and get a good look with computers hooked up to the car for diagnosis and much more sophisticated analysis than I can do.

If we did car repairs like we handle many creative projects we would just tell the mechanic to switch out those spark plugs and then just before they are finished we may say can you go ahead and give me a valve job.

We seldom have that first conversation where we are articulating our problem that needs solving.

We need more people calling us wanting our services. Then the creative knows they need to make the phone ring.  However, this often is stated as I want a brochure or I need a website.

After the client and the creative person have the sit down meeting to go over all the issues they need addressed the creative should have time to go away from the client, without distractions and come up with some solutions.

At this point the client can do just like they do with the repair shop.  Still get whatever they want, but now they have had the expert give them some of their advice.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Guest Conductor Arild Remmereit and Sergei Krylov, guest violin soloist, answer the questions from middle school orchestra students after the concert. The students are listening to the creative experts and want to learn.

You have probably had someone ask you for something and it is much easier just to give it to them.  However, if you ask some questions like what are you trying to accomplish this can help both of you get better results.

The earlier you bring a creative person in on a project the more information they are privy to and this can increase the quality and improve the impact of accomplishing your goal.

When you hire a photographer to cover an event for you, do they ever suprise you with a multimedia package or do they just give you a few images?

You need to hire a photographer that goes beyond what you ask for and gives you surprises.  You will most likely need to pay more to the photographer to use a multimedia package, but having a option like this to use on your website is better than just an image alone.

I have discovered that many of the events I cover don’t always have a storyline, but putting some images together with some sound from the event is a great way for people to enjoy seeing the images.

It is the packaging and presentation that is what makes the same images a little more enjoyable.

This is one of my favorite images from last night’s performance by the Elkins Pointe Middle School 6th, 7th & 8th grade orchestras.  Why? Because I think music has a powerful way of joining us together and I think this photo captures the friendships made through music.  (Nikon D3s, ISO 5000, f/5.3, 1/100 Nikkor 28-300mm)

I put together a gallery of images for parents and created a DVD to send to the school for them to use in their yearbook.  They seem to like this and continue to ask if I will photograph the concerts all the time.

This time another parent, Chuck Huels,  was recording the concert with the proper sound gear.  I asked if he could send me one song to use with a slide show.  I also recorded the music with my shotgun microphone on the Nikon P7000, but didn’t get the quality of sound that he attained using multiple microphones.

What really made the difference in the Sights and Sounds package was the quality of the sound recording.

http://www.stanleylearystoryteller.com/Elkins/_files/iframe.html

Please click on this to watch the Sights and Sounds multimedia package.

I want you to pay close attention to some of the images. So here I have pulled some out to explain why I shot them and put them into the show.

Before they started to play many of the parents followed my lead and started to take photos of them warming up. Hey this is almost the only way to get a good shot of your child, because once you are sitting down the child maybe on the back row and it is hard to see them.  I also wanted to show that when it is important in our society, people show up with their cameras.  Next time you are in a situation like this, take photos while they warm up, you can get closer and not be obnoxious as it will be if you did this during the live performance. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/60 Nikkor 28-300mm)

This parent is making a video of the performance on her iPad.  I guess she might have even posted it shortly afterwards to her social network.  The cool thing about this and smartphones is the immediate ability to connect to others in the world.  Maybe she could have even been using FaceTime or Skype to let someone who couldn’t get to the performance see it live.  I just love how the world is getting flatter and we are more connected. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/8, 1/60 Nikkor 28-300mm)

I like this photo because it just gives you context to the venue.  Here you can see the 6th Grade orchestra in the foreground and if you look closely you can see the other 7th and 8th grade orchestras in place ready to perform to the left.  Three stages really made the performance move along well. Also, the students behaved better when they stayed on stage and just listened to each other perform. (Nikon D3, ISO 4500, f/6.3, 1/100 Nikkor 14-24mm)

This is my daughter Chelle, playing the viola.  This is the #1 reason I was there last night.  Be sure and see her playing.  (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/100 Nikkor 28-300mm)

I love to capture the moment where I can show the engagement of a person in an activity.  Here the boy is looking to Seth Gamba the conductor for cues. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/8, 1/100 Nikkor 28-300mm)

Seth Gamba, the orchestra teacher, took time to explain to the audience of primarily parents and siblings what each piece of music was helping the students learn.  Here you can see a sibling and parent trying to do the finger combinations their orchestra student will be doing. (Nikon D3s, ISO 12,800, f/8, 1/80 Nikkor 28-300mm)

This is Seth Gamba being sure everyone is learning about music.  I cannot say enough about how excellent of a teacher he is, but winning first place in judging says a lot about his leadership and teaching skills.  (Nikon D3s, ISO 9000, f/8, 1/100 Nikkor 28-300mm)

While the pictures and the slide show do not tell a storyline, they do tell about moments that are stories in themselves.  When you listen to the music listen for how they play in unison.  Listen for how they are all playing in pitch.  Stringed instruments are much more difficult to play in tune than say a piano where when you hit the note it is what it is.  Your finger can be just a millimeter off and the note is off with stringed instruments.

Questions for you

What do you think of the Sights and Sounds format for presenting images?  What do you think you would change?

Tips to produce a package like this

• Get the best possible recording you can. The microphone you choose is critical.  Surprisingly sometimes depending on the room your smartphone will do just fine. But remember it is sound that drives this more than the images.
• Custom white balance. Be sure and set the camera to the room light and not just to a preset.  In this case my custom white balance gave me a Kelvin 3150º with +24 magenta on the tint.  As you can see this is not close to those preset.  
• Use high ISO setting. I am fortunate to own a Nikon D3S that lets me shoot at ISO 12,800 but the idea is to get sharp and in focus images. ISO 100 will be making you shoot at very slow shutter speeds and even with a tripod the musicians would be blurry do to them moving.  Keep the ISO as high as you can to be sure you have good shutter speed.
• Use an appropriate shutter speed.  Why didn’t I shoot these photos at 1/500 or faster? I was shooting under fluorescent or sodium vapor lights.  Not 100% which it was, but under either of these lights the lights are actually flashing and not a constant light as with incandescent lights.  Any shutter speed above 1/100 will be prone to color shifts from frame to frame and/or a stripe through the image of a different color.  You know it when you see it.
• Shoot RAW.  While you can save a step by shooting in JPEG if you need to do any post processing to lighten, darken or tweak the color the RAW will give you better results.
• Shoot for variety and lots of images.  When you put a Sights and Sounds package together, it will most likely be in a 2 minute range.  That will require a lot more images than many parents ever typically shoot of their child’s concert. Fill in with closeup shots, overall shots and most of all look for “moments.”
• Software for iPads and iPhones. When you produce something today, be sure it works on all devices.  The one I did here will work on many different devices.  It also works really well with quality of the image and takes up less bandwidth than a typical video.  I want you to enjoy the package and not be waiting on it to download.

I would love to hear your thoughts so please leave your comments below.

Exposure

When you look from photo to photo is there a consistency in the exposure? Amateur photographers often have inconsistent exposure values.  

Skin Tones

When you look at the subjects does the skin tone look the right color and exposure?  How often are you seeing photos that were shot under fluorescent lights having a green tint to the skin tones. If they have good skin tones on the main subject but the background is green this might be due to using their on camera flash.

Another color shift in skin tones is orange from shooting under tungsten lights.  Again if they used their on camera flash the skin tone might look OK and the background is orange.

If the photos are outside and the subjects are under trees, is the skin tone natural or green cast.  The leaves on the trees are filtering the light and giving it a green tinge. 

Where does your eye go first?

When you look at the photo quickly, where do you look first?  Is it at the subject or is there something distracting in the background or off to the side.  Many photographers are just not able to understand how the photograph is about front to back and not just the subject.  Good composition will have your eye going first to the subject and then if they do a great job it will want to wonder around at all the subtle complementary areas that give more context to the photograph.

Light value on faces

Can you easily see the people’s faces in the photos?  It is much easier to just point a camera and shoot existing light.  Some photographers will even talk about how it makes it real.  Great photographers can shoot using often just available light, but the light on the face has to be right.

Here it is much easier to see the Fencer’s face due to the style of helmet used here.

While normally it is difficult to see a fencer’s face, I chose to make it show up by lighting them in a special way.

Can you see how the face helps bring more life to the photo?

When you are trying to sell something you need to be sure the faces are the best they can be and looking natural as possible.  Skilled photographers know how to introduce light on faces so it looks natural, but most important the person’s face is not in a shadow and difficult to see.

Catchlights in the eyes

Often the difference in a good and great portrait is just a catchlight.  A catchlight is a photographic term used to describe light reflected in the subject’s eyes. The lack of a catchlight, even in an animal’s picture, can make the subject seem comatose.

Catch light in action photos is just as appealing as in a portrait.

Not only is there a small catchlight in the subject’s eyes I have picked a somewhat neutral background for the photo.  This was shot at the same time as the tennis shot above.  We wanted to show how a gym helps local business people.  So we needed in the gym and them in their other environment.  For time reasons we shot them just at the tennis court with a change of clothes.

Without a catch light you can look a little more sinister.  

For the most part a catchlight will add more life to the person than without it. Not having a catchlight can help communicate as well.  The point isn’t they need to be in every photo, but you need to be aware if you never see them in the photographers work. 

Series


When the photographer shows you some photos do you see a series?  You really need to have overall, medium and some closeup shots sometimes for visual storytelling. Your designers want to have some graphics for a background or things to compliment the layout of the webpage, printed piece or to use in a series in a multimedia package for the web.  

Citadel Cadet prepares the Sparkling Cider for the seniors who are now getting their rings.

I chose to add a little variety shot here to show it waiting for the seniors.

The seniors all run in under the sword arch after getting their rings into the quad.

All the seniors grab a glass and toast their success of making it this far at The Citadel.

After toasting they all toss their glasses at their company’s letter.  Here they are all in Bravo and smash the glasses on the B.

I just like how I caught the glass just before being smashed.

Without the other photos this doesn’t make sense, but in the series it helps to tell the story.

Variety

Do all the photos look like the photographer took them from the same perspective?  It is amazing how many photographers shoot everything at their standing height or even a similar distance to the subject.  They may use their zoom lens to get closer, but they never get close to the subject.

Giving out door prizes at a college alumni event.

Same alumni event but now the audience is listening to the development office talk about the future of the institution.  The variety is not just in closeup and far away, but in the tone of the moment as well.

You should feel like your photographer has some visual surprises and give you some safe as well as some on the edge compositions.

Focus and sharpness

I hate to even have to mention this, but many photographers just do not have razor sharp photos.  This does not mean that everything is in focus, but rather whatever place that is suppose to be in focus is and is extremely sharp.  Many photographers have camera shake and the photos just are not tack sharp.

Moments

Family enjoys working out at the gym together.

This is where many elements come together to help make the moment, but you have to catch all the subjects in the “moment” which is often their face expression as well as they are all in step together.

You will find many technically proficient photographers who meet most everything I have mentioned up to now and still after looking at the photo you are not moved emotionally.  Great storytellers will have moments that bring joy to your heart or maybe even sadness.

What will be apparent is that you felt something when looking at the photos.

The photo makes you ask questions

If your photographer does a great job you will want to know more about the photos.  However, the photographer should be waiting for you to ask questions more than jumping in to tell you everything.  The photos should for the most part do the communicating.

I can see the cool angle and what they are doing, but I want to know why and who are they doing it for.  This photo causes me to want to read the caption.  By the way it is a middle school group helping widows with repairs on their houses during the summer.

Front of 4×6 Postcard

Back of 4×6 Postcard

I have used postcards for promotion for years.  When I started I just had 1 photo on the cover and just my return address on the back. 

Today I put photos on the back.  This started because my friend Tony Messano, creative director, pointed out that everyone has at least one good photo. By putting more photos on the back helps communicate you are not just a one shot wonder.

Just the other day I was on Facebook and saw this cartoon being shared over and over.

I think if you were like me you were laughing.

I have found that for a while email blasts were more effective until they became viewed as spam.  Now the difference is that the email is being intercepted more and more by filters.  This is for legitimate correspondence.

I am finding you need to find some resources to help you with your marketing. 


www.PPRPix.com

Meet my friend Pete Casabonne, manager of www.PPRPix.com has been my go to guy for film processing, prints, books and other things that I need to turn my photos into for my clients.

Pete’s new startup PPRPix.com is a very nimble operation. He has a printer that takes the days orders and prints most everything from 4×6 prints to 20 x 30 prints.  In the older style labs you had to convert a machine to do each size.  The only thing they do that requires them to stop and make adjustments is to change the type of paper.

PPRPix does much more than prints.  I just tested today having them handle my postcards.  There specialty is helping the person who has small runs.  They set this up with 4×6 postcards for example at $14.16 for 24 printed 4 color on front and back of the post card.

Once you get into large runs of 5,000 or more postcards the prices start to standardize in the industry, but it is the short runs that have been out of the reach of many.

Carlton Williams cuts the postcards to size using a computer automated machine.

What is important for marketing is not to do just one thing, but to approach potential customers in many different ways. 

This was exciting for me because this was the first time I had ever since a press run on my postcards.

I am working with Pete just like I have always done.  Pete is someone that tells me of new products and price points that make them very appealing.  Then I not only think of how to use these to promote my business, but I also bring my clients to PPRPix.com to help them promote using my work for their business.

We have done large prints for many years for clients to put up in their buildings.  Pete introduced me to self book publishing. Now Pete showed me today an very cool new book design. 

I think I am going to work with Pete on the book in the next month and then blog more about that process later.

What you need to do as far as marketing

You need to have many different ways to present your work.  Here are some I recommend:

• Large Prints (give your present clients large prints to hang on their walls)
• Self Published Books. You can have multiple books published for very little because you only need a few to show people.  
• Postcards
• email Newsletters
• Blogging
• Phone Calls
• Networking events