Business Trends

Stop. Look. Listen. You learned it when you were a little kid and it is good advice today. We are all so busy doing our photography that we often don't make the time to do our job of running a business. Part of any good business plan is scheduling a mid-year marketing update. It's a reality check--where have you been, where are you now, where are you going?
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While you as the photographer own the copyright to images you create, this does not negate the privacy rights of any recognizable individual in your photo. Knowing when you can sell or lease that image with or without a model release is important. In this article we cover that ground as well as the impact of social media and new technology on privacy rights and model releases.

In today's competitive marketplace for your photography services, new technologies in print services are emerging to help you find and reach potential clients. Using a service combination of design, list purchasing, custom quality printing, and even mailing the postcards for you, companies such as Modern Postcard (http://www.modernpostcard.com"...

Does using social media as a marketing tool work for photographers? That’s what we aimed to find out by interviewing five photographers who have successfully used this particular marketing technique in very specific ways. Unlike advertising and direct mail, where you send out your material and wait for a response, and sales calls, which are more time-consuming, social media is a unique technique that can breed success, but only when properly and fully utilized. Many thanks to our photographers for taking the time and attention to share their thoughts and experiences (websites at end of column): Liz Cowie, Clark Dever, David Alan Kogut, Brad Mangin, and Chuck St. John.

Like many aspects of commercial photography these days, the music industry has seen many changes that affect how a photographer finds clients and promotes their talents. One of the biggest changes, according to photographers we talked with for this story, is that there is no one single “contact” person anymore and that to broaden your scope you have to deal with numerous individuals...