" I can shoot any style but the folks I've been working with want a traditional wedding shot traditionally. They want formal formals. They want sunsets and waterfalls. I'd love to shoot in a more documentary style but so far, the couples that have hired me are very traditional. "

Hey Jim,

That is 100% TRUE. I have learned that the photographs that I like very rarely make the album. I am always curious to see how folks market themselves and what ultimately really sells. LOL, I need a class on effective marketing.

I will say that the feedback that most folks give me as to why the go for our pet portraits (as opposed to others in a rather saturated NYC market) is that people who are drawn to my pet portraits like the 'gravity.' I get a lot of folks who's pets are at the end of their lives and their owners want something to remember them by. LOL, I need to remember this comment when I do my next interview. I wonder who our average client really is.

Anyway, from a creative perspective though, I really love what is being shown. They really are cool shots, and I think make for a very interesting website and gallery.

The problem with "effective" marketing is that we promote what we want to do and don't always know what our target market wants us to do. Like with wedding styles: I love the documentary style and, as a former photo-journalist, I do it fairly well. But when I get hired and show the prospective couple a range of images, they always pick the more conservative, traditional images. That's their vision of their wedding.

For pet portraits, I must admit that I like traditional looks that show off my pets for my purposes -- which is why I do stacked shots and headshots that really show off the dog as attractively as possible. Keep in mind that MY pets aren't just pets: some are show dogs and some are stud dogs and brood bitches. So I need to show off their structure and best features from a reproductive view point.

Yes, I can create images that focus on particular body parts or selectively focus on the dog in its environment, but my clients tend to like what I like of my own dogs. Beauty shots. Portraits in the traditional sense of portraits.

A creative difference doesn't always mean a different genre. It may mean doing the traditional better. Giving people the image they have in their heads and in their hearts. Artistically, I like to see different approaches but I don't know if I'd buy those types of images of my dogs. What I like as an artist is different than what I like as a dog owner. And, lest we forget, we are selling to dog owners.

Jim

I gave a talk on pet photography and had a local photo group I am a part of, over at the studio Friday night. Mainly what I showed was how I handled a dog, what a real life studio session can look like from a quiet trained dog to one that was running around barking at me and laying in the backdrops.

Stylistically, we will all differ. You can emulate a style, but, really it is something you develop yourself. People who like what you are doing call you.

I tend to sell a lot more albums, when I shoot outdoors. There ends up being so much they can't choose. Or when someone brings me a whole lot of dogs. I tend to always sell a fine art canvas *if I make sure to present one in the viewing session!*

So, I think we tend to sell what we promote and show.

I do sell albums and I am working on three at the moment, well, I just finished one and onto number two. Canvases are a whole lot less work!

I agree canvasses are much less work. I just finished 3 from the ARC National. Gallery wraps. Glad I left enough bleed in the images for the wraps!

Jim

Jim, you might be right that I have to market myself differently, but I still think that the documentary style can sell. I primarily shoot weddings and all of my clients want documentary style coverage. It's what I show and how I talk about my style at our first meeting. We always do group shots with the families and bridal party, but they are usually done quickly (find a nice spot, with nice light and line 'em up), so we can get back to documenting real moments. It is probably market-dependent, but "wedding photojournalism" has been a huge trend this decade.

I could see a similar thing happen with pet portraits as more photographers enter the market and adopt that style. Traditional portraiture will never go away, and it shouldn't, but I think there's room for both. You're absolutely right that it's matter of finding the right clients.

I love this conversation! I have found that as more time passes my clients ARE buying my more artistic shots. My last two large canvases were done with the tilt/shift.

Whether that is because I'm getting better at finding my target market, my work is improving, or because I have a lot of those samples hanging in my studio ( or all or none!) I'm not sure.

I have also found that what Julie says about outdoor shooting tends to be true- I'm more likely to sell a book or large piece from an outside session.

Great topic!

Bev

Hey Guys,

What kind of albums are you packaging? Are we talking Graphi Studio or are we talking Smugmug? I have never even considered selling a book.

-JM

You really should offer books of some kind. I have two different ones I offer, a coffee table album (which I have made at whcc) with a custom cover and the hinged lay flat pages and a wedding style leather bound book. I sell a lot more of the coffee table styles. Though, I occasionally do sell a leather bound one, usually to my equine clients. There is a definite price difference.

They take me a lot of time as I do not use lumapix or any other software to lay them out. I do have different elements for building them though.

Clients book sessions for different reasons. I would say I am 50/50 on studio and environmental. People are very specific about which they prefer

Stephen,
I agree that wedding photojournalism has been a very big thing for at least the last 20 years (and, yes, I've been in it for twice that long ) it's just that most of the clients I've been working with lately have gone back to the traditional style. Same with my pet portraits. Now, I'm not aggressively promoting my journalistic style with either market so that may be part of the reason. But I offer folks the whole gamut when we discuss the project and I don't favor one over the others. Maybe they're telling me I'm not as good with journalistic photography as with traditional portraiture .

James, I've been selling hard-cover books for weddings, baby shoots and pet portrait sessions for over 2 years and they have totally replaced traditional "albums" in my product mix. We publish the magazine so our page layout skills are ideally suited to books. Plus, I shoot a lot of frames in my sessions and I get a lot of very usable images which makes it difficult to pick just a few. So, with the books, we can offer them so many more image options than traditional albums. Here are a few examples:











We have two wedding books in layout stage right now and a baby book on order as well. They take time to do but are so much more interesting to view compared to page after page of 8X10 images. Yawn!

Jim

I have a little of both. What my pet clients say to me is that I capture their dogs personality. Whether it is in the studio(pretty traditional stuff) or outside, which, again, is still fairly traditional, with a little twist.

I have been struggling with trying to make art prints that can win in a print competion, yet, be saleable. What I have found is that the rectangle prints sell EXTREMELY well. I'll make another post to show what has been well received.

Art and sales don't have to be mutually exclusive. I just have not found the pieces and parts to sell well on their own. When I have a client in front of me and I have a set of photos, they always want a traditional wall portrait of their dog. OR their animal and themselves. The rectangle prints almost always sell too