Hi Guys,

I just signed up to NWPP as its something I'm interested in when I'm not stuck in my studio. Would be interested in your thoughts on my galleries. I love travel photography and want to consider trying to get involved in stock photography. Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated

http://www.marlboroughphoto.co.uk/06c-Gallery.html

Hey Pete,

I checked out your galleries. I like your website a lot. You tend to have a documentary look to your photographs that I like. I am a 'headshot' guy personally, looking always to get in as tight as humanly possible. With this bias, I really enjoy some of your photographs of the dogs (the nice close-ups) and the orangutangs.

Two of those in particular were favorites of mine. The first is of a mother feeding a baby while sitting together (#71 and #76). Very much a transcental mother-child experience. There is also one where you catch a beautiful rim light around the orangutang's face (#50 and $56). Very nicely done.

Are you designing your own website or did you pay someone to do it? How do you find the e-commerce portion?

-JM

Hi Pete

Like those photos from Borneo and from Kenya. Your wedding page is also nice. Are you shooting both nature and portraiture work? I see that you are selling your photos online. Also, the Kenya wildlife. Are those animals wild or are they in some form of sanctuary?

Lou

Thanks for taking the time to look at my images. All of the Kenya pictures were taken in the masai mara on individual safaris, so its pot luck what you came across (which is why its always worth paying a good guide). The Lapland pictures were taken on a week long expedition staying in remote lodges (it was actually my stag-do before I got married) The Borneo ones of the orangutans were taken in a sanctuary for orphaned orangutans - not the main one at Sepilok but a smaller one that was less well known (again my thanks to a local guide) it was interesting because one of the wardens was very taken with my camera equipment and I took the time to show him everything and how it all worked. So after every one had been ushered away he invited us to go and see the mother and baby feeding and we had about an hour on our own. Wonderful experience! I also like the pictures of the young lad which were taken in an Iban village which was only reachable by boat. He had never seen a digital camera before and was puzzled how I got him inside my camera. (he was looking at the screen) after that he used to follow me everywhere and was always wanting his picture taken.

The Maldives and Singapore were taken on my honeymoon.

For the record I shoot on a Canon 1Ds with a variety of lenses (i'm after a couple of bigger prime lenses to aid my wildlife stuff as I'm stuck at 300mm)

I cheated a little on the website - I bought a template which is the index page and then created everything around that. I had to go to college (night school) to learn dreamweaver and then developed it from there. I'm still very much a novice and it probably takes me three times as long to do it or change something but at least I'm in control. Previously I had paid a company to do it and was left very unsatisfied and out of pocket. I've only been doing it since the start of this year so I'm pleased with the progress so far. I have two other sites under development both using flash which are aimed at particular customers of mine. Again I used a template for the bare bones as it saves so much time and have then just altered it to suit me.

I recently stumbled across an Austrian chap who has created the gallery template which enables you to create an on-line ecommerce section. Its tricky to set up but I love the look of it with all the slides. The template only cost about £40 and fits into Breezebrowser (and Jalbum and Iview I think)

I also use a great tool called statcounter which is a free counter which comes with no banner adds or anything. A great way to get statistics to see if people are looking at your pictures. If anyone wants further information let me know and I will happily point you in the right direction.

I did have lots more African pictures - some taken on the summit of Kilimanjaro but I was burgled 2 years ago and as well as all my computers and back-ups which contained all the pictures they cleaned me out of evrything (including two cars!) I cant decide whether to climb it again - especially after a friend of mine summited Mount Everest in June and has pictures to die for.

So much to do and so little time.....

I have been a photographer since I was 19 (I was an apprentice for 4 years until I was 23) and then I set up my own company. I am now 33 and still have my own company - I now employ 4 staff, but still feel as though I'm spread too thinly although I can't afford to take on more staff.

I shoot weddings, portraits and commercial/advertising - anything really that pays the way. I have just finished taking images of a summer school (its the largest in England) which was hard work (I shot 4357 images over 3 weeks AND published them all daily onto my website) http://www.marlboroughphoto.co.uk/06b-Gallery.html which people could then browse and buy. Its the first year of doing it and so far its going quite well. I was also paid a retainer by the college themselves so they can use the pictures for advertising and I teach photography in the mornings (and get paid for that) so overall its worth it. I'm not afraid of hard work if I think it will pay in the end and I love the fact I can speculatively shoot something and then stick it on the website and see what happens.

Anyway I think I have answered most of your questions. Feel free to ask anymore.

Hey Pete,

Thank you for the indepth response. Are you doing your proofing on-line as well (for your wedding/portraiture work). How are you finding that it helps you with re-orders?

Also, how are you finding sales of your nature photography? Where are your clients coming from?

-JM

Hi James

Yep - I do all my proofing on-line now, although this has only just happened in the last couple of weeks. Using the template I have, you set up a list of sizes and prices for portraits in a "common" gallery and then just add the pictures for each shoot you do. Then when you want to alter something (ie put your prices up) all the individual galleries alter automatically.

I have always had the benefit of owning a high speed/high quality RA4 lab, so printing images has always been easy and cheap (if you take out the cost of the capital equipment) but never really found a happy medium for portrait work. If I print a contact sheet the customers complain they are too small and if I print a proof with copyright on it they try and scan it at home.

I love the on-line way as I can shoot more and generally be more creative (especially with weddings) and it isn't costing me more (maybe a little time). It has certainly helped with wedding reprints. Last year we did vertially no follow up orders (none worth shouting about - maybe a few for close family, mums and dads that kind of thing) now I get them to publicise the fact before-hand and at the speeches and reprint sales have gone up tremendously. I think with the advent of digital unless you get in quick they will make do with there own crappy pictures. As far as portraits go I even create a black & white version for all those people who want to see what they will look like in B&W. Again I run a photoshop action and its done - some even ask for a sepia finish.

That leads me on to your second point - nature sales.

I guess that with the wealth of sites out there on the www I'm going to be pretty lucky to get people to stop by and view my work - let alone buy an image. So I now hand out masses of business cards everywhere I go with the website on. At the summer school I printed (on photo paper) some postcards with images on that had been taken that day with the web site details on. My number of viewers has gone up and with it so have the on-line sales. This week for example I have over 1100 page views per day. (Do you track your stats? I appreciate 1100 may not be a lot compared to some but I figure that I'm doing ok at the minute) I'm trying to get the numbers up anyway I can. The summer school postcards worked well as I used good looking young adults in them - this way the boys all took the ones of the females and the mums usually took the ones of the handsome young men! As long as they take them home and then start looking at my site I don't care - hopefully they will then browse and buy.

I have looked in depth at your site - you seem to get lots of people who look but don't respond. Is this correct? I'm not bashing anyone I'm just surprised that lots of people view things but don't post.

Anyway enough for now

Hi James

"Yep - I do all my proofing on-line now, although this has only just happened in the last couple of weeks. Using the template I have, you set up a list of sizes and prices for portraits in a "common" gallery and then just add the pictures for each shoot you do. Then when you want to alter something (ie put your prices up) all the individual galleries alter automatically."

That is great. Do you mind sharing the name of the software that you purchased? I have been using Printroom and while they are pretty good, they certainly do take a cut. It is 16% of my sale plus the cost of the print.

I am still giving print proofs but want to move away from it as it is costly and clients seem much more willing to have on-line proofing (particularly because it is also much much faster).

"It has certainly helped with wedding reprints. Last year we did vertially no follow up orders (none worth shouting about - maybe a few for close family, mums and dads that kind of thing) now I get them to publicise the fact before-hand and at the speeches and reprint sales have gone up tremendously. "

Hey Pete, that is a good idea. I have traditionally been anxious about over-publicizing the after-sales portion of the business. I am always anxious about looking like I am pushing too hard in that area. It sounds like attitude is playing a big difference in your residual sales. Something to chew on.

"That leads me on to your second point - nature sales.

This week for example I have over 1100 page views per day. (Do you track your stats? I appreciate 1100 may not be a lot compared to some but I figure that I'm doing ok at the minute) I'm trying to get the numbers up anyway I can."

Good for you. We absolutely keep our stats - on both sites. 1100 hits per day for a completely private site is pretty good. It has been an important part of our wedding photography business - as I am also able to track where we get our referral sources from. This means that we are able to see empirical results as to where our advertising dollars are working (and where they are not). Surprisingly, we are at the point of eliminating most of our paid advertising as we get far more referrals from outside sources then our paid advertising. Our paid advertising is considerable, by the way.

"I have looked in depth at your site - you seem to get lots of people who look but don't respond. Is this correct? I'm not bashing anyone I'm just surprised that lots of people view things but don't post."

You are completely correct. At our peak, we have hit 68,000 hits in a day...though normally it is much lower. We do have quite a bit of foot traffic, but mostly it is people coming to view the interviews or what other people post. My impression is that this is how it is on most websites. My friend owns and operates the Digital Wedding Forum and I know that the vast majority of posts come from a relatively small percentage of people...though participation is huge there and probably much higher than most other websites.

So to answer your question - yes. People come though participation is still quite low. It is definitely my goal to see the forums to become much more significant. Currently we have about 5 active posters. I would like to see that number increase two-fold or three-fold. Every thing one step at a time though.

-JM

Hi James,

With regards to wedding reprint sales I used to be wary like you and only really mention it once the couple had started asking about them. Now I use the whole topic as a selling feature and use it to promote what we do; Do you want to go the the old guy down the road who shoots to a set formula and then keeps you waiting around for weeks whilst he sorts his proofs out or would you rather use us and have the proofs on-line within 48/72hrs of the wedding, then granny in OZ and aunty flo in the U.S. can see them as well.

The other big point is that traditionally the bride and groom have had the hassle of co-ordinating the reprints and collecting money. Now they just point everyone to the website and forget about everyone else and concentrate on their wedding album. You need to think like a politician and put what ever spin on it that favours you!

I will dig out all the info for the web template I use and forward it shortly. Should I post it publicly or privately?

As far as contributing goes - you can add me to the list! I will always have something to say. I just wish people would take 30 seconds to say what they feel - if they think my pics stink then don't be afraid to say so - I'm thick skinned, it wont bother me. Its like people queueing up to go into a library and having looked at all the titles just leaving again.

"I will dig out all the info for the web template I use and forward it shortly. Should I post it publicly or privately?"

Send me a PM if you are interested. I am not sure that we will use the software, but I really like the looks of it. I like the way that it embeds your watermark but will also remove it when the mouse is away. My wife is currently working on a few features that will be updating this site (including a new gallery)...then it is to work on our new wedding website.

"As far as contributing goes - you can add me to the list! I will always have something to say. I just wish people would take 30 seconds to say what they feel - if they think my pics stink then don't be afraid to say so - I'm thick skinned, it wont bother me. Its like people queueing up to go into a library and having looked at all the titles just leaving again."

I am glad to have a few more voices. If you get lonely, don't be afraid to pass the word around. As I have mentioned in the past, building a friendly, but useful, community of people is something I am very interested in doing.

-JM

"As far as contributing goes - you can add me to the list! I will always have something to say. I just wish people would take 30 seconds to say what they feel - if they think my pics stink then don't be afraid to say so - I'm thick skinned, it wont bother me."

...BTW...I hope that people will do the same for me. I am trying real hard with these interviews. HOWEVER, that does not always mean that I am hitting the mark.

-JM