Photography Commissions Channel 4.

April was a quiet month.
Spent a lot of time generating work. It’s starting to pay off. I have two jobs for the housing association photographing events. One job for Millimetre, a design company, photographing their installation for Channel 4. They are designing, fabricating and installing the new look for the giant ‘4′ which stands outside the Channel 4 HQ in Horseferry Road, London. One session on a Saturday is progress shots. Another session on a Sunday or Monday to photograph the finished piece. I intend to do the first on digital and the latter on 5×4 (as requested by Millimetre).

I have been out to a few previews in town networking. At home making phone calls, sending emails, looking round the internet for ideas and potential clients, reading magazines. Always hoping the phone will ring. A large number of email addresses that I found on association websites were bouncing. It’s better to make the phone call than send an email.

Photography In The Time of Cholera

It’s been a difficult period drumming up work. There are a lot of people chasing photographic work. I had an enquiry via a designer colleague recently who said friends wanted their wedding photographed. They had one quote in for around £1,200-£1,500 which was too high for them. He couldn’t say what that price included but that the couple just wanted a CD of images handed over, no prints, album etc.

I suggested he tell them to call me. It has been a couple of weeks and I have had no call. I was going to get a photographer friend experienced at weddings to do the job and take a small percentage. He said I should do it myself and take the money whilst borrowing a long lens off him. If I could do most of it my own way then I could do it, accommodating as many of their requirements as I could. I’m not into ‘wedding’ photography but I can do a good job of giving them something ‘different’.

Meantime, heading up north to my niece’s wedding on Saturday> the run up to it includes ceremonies on Thursday and Friday which I will be photographing as well as quite a few shots to take on the wedding day itself. Will take the Mamiya C330f, perfect for good quality portraits, and some respect! Should be some good quality photography to upload along with all the other material I have promised…

Getting Paid for Photographic Work Thank You Alan!

It’s always great to get a response from potential clients since the percentages are always working against you.

‘Thank you for getting in touch with us regarding your photographic work. We do, as you can imagine, already work with many photographers but we are always happy for change and variation.

I will keep your details and perhaps you would like to demonstrate your work on location at one of our forthcoming events. If we work well together then we shall be happy to employ your services in the future.’

It’s the bit that says, ‘demonstrate your work’ that’s worrying. I think it means I have to do an apprenticeship first by doing one free job for them. Perhaps they’ve been watching too many episodes of The Apprentice (thank you Alan, oops, Sir Alan)

Photographing Clothing in the Studio Experimenting

Experimenting in the studio with flying clothing.

‘8′ Photography Magazine Launch Party at Agnes B in Covent Garden

The ‘8′ magazine launch party at Agnes B in Covent Garden was awash with free champagne and beer. The glamorous side of photography! It was good to see high fashion and photojournalism side by side. I wonder what affect the images will have on the customers!

foto8 at Agnus B on nikon n95

Spoke to Adam Goff the picture editor at New Scientist magazine. He has his finger on the pulse, sourcing iPhones for £80 in Germany, unlocking, no problem, just slip ‘em an extra euro… he talked about Thatcher, the miners, powercuts, Don Mcphee, war, peace, Mercedes E220, democracy, communism, not missing the train to Dorking and then he was gone! I wonder if I can get something published in the New Scientist in the new future! New Scientist has been a favourite magazine of mine for a long time because of the way they have used photography (and the fact that they credit every image in the magazine). Adam’s been there 14 years… respect to the man! Only just realised it’s a weekly that’s a lot of pressure to work under for only two picture editors.

Jon Levy, founder of foto8 was looking dapper in his suit and shirt having shed his trademark casuals for the night. Seems too many years ago since foto8 nearly ended. Max was swan, preening herself as features editor for 8 magazine, teaching at University of Westminster alongside Colin Jacobson, formerly of the Independents Saturday magazine. I interviewed him when he launched Reportage magazine. Shame it didn’t last.

Liz Somerville beamed in from Photofusion picture library where my contributions should be more than I have made. My loss.

I hope young Tom does well in his photojournalism course at Elephant and Castle.

Photography Made Easy on the Apprentice on BBC Thank You Alan Sugar

No comment!

Adding a little more after the number of hits i am getting… I wonder how the public perceive photography after that episode, imagine the viewing numbers. An era of digital disaster! I guess ultimately it was more like a comedy than the ‘reality’ it’s meant to be. There is a lesson here for those aspiring (or perspiring) to become photographers. Don’t go there!

In this weeks issue of BJP there is an article about ‘event photography’ and the easy money that can be made. You must look at the quality of the work. Then again, quality and money are not easy partners to fathom.

In Photography Studio with an Assistant Photographer and Chris Kattell in the Bar

Spent some time in the studio today with Emmanuelle who is on work experience. We were photographing clothing and needed to something creative than placing the garment on white paper, so we decided to throw it in the air and see what happens! Will put up some results tomorrow morning. She’s keen on doing product photography but the problem is the ‘creative’ shots are an extra and might not appeal to the client! She’s moving to Vienna soon, and I suggested that she find out what kind of images may appeal to that market, probably quite different to those in the UK.

Talking to Chris Kattell about photographing his show of paintings in Switzerland who other than Steve White,  owner of Spectrum a local photo lab, is sitting knocking back a swift pint of the finest brew! It’s a small photographic world!

MORE TO COME…

Portrait Photograph using Available Light with Rembrandt Lighting without Studio

IMAGES COMING IN POOR QUALITY DUE TO WORDPRESS UPLOADING PROBLEM!

A portrait of Esmé with window light. A delightful Rembrandt triangle of light on her left side. Natural light, natural expression.

Finding Photography Work with a Photographers Assistant at Shoreham Airport as it goes into Administration

In a another strategy to find photographic work I visited Shoreham Airport and visited as many businesses as I could. I had Emanuelle with me, a photographer in the making, seeing what she can learn as an assistant.

Last week I made a lot of phone calls to potential clients. Cold calling is a difficult way to find work. And I maybe one of them may turn into work, I don’t know. People don’t appear t have money to spend!

So, today. Business cards, flyers (featured on previous blogs) and hope formed the basis of looking for work. The results: several potential clients…

• I’ll pass the flyers onto my father, he’s an engineer and may want his models photographing, as for this company, we use royalty free images… perhaps the company would like staff photographed…. they have an automated machine that knocks out images for staff passes…
• just had a load of photographs done!
• no thanks
• I’ll pass on your details to the Marketing person, she’s only in on…
• we just deal with IT problems, don’t need photographs but leave your card…
• no, sorry…
• contact this person who deals with…

…i’ll let you know if any contacts convert into paid work…

On passing though Shoreham Emmanuelle suggested visiting cafés/restaurants that might want photographs of their interiors… 3 out of 4 were positive…. will let you know what happens there…

Before we started looking for work, I took some photographs of helicopters courtesy of Fast Helicopters…

All planes were grounded at Shoreham Airport because the current owners had gone bust! ITV was there to report the misery. Not the best day to look for work at Shoreham Airport!

Use of Photograph in Marketing Material Website Emails

IMAGES COMING IN POOR QUALITY DUE TO WORDPRESS UPLOADING PROBLEM!

With the internet there many diverse uses for images in marketing material. The above banner is being as a graphic for emails. The fish and chips image I supplied as a high res image for use on their brochure, website and as a large graphic to be displayed at the opening of the Brighton and Hove Food Festival.