In today’s digital age, a budding photographer would find it hard to believe that physical mailers would be an important aspect of their marketing strategy. The reality is not only are they important but they are also essential.
The life of a freelancer can be very unpredictable. I find it to be epitome of “feast or famine.” It’s good to have some down time on equipment every now and again to get things serviced, and I took this latest opportunity to get my D700 serviced by Nikon.
One of the perks of a NPS (Nikon Professional Services) membership is loaner equipment. My Nikon D700 went in, and they sent me a D750 on consignment. No sooner did that D750 arrive than I had a barrage of phone calls for assignments. I barely had time to get acquainted with the new body before we were off to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to photograph Coach Bret Bielema of the Arkansas Razorback for the Wall Street Journal.
This is a story of when life gives you lemons, you try and not cry yourself to sleep. The names in this story have been omitted to protect the mistaken.
I’m always on the lookout for potential subjects. Approaching them is something that I’ve actually gotten better at, despite the video evidence below to the contrary. When I was in college working for Student Media I hated talking to people to get caption information after I photographed them. Approaching a person before the photograph was even harder.
As I became more confident in my ability it became easier, but it was still difficult for me. When I decided I wanted to be a full time photographer, I knew I needed to do my best to remove the apprehension of talking to people I didn’t know about photographing them. I knew that working assignments would mean talking to people I’ve never met a lot.
Self promotion has been one of the most difficult things for me to overcome as a photographer. I constantly ask myself "Who cares?", "Is this relevant?", and "Do I sound like a douche bag?". I’ve decided to get over myself this year and just put the work out there and let the chips fall as they may.
To that end, I started this year with a new promotional piece that focuses exclusively on my sports and fitness work. Here is a look at my simple new promotional material.