Hi everyone. I am in the midst of the Mexico workshop, and a little behind on my gear post. It was mangled in my DB and I have retrieved it fine, but there are some issues with the images. Watch for it in a day or so. In the meantime, my bud from Tucson, Daron Shade, has an article on keeping it real while shooting and how that can be marketing in and of itself. I hope you like his work. You can read the interview I did with him here, and see his work here.

We are really having a relaxing and exciting time in Mexico today. Rose very early and had the most spectacular skies for a trip over to Choya Bay for some shots of the town. We have already posted a few at Flickr.

Workshops are coming to a close for this year, and next years workshops are already being planned. Our Anna Maria Island is nearly full and Toronto, Detroit and Boston have only a few openings each. If you are planning a workshop this year, take a look at the LE workshops. We are very small in class size, but huge in participation and learning.

I hope you all are having as much fun this weekend as we are in Old Mexico, and we will see you soon with the long awaited gear post.

Some of you will remember me from my recent interview here on Lighting Essentials. After a brief conversation with Don, we decided that it would be a good thing for me to write a monthly column for Lighting Essentials. Over time, we are going to address marketing of photography business and some of the necessary skills of being self-employed as a commercial photographer in a small market. In the coming months, we will cover web marketing, website design, SEO, conventional marketing, viral marketing, portfolio presentation, and other ways to make things happen for your business.

Before I continue, I want to clarify the difference between marketing and sales. Marketing is the process of informing your current and potential customers that you may be able to fit their needs. Sales, of course, in our industry, is the act of negotiating a contract and making the agreement for services. Sales can only take place after a successful marketing cycle of helping your prospect identify their need for your service and subsequently identify your business as a potential vendor for that need.

Simply put, Marketing is all about opening doors. Sales is about stepping through them.

Marketing effort includes more aspects of our business and our lives than most of us think – our conduct in public and our personal and professional relationships should all be included as a part of our marketing efforts. In fact, it’s the most important aspect of marketing our business even if we don’t realize it.

Have you ever been on a shoot in a public place and have someone walk up to you and start chatting… I think we have all encountered someone who is curious about our work or just wants to talk… Some have photographic experience or curiousity, some just want to be near your models. Many of us struggle with how to react and handle this distraction during a shoot. In the past, this made me feel a bit uneasy but I’ve learned over the years that as much as I have the right to shoot on a sidewalk, I must respect the right of others to stop and watch.

A little over a year ago, I was on a personal portfolio-building shoot with an assitant, a ballet dancer, and a makeup artist. We travelled to a tiny town about two hours outside of Tucson and the makeup artist got to work in a park under a tree. My assitant and I set up a few lights in front of an old spanish mission and before long we started shooting.

A man who wasn’t particularly well dressed came out of a nearby restaurant and walked over to us to observe the shoot. He joked with “I’m going to need a bit more rouge before you shoot me.” and I teasingly retorted to him that he would need a lot more than rouge. I kept it light and friendly, but returned to my work.

He watched me work until we took a moment for a quick wardrobe change and then started up a conversation with me, asking what the purpose of the shoot was and my experience. He asked a few technical questions about my lighting choices and we engaged in a short but interesting conversation that assured me that he had at least some experience with photography. Before long, my model was ready and I excused myself from the conversation. He asked me for a card.

Within an hour, my new friend was back, asking more questions. He had been to my website and was impressed. I graciously accepted his praise and joked with him a bit more. At this point, he volunteered that was an Art Director for an ad agency and they had been shopping for a photographer for a project. He’d already shown my website to the creative team and they wanted meet with me.

That evening, I hopped online to check out the agency — they are a small agency but are certainly the real deal — the principals have an extremely impressive client list individually and as a group. They have a number of national and well respected clients, and my new art director friend even has a BFA in photography as well as marketing and psychology. They’re an amazing group of people and I have been working with them ever since.

Had I brushed this person off and dismissed him as ‘nobody’, I would not have this client now. I was friendly and light hearted with this stranger because I had no reason to be anything but. I was the ambassador for myself, my business, and photographers in general.

We all want to be respected as professionals and artists. As such, we need to conduct ourselves in a way that opens doors. You, and only you, are the ambassador for your business.

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Great advice from Daron Shade. I hope that you visit us again soon. If you liked this article, please share it with your friends.