3 IDEA THURSDAY
1. Partner with an up and coming graphic designer or PR firm. Connect at meetups for creatives and see if there is any synergy there. Find someone who has a similar vision and create a double hit agency to allow you to sell the graphics and them to sell the photography. Keep the partnership very loose – you can continue to shoot for anyone and they can design and use anyone – but together you may have a possible power partnership which allows for both of you to double your reach.
Six contacts per day… heh.
2. Calendar in your portfolio shoots. If it is not on the calendar it is not real. If it is not on the calendar it is easy to forget. Schedule it in because it is as important as anything else you do.
And honestly, not working on your portfolio is one of the most dangerous things we photographers can do. It stunts us, demoralizes us, and can create a sort of ‘depression’. Many of the times I have a creative block is right at the end of a time when I wasn’t able to shoot as much as I wanted.
So create a little savings account – or a coffee tin, whatever – and stash some money aside for props, travel or what is needed and shoot for your portfolio. Not having some cash saved for the shoot is just another form of resistance.
3. Challenge yourself to a one hour “creative” shoot that is constrained by that limitation. For instance, if you are a landscape shooter, choose a place and time and head on out. You have one hour to make images that rock. ONE HOUR.
Still life shooters can pick up a stack of rocks or sea shells or flowers – get the lights on stands if you are using them – and then go. ONE HOUR.
This can work with portrait photographers, architectural shooters… really anyone.
The key is the One Hour time period. It seems like a long time but it really isn’t. And watching that clock ticking down can really put the stress on you.
Now edit the photographs to see how many “keepers” you got. Hopefully more than one – but one is a win.
Do this once per month. Have your spouse or kids choose the subject. Put subjects in a bag and pull them out randomly. Have fun with it.
For 60 minutes…
