Photo Success

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What to do when people simply don’t want to have a family portrait taken?

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I noticed a trend these days. And it’s not good.

It appears many folks don’t want and don’t have much patience for family portraits.

Adults seem to hate having their picture taken. Even when with their families.

I could be wrong, but I think I’m mostly right. Priorities are changing.

Cell phones are ruining us all. In this faced paced world, the old adage is new and relevant: “People will take ease over quality everytime.”

My attitude is three fold:

It is what it is. Can’t change it, so adapt we must.
Follow the path of least resistance, water flows downhill.
Find the market that matters

And more.

Don’t get me wrong. We’re still shooting families in our studio, especially the legacy multi-generational family gatherings. It’s just that I detect these subtle changes.

A few ways through this in my oh so humble yet laser accurate opinion is to maintain promotions for families, fairies and such. Don’t sit back. Get at it! Maybe I need to work harder for each booking, but hard work never killed anyone.

Promotions and marketing are in fact the solution.

Maria S has a solution. She outlined it a few months ago when I had her on our marketing mastermind, now available for members HERE.

(one simple idea while out for her bike ride converted one simple family session into a $5,000.00 sale…pure genius!)

Fairies are a thing for us (that image above, in this email, is a current sample- one of many). I just shot over 50 in the last ten days.

We’re up to out eyeballs in fairy orders and I recently shared, as I usually do, my latest fairies workflow, with template download.

For members of course….GET IT HERE once you login.

Next week I am planning on bringing James Hodgins (he keeps bugging me, he has so much to share!) back for a marketing mastermind on selling, educating your clients, attracting the best market and creating ‘perceived’ value. And more.

More on that date coming soon.
Stay tuned, stay frosty my fiends and friends in photography.

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

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Why stealing is essential to your success…

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My first decade in the business of photography saw me in awe of others who, in my mind, had made it in photography. Heroes they were.

They were successful. They created amazing images. To be fair I am still in awe, but those formative years were essential since I was getting established and building.

Some made tons of cash, yet their work was ok. Others were really, really good at photography itself, and also made a decent living. All were my heroes. All inspired me to be like them or better even.

I noticed and valued it all.

As a matter of fact, I can honestly say my success can easily be attributed to watching, learning, being inspired by and “swiping” ideas, both in marketing and in photography, from others.

I don’t think there’s an area where those who sky-rocketed to success didn’t at one time start by copying another.

Musicians, authors, artists….all of them, at one time, asked themselves the question: “How can I be like that?”

If it wasn’t for that process, me thinks most grand achievements would have fizzled.

Swiping is real, legit and essential. You see someone who creates something you like. You copy, and you make it your own. It inspires you to grow into your own.

It becomes your brand, so to speak.

The worse thing you can do (and I see this all the time, within the ranks of the most amateurs who are starting out) is to let your ego get in the way, because you think you got it, you’re all that and more.

Big mistake.

Becoming a student of success in marketing and in photography is an essential step. Take it out and it’s like taking out the foundation on a building.

I’m still a student. Luckily for me I always remained somewhat naive and childlike. Ask my wife and mother-in-law. They’ll tell you how immature I really am.

It’s why I have so many videos, presentations, interviews, mastermind meetings…..every single month, year after year.

I’m looking for ideas….so I can steal.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

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Paninis with my favorite photographers…

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“Where should we go for lunch with John?” I asked James.

“That panini place downtown…”

“Ok, see you there..”

Had lunch last week with James and John. I’ve known them both for at least two decades, both still full time photographers.

Not just dudes with cameras and tech. But real, legit photographers still making a living, hard cold cash, in their respective fields photographers.

James Hodgins (many of you know him- one of the best lighting masterminds with James is in the forum for members HERE) is a niche photographer well known and respected in the industrial and mining niche.

John, a grad photographer, who is loved and respected so much at the local university they are building him a studio to shoot out of. No more temporary class room studios for this guy.

How cool is that?

Yes, they do need him to shoot the occasional gig for the school. But he always gets paid. Sweet deal.

Can you still make a living running a professional photography business? Granted, it’s not as easy as it used to be, with everyone a photographer nowadays.

But possible, yes. More than ever marketing plays a key role. And choosing the right market. (which is really a marketing thing when you think about it)

You create a market that is virtually impenetrable by outside competition, you end up working in a vacuum.

Choose wisely and cherish, nurture and work your niche.

It’s too valuable to take chances on.

Whenever we get together we have a blast. The conversation centers around friendly gossip, local happenings, how awesome our wives are and mainly on making money.

Me likey.

Truth be told, John is a bit of a recluse. He may hurt me for talking about him in this email. He keeps to himself, his business and his wife & two adult kids.

But he’s a good guy, successful and we are simpatico.

It’s a rare thing these days to hang with real photographers. Not to disrespect photographers who are into the craft for the passion and love. I get that. Totally.

But for guys like me, it’s refreshing to hang with those whose lives depend on bringing home the proverbial bacon with our cameras and our skills.

It’s why I love hosting marketing masterminds online. I think it’s the coolest thing ever to be able to login, and chat with other successful photographers from all over the world.

Sharing and brainstorming quality marketing and success strategies.

Couldn’t do that 20 years ago. You had to fly, drive or crawl to an event.

Pay a ton of dough and sit through the crowded convention hall with hundreds of other sweaty photographers.

🙂

Last week I had a meeting, sans panini, with Ohio photographer Paul Floyd. Paul talked many ideas and also about his recent 16 page senior mailed to 3,000 homes. Crazy, I know. Old school.

But it works. Paul’s presentation is HERE for members. (Among hundreds of other replays.)

Join us, won’t you? The paninis are warm and tasty.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

One of my favorite all time best seminars…

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One of my favorite all time best seminars I personally experienced, first hand, like watching a master of masters in action, was way back when I organized a speaking gig with Al Gilbert.

Al did a live demo on how he shoots, poses, lights and controls a session.

He somehow he had contacted our city mayor to come out on a Sunday so he could demo his portrait strategies, on location, at our city hall.

It was amazing. All I can say. Amazing.

Al knew his stuff. His confidence, assuredness and the way he communicated to us and the subject at hand, was and is to this day one of the most important lessons I have ever learned.

One lighting strategy that Al used is called “subtractive lighting”, where he strategically placed light blockers to prevent certain ambient lighting from polluting the subject.

His exposure was such that the flash and the ambient all played a key role in the final image, which was stunning. But the light needed to be controlled. And control it he did.

This reminded me of Fuzzy Duenkel’s lighting strategies. Fuzzy is primarily a senior portrait artist and in my oh so humble yet accurate opinion the very best there is today.

Why? Well, first off, the results speak for themselves. And lighting control plays a huge part in all of this. Al, and Fuzzy are both masters of controlling light for a certain look and outcome.

You can see it in their work. I can spot it when it’s missing. I can see lack of lighting control a mile away.

Sadly, it’s pervasive in todays day and age of “everyone is a photographer.”

I never met Fuzzy, not in person anywho. But I did rope him in a few years ago to run a four part series online.

Even though I had the fortune of hosting and working with Al Gilbert 18 years ago, and he remains to this day my all time favorite event, I can honestly say my favorite ONLINE event, bar none, was the “Transcend the ordinary” with Fuzzy Duenkel.

Check it out:

A four part, six hour online presentation by Fuzzy Duenkel, one of the best portrait photographers around today.

Lighting is everything. Learn to see, control and master it.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

Is being a critic the lowest form of expression?

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There are critics everywhere.

Not a job I would want. Good thing there are more creators than critics.

I’d rather be a creator truth be told.

Maybe there’s a legit reason we have critics. Maybe not.

Maybe they keep us on our toes. Maybe it weeds out the weak and infirm.
‘Thins the herd’ so to speak.

Who knows. I look at my years of print competition and all the critiques I personally gave out and received, maybe it all had a purpose.

Who knows. Maybe we’d all be fine without them. Maybe in fact we’d create even more? Even better?

Who knows.

But critics will always be with us to darken our souls and cast a shadow.

Some are legit and serve a solid purpose.

Or do they?

If something is crap, and it’s fairly obvious, then, we’d know. Because, well, it’s obvious.

We don’t need someone to point it out, do we?

I always felt the ultimate ‘critic’ so to speak is my client. Her vote counts the most.

She votes with her wallet and her heart.

If something is a work of art, whether it’s a photo or a person, and another person, say a critic, has something negative to say, maybe, just maybe that’s there opinion.

Nothing more. We need to ignore them and listen to the only critic that matters.

Is being a critic the lowest form of expression?

Let the critics do what the critics do best. Meanwhile, my job is to create.

One final point. Don’t confuse coaching, positive feedback and old fashioned kick-in-the butt mentoring on the same plane as what a typical critic doles out.

Ain’t the same. Know the difference.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

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Grenade in the tool shed- Part One

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Every once in a while you gotta shake things up.

But you need to be careful. Whenever I’ve thrown the proverbial “grenade in the tool shed” I am aware of some key influences, such as:

  • what is the worse thing that can happen?
  • can I work with that situation, or the unknown if that’s the case ( we can’t know the unknown, so we need to be ok with that fact)
  • will things possibly be better in the long run?
  • why? why am I doing this….

And more.

Let me explain a little more what I mean by this weird sounding metaphor. Throwing a grenade in the tools shed means doing something in your life that is drastic, seemingly extreme, bold and very disruptive.

I’m comfortable with this idea. Many are not.

I’ve done this when I’ve felt things were stale, tired, old, rusty and in need of change.

AND, I also felt that it would work out in the end. However, again, this is not for everyone or the faint of heart.

You don’t do this for the sake of doing this. Like throwing all your chips on the table and gambling it all on a roll of the dice.

You need to have some idea of where you’re going AND you need to feel very good about your ability to be adaptive.

This concept came to me five years ago, when I was 55 years old and felt ready for a change. I was standing in my kitchen in our dream home. I looked across my spacious open concept home.

And I asked myself: “Do we really need 3 living rooms? Really?”

And that started it all. Within that year we sold our beautiful home and home studio (at a nice profit I might add. Otherwise I might have waited for the market to change. More on this later)

We moved into an apartment. We rented an office at a local work share place.
Plus I got rid of about 80% of our earthly possessions. Plus our daughter moved out to attend university a million miles away.

Nothing was the same anymore.

I felt better. Lighter. Excited and ready to take on the challenges that my new circumstances we’re forcing us into. I still can’t believe my wife just goes along with my insanity.

(I always said I married the right person when I asked her out on our first date, on my motorcycle. She smiled, her eyes light up, she was on board.)

Photography was always to be a thing. Families, weddings, fairy day promos and more. Oddly enough, we had our best year ever. Go figure.

AND, we spent 6 weeks in Costa Rica that winter. 3 months the next.

I still recall however the anxieties. The last day we owned our home, I made a few more last minute, late night trips to clear out any small items, give it a sweep and lock the door forever.

It was January. Snow and cold everywhere. Very depressing.

We were heading out to Costa Rica in a few days. Like I said, everything changed.

I crawled into bed beside my sleeping wife, in our new two bedroom apt, and started having an existential crisis.

“What the fuck did I just do?” bounced around in my head.

I started panicking. This was not like me. Me, who’s up for anything, and believes in the power of commitment, goals and having a positive colorful vision to urge me forward.

More on this and how we changed things up and coped, all while running a photography studio. Stay tuned…

Pura Vida!
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

The secrets to making money in niche photography…

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Think of your photography business as a Swiss Army Knife. Many tools, each one doing a specific job.

A versatile tool that comes in handy.

Your photography business can be like a Swiss Army Knife too. In other words, it has many tools, each one with a specific niche purpose, each one unique onto themselves.

Having a photography business that is multipurpose and versatile is the very best way to create a successful business that will sustain you and your family and constantly be profitable.

Dan Kennedy always said that the worse number in business is one. Never be dependent on one market. If it goes away, you’re doomed.

In other words, create as many niches as you possible can.

Here’s a short list of some key essentials when picking a niche market:

  • Have a market you can get your arms around. If it’s too broad and big, then you can’t really target them. Likewise if it’s too small.
  • Make sure the market is hungry. If they don’t want what you have, it isn’t a market.
  • Create offers and promos. And make them irresistible. This is one of the keys to good marketing. I sometimes call it widgetizing. It’s re-defining a product that makes it easier to “get” so your market can understand it and act on your offer.
  • Have as many “niches” as you possibly can. Make sure you can deliver a quality service on each one. Often, your clients won’t even know about the others areas you specialize in. Doesn’t matter. They perceive you as the expert in that specific area.

This plays out in many ways. You can be branded as a wedding photographer who shoots with a specific look or style that brides love.

You could offer cool programs like the babies first year wall panel, kreative kids klub, toddler panel, five year family plan, and variations or levels on each one.

Slicing and dicing your offers to ascension marketing strategies helps too.

Families, fairies, theatre, headshots, real estate, editorial photography are all possible areas.

The real secret to niche photography is versatility and and marketing. You never want to market on “sameness” either. Stand out above the crowd.

You never want to market on price either. Yes, offer good value. But never make price your main value driven message. This will weaken you and eventually make you broke.

And we don’t want that, do we?
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

“Gotta punch that internal drama queen in the face…”

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Every time I find myself whining about something, I say to myself “Punch that drama queen in the face…”

I know, sounds a little aggressive. But when it comes to whining, blaming and complaining, I tend to over react.

It’s my nature. Somewhere, somehow, someplace a long time ago I got the message.

And that message is this: When you come up against adversity of any kind, it makes no sense to play victim, to whine about it, to complain or to play victim.

These behaviors in fact will take all your power away.

It’s tempting to default to victim mode. We’ve been doing it all our childhood. And if you want to remain like a child, then embrace it.

But if you want to grow, get strong, expand and find creative solutions, one needs to embrace the pain, suck it up and use self discipline.

Next time you come up against pain, suffering, challenges or road blocks, no matter what the situation, remember these wise words from Napolean Hill:

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

Take a deep breath, relax, and punch that inner drama queen out of your life.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community