What’s Your Preference?

NicoleScraps · #1 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 01:22 AM

As I mentioned in another thread, I am setting up at the mall all day on Saturday (black friday weekend) to hopefully promote myself a bit.
A good friend of mine hooked me up with a free spot near one of the "bends" in the mall where the main entrances to the outside and to several of the big departement stores are. So I am really hopeful and excited to try to get my name out there a bit.
I have prepared a slideshow to play on my laptop continuously. This leads to one of my questions.
I have about 50 photos that I feel are really good from 9 different photo session. Do the math here and you'll see that the same people are in more than one photo for the slide show.
It's what I have to work with right now. I can't more forward without more clients to work with, right? So the question, is that too repetetive? I can't post 50 photos for you to view on this forum, but I can tell you that none of the photos are similar, 50 completely different photos/poses, etc, just the same people in a few of them.

Next up, I plan to hand out business cards and this little flyer that I made up and am having printing on 4x6 photo paper at Costco for pretty cheap.

First of all, I am looking for critique of the flyer itself. Any suggestions for making it better? I plan to make a 2nd one detailing a Christmas special that I am trying to do, just gotta set my kiddos up tomorrow to get a good example photo to use on it.
Is this enough as far as hand out materials go? Two different flyers and a business card? I plan to just pick up a stack of one or the other and hand them to as many people walking by that will accept them. Of course, if someone approaches me to watch the slide show, I'll probably give them all three.

Next up, and this is the big one, I am looking for only honest to goodness real advice, please no snarkyness.....my website. I know it is flash, I know some of you may not like the design, but none of that is changing anytime soon. This will be the first time I have really put my website out for the public to view (other than to you guys when I first got started it up). I need to do a little revamp before Saturday, just of some of the wording and stuff. And I need to really settle once and for all on my pricing. Right now, I have $50 with a disk on there because that is what I was charging my "friends" to do a photoshoot. I really just wanted to get some images any way that I could for my website/portfolio and aside from ME paying people, I had to be cheap since I had no experience. But that is not going to stay that way. I need to come up with a pricing scale, like right now. A real one. And not an over the top 50 gazillion dollars for a photoshoot pricing scale. A reasonable one. more than walmart charges, but less than someone with 20 years experience charges, does that make sense?
So if you don't feel comfortable giving me FOR REAL advice on what I should charge out in the open, I sure would appreciate a PM.
Also, I would love to hear some constructive criticism on my about me page. That needs to change before Saturday too. I hate writing about myself. No matter what I put in that section, I feel like it reads "blah blah blah blah" Who cares? I would love to leave it blank, LOL. But I can't. Also, are there any images on my website that are especially crappy that I should take down. I'll go put my big girl panties on and try not to take it personally and cry if you point out one that is horrible. LOL.

Any other advice or comments that you can give regarding this situation would be GREATLY appreciated.
TIA

Jim Poor · #2 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 01:56 AM

I've not looked at anything else yet, but as far as repeats of people in the slide show, I would say it depends on how long the transitions are, whether the images are randomized, spaced or grouped, and how long folks will be looking at the show.

Why 50 images? Why not 10? You don't really want anyone standing there long enough to see 50 images anyway.

NicoleScraps · #3 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 01:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

Why 50 images? Why not 10? You don't really want anyone standing there long enough to see 50 images anyway.

Just for variety. I guess I could cut some of that back. I have the photos sorted in the slide show into groups, like families, teens, children, babies, couples, maternity. With maybe 5-8 photos in each group.

Niresangwa · #4 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 02:17 AM

Re your pricing... obviously you know it's too cheap.

Look around your area and draw an average. Just visit sites, make notes on how you stack up to them and go with it.

+1 to what Jim said, no one is going to standing watching the whole slideshow. They'll either watch for a few seconds and talk to you or watch for a few seconds and move on.

card looks decent..

Eileen D · #5 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 02:19 AM

I just spent 10 to 15 minutes on your website, Nicole, and overall I was quite impressed. I liked the initial impression as it first came up, which obviously is important. I also found it easy to navigate the website and every section had some strong images.

There were, however, a few that stood out for me because they weren't as strong as the others. For example in the teen section I think there were three of the young man in the striped shirt that weren't as good as the others and seemed a bit repetitive. You'd be better off having fewer images in some cases, with just your absolute best (and there are many that fit that standard!). The most glaring one for me was the last image in the couples section. It seemed quite overexposed and wasn't as appealing as other images of the same two people in the family section. The only other examples I can recall right now are the images of one of the family groups that seemed a bit muted compared to the others. I think if I had seem them alone I might not have noticed as much but in contrast to the others in that group, they stood out as being less vibrant.

As for the wording in the various sections, I found most of it clear and precise. You did ask specifically about the Me section and I think it needs something more. As you indicated, it is definitely the most difficult section to write, but it is the place where someone reading those pages can connect with you as a person, can decide that they want to entrust you with their special occasion. As an English teacher who has specialized for decades in helping student writers, I'd be happy to help you come up with some possibilities to energize that section. Just let me know!

It's clear you've put a lot of effort into getting ready for this weekend and I think you're going to attract some business with what you have prepared. Lots of luck to you!

amy_bb · #6 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 02:30 AM

I am looking at your website as a potential customer would. I am not a professional photographer by any means, nor do have any technical web design experience. So, except for the fact that I enjoy photography and am to the point where I will now take my own family photos, I am your average customer (or would have been up until about 3 months ago)....mom...3 kids....want photos...etc.

Just a couple of quick points and I will let the pros chime in:
When I open your site I get a window w/8 slides. 6 contain what look like partial pictures and the rest show as grey or as a watermark. These pics are obviously clickable but b/c they only contain partial images, I'm not sure what I should click to see what. I know I can go to the drop down menus for your photo categories, but can you make the slides full pics? It's intriguing, I guess, and perhaps artistic but I found it to be confusing. Not a big change, just a full picture.

When you say portrait photography, would you be offering studio sessions if desired? It's not addressed on the website.

This may be personal and I apologize if it is, but is there a photo of you smiling or looking relaxed or something? If this is your personal artistic style then this is what you should present. May just be a personal preference. As a mom who would be coming to you for pics, a smiling face is always a nice introduction.

Ok...let the pros chime in now. They will probably have some great advice. Good luck with your business! You take great photos!

NicoleScraps · #7 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 02:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

Re your pricing... obviously you know it's too cheap.

Look around your area and draw an average. Just visit sites, make notes on how you stack up to them and go with it.

Honest to goodness, I cannot find a single photographer in the whole county that I live in. Not on the web or the phone book.
I mean, this could be a good thing for me, but it gives me nothing to go off of for pricing.
I live about 30 miles from a medium sized city in northern Va. I have been looking at photographer's websites there. And again, it ranges from $50 to $350 for a one hour session and every single dang one of them gives the disk, not prints.

Maybe I need to be somewhere in the middle for now. I don't know?

sk66 · #8 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 02:45 AM

IMO, don't worry about the slide show...just make certain that there is nothing in it other than your VERY best...I don't care if that means paring it down to 5 shots. No-one is going to sit there long enough to see more than a few, and you don't want any of the few to be questionable in any way.

As for the flyer..first response is: it's baby blue! yuck. Stick with white. some will like the blue (women) others will be put off by it. It is "emotional" and not "professional" in it's use. Besides, white is cheaper and you'll probably give a buch away that just end up in the trash or as leftovers. The flower is ok though, it shows a bit of your personality without being overwhelming/emotional.

At this resolution I can't "fairly" judge, but I think I can "adequately" judge (perhaps even more accurately as far as "initial response" goes) I like the top two images, and the bottom right, the others are "eh". In reality they may be better than that, but remember you will only get a cursory glance initially...what's on that flyer better be OUTSTANDING..even if it's only one outstanding image it's better than 2 outstanding 2 good and one "eh". That one outstanding pic may be enough to get them to stop and talk or look at the slideshow for a few seconds.

Good luck! Expect it to be relatively fruitless and don't let the lack of overwhelming response get you down.... It's usually a long slow trudge uphill to get established. And remember, even if they don't give you more than a couple seconds that day, the impression you make and the work you present will result in an impression they carry with them and it could reward you at a later date.

I hope this doesn't seem overly harsh, it's just "reality".

Niresangwa · #9 (**permalink**) 11-24-2010, 02:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NicoleScraps

Honest to goodness, I cannot find a single photographer in the whole county that I live in. Not on the web or the phone book.
I mean, this could be a good thing for me, but it gives me nothing to go off of for pricing.
I live about 30 miles from a medium sized city in northern Va. I have been looking at photographer's websites there. And again, it ranges from $50 to $350 for a one hour session and every single dang one of them gives the disk, not prints.

Maybe I need to be somewhere in the middle for now. I don't know?

well, let me rephrase that...

if your potential clients were looking for a pro, where would they look? If the nearest hub is 30 miles away, you probably have people their who would be willing to drive out to where you are, or at least meet half way for shoots.

30 miles..it ain't that far really. How do I know? 95% of my business is in Milwaukee... you guessed it, 30 miles away from where I live.