Sydney Trip

This post is a bit late and I didn't really take notes on the day but here's a bit about the places we visited.

GM Photographics


The owner, Graham Monro and his colleague talked a bit about the office, client consultations, mounting, how they present to the clients and a bit about how they shoot.


The company shoots mainly weddings and portraits, as well as fine art photography. GM Photographics also hold photography workshops where other professional photographers can go a long and discuss the industry, their own systems, marketing and many more topics. 


The business is located in Mosman, Sydney. The office space includes lounge and screen for photo viewings, as well as examples of GM's work on the walls.


Below are some examples of GM Photographics's Wedding photography. 

 Image Ref. http://www.gmphotographics.com.au/wedding-photography/real-weddings/


Some example of GM Photographics' portrait photography

Image Ref. http://www.gmphotographics.com.au/portrait-photography/


Some examples of GM Photographics' Art Photography

http://www.gmphotographics.com.au/art-photography/


Studio Commercial


This was the second photographic business we stopped at. Studio Commercial are a marketing photographic company made up of around 6 photographers. The studio was quite large consisting of 2 cycs, a kitchen, lounge area and a post production area. 


The talk given by Jason Doyle was quite interesting. He talked about the sort of clients the the company has dealt with as well as how the business started and a general day to day basis of what happens at Studio Commercial. I was really impressed by the studio space itself and how was organised everything was. 


Below is a photo of the studio

Image ref. http://www.studiocommercial.com.au/site.html


Sun Studios


This was the last stop we made on the day. Sun Studios is located at Alexandria in Sydney. It includes studio hire for professional photographers, as well as equipment hire. We were given a tour of the building which included going into a few on the studios, as well as the shop and equipment storage area. Sun studios seemed to be well equipped with everything a professional photographer would need.


Below are some examples of the studio space available to rent out. 

Image ref. http://www.sunstudiosaustralia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=151&Itemid=124  

Photography At The National Archives

Talk by Caroline Webber

2 Types of Photographers
- recorders (history/events)
- exhibition handling and setups

5 Photographers onsite, their involvement includes

- Cleaning up images
- Finding images that link with the curators' articles
- Touching up images that need to seen at a high resolution e.g photographs from glass plates that have been scratched
- Creating portraits from newspaper clippings
- Creating videos from stills for touch screen programs
- Creating 'audio visual loops'
- interpreting history
- recording events/what happens at the archives

Snow Gum Studios

Snow Gum Studio is a portrait business located at Williamsdale, NSW. The owner and photographer Leonie Keogh runs the business on her property which is a large property consisting of several outdoor studio setups including a getty/wharf, an old ute, wall/door/chair setups, small single room house, rustic fences plus many more. On the property is also a small indoor studio as well as a processing room and framing space. Leonie also has a client one on one room which includes a screen and lounges for viewings and consultations, for the viewing of the images Leonies uses the program ProSelect.

Snow Gum Studio prices range from $95 to $520

If young kids are booked for a portrait session then Leonie will book the family in for an early session. If the family has older children then she will book a later session in the day.

Marketing
Snow Gum Studio has small setups at shopping centres including Gungalin and the Canberra Centre, which include examples of previous shoots, all different dimensions, framed, wrapped canvas and acrylic mounts.

Leonie also shoots using natural lighting and offers the options of shooting at other locations.

Some examples of Leonie's work

Image ref. http://www.snowgumstudio.com.au/index/families

Ben Kopilow - Stock Images

Stock Images
- Get to shoot what you want to shoot majority of the time
- Freedom/lifestyle
- No difficult clients to shoot for
- Patchy income/cash flow
- Needs constant fresh input

Licensing Models
- $1 downloads
- Royalty free - $50 - $500 based on resolution
- Rights managed, based on usage, higher returns/less return

What Doesn't Sell
- Flowers
- Landscapes
- Kids/pets at home
- Abstract Art

What does Sell
- Specialised unique/niche subjects
- Corporate and business shots
- family and lifestyle shots
- People

Keywords and labels are important

Have a strong concept

Some example of stock images from the stock website gettyimages.com

Hilary Wardhauph

Hilary Wardhauph - Wedding Photography

Marketing in the early days
- networking
- exhibitions
- website; one of the first wedding photographers in Canberra to have a website
- editiorial in the AIPP Awards

Hilary's marketing resulted in 50 weddings P.A, as well as corporate work

Knowing What to Charge - Business Plans & Overheads
Some expenses that occur in the business

advertising
equipment
car - fuel
insurance
rent office
phone/communication - internet
staff - books
legal costs - drafting contracts
professional subscriptions

These classify as 'hardcosts' as they need to be paid even before the photo

printing, lab costs
wages
framing
albums
CDs
equipment

Advertising will be 8 - 10% of your gross income annually

Barter
Don't do it cheaper. Still write out a contract and give your complete service

Marketing and How it has changed
The rise in availability and affordability of digital cameras has seen an increasing number of photographers competing for a decreasing share in the market

Must Haves
Website
blog
visual email
in person portfolio showings
in person networking opportunities
be an AIPP member

Other Marketing Strategies
Markets
Charities
Third party marketing

Hayley Richardson

Haley Richard is in a partnership with Nina Lange, together they own the photographic business, Intrigue Photography and Gallery. She also has a separate business on the side, which is an art photography stall that she markets online and at her local markets.

Haley talked to us about selling our work and how we should create an unique selling point for our photography. She mentioned that we should think of our art as product and use this to sell our work.

Some example of Haley Richard's work

Image ref. http://act.aipp.com.au/aipphome.php?cat=Awards

Dan O'Day

Dan O'Day is a Canberran Professional Photographer and is the current Pro Photographer of the year. He started as a fashion photographer for Brit in the early days, now does weddings and fine art photography.

O'Day uses medium format for his fine art photography,  in particular a mamiya rz pro 2.

During O'Day's talk he showed us a power point presentation which included the following:

Shoot for yourself 
- make to do/to buy lists
- maintain your CV and have an online profile
- Some good online networking lists include flickr, red bubble, humblevoice, deviantart

Online Publications to get you work on
- Blanketmagazine.com
- noise.net
- WATIM.com
- melbournepixel.com

Hard Copy Magazines
- Capture; particularly the Hotstuff/Exposed Challenge
- KURV
- Monster Children
- Frankie
- Oyster

Get Representation from a gallery
Have low editions - higher prices. Gallery gets 40% cut. Dan is represented by a VIC Gallery, Catherine Asquith, and has had 3 shows so far.

Avard Card Competitions
Artsct - arts.gov.act.au
Moran Contemporary Art Prize
Off The Wall

Some examples of Dan's work

Image ref http://www.danodayphotoblog.com/