Linda K Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Would respectfully disagree with some of the above posts are you portfolio building or practicing - there is a difference, and that makes the difference on whether you should be charging or not. Practicing means that you are refining skills, learning how to use the camera in different light, practicing on different setups etc, and you are not yet consistent with getting a full gallery each time you go out, no matter what the conditions are - you are confident whether it is overcast, full sun etc, and can replicate results all the time, not just get the odd good shot. To me, this is not at all a stage you should charge at, and in fact should be a time for disc deal - you are shooting for free for these people, who are giving up their time to you, they know there is no guarantee of perfect results, but they will get images on diskette as compensation for their time. I would still not give every single image you take, I would only hand over those that represent what you want your work to look like, as you have no idea who will look at these images. 20-30 is a good number to give. Portfolio building on the other hand comes when you have already mastered this stage, and are just looking to add more different faces (or breeds), to your portfolio, and can deliver consistently each and every time you do a shoot, whether you are using natural light, studio light etc. This stage may need to occur all the time during your career - eg you are looking to add more puppies / kittens / newborns / breeds etc, and so you may choose to either give ONE free shot and others at a discounted rate, or opportunity to purchase any shots at a discounted rate (eg 50% off), etc. DO NOT GIVE AWAY THE FARM - you are a professional and not a budget chainstore. You should not be charging until you also have things setup such as insurance cover for your business (including personal liability). Any names you are likely to use you should also do a google search on / domain name search on, and lock that in once you do by registering your website domain name (even if you don't yet want to set up the site) - it would be awful to spend all that time promoting your business only to find out that you cannot use it as someone else is already using it, and then have to get established under a different name. last of all, good luck, I enjoy photographing both children and pets for my living, I can't believe how lucky I am to get to do something I love as my job. Linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashanali Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Would respectfully disagree with some of the above postsLinda Actually, you haven't disagreed. You simply stated the difference between 'practice' and 'portfolio building'. Although there is a point in time when the line between the two can be a bit blurry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrm88 Posted January 20, 2010 Author Share Posted January 20, 2010 I think for the moment I am definately still practicing, I am almost at the point where I am confident I can get good photos every time I go out somewhere to photograph but not quite (still struggling with full sun ) Mainly at the moment I will be photographing for parents friends and my friends. I just want business cards to give to parents friends so they have a way of contacting me. One of them has even asked me to do their wedding which i promptly said "thanks but no thanks". Alot of them do think just because I have a DSLR that I will automatically get fantastic photos. They dont realise I have been practicing practicing practicing since I got it my dslr! I think i will look further into MOO because that looks fantastic and just what i want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG-DOG-LOVER Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 We use www.saltprint.com.au for our business card printing. Personally I'm not a fan of the Vista Print business cards (although could have been just the quality of the particular cards I saw). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravyk Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 I think going without a photo on a photography business card is a good idea. You can always put a web address to a gallery of example images on it. I think a FB page might be suitable for short term use. I have a FB page for my photography, and a website in construction. It's not very expensive to register a domain, and if I can convince OH, you might be able to host it on our server. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravyk Posted May 29, 2010 Share Posted May 29, 2010 I'll ask OH when he gets home, he should be able to give you an answer. He knows quite a bit about domains and hosting, etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravyk Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 From my OH: For a .com.au website you need to have ABN but not for .com. Pricewise, .com site are cheaper that .com.au. [.com is approx $16/year sold on a yearly basis compared to .com.au which is approx $45 for two years] Best place to get the domain is http://www.netregistry.com.au/index.php and go for a business hosting package, which includes the domain and the hosting. The business hosting package, should include a mysql database and php which will allow you to have galleries and the like on the website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altheau Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 don't know if it helps, but here are my business cards Business cards I don't think there is a problem with black. I went with .com not because having an ABN etc was a pain (I already got one) because I wanted to be open to international work and I did not think that.au was that important. I think .au is more important to people who want to work only in Aus, or large businesses who have multiple domains across the world and want to mark one country's site from the others. Ultimately it is up to you, but I would not fret to much over the decision I do not think that going either way will make or break you =] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashanali Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 Okay, resurrecting this thread as it's finally time for me to get some business cards happening. Someone has kindly offered to put some in their store following enquiries by a customer for a pet photographer and I've started making contacts in non pet related areas, leading to some photo shoots soon. At the moment I'm looking at using Moo business cards (the normal size ones, not the small ones) and am undecided as to whether I should have separate ones for pet photography. I don't intend to use any photos on my business cards for non pet stuff as the situations I'm shooting in will be vastly different from each other, so don't want to pigeon hole myself with a certain image. I'm not sure though whether people looking for a pet photographer will want images on the cards? Also, do you think having a Facebook business page is sufficient for a website in the short term while I'm getting started? Considering how new you are to photography, do you consider yourself a photographer or are you still in the portfolio building phase? When portfolio building (and I would hope that you are still portfolio building because while your work is strong, I still wouldn't say it's consistent enough at this point to sell it as a full priced product), you can get away with a basic site to showcase your work and potentially pull in more work to build your folio. btw - don't get me wrong, you still charge when PBing, you just don't charge full price and you always tell clients that you are cheaper because you are PBing. When you have people sign their session contract, make sure they sign a model release which means you can use the images for your folio. No model release signed, they can pay a 'full rate' - the whole point of having it a little cheaper is to use the images, if they won't sign, they don't get your PB prices. Some people only PB for 6-8 months, others for 2 years or more. The PB phase finishes when you are 100% confident in your skill and abilities to produce consistent work to a high standard. A facebook page isn't enough of a base to work from. People want to visit a website somewhere and get a feel for you and make sure you're 'real'. Fly by night people use facebook only - never a good thing to do. Visit bludomain and you can see a variety of templates. There are even a couple of $50 templates that are neat and clean and easy to navigate. As for business cards. Both of those are fine. Black cards without images seem to work for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 Justice- I like the card layout Justice- you may be interested in (if you haven't already) a BUBBLESITE .. a gallery of your very best work, that people can view .. and purchase, and contact you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
altheau Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 Sounds great JS, good luck with it all, say good bye to any free time you used to have ;p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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