by Chris Owyoung

The thought crossed my mind that all concert photography tutorials say the same damn thing: "use fast glass and shoot at a necessarily high ISO. Good luck." Since that's about as useful as a hole in the head, I'll skip the basics and write about some of the topics that matter most to the existing community of music photographers.


No Doubt performs at The Bamboozle Music Festival, their first major show in 5 years. East Rutherford, NJ. Photo by Chris Owyoung

The Basics (Only three sentences, I promise.)
If you own a digital SLR and a f/2.8 or faster lens, you can get by shooting a rock concert. If you're comfortable working with RAW files and can shoot in manual mode chances are you'll come away with some great images.

So, use fast glass and shoot at a necessarily high ISO. Oh and, good luck.

Equipment: Why does it matter? What do you use?
You needn't look further than the early work of Jim Marshall or Bob Gruen to know that equipment does not matter. A camera is only as good as the photographer holding it and a bad photo taken with a $8,000 camera is still a bad photo.

Having better equipment only makes the work easier. The only critical reason to upgrade your gear is if your current equipment is preventing you from creating the kind of image you're after. Your next "upgrade" could be a $15,000 digital back or a $5 disposable depending on your photographic vision.

All things being equal, photo editors do not care what equipment you use. You should consider the entire system of lenses, bodies and accessories offered by each company and choose a camera system that will grow with you.

I use the following questions to inform my own buying decisions:

Does the company make the equipment that I'll need a year or two from now?
Can I easily rent the equipment I need but don't own?
Is there a strong market for used equipment should I need to sell or upgrade again?
Should I upgrade now or wait a few months?

My current kit includes:

• Nikon D3 digital SLR
• Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens
• Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens
• Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens

 
Tom Morello - Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, Street Sweeper Social Club. Photo by Chris Owyoung

Rent what you Need:
If you have internet access and a mailing address, there's no reason to ever go into a job without the proper equipment. With a day or two lead time, almost every lens or camera body from Nikon or Canon can be rented from reliable online rental companies like LensProToGo. Some lenses can be rented for as little as $15/day.

Getting Your First Photo Pass:
If you're starting out like I did, your first photo pass probably won't be All-Access for Aerosmith. My advice is to start local - take your camera to small, camera friendly venues and hone your skills. Once you've developed a photographic style and a set of good images, approach local publications with your work.


Hayley Williams - Paramore. Photo by Chris Owyoung

How do you find Publications/Assignments?
The easiest way to find publications to shoot for is to search the internet for concert reviews in your area. Once you have a list of magazines, newspapers and websites that are interested in concerts, assignments could be just an email or phone call away.

Above all, be persistent, polite and professional. Talent is important but it's not a substitute for being reliable and a pleasure to work with.

How Do you Find Press Contacts:
If your editor doesn't have the contact, your first stop should be the band's websites (Facebook, Myspace, record label and management). Look for contact information for the press representative, or anyone associated with the label or management. 

If no contact information is listed, a simple google search should lead you to an email address, mailing address or phone number to contact someone who can point you in the right direction. The "advanced search" link on Google (www.google.com) works wonders.

Useful search terms:

• artist name
• publicity
• pr
• client list
• tour dates
• record label name
• management name

Finally, don't be afraid to pick up the phone and talk to people.

Randy Santos specializes in Washington DC stock photography. Randy does not license his images through stock agencies and makes a very healthy living selling directly to clients. His images appear in coffee table books, calendars, hotels and restaurants, and corporate environments worldwide. We caught up with Randy to learn about how he succeeds in a highly competitive niche, and his approach to managing and marketing his photography business. We found Randy's advice and experiences pretty inspiring.

Where did you learn photography?  And what did you do before starting dcstockimages.com?
I've been shooting for a long long time - I started in high school but never had a formal photography education.  I'm 100% self taught, and at times a little self conscious about that.  But, I'm fortunate to have learned on a Canon FTB - when everything was completely manual and to be good, you needed to really learn the fundamentals of photography.

I've been blessed with an overstimulated, hyperactive brain. So I look around and think I see things differently - in terms of shape, light, patterns, and composition.  The camera is a tool for capturing what I am seeing.  This unique perspective has enabled me to (hopefully) become a good photographer. Lord knows what I'd do otherwise!


Photo by Randy Santos

I started shooting commercially at age 19 - when I talked my way into working for a well known commercial studio in DC.  Pretty quickly, I went from being a reckless teenager to photographing Ronald Reagan weekly, dignitary visits, and Capitol Hill. This was really valuable experience for me - mostly because I was exposed to the old-time DC photographers, and from them I learned real world business operations, and how to deal with clients professionally.  These lessons stuck with me and they're a big part of how I do business today.


Photo by Randy Santos

What led you to start dcstockimages.com?
I started my own business just over 20 years ago, initially focused strictly on local corporate and PR photography. I kept myself busy doing what I love, capturing creative images around Washington DC. But, it was hard to market and sell this stuff before the Internet came along.  About four years ago, I had some DC pictures on one of my websites, and got a call from an art buyer, who loved my photos because they featured DC but shot at much more interesting angles than typical DC postcard photos. They wanted to see more, so I shared the body of work I'd been developing over time.  This turned into a major hotel décor project - with my photos printed and hung throughout the lobby and guestrooms. The revenue I generated was a real eye opener, and I realized a way to turn this experience into an opportunity.   

After this project, I talked with the art buyer some more, keyed in on why she felt my images were different, and learned more about her needs.  Then I started listening to more art buyers, understood their own challenges, and saw the opportunity for a specialized business.  So I gathered up the images I had taken of DC, learned a little bit about writing code (and I am as low tech as they come) and bought every domain I could think of related to DC images http://dcstockimages.com/, and started getting my images out there.  Thanks to the web and a few traits I believe are critical for success, this thing blossomed and bloomed like you wouldn't believe.  

by Cradoc Bagshaw

It's possible that you might have to battle with one client to get paid $150 for the use of a photograph yet you might get $15,000 from another client for the use of the same photo. What makes the difference?

The answer is image uniqueness, but this may not be what you think it is.

To some extent it has to do with whether an image is a "one of a kind" shot. But often the profitable shots are chosen by how uniquely the image fits the client's specific need. Often these shots can be the non-spectacular images that you are thankful you didn't throw away during an edit.

Agencies used to say that they only needed 10% of the images they had in their files, but they didn't know which 10%. Buyers see things in photographs that have always been difficult for the sellers to predict in advance.

It's understanding what the buyers are seeing, what is going on inside their head when they are looking at your photo, that will give you the edge when you negotiate with them. You need to understand what is going on from their point of view. You get this information by asking questions.

ADDING VALUE TO THE CLIENT'S PRODUCT
In stock photography the word unique does not describe your photograph as much as it describes the way your photography is being used in any given project.

Clients use your stock photographs to add value to their products. It's that simple. Your job in negotiating a price is to convince the buyer that your image will add enough value to their product to be worth what you are charging.

Learning to judge the uniqueness of your image is one of the most important and difficult skills that you must acquire to compete as a stock photographer. It is an important skill because the amount of money you make is tied directly to your ability to understand the client's needs. It is a difficult skill because the uniqueness of a single image can vary from sale to sale, depending on the value being added to a client's product.

by Brian Smith

EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT RATES have traditionally been lower than rates paid for commercial or corporate photography but with the caveat that you own the work and can re-license it after it appears in the magazine. The best photographs of any subject can get licensed again and again all over the world.

EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Even though you chose to be an artiste - not an accountant - on career day, that doesn't mean you can skate through your career without any business skills. Don't expect to find a rep to handle all of this for you. Reps like to work with artists who understand your business. Editorial Photographers is a great source of information about the business of editorial photography. Educate yourself.

AIM FOR THE TOP - not the bottom - when licensing stock. There's plenty of money to be made in editorial stock licensing. Bear in mind that the best images get licensed again and again and again. Work hard to create the shot everyone wants - not just another interchangeable image. Don't get stuck in the $200 bargain basement bin: Create images that have value.

I DON'T UNDERSTAND MICROSTOCK or how it fits into the editorial market. It's almost like telling clients that the largely stagnant editorial rates that have largely stayed frozen in 1985 are somehow too high, which is clearly not the case. An editor I work with at TIME magazine told me they recently a royalty-free photo for their cover for three dollars. That's exactly 1/1000 of TIME's normal cover rate. That's like saying "I'm holding firm to my price no matter how much more you're willing to pay!"

SHOW THE WORK YOU LOVE TO SHOOT. This sounds really basic, but it's amazing how often photographers get this wrong by showing what they think clients want. Work that comes from your heart is always the strongest. When it's what you love to shoot, it doesn't even seem like work, does it?

Miki Johnson wrote a story about (and conducted a video interview with) Art Wolfe and Jim Martin, released yesterday on the liveBooks blog. Art is a World-renowned conservation and fine art photographer, and Jim is executive director of Art Wolfe Inc.

I recently went up to Seattle to visit Art and Jim, and get a tour of their operation. We ended up going to lunch, spending some time talking about tequila, but most of the time talking about how they are changing their business model, in part, by selling Art's stock images themselves, via PhotoShelter.

During my tour through his gallery and studio, I realized just how diverse Art is in terms of his work (he shoots more than just "Fur and Feathers"), and his business model, which in addition to stock, includes books, a television show, classroom workshops and lectures, and in-the-field shooting workshops to crazy and dangerous cold arctic places.

Art's studio comes complete with a full classroom, with computers on every desk. I immediately envisioned PhotoShelter training sessions being conducted there. Hmmm... could happen. If you like that idea and think you would attend, send me a note.

Some other really cool photographers also use Art's studio to conduct workshops, too.

One really cool opportunity that just opened up is a 4-day "Master Class with David Alan Harvey," coming up pretty soon - April 11-15, 2009. If you ever wanted to spend some quality time with someone like DAH (member of Magnum, his work frequently appearing in National Geographic), here's an opportunity.

More info on that here:
http://store.artwolfe.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=175

If you're ever in Seattle, make a visit to the SODO neighborhood and check out his gallery. It's worth going out of your way just to see all the nice huge prints on display.

At lunch, I suggested that he needed to add a bottle of Don Julio 1942 to his tequila collection. It might make his trips to remote arctic regions a little warmer.

Last month, David Walter Banks gave me a call. He told me he was in New York City, and wondered if we could meet up. I said sure, and he came to the PhotoShelter office with Matt Slaby. I always like to meet up and hang out with photographers -- especially when I really love their work, which is the case here.

They were in New York, showing their portfolios around, looking for work, making contacts, and other making-the-rounds and paying-your-dues networking fun that nearly all serious photographers do at one point or another in their career.

But what is really interesting about these two guys is the teamwork they have. They are both independent freelance photographers, both looking for work, both could be considered "competitors" yet they're going door-to-editor-door together, and they're happy about it.

It doesn't stop there, though. They've also got the work of four other photographers tucked under their arm. Six photographers, all working as a team to promote each other individually and as a group.

Each member of the group has their own unique style, and brings their own personal vision to the table. If a photo editor doesn't think one of them is a fit for them, no problem, there are 5 other portfolios to check out - right then and there. In this economy, this is a smart move.

They're calling themselves "Luceo Images," and their approach to marketing, networking and support of each other is a very refreshing thing to see -- especially in today's business climate. There is strength in numbers, and they know it.

Banks and Slaby joined with fellow photographers Kendrick Brinson, Matt Eich, Kevin German, and Tim Lytvinenko to form Luceo Images a year ago, and they're celebrating this fact with an Anniversary Print Sale, where they are selling collector's prints for a limited time.

Brilliant. Opening up another revenue stream while showing off their work and getting their name out there all at the same time. (Would I be writing about them right now if they didn't have some really good timely reason for me to do so? Probably not.)

They announced on their blog that people can choose between 24 different 11x14 fine art prints for $99 each. Great prints for a really great price. How'd they do it?

They're using a PhotoShelter Personal Archive account to do the print sales, and they've teamed up with AdoramaPix to make the prints. Two services that actually work really well together.

We actually have prints here in the office, hanging on the wall, made by AdoramaPix that we absolutely love. Their quality is amazing and you seriously will not believe how good their prices are.

When David and Matt were chatting with me, I was really impressed with their spirit, and their marketing smarts. It's one thing to be a great photographer. It's another (rare) thing to be a great photographer that has a knack for marketing. These guys have it, and it was fun to just sit down and toss ideas around with them.

I encouraged them to go talk to Ingrid over at AdoramaPix because I thought they would make a great match, and a perfect partner for their print sale. All six members of Luceo Images are PhotoShelter users, and I knew that with our manual print fulfillment abilities, they could sell images using PhotoShelter's built-in e-commerce tools, and then have AdoramaPix handle the making of the prints - knowing that the prints were going to be good.

Congrats on your first anniversary, David, Matt, Kendrick, Matt, Kevin, and Tim. May you have many more print sales in your future.

Luceo Images prints for sale.

Luceo Images blog: http://luceoimages.wordpress.com
Luceo Images website: http://www.luceoimages.com
Luceo Images print sale: http://www.luceoimages.com/store/

AdoramaPix blog: http://www.adoramapix.com/Blog.aspx
AdoramaPix website: http://adoramapix.com

Aaron Kupferman started a company called Motorsport Lens, and is one of the many people who have made great use of the 'Personal Use' download option within PhotoShelter. He spends many of his weekends shooting images during "amateur track day" events, where normal people get to take their cars for a spin on a real racetrack .

His day job? Creating digital visual effects for feature films and commercials. Before that he worked at A&I Color in Hollywood as a Technical Supervisor and Custom Printer.

I noticed that he was selling a lot of Personal Use downloads, so I fired off an email with a bunch of questions in it. He replied with a bunch of answers, and now I get to share them with you.

Although he modestly claims to be "just starting out" in the photo business, Alex Cena, a retired Wall Street Research Analyst, sure is busy. As a full-time freelance sports and action photographer, his customers are organizations, schools, and athletes as well as newspapers and magazines.

Alex's steady stream of print orders caught my attention, so I thought I'd ask if he would be willing to answer my nosey questions about his business. I wanted to figure out how he is able to sell so many prints!

He's a busy guy, but he was able to carve out some time and pound out some answers for us.

Alex is also making full use of the PhotoShelter website customization templates, using them to power a large portion of his customer-facing website.

In today's sluggish economy, Alex seems to have found a nice comfortable niche.

Search Engine Optimization (aka "SEO") is more than just a hot buzzword. For many, mastering it will help take a photography business to new levels. For others, it could be a painful strain on precious time that's better spent shooting. The good news is, you don't need to face the SEO monster alone - if you are a PhotoShelter user, we've got your back.

SEO: What We're Doing

1.    The PhotoShelter site map is designed to be indexed especially well with Google because we tailored it to Google's exact specifications.

2.    We allow photographers to name/rename images without breaking any of the links that may already exist with the search engines. This way, a photographer can continue to safely tweak and fine-tune their image file names to achieve the best rankings possible. This is significant for Google Image Search.

3.    We're using text links, not just images, which provide deep linking throughout site. Search engines follow these links, indexing pages that may be several layers away from the front page.

4.    Your name appears in the title of every PhotoShelter page that features your work.  This means better search engine indexing for your name.  

5.    The photographer directory is heavily optimized with photographer name and specialty. This will help the search engines associate a photographer with a specialty (for example: "Wedding Photographer") and provide a direct link to their homepage and example images for that specialty.

Remain calm. This whole recession thing just may be a great opportunity in disguise. Here are 10 things you can do to help power your photography business through these stormy economic seas:

1.    Sell Personal Use downloads instead of prints. There's a cost associated with prints like the paper, ink, shipping and handling. None of these apply when your customer only downloads the image and makes a print of their own. People will even pay more for a download because they see value in having a digital file. So give them what they want - a lower resolution file for one price, a higher resolution file for a much larger price. Many photographers are afraid of doing this, but Personal Use downloads can give you a competitive advantage. Several photographers enjoy Personal Use sales almost daily through PhotoShelter, like Alex Cena and Aaron Kupferman. (kudos guys!).

2.    Incorporate embedded galleries and single images into your marketing strategy. Look for as many creative places that you possibly can to embed your PhotoShelter images online. Client's websites; online communities; local newspaper websites; community organization websites; sports team websites (pro, amateur, kids); anywhere you possibly can.

3.    Create a few "special edition" prints that are signed and numbered by you. Price these higher. If you can match the right image with the right audience, you may be sitting on a revenue opportunity. People will pay for something if they see value, so show them. When the subject matter of your image taps into their passion, and you provide excellent support and treat your product like it is worth something (a numbered print with a signature tends to do just that), price isn't such a major concern.  Jimmy Williams has a beautiful collection of limited edition prints.
 
(Use the embedded single-image feature - remember, from tactic #2 - to let these images market themselves by going viral. A passionate customer is more likely to pass it on to another like-minded passionate customer.  So make it easy for them to share and admire your images. And, it will increase the images' perceived value.)

4.    Set a minimum price on print sales. This won't make you a ton of money, but it will keep you from losing a few bucks here and there. (Hey, every little bit helps, right?) You can set a minimum price per order in the "Sales Configuration" area. If you're selling images via EZ Prints, there are costs associated in doing so, so make sure your add an appropriate markup. Prevent revenue loss by using this handy little setting.

5.    Recession stock. This recession is affecting everyone. Conducting a search on Yahoo! News for "recession" returns 126,000+ stories. Do you see the opportunity here yet? If you don't have any keyworded images in your archive that could illustrate "recession," you may be missing out on potential sales. Create some, and price them for Rights Managed or Royalty Free licensing.