What do you think about when you hear the word branding? Do you think logos, colour schemes, fonts? If you said yes, then you are just where I was about a week ago and if you said no, well you are further ahead then I am, or was until I read Dane Sanders’ amazing book Fast Track Photographer.

Ok, you’re right, logos, colour schemes, fonts, websites, matching literature, these are all important aspects of branding , I totally agree. But, I’m starting to see them more as tools used to create something and that something is the brand. In Dane Sanders book, he brings up an interesting idea, you want to sell yourself, not a product and hence you need to build a brand around yourself as a photographer. Here is how I see it, by putting all the emphasis on your product (I.E. you images) you then bring in the matter of cost. There are a lot of photographers out there and a lot of images, so if you market your images you run the chance of competing with all the other photographers out there that may be producing images that a prospective client may like just as much as yours. This is the exact moment price comes into play, your work no matter how good it is just isn’t that rare of an item, it can be compared to and priced against another image. But there is only one of you, so that means that you are rare.

These are all things that I have been thinking about for a while now. I kinda got Dane’s ideas before buying the book, but reading (well actually listening to) Fast Track Photographer made things a little more clear…and troublesome. Why troublesome? Well because, now all your efforts have to turn inwards. Like a lot of photographers I worried about my work, my business knowledge and so one. I was more worried about becoming an amazing photographer who creates timeless images all the while ignoring what was most important to my fledgling photography business. I really don’t know myself, who does? It all really does sound like a self help book doesn’t it? Know yourself, know what you have to offer the world, know your strengths. It may sound corny but it is all very important, how are you going to sell yourself if you really don’t know yourself?

After I got all this down and I starting looking inwards, another thing hit me “Damn, big companies have it lucky!”. When a company like Apples builds a brand, they build it around their company. Sure the employees kinda have to help hold up that brand with their behavior and appearance and the big wigs have to watch what they say and do to some extent, but when you build a brand around yourself, everything you say and do effects that brand. The car that you drive, the clothes that you wear, where you choose to live, all of this can and does affect how people see you. And since your brand is you and you are the brand, you do need to watch it. This can make things a little more interesting because if you decide to fake it, to make up a persona for yourself, you will have to uphold the lie in everything you do. If you try to get people to believe that you are a high class photographer with an attention to detail and you show up in a beat up pickup truck with a mustard stain on your pants…well lets say that your clients will see right through your lie.

I was talking with one photographer who stated “Sell myself? But I’m boring!”. This is something I have to get over as well, some times I wonder exactly how many people actually do like themselves. I was listening to the CBC radio show The Age of Persuasion with Terry O’Rielly. Terry is one of the big names in advertising here in Canada with some great campaigns under his belt. Remember that Hockey Hall of Fame commercial where the guys steps up to the Gordie Howe display and proceeds to get elbowed in the face? That was Terry’s baby. Any ways, he was explaining how some marketers will actually take the product they are to advertise home with them, they would use it and learn to love it. They do this because if you love something it makes the task of selling it so much easier. I think I need to do this, not only do I have to “find myself”, but once I have found myself, I have to learn to like myself.

Liking yourself…Sounds kind of hard doesn’t it? If it were easy, then the section on self help books wouldn’t be so large now would it? Dane Sanders had a killer suggestion here in his book. He pointed out that most people look for their weaknesses and try to improve on them, the whole while completely ignoring their strengths. Dane suggested focusing on your strengths and putting a little less emphasis on improving your weaknesses. I can see this being a legit way of improving your own self value. how many of us spend days, weeks, months beating ourselves up over things we have tried to change?

Now earlier on I stated something that may have been construed as me saying that branding and marketing is more important then the product. I still believe that you have to deliver a solid product, I still do want to be an amazing photographer that delivers timeless images my clients will love and cry over. I’m just not going to make such a big deal out of my pictures in my marketing. There are thousands of images out there with a large majority of them better then mine, even if I were named as one of the top ten photographers in the world, that would mean that there are still 9 other photographers that can produce images just as good. But! There is only one of me and that’s worth something.

I have tried keeping this post as short as possible (didn’t do a very good job now did I lol), but a subject like branding can be a little long winded, I really could go on longer. I know all of this can be hard to swallow sometime, you can hear from experts all day long and still doubt it. I think it may be one of those things that needs to be implemented and the results experience first hand before you can truly believe it. All the way through our education in photography, we have had the the image drilled into your head. You have worked so hard to be technically knowledgeable and creative with your photography. You have always thought that the image is the only thing that matters just to open up the shop and find out a crappier photographer is getting more business. I think this is why so many people fail at this, they have to many problems with this idea that the image is not the end all and be all in the business of photography. I’m still having a problem with this myself, but it is slowly being beaten into me and hopefully it will help me succeed.

As I have always said, if you want to stay fresh and keep that feeling of satisfaction in your life as a photographer, you have to venture outside your comfort zone, challenge yourself…Even Fail some times.

I have many plans for the future and a lot of projects I have been thinking about, one of them is integrating my day job as a truck driver into my photography. I have been meaning to do this for a while, but I always came up with excuses not to. My dSLR was to big, I didn’t have the time…so on and so on.

So I finally decided that I would start the project, but to make it real interesting I added some twists, some guide lines to the project and those guide lines are:

1) All pictures must be taken during my actual run. No images for this project will be taken on my way to work, on my home from work or on the weekends. Part of the challenge of this project is looking for and finding interesting imagery while being hampered by a big 75 foot long vehicle.

2) All images are to be taken with either my iPhone or a P&S (Point and Shoot) camera. I am not going to say that it’s easier to take a good picture with a larger dSLR, but it does have advantages that give you an edge. Depth of field really helps and of coarse there is the larger, higher quality sensor which really helps with low light situations. With cheaper P&S and worse still my iPhone, I will have to work to turn these disadvantages into good pictures.

With those two guide lines, every day I will keep my eye open for great pictures and then try to use the limited equipment that I have allowed myself to capture those images.

So if you have a spare few minutes and you want to see some cool pictures, head on over to 18 Wheels and a Camera, I hope to keep you entertained enough to check it out daily…But don’t forget this site as well!

I have mentioned it before, I would rather have a couple hire another photographer and adore their images then hire me and be so so about the results. I have come to realize how important the imagery from a couples wedding really is, not because I am a wedding photographer, but because I made the mistake of skimping on my wedding photographer.

I married my wife in a very small ceremony at Niagara On the Lake with only my wife’s parents, her sister, and my mom in attendance. I have no regrets on the size of our wedding or the location, but if I could go back in time and change one thing, that one thing would be the wedding photographer we choose. Now I am not saying that our wedding photographer was bad or anything, but we purchased one of those $275 one hour packages where at the end the photographer quickly printed off all the images and handed over the negatives and the 4×6 prints.

That was 7 years ago and looking back we are still kicking ourselves. What makes things worse is the fact that I am constantly looking at amazing work from other photographers and it really drives this fact home…what we could have had.

I never want one of my couples to have the same experience…NEVER! This is the reason why it is so important for couples to look around and see what’s out there. They need to look at a lot of work from numerous photographers to make sure they are choosing the right photographer, a photographer who’s style fits their needs and taste. To help out with this, I thought I would post some of my favorite photographers in the London market.

“What?! Are you NUTS! Why would you link to your competition?”

Well that’s simple, I don’t see other photographers as my competition, I see them as colleagues. I am not afraid to introduce you to them because in the end, I want you to hire me because my style is the one you love, not because my prices are lower. So without further ado, may I introduce…

Eric Rockburn

I met Eric and spoke with him briefly at this years Bridal Expo and right off the bat I loved his style. Being a schooled graphic designer as well as a great photographer, his creativity showed in everything he did from his logo, albums and his images.

Joey Kittmer

Like Eric, I met Joey at this years Bridal Expo. I was walking by his booth and the very first thing that caught my eye was this amazing print of a couple standing out front of a castle. Joey has a great combo of conservative images with an edgy processing style that just blends very well.

And last but no where near least…

Heather MacEachern of HRM Photography

Heather is the photographer I would have hired for my wedding if time travel were possible. I have been a fan of her work for a while now. I bugged Heather on Facebook (she is a very busy lady) and finally was able to meet her face to face a few weeks ago. Not only does she have a very refreshing and relaxed style that I love, but she has the personality to match. I would say she is the kind of photographer I am working to be, but unfortunately that prize goes to Ben Chrisman.

These are just three talented shooter from the London area, but there are so many more. When I first started in wedding photography I was really surprised at the amount of great wedding photographers in this area. To add to the pot, many a time I have seen photographers from Toronto, Kitchener/Waterloo and Windsor dropping by to dip into the London market. Really, it is an honor to be among such talent and if nothing else, it will drive me to improve my own work. Nothing kills ambition like being in a stagnate market (just look at the cell phone companies), you need to be surrounded by creativity to give you that push to grow.

When I first decided to go full time with the camera, I wanted to be a big time advertising or fashion photographer (yeah I’m laughing now as well). I did the rounds of TFP/TFCD shoots with local models to build up a portfolio all in the hopes of getting a chance at something in one of those fields, but once I started covering weddings I fell in love. Maybe it’s the fact that I have always been in the service industry the whole of my working career, but from working a car wash when I was 14 years old to doing deliveries, I have always adored making people happy. So wedding photography just clicks with me, there is nothing better then showing up at a couples home after thier big day and seeing the tears and joy in their eyes as they go through their pictures. I still think to myself “Man! My job is actually making people this happy!”. This may sound incredibly cheesy or corny, but it really is how I feel about wedding photography. In fact, I would rather my couples go with another photographer if it means they get the pictures that will make them cry.

With that little bit of information, I hope you will understand where I am coming from when I tell you this little story; A few months back I had an ad running on an internet classifieds site announcing my services as a second shooter. I figured it would be a service that may bring in some extra money and a way to shoot more weddings without the extra work of meetings, phone calls, emails, processing and so forth. I didn’t want the “make extra money” interfere with any weddings I was personally doing.

After a few days I received an email from a wedding photography/video/DJ service that was moving to town. I gave them prices and I have to tell you I was completely blown away with what their response!

…….I would not be interested in offering anything more than $10/hr
shooting as I can train a university student to be a 2nd shooter and
have them work for less. I can train that same university student
(with under 2 years experience) to become a strong, creative MAIN
shooter in under 12 hours. And still pay them less than $20/hr… I
value your own gear, that’s the only reason I would be in a position
to give you more – but not as a 2nd shooter.

What does this email say to you? It says to me that this operation doesn’t respect their clients and only sees them as another wedding to shoot. The disturbing fact is that their are a number of wedding studios that do just this.

I am not saying that if you hire Jack Smith photography that you should get Jack Smith himself doing the photography. There are a number of studio that use associate photographers, but they are nothing like the studio who sent me the above email. They use experienced wedding photographers and 9 times out of 10 you get to see their portfolio and meet with them before you sign anything, all of this means you know who you are getting and that they actually do good work. You also get to see what kind of person they are and if you will work well with them, this is very important!

What it all comes down to is do you really know what you are getting? Do you know that the person who is going to be at you wedding, tailing you for 8 plus hour really cares if they produce images that will bring tears to your eyes?

There is a ton of advice on how to pick the ideal wedding photographer, just Google “Choosing a wedding photographer” and you will get hours of reading material. Myself, I have always like the advice given by Jillian Kay over at Photo Lovecat about the 5 P’s. The article was written for wedding photographers, but any couple would do good to read it as well.

I have always said that years after your wedding, your flowers will be dead, you dress will be in some storage closet (unless you went for a Trash the Dress session) and your cake will be long gone, but your photos will still be there. The pictures will be the one thing that you will pull out to show your children, your grand children to show what you looked like the day you and your sweetheart tied the knot. That is something that is far to important to trust to some studio that is only going to be sending a university student with a few hours of training!