Testing is a huge part of getting started in the world of photography, and is also vital to staying alive creatively along the way. When you’re more established, testing keeps you fresh and relevant to the current world of photography. I’ve talked about the ABS theory, (Always Be Shooting) in the fact of always shooting for yourself for those reasons, and to expand your default(bag of tricks) for real jobs. Shooting a test can be very simple, or very complex depending on what level and how much money you have to invest. When I first started, testing was grabbing a good looking friend, going out into a great location and practicing. Now my test consist of flying a whole crew into a great location including hair/makeup, stylist, models, assistants, etc. I thought I’d throw down a few tips, and insights for setting up a test when you’re starting out.

When you’re starting out it’s a bit fuzzy where to start or what to do. Keep in mind, you are only as good as your portfolio, and your portfolio not only helps you get jobs, but helps you get talent to work with you. By talent, I mean Hair/makeup artist, stylists, and models. If you want people to work with you, they need to see something that gives them the confidence that if they put their time in, they will get some great images for their portfolios, so that is where you can start. If people aren’t interested in working with you, then the first place you should look is the quality of your work, which is what should do the selling.

Now that said, it can feel like a catch 22 because if you don’t have the work to show for, you need to create it, but to create it you need to have good work to get people to work with you. You find that all along the way especially getting the big ad jobs where people want to see high production value work. The trick is to learn to produce at an exponential value than the production elements you have to work with. You’re style and what you are drawn to also means lighting is different for what you like. It’s a personal preference, but some lighting requires more work/assistants than other lighting. You have to decide what you want to do and get the gear to pull it off. Sometimes that cost money.

When I first got interested in shooting people, I pulled some inspiration shots I found from other photographers that I could try and mimic then just grabbed a cute friend, walked around the city and experimented with natural light. Starting out with friends gives you the flexibility to learn to direct, and practice lighting without feeling too uncomfortable. You have to know your camera and know how to create the exposures/lighting you want without it being a distraction to the model. Lighting and directing are two different elements and if you don’t know how your camera works and how to light when working with a model you don’t know can get distracting for them. A big part of working with people, is interacting and directing your subject. If you’re too busy trying to figure out how to work your camera you can lose that rapport.

Ok that said, once you’ve practiced with a few friends and feel comfortable with what you’re doing, you can take it to the next level and bring in some other elements like hair/makeup, agency models, styling etc. You can pick up a cheap template website from places like bludomain.com to package your work in order to show other people. Making connections with hair and makeup artists can be tricky, but if you ask around your network someone probably knows someone. You can find people starting out that want to build their books. Sometimes you can find them at the department store makeup counters. Once you find someone who wants to collaborate with you, then do a couple tests with friends to add to your book. Remember, styling is very keep. Keep it simple.

If you want to take it from there, you can find modeling agencies in your local city. Call them up and tell them you want work with them and test some new models. Show them your website/book. If they aren’t interested, then ask for feedback on your work. What you can improve on to get some models from them. They are going to look at your work and want to be confident that if they give you one of their models, you will produce great images for them.

That’s entry level testing. The more testing and practicing you do, the more elaborate your connecting will get. And your work will evolve.

Enter the next level…

The above process can take a couple years depending on how fast you learn, and how often you can test. Once you have an established book, the more higher production value tests you can do. The higher level of talent you can convince to work with you. It took me a few years to get to this level of production for my tests because of money and how far along my work was. Here is a schematic of the process:

If you build relationships with hair, makeup, and stylists, you can work with them and build your team and they can work with you on tests, and real jobs. The more production value concepts you do, you will have to shell out money to make them. Naturally if you can negotiate high production value elements for free, then you’re creating higher value for less hard costs. You also have to examine the concept and content of what you want to shoot to determine the production elements that you need. Higher end commercial lifestyle requires good models that you can only typically find in NY, LA, or Miami. Therefore if you want to have a great location AND great models, you probably have to fly those models in to the location from one of those cities. Same with Hair, Makeup, and wardrobe styling. I shot a test in Colorado last year with the help of my good friend Jeff Holt. We came up with a concept, and he helped me produce it. The whole test cost me $3000 and that was with everyone working in trade for portfolio images. We had hard costs such as flights to get everyone there, food, rental trucks, hotels, and a few other expenses. The images we created from this shoot, have helped me to get higher paying advertising work, so it was well worth the investment. (see the images here: http://bit.ly/Colorado_SnowAdventure) Big tests like this need a lot of planning and preproduction to make them happen. I start with a concept, figure out the elements I need then we start working on securing and scheduling those elements for the shoot dates.

I still do lower profile tests, such as the film test of Loli I just shot in Prague. I found her through A Small World, emailed her with my website and asked her if she wanted to do a test when I was in Prague. She liked my work and was happy to work with me, and even helped me line up a hair/makeup artist there which I paid a little money to(sometimes you have to if you’re in a city where you have no connections.) Since I typically shoot with natural light, assistants aren’t a necessity so I was able to do this with me, a camera, Loli, and a makeup artist. Besides the costs of getting to Prague, this test probably cost me $600(half of which was my film processing costs) Check it out here. http://bit.ly/LoliSmokes_Prague

This is a recent test I shot in Tulum, Mexico. http://bit.ly/Devon_Tulum

In the end, your concept dictates the amount of production that is needed to create the images you want. The beauty of what we do, is that the world is our oyster. We can wake up, think of something to create, and go do it. You can test for free, or you can put money into it. (naturally you have to spend money to make money, so the more you put in, the more value you will get in the end).

The ridiculous amount work all breaks down from the two rules of the photography game I described in a recent post. Make better images and show more people. It’s doing all the things that go into that.

A lot of the work comes from the self motivation and drive to get better at what I do between the actual paid shoots. I’ve always been a believer in the ABS theory(Always Be Shooting). The more I grow as an artist, the more planning and preparation goes into even my own test shoots. Since I’m putting my own money into my tests, I want to make sure that I’m pre-producing them to get the most out of them.

The other amount of work is showing more people, and that is a completely complex idea. Networking, marketing, promotion, social media, etc. This is all very time consuming but getting your work in front of people is the key component in even getting work.

So, that said, what are the daily tasks that fill my time? I typically get up at 8am and work till 6, 7 sometimes 10pm. The more you hustle, the more you have to do. A lot of my workload is even farmed out to different people that can do it for me(IE: my reps who circulate my portfolios, handle estimating, do portfolio shows, seek out new work, etc.) My accounting and book keeping are farmed out to people that actually enjoy doing it. Next step is to hire a personal/office assistant to take even more of the load off so I can spend my time doing more focused ROI work.

Day to day:
•Researching, planning, reproducing and shooting test shoots: (A fun part of the job that lets us be creative) I spend time writing out creative briefs for shoots so we can all be on the same page when shooting them.
•Job preproduction: working on casting and location decisions for jobs, conference calls with clients for pre-production etc.
•Conference calls and new business: Big ad jobs always require creative calls with art directors to get more info on the project and to for them to hear your thoughts on how you would shoot their concept.
•Dreaming of ideas and establishing goals: Another thing I love about this career is dreaming of ideas that I can actually execute or at least work towards executing. The world is your oyster. You can do what you want with it. Dreaming and creating goals is a great way to stay driven and inspired to keep creating.
•Branding development: Tasks like working with designers to create new promo pieces, email promos, etc. Brainstorming new ways of getting my work in front of prospective clients.
•Portfolio updating and creation: This goes in conjunction with creating and updating the website. It took me a month in the office of 12 hour days to populate my the new website I just launched. Prepping images, and creating the right edits. My printed portfolios get updated twice a year, and that in itself is a lot of work from working with other people on the right edit to laying it out and getting it printed.
•Party planning: I just threw a book release party for my recent book Photo Trekking, and even though I hired an event producer to make the event happen, there was still a significant amount of creative decision making and promotion that I had to do myself. Check the out video and photos here.
•Social Media: I’m not as hardcore into social media updating as a lot are because it’s so time consuming. I try to do it as much as possible, but time becomes so spread thin.
•Blogging: Writing blog posts and getting inspired to write. Figuring out what is best to share with the community.
•Networking and relationship building: Something I do way more of in New York because you can. The community here is pretty amazing, and you meet new people all the time. I love it because it doesn’t always feel too separated here. People in the industry enjoy hanging out and talking about collaborating. Even outside of networking building personal relationships is not something to cast to the wayside. Developing more meaningful relationships is something that I’ve made a goal in my personal life. Sometimes especially here the work and personal relationships collide in a good way.
•Travel planning & Dreaming: I love traveling and dreaming of places to go. Granted time is more scarce these days to take off for long periods, but something I still try and get done. It seems to be more last minute these days, but it involves a decent amount of planning.
•Paying bills and paperwork: The dirty work. Usually it’s taking care of the in office management stuff to send to my book keeper/accountants. I hate doing this stuff.
•Budget planning and allocation: A lot of being a business person is deciding where you spend your money. I try and put as much back into the business as possible to grow and expand. Learning and deciding where to allocate your funds can be a fair amount of work, especially in the beginning stages when there’s not much funds to allocate. Figure out where to best invest.
•Business meetings: Meeting with current associates and potential clients. All takes time out of the day but is important. Personal relationships are key.
•Researching & Reading: I like to read business books when I can to learn how I can better myself and my business. In the same respect I like researching imagery and where I want to be going with my work.
•Managing Interns: This one is quite new, but managing interns, teaching, and giving them tasks to do.
•Other business ideas and projects outside of photography: I have other ideas that may be somewhat photography related but aren’t within the actual scope of my photography business that I love dreaming of and working on.

The “To Do” list never ends, and I’m sure there is much more, but what I can think of off the top of my head. Most of this work is self created, which is a huge part of going places in the commercial world.

The lovely thing is, that if you actually do love it then you’ll never work a day in your life. (well, the dirty office work like accounting always seems like work, but you can keep working to the point that you can hire other people to do that stuff). I feel blessed to wake up every day and think “What can I create today?” My TO DO list is filled with things I love and want to be doing. That my friends is a personal choice, but along with putting in the hard work in the earlier years, things become easier as you grow.

I know realize that when I was a graphic designer, I never loved the actual craft as much as I do with photography. When I started doing photography, I knew exactly what I wanted to be doing in the end. That gave me the passion, and motivation to get there.

The artistic evolution and journey is a long one. If you truly love it, you will ride it and do what it takes to get there. Transitions, sacrifices, successes and all.

I wrote a previous post on “Creating your own branding imagery” which this very much ties into. (along with “Making better images & Showing more people“) Why not create images that are at a higher level than the clients we are wanting to work for?

Aspiration breeds inspiration. Inspiration breeds motivation. So, translated into photography speak, shoot imagery that is aspirational for the demographic you are targeting, and inspire them to want you. To want your creative eye applied to their vision.

I am excited to be guest speaking at the New York workshop on March 22nd. I’ll be talking about my story of my journey over the last few years. The Transitions, Passion, and Sacrifices it took to get to where I’m at now, as well as a Q&A. We’ll be talking more about the artistic journey of doing what you love than the technical side of photography. I will also be giving away 2 signed copies of my Photo Trekking book at the workshop.

Check out the MTH 2010 site for more info. Would love to see you there!
http://laracasey.com/mth2010/

Naturally as the nature of Shoptalk is to share the things I’ve learned and thought about along this artistic journey of a career. It’s to serve as a resource and to give back to the photography community. Many people have commented, and emailed in about how much they’ve learned from the blog, and that’s my hopes for what it may be, so thanks to you for reading and being a part.

I also thought I’d take a second to highlight some of my favorite and most read posts over the last couple of years

1. Only You Can Make S#%@ Happen!
2. Expanding Your Default
3. ABS Theory
4. Two Rules of the Photography Game
5. The Importance of Branding
6. The Secret is Seeing…
7. Your Own Branding Imagery

Feel free to comment some of your favorite posts to share with other readers.

Today is the official launch of my new website that I’ve been working for the past 7 months, and I’m super stoked. It was designed by my peeps over at Knowawall who designed a number of talented photographers. My background in design influenced many logical points that were thought about going into it. I thought I would share some of those with you.

The first perspective was the state of the industry and where it’s headed. As this website was a pretty penny, and a huge investment for me I didn’t want to take it lightly. I have a feeling that the printed portfolios will diminish in 5 years. Right now the printed portfolios are still very much in play and website portfolios are creeping their way in. Will printed portfolios completely go away? I doubt it, but photographers are getting booked more and more straight from their websites. Why not make it easy for potential clients to see big images, and fast?

Taking that into account, we broke it all down to those objectives(big images & fast). Having that design background has given me the ability to look at it from an Art Director/Art Buyer’s(my target market) receiving/viewing perspective. I do it all the time when looking at other photography sites. There are so many sites that my adult ADD quickly vetoes(chasing thumbnails, single loading images, crap design, etc.) I’m sure most AD’s & AB’s have the same issues. The first thing I took into account was my target market. Art Directors, Art Buyers, and Photo Editors at ad agencies and magazines. They are super busy people, and they don’t have much time to make their way through a site that is hard to navigate and slow to load. They are typically working from a fast broadband connection with at least a 20 inch screen. Sometimes smaller, but a majority have at least that. And the last thing, who doesn’t want to see HUGE images?

In my brief to the design team, we created the site to that target market. The site is a combination of flash and PHP scripting which allows url linking to specific galleries and parts of the site. The flash allows the images to be scaleable based on the viewer’s monitor, whether it’s a 13 inch laptop or a 30 inch cinema. (which is awesome when you land on the home page and click the full screen button. The site becomes a screen saver with full screen images) The developers created a special algorithm to have the images loading ahead of the viewer, and following them where ever they go in the galleries. We developed the horizontal scrolling stories because it compliments my story driven work. The design is intentionally minimal visually because it is really all about showcasing the images. The navigation shows in every part of the portfolio website.

Here are a few features I’d like to highlight and why we did them.

•Full Screen(button top right next to search, subtly there without being distracting)
This feature is a definite must with flash capabilities. It creates a dynamic user experience not having to view it in a browser window. Try it out. It also works as a great branded screen saver if you leave the site on the home page in full screen mode)

•Keyword search
Including a keyword search, is partially for my own use in addition art directors and art buyers. There is a database of 2400 images on the site that can be searched through. This was a huge undertaking in that my whole library had to be organized and keyworded. Even at that, we still ended up having to blanket shoots with certain words pertaining to that shoot.

•Lightbox
The lightbox feature works in conjunction with the keyword search. It’s for both me and clients, and anyone for that matter. You can create your own lightbox of images to send to a friend, or for art buyers to send their art directors, etc. I can create front end lightboxes to send certain potential clients looking for certain images.

•Easy navigation
Simple navigation is the most key thing you can integrate into a website. Make it EASY for your viewer to get through your site. Have it static in every page, don’t make them chase things, and make it intuitive for a 3 year old) In the gallery nav, we included many options. You can click the next arrow, which snaps to the next image, you can use your arrow keys, you can click anywhere on the thumbnail bar, or grab the box as the scroll bar without having to chase it. You can also click on the “view all” to see all the images in the gallery. Click on any image and it will take you directly there.

•Social Media
As Social Media is rapidly integrating into our web 2.0 world, I wanted to integrate into the functionality. You can now tweet, facebook, stumble upon, and/or email any link within the site as well as tweet any image. I’ve also included links to my facebook public profile, and twitter pages.

•Image Download
Many clients like to comp ad mockups with your images if they’re considering you for a campaign. Regardless of how you do it, people are going to snag your images whether that’s saving them or screen shotting them. I’ve made it easy by including a download option that lets the viewer download a watermarked image for comping purposes. I’m not a fan of watermarking images on websites. It takes away from the image.

•Image license request:
Licensing images is another great source of income. I want to make it easy for people to inquire, if they are interested in using an image. Clicking the “license” link will create an email to me with the image ID info. I can then have my agent negotiate the licensing if it’s an advertising use. (if the image is licensable, the word “license” will appear in the image rollover nav.)

•Video galleries
As we all know, video is creeping into our little photography world. As I’ve only done a few stop motion projects at this time, I wanted to make room to grow and integrate video into the brand.

•News, Behind the Scenes, and Profile
I wanted to create a news section to showcase any press or exciting new endeavors that may come about. Behind the scenes are always fun and a great way for clients to see what it’s like to work on set with you. It’s also a great brand extension. The profile page has a great new cheeky bio written by my copywriter friend Dave.

•Blog
The new blog has new functionalities, that I will specially highlight in an upcoming post. It was created by my homies over at We The Media in Portland. They can do some insane things with Word Press.

•Backend Content Management System(CMS)
The biggest asset of this site, is the part you can’t see, and a majority of why it costs a pretty penny. The whole backend allows me to have a database of images that I can create galleries on the fly, update and change content, add new news clips, behind the scenes videos and pics, etc. It’s all keyword searchable and makes it so I can update all the content myself without having to get the developers to do it every time I want to add something.

•iPhone Website
As we all know, so many creatives out there have iPhones, and I wanted to make my new site iPhone friendly. I hired my friends over at AG Design in Mexico to cook up a special iPhone website that draws the galleries from the main website. It’s great because all I have to do is change the galleries in one place. When you hit my website from an iPhone it automatically redirects you to the mobile site.

Nothings ever perfect, but I am super excited to have this site working for me. Think ahead, take your target market in to account when building your site and make it easy for them to understand what it is that you do.

New School vs. Old School. There is a ton of truth to both, and you need a fair amount of the old school to carry into the new school. In the Old School photography world it's about having amazing work and creative, which in turn gets you jobs. Which is 100% true. Hone your craft and do it well. Make amazing images, and someone will recognize you. Ten years ago, hell even 5 years ago it was much harder to get in the game. The internet didn't exist(with the capabilities it does now) which meant to get your great work into the eyeballs of the right people, you had to send physical portfolios, post card promos, prints, and be seen in printed magazines. A rep that was hitting the pavement with your portfolios all the time. This is all VERY expensive. Getting into the game COSTED a lot.

This is exactly why the "Greats" don't all have websites(or have terrible ones). Annie Leibowitz, Ellen Von Unwerth, Patrick Demarchlier, etc. EVERYONE knows who they are (that hire them at least). They've been in the game for years. They ARE established. Being published in all the major magazines is their portfolio. (don't get me wrong would it benefit them to adapt and spend of their cash reservoir on a web presence? of course.)

Now enter the New School: Getting someone to recognize honed craft. With all the benefits of the digital revolution and the ease of putting your work out there into the world wide web of eyeballs, we've encountered a downside. It's made it extremely cheap to get into the game. Let me rephrase that. It's made it FREE to get into the game. In turn, the downside is the volume of people that are doing it creates white noise. Everyone is a "photographer" these days and images are flying around the web like nobody's business. Having amazing work has now just become the entry way to getting anywhere. Anyone not at the "greats" level are struggling to adapt to the times. The older folks who choose not to learn the digital media opportunities. The ones in the game for probably 5-10 years that started in the filmic old school world and just got used to it before it changed. These are the ones that are getting left behind should they not choose to adapt.

Creating your "Personal Brand" is the key to getting anywhere. Create a voice that people remember your work by. Not only graphically, but what you project through social media outlets. The content you put out there to the world creates people's perception of you. Consistency of brand creates longevity.

What am I saying with all this? Move with the current of technology. Adapt, and try to get ahead of where technology is moving. Then use it to your advantage. Use social media and internet connectivity for your business. "Old School" is also a mentality. It really comes down to a choice as all things do. Only YOU can make S#$@ happen.

It's where the world is moving and if you don't get on the train, you may get left at the station. Be a game changer.

My homey Jeff Holt turned me on to this book "Crush It"(an easy 130 page read), which speaks exactly to this point. The driving message of the book being "Make the decision to live your passion whole heartedly no matter what it is because in this day in age if you do it right, you can monezite it" but the point is that it has to be your passion. This idea resonates in one of my favorite quotes by Confucius "Choose a job you love, and you'll never work a day in your life." With technology these days, you can make a living creating a business out of anything you want to. You just have to have the ambition and hustle to do it. Now, I never said this would be easy, but if you are truly pursuing what you are passionate about then it will never feel like work. I feel lucky enough to do what I do. In reality? I work probably 60-80 hours a week without a blink of an eye. The thing is, I feel like my life is a vacation. (which many of my friends think it is too) The process to design this lifestyle took a big transitions, living my passion, and sacrificing like hell to get to this point, and it's an ongoing process.

Another key to making things happen is to surround yourself with the people that are motivated hustlers. The people that inspire you to be a better person, to be better at what you do, how you approach life. Your support system is key, but this in itself is a conscious decision to surround yourself with these people, and on the flip side, what are you doing to inspire others to want to hang out with you? I think attitude is a key factor. People like to spend time with other people that inspire, and encourage. Some have different styles of being more vocal, or just being inspiring by what they do. In fact, to me the act of "Doing" inspires the hell out of me. A big reason for my move to New York. My level of influence of people doing amazing things, hustling, and succeeding has upped significantly. Something that this city has in it's DNA. I'm a firm believer in moving the things and people in your life that bring you down, drain you, hold you back, etc. out of your life, or to a minimum. I believe in helping others and giving back as much as possible as well. Only you know when you're being the influencer or being influenced though. Take the victim role and you'll never get anywhere in life.

It's funny how conversing about these things brings with like minded friends creates inspiration and opportunities. I know many people have asked if I do workshops and such, and at this point I haven't planned any, but I will be guest speaking at my good friend Lara Casey's Make It Happen NYC seminar in March. I been hearing rave reviews from the last few. This seminar is for anyone in any industry wanting to "make it happen". Check out the seminar details here.

What do I want out of 2010? A well balanced passionate life with great people, great food, and great wine. I want to be a better photographer, grow my business, start more business, build better relationships, and much more. Live life for the epic moments. Life is short and who knows how long it will be.

Becoming Change: http://integralbusiness.blogspot.com/2009/12/telecourse-becoming-change-january-20th.html

Integral Strategic Planning: http://integralbusiness.blogspot.com/2009/12/telecourse-integral-strategic-planning.html

Since photography is such an artistic journey, it took me a few years before I really was able to create a visual style and hone in on who I am as an artist to then turn those into a list of goals in the form of a business and marketing plan.

My goals have manifested in melting both personal and business aspects. Since the photography business is really a lifestyle job they both very much fuse together. I recently read the Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris, and as much as he speaks to the full time corporate person working to create a lifestyle where they work less and enjoy more, there are many aspects of the book that directly apply to a career like mine. Lifestyle design is a huge asset to what this career can offer. You can create a business around what you shoot, what you want, and how you want to live if you do it right.

It's pretty amazing to look back at the goals that I wrote a year ago for this year as it comes to an end and see how many of them have actualized. In retrospect, I feel I could have looked at the plan more often through out the year to keep myself in check, but for the most part most of what I aimed for has been accomplished. This means my goals for 2010, should shoot even higher.

Here are a few categories on my list without going into too much detail:
•Tangible/Immidiate goals- These are goals that goals that take priority that can be checked off a list. For example, my first goal in this category was to move to New York. It took me half the year to find the right timing to do it, but I checked it off the list. Another was to finish my new business cards, which also are done.
•Creative Development- This one is hugely important. It's great to review your own work and see where you want to improve. These are things to constantly be working on to develop my photographic eye and skills. Examples: "Refine production details" work on bringing in more and better production elements into my work. Another: "Building a better rapport with my subjects" Social skills and building a rapport with my subjects is something I feel is very important and that I can always be better at.
Financial goals- I think it's good to set a goal that you want to bring in for the year. This was the first year I did that, and I luckily ended up doing much better.
Travel Goals- Travel is a huge passion of mine and something I value as part of my lifestyle design. These are a bit looser because my desire of destinations have changed due to learning about new places and opportunities. One I can check off the list from this last year is Iceland.
Long Term Development- Other goals that I have that pertain to advertising and editorial work, business development, and maybe things to accomplish in my life, etc. These are ordered in priority. IE: Advertising assignments, my ideal was 6 campaigns for this last year. Another was to develop a new website which is on the way.

These are examples from my goals last year. I have yet to sit down and write them for this year. Many new ones have culminated in the process.

The marketing plan is basically taking this list of goals, and planning out how you will actualize them. What are the methods you will use to attain those goals?