I’ll be doing a talk this coming January 11th, 2011 in Portland for the ASMP. I’ll be talking about making better pictures, and showing the right people. In the end, running a successful photography business breaks down to making better images, and showing more people. The key is the right people. Here’s a rough breakdown of what we’ll be covering. If you’re around Seattle, or Portland would be great to see you!

Making Better Pictures, and Showing the Right people

1. Shooting better pictures is ultimately what gets you hired and is YOUR product. You must have a great product to sell.
A: Curating your vision- Curate great photographs that you like, and break them down to why you like them. (inspired.nickonken.com)
B: ABS Theory- Always Be Shooting. This is the only thing that will make you better. Clicking the camera. Expanding your Default. Exercising the Decision Making muscle
C: 10,000 hours of hard work- Malcom Gladwell’s theory of putting in the time to take you through the artistic journey.
E: Testing- How to Set up a Test
F: Shoot Vertical, Not Lateral

2. Showing the right People
A: Getting your ducks in a row first- Create your portfolios, your website, your brand(developing a visual style before you invest in branding), and working with a consultant
B: Hiring a graphic designer
C: Editing
D: Creating a client driven website- Breakdown of my website, and what features I included and why.
E: Creating your own Branding Imagery- Iconic images you’ve shot that represent who you are. These are integrated into your promo pieces and brand extensions.
F: Promo Pieces- e-promos and Printed Promos. Samples of what I’ve done in the past
G: Creative Buying Decision makers
H: List creation- Agency Access

3. The Creative Journey
A: Transitions, Passions, and Sacrifices- Juggling the beginning years to get to where you want to be. Sacrificing and fitting the puzzle pieces together to make achieve the end goal.
B: There’s no such thing as Fairy Dust, Only you can make Shit happen, You Gotta Wannit- Pushing through the resistance. Making it is not easy.
C: Lifestyle Design: Inspired by the 4 hour work week, designing your lifestyle as to what success means to you. Everything stems from this.
D: Creating Personal work- mine is travel photography. creating my book, and the process of. Photo Trekking.

4. Business & Numbers
A: Big Jobs, and little jobs- Difference in mentalities
B: Get Producer
C: What Low-Balling does

ASMP info and Register here:

http://asmp.org/education/event/info?id=149
The Event will be held January 11th at Michael Jones Studio, 1937 N.W. Quimby St. Portland

Lately I’ve been realizing how much of a great investment my new website I launched in January has become. A reader asked why, so I thought it may be a few cents to throw into a post. By investment, I mean a large chunk of change(5 figures worth), countless hours of work, and the thoughts and strategy behind the functionality of the site. Each piece of the site from the loading, to navigation and overall experience were carefully planned out. Obviously costs vary depending on what features you want integrated into your site and who creates it. When I launched the site, I wrote an indepth post breaking down each feature. Here is that post if you haven’t read it yet. Here’s another post by FolioRevolution.com reviewing my site’s features.

I worked with Knowawall, and in my opinion the agencies that specialize in photographer websites at this level, they are the best that I’ve seen. They have a clean graphic tight aesthetic and integrate flash programming seamlessly with the design. Since I have a design background, this is very important to me. Why flash you may be asking? There are still features that HTML 5 just can’t handle quite yet. Transitions, full screen images, preloading. It’s getting there, but for the me those subtle things just aren’t quite there yet. I also don’t care about being searchable because the clientele that I work with don’t find me through google.

The digital revolution of the world wide web has changed and drastically evolved how our world operates, and my goal was to adapt to it. The world of printed books still exists, but is dwindling. My physical portfolio is getting called in less and less for jobs as Art Directors are primarily pitching photographers through our websites. I believe the older generation of art buyers and art directors still are wanting to see books when considering photographers for jobs, while the younger gen Art Directors are sticking to the web. That’s why it’s still important to have a strong print portfolio in conjunction with your website. I’m in the process of a big ad campaign, and after talking with the creatives this weekend, I found out they selected me completely off of my website. It’s so much easier to send a client a URL link than a physical book.

A few other features that have really been beneficial are the lightbox and custom gallery features. The site is keyword searchable for the 2500 images in the database It allows me to create custom lightboxes for clients that request to see a certain type of image that may not be on the front end of the site. The custom galleries on the back end I can create specifically for clients with images that aren’t on the front end of the site. (example). The navigation is simple, and the preloading makes it so the impatient people(such as myself) don’t have to wait for the images to come up in between each click. Most Art Directors and Art Buyers, leave sites fast if they have any load time between photos.

Your website is now becoming your first contact to a potential client, and what you’re judged by. Most people filter you based on your website, the content and design of it. Through talks with Art Directors, if your design and branding isn’t as strong as your imagery, it’s points against you as it doesn’t give them confidence you know what you’re doing business wise. A well designed brand helps tell your audience that they can be confident in hiring you to help them build the brand that they’re working on.

The business world is moving to an electronic experience. Invest in your website and give the people hiring you great and simple interactive experience. I feel my website was a great investment in to my business’ future. Will the printed book be gone in 3 years? 5 years? Maybe.. we’ll see. Will Print work be gone? I hope not.

Last week, I was shooting a big 5 day campaign shoot out in San Francisco, and something quite unfortunate happened. After the 3rd shoot day, we went to a studio location to scout it out. We parked our suburban outside for no more than 20 minutes with all our gear/laptop bags. We made sure to lock the doors, but we returned 20 minutes later to find the back window shattered, with my laptop bag/passport, my client’s laptop bag/purse with all credit cards, passports, and ID’s, and my producer’s purse with all credit cards/ID’s, GONE. There’s no worse feeling that getting robbed, thus the feeling of feeling violated. Thank God the really expensive bag of cameras sitting right next to my laptop bag was still there.

This is definitely a good slap in the face reminder that it can happen to anyone, and on a huge job no less. More than the camera gear still being left in the car, thank God that Jeff happened to ride in a different vehicle and took the 3 days worth of our job with him and we didn’t leave the drives in my laptop bag like we usually do. Never the less, on multiple day shoots we always leave a hard drive with a copy of each day’s work in the hotel room. We would have only lost one day’s worth of work had we kept, but when there’s thousands of production dollars riding on a day’s worth of shooting that’s still a lot to lose. It’s a reminder to always split up the production HD’s when leaving set, even back to the hotel. A reminder to always keep an HD of the job on you or in separate rooms. A reminder to not get sloppy and forget to do these things.

Here’s an overview of how we back up on set on a travel job:
1: Jeff(digital tech), is always backing up 2 copies on set, upon download, and a 3rd through out the day. Even if he’s copying cards, we never erase a card until we have 2 copies on hard drive. You never know when something might corrupt.
2: When the day is done, separate the drives and have Jeff carrying one on his person, and/or someone else with one or in the digital bag.
3: Upon returning to the hotel, we create a 3rd/4th copy on the drive at the hotel to leave in the room in case something happens during the day. ie: Getting the laptop bag stolen
4: When returning back home, we split up the copies. Jeff will take one home with him, then ship it to me and I will take the other 2 copies with me.

ChronoSync is a great program to backup/copy/sync copies of jobs. We also use the mini G-Tech 500gb portable drives on set to capture to.

Sometimes we get sloppy and lazy to do these things, but we just got a strong reminder to keep it up.

Now I’m off to deal with the inconvenience of getting a replacement passport and visas.

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.

I've had many of conversations with different people lately, and I'm starting to see a trend. New School vs. Old School. The biggest thing I've realized over the last year is that the times are changing. Technology is changing, and changing the game. Social Media is blowing up. Twitter and Facebook are becoming household names. Which by the way if you haven't seen this video on the Social Media Revolution, check it out, the stats will blow your mind. The internet has created a gateway for anyone to be an expert at what they do. It's created a platform for anyone to enter the the world of getting their work out there. This IS an amazing thing… IF you use it to your advantage.

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.

The last few months has been quite a growth spurt in the new New York office. Relocating here was a big jump, but even more so setting up a proper digital asset management system. Its a work in progress at this point. I got a big kick in the ass this weekend, when I found out my good friend Fred Egan had his house burn to the ground. Luckily his office was left in tact and he was able to recover his photography equipment and images, but I think it's a good in my face warning that it could happen to anyone, including me at any time.

I've hired Jeff Holt, to come in and help me build, set up an IT infrastructure, and implement a back up system both on site and off site. The above sketch is a general outline of what we have in progress of set up and it's still evolving. It's very intricate. Designing an IT infrastructure is very custom to what you have an how much you have to spend, but after this great awakening with Fred, it's pushing me even more to get things in order, especially an off-site backup.

The main idea is to have a mirrored backup that is onsite and that are equal sizes, then to have the same data mirrored off site somewhere. Hard drives go bad completely at random, so a constant mirroring of data on-site is a necessity. In talking with an Apple IT consultant friend of mine, he swears by tape drive backups because they last at least 30 years. Backing up on to secondary hard drives is great if you have a method of spinning them up once a year to keep the liquid bearings from drying up. If you let them go 3-5 years, they dry and the HD is toast. They're meant to stay in use.

The trick is to build a system that is expandable and accessible. Obviously if you're serious about being a photographer, the more you shoot, the more your digital assets are going to grow. Now a days with the digital sensors getting larger and larger the RAW images take up quite a bit of space. I am also constantly needing to access images for portfolio uses, projects, books, website, blog posts etc. so having a system where you can easily access everything easily takes quite a bit of design.

The system I have set up is 2 x 8 bay enclosures in a J-Bod(individual drives) setup with 1TB drives in each bay totaling 16TB. Each bay from one enclosure is mirrored to the parallel bay in the second enclosure for the redundant onsite data. These are the archive drives where jobs are dropped once they are finished and archived. We have a 2 bay enclosure with a RAID 0 that acts as a production drive for jobs that are in progress. The archived jobs will then be backed up onto tape and sent offsite. This system is hovering $10K.

Creating a system that is customized to fit your needs and budget can be pretty tricky and techie. Jeff has set up a few consulting packages to design the right system for you if you need it. His packages go from over the phone consulting to in-house setup. For more info send him an email: Jeff Holt

Another part of backing up is HAVING insurance. Unfortunately for our friend Fred, he had no insurance which resulted in a total loss. Irresponsible? Maybe so, but shit happens. I know I go through life thinking these things will probably never happen to me, and knock on wood they don't, but this is a sure realization that they can happen to anyone any time. I know what it's like to be strapped for cash and not finding the funds to pay for insurance premiums, but this is definitely a hard reminder. Our friend Jory Cordy has set up a donation page if you feel so inclined to help Fred out as he lost his living possessions.

In regards to insurance, one thing to be careful of is that a lot of renters/home owners insurances won't cover your gear if it's for business use and it values over a certain amount. It's good to have separate policies. I have a basic renters policy with Liberty Mutual, and a Business policy with The Hartford Agency. http://www.thehartford.com Business insurance gives you liability coverage and and inland marine coverage on your gear world wide. The premium for the business insurance varies on where you live and how much gear value you want covered. It IS essential!

Something I notice a lot when receiving emails is links to the web that aren't hyperlinked. It's a rather annoying little pet peeve. Lets face it, we're all lazy these days, and the effort to select the text, copy it, switch to your web browser, paste it and press return is a lot of work. It may not seem like much, but it's a pretty big deal. It could mean the difference between very busy Art Buyer or Photo Editor not checking out your website. If you create a hyperlink then it's "one click" and they're in. It's funny how in a busy world, something as small as this could make a huge difference. Especially if that person doesn't know you from Adam, they're not going to give you the time. You want to make it as easy as possible for them to see images.

Think about the steps in that process, then what happens if it takes more than 1 click to begin seeing images on your site?

Creating a hyperlink is really easy in email. All you have to do is add "http://" in front of the "www" of a website. Most email programs these days will pick the http:// up and turn the whole link into a one click hyperlink.

Example(and bare with me while I spell it out):

This DOESN'T work:
www.nickonken.com

This DOES work:
http://www.nickonken.com