Recent Business Articles

About to Start Selling Prints via Your Website? Don’t Make These Mistakes

With the COVID-19 lockdown in place across so much of the world, we photographers are catching up on admin and trying to figure out how to scrape any sort of income. If you don’t sell prints via your website, now’s probably a good time to get started, and this short video tells you how to avoid some basic mistakes.

Should Photographers Specialize or Generalize?

The most important decision photographers have to make is whether to specialize or generalize. While generalizing may increase your chances of work, it can also harm your reputation. The good news is there's a clever way to do both.

8 Tips for Maximizing Your Downtime

Sitting at home starting to bring you down ? Michael Sasser has brought you 8 tips to maximize your downtime during quarantine. Most of which are items you might have been putting off for some time.

Helpful Money-Saving Tips for Surviving the Coronavirus Economic Downturn

As the world essentially stops moving due to the widespread Coronavirus, many photographers and creatives are left with canceled jobs and nothing on the horizon. While we wait for businesses to open back up, we need to find ways to survive these stressful times. Here are a few helpful tips to get you through this event.

Should You Begin Photography as an Assistant?

Every once in a while, I receive a request from a beginner photographer who want to become my assistant. I usually decline their application, and in the following article, I'm going to explain why. This information is also useful for those who'd like to become apprentices of established professional photographers.

Fujifilm Stocks Jump 15% Overnight Because of Drug Used to Treat Influenza

Shareholders at Fujifilm have had a little break from the global economic woes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as a drug made by a subsidiary arm of their company has been found to be effective in helping patients recover from the virus. Patients, no doubt, have even more to celebrate.

What Can Photographers Do During This Coronavirus Downtime?

These are tough times, and they're likely to get tougher. The virus has been spreading quickly, affecting countries around the world and causing the cancellation of many events. This article isn’t intended to be doom and gloom or alarmist for the sake of it, but rather to help.

Is the Night Sky About to Be Ruined by SpaceX Satellites?

Some astronomers and observatories are complaining that satellites sent into low earth orbit by private companies to provide global internet and other services will impact night sky observation and ruin astrophotography.

How Has The Coronavirus Affected Your Business

As of March 14th, everything in the United States has changed. Within just a few days the economy has ground to a halt and it's taken the majority of photo/video jobs with it.

How Much Should You Charge When Licensing Your Photographs?

Sometimes, knowing how much to quote a potential client can seem impossible. Both sides know what they want, but finding something that works perfectly in each direction is often hard work. This excellent video from Evan Ranft gives a detailed guide on how to go about things, with a ton of bonus material tacked on the end for good measure.

Living in the Days of Pretend Big Productions

We live in interesting times when everything is expected to look good, show high numbers, and have flashy abbreviated job titles. What actually lies beneath the shiny plastic cover is often something rather humble.

Why Less Megapixels Can Sometimes Be More

The number of things I have learned, unlearned, and relearned all over again along the road from hobbyist to professional photographer would require something of a short novella to recount in their entirety. So today, I want to share just one of them.

Photography Pricing for Beginners

Many visual artists have extreme talent, but no idea how to even charge. What's too much? What's too little? In too many cases, they stop the debate and don't charge for their services altogether. My goal is to start the wheel and get your business in motion. This post and video will give you a starting point.

I Stopped Insuring My Cameras

I read articles on here all the time about wedding photographers losing all of their gear while traveling, break-ins at studios, and general destruction of camera gear. In spite of all of this, I decided to cancel my equipment insurance.

5 Steps for Success in eCommerce Photography

Product photographers are some of the highest earning professionals in the photography field, and they command their prices with the value they bring to other businesses while creating imagery that engages consumers to purchase those business’ products. If you want a piece of that e-commerce photography pie but are still sweating on where to start, then it’s time to get a crash course that will possible jumpstart your beginnings into this profitable space.

Lindsay Adler: Taking Advantage of Trends in Design

What's the saying, trends come and go, but style is constant? Maybe, but, in a world of ever changing SEO and IG popularity contests, its important to be able to recognize and then mobilize trends to get eyeballs on your work.

TFP and Model Photographers: The Truth Behind the Fake Profession

The internet has sold photographers the lie that there is a profession to be had photographing models, "model photography." After reading the comments section in a recent article, I thought I would try to shed some light on the matter.

If You Want to Make Money in Photography, Stop Taking Pictures of People

Are you a photographer that owns a business or are you a business owner who offers photography? That realization can sometimes mean the difference between having a successful business or not. Here’s why you should stop photographing people as the sole subject of your imagery.

Will This Be the Next Camera Manufacturer to Fold?

Selling cameras is a tough business and it's only getting tougher. The market for digital cameras is contracting at a dizzying rate, so which camera manufacturer is going to fold next?

The Difficulty With Knowing When to Upgrade Photography Gear

With a seemingly endless stream of new camera gear announcements rolling out on what seems like a daily basis, it can be difficult to separate what features you need from those that just sound good on a spec sheet. So, how do you know when to pull out your hard-earned money?

5 Spring Cleaning Tasks You Have to Do

If you go by the groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, it’s going to be an early spring — a great excuse to get some photography-related spring cleaning done. Here are some of the spring cleaning tasks you should consider.

As a Beginner, Should You Offer Free Shoots to Build Your Portfolio?

When you are new to photography or videography, it can be a bit tough to get clients to give you a chance, which might lead you to wonder if you should offer your services for free. This quick and helpful video discusses why it might be beneficial to do a few free shoots to build out your portfolio a bit.

How to Spot a Photography Scam

Scams are nothing new to photographers, but scammers are getting cleverer and more thorough. A scammer who targeted me in November was the most convincing one I’ve had yet. I’m going to share the scammer’s emails and the clues that gave him away.

3 Creative Ideas to Attract Wedding Photography Clients

The top question that haunts wedding photographers is: how do I get more clients? When it comes to wedding photography, get creative with your marketing tactics. These ideas to attract wedding photography clients will refresh your routine and expose you to clients you may not otherwise reach.

5 Underrated Items in My Camera Bag

With all the discussion of the best camera on the planet or the most powerful lights, there’s a lot in a professional photographer's bag that goes overlooked. So today, I’m going to take a short look at what’s in my own camera bag.

8 Ways Your Website is Holding You Back

Photography websites are here to stay, despite social media's best efforts. Having a website is really affordable and simple in 2020, but there are several faux pas that could be stopping your viewers from booking you.

Common Wedding Photography Pricing Myths

Wedding photography is a tricky and demanding genre, and the business side of it can be just as difficult as the shooting itself. If you are looking to improve your wedding business, this great video discusses several common wedding photography pricing myths and what you should do instead to ensure you are putting as much money into your pocket as possible.

Helpful Tips for Being a More Productive Photographer or Videographer

Being a freelance photographer or videographer is an never-ending onslaught of emails, invoices, phone calls, marketing, networking, and occasionally, picking up a camera. It takes a lot of discipline and savvy to successfully balance it all while still having a life outside work and not getting burned out. If you sometimes struggle to be productive and efficient, this excellent video will give you some helpful tips to speed you on your way.

How the Unfortunate Events Around 'Bad Boys' Made Michael Bay Famous

Did you know that the initial idea for "Bad Boys" was to have Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey as the main actors? If that happened, today, the movie would be probably known as a family movie. Instead, there were unfortunate events around the production of the blockbuster that made a few people quite famous.

How Much Should You Charge for Your Photography?

One of the most nebulous concepts in professional photography is the task of pricing your services and products. If this is something you struggle with, this helpful video will give you a lot of great guidelines for knowing what to charge to maximize your income.

Process Versus Results: Which Is More Important to You?

Some photographers love the meditative process of film photography: it's tactile, immersive, and for some, evocative. However, there are those among us who put this traditional practice on a pedestal, claiming that it is the only true form of photography. But as long you get the image that you want, does the process really matter?

The Importance of the Investment Menu for 'In-Person Sales'

If you are running a luxury photography studio but have not starting using in-person sales (IPS) you may be leaving money on the table. The investment menu is key to having a fluid sales session. But did you know the importance of where you place the collections on the menu?

Photographers, Not Everything is Relative

We live in a day and age where the phrase "Everything is relative" is the final word for many conversations and a basis for conclusions. This kind of mentality can lead to disastrous results.

5 Great Pieces of Photography Advice I Have Received

I have been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of some great advice over the years. In this article, I go over the five bits that have resonated the most with me and that I think of on every shoot.

Three New Ways to Sell Art and Landscape Prints

You can have unbelievable landscape photographs ,but it might be difficult to make money. You can have a stunning artistic shot, but if there isn't a celebrity or product in the photograph, it's difficult to make money. If you love to take pictures for purely personal enjoyment, this article won't add much to your life. This is for the people who want to make money from their work.