Articles from Nick Fancher

If you are like me, the acronym SEO brings a shudder to your bones. If you are a photographer with a website, you have no doubt received countless emails from sites offering to optimize your site for a fee. In this post, I will tell you the things I did for free or next to nothing that helped push my photography website to page one of organic Google searches. The one thing that I already had working to my advantage is that my website is a non-flash site that was launched almost seven years ago.

Every so often I stumble upon a photographer whose work transports me to a different headspace. It doesn't happen very often, so when it does, I delve in.   The photography of Eric Rose does just that.

In my opinion, nothing is sexier than a glossy black surface. And you don't even need a black backdrop sweep to achieve it.

During my time as the lifestyle photographer for JackThreads, I shot many different products in many different ways. Since I was shooting an average of 10 brands per day, I had to work quickly and in a tiny space. Through working in this condition, I developed some cheap and easy lighting scenarios.

This past Monday I wrote a piece titled "Six Things Every Beginning Photographer Should Know". One of the points I made was the importance of sometimes shooting for free. Here are just a few excerpts of reader responses: "Shoot for free? Really lol?" "Shooting for free is what's wrong with the photography business." "Go ahead shoot for free. You set your price point and show how much you value your work that way."

So I thought it would be worthwhile to explain what I meant.

About once a week I get an email from a student or aspiring photographer that wants advice on how they can break into a career of being a professional photographer. I found that I was writing the same response every time. So for the sake of time just as much as my desire to share what I have learned, here is my list of six things that I think every beginning photographer should be doing.

I am a photographer. I love to shoot. I live to shoot. But I am not a gearhead. I'll use anything available to me. From film to toy cameras to digital cameras, I've shot on it all. But today, with a case full of professional photo gear, I still use whatever tool I have available to me to take pictures. This includes my phone.