HOTPPG Shoot Out

Last night, I had the pleasure of being a guest at the Heart of Texas Professional Photographers Guild open shoot out.  The event was held at Airport Park.  The HOTPPG is a group of professionals in the area.  In this meeting, they allowed local photographers who were not so professional to tag along.  I had a great time.

They had a variety of models representing different types of photography, and, there were so many I did not get to photograph them all.  They had a family, a bride, a teen age girl, a ballerina, a “tween” girl, an infant and a bride and groom.  We each took 10 minute turns with the models.

I had a great time, but it was hectic.  Ten minutes does not give you much time to find a location, build a report with the model, and get some shots.  Additionally, the circumstances made it difficult, if not impossible to use any kind of lighting.  The even was in the evening.  So, there was a pretty good sunset, but it didn’t really play into the even that well.

Anyway, it was a great experience.  I will be posting images as I get them processed.  This is a group I would like to continue to be associated with.  However, I may not quite be in the same league, professionally, as they.

Prints at Sam’s

On a recent CreativeLive, the speaker said he has all his work done at Costco.  He said they do it right there and do it fast, and, for the most part, the work is no different than that done at a custom lab.  So, I decided to try Sam’s.  I uploaded twelve images.  I went to order the prints and immediately saw that I had a problem.  The selection of sizes was limited.  The only sizes that would allow me to have prints of the full image were 4 x 6 and 20 x 30.  There was a selection called “True Digital” but there was no indication of what that was.  So, I was stuck with 8×10 or 11×14 and having to crop the image.  Well, I ordered one of the “True Digital” prints just to see what it was and one 11×14 of each of the images.

I did not hear back from them notifying me the prints were done.  So, I asked in the store, and I was told it takes about an hour.  The “True Digital” print was something slightly smaller than a 4×6.  The 11×14 enlargements were all well done.  They were printed on a semi-gloss paper that was acceptable for the images.  I got to manipulate the cropping.  So, that was acceptable from the point of view that the images were cropped where I wanted them to be.  But, they were still cropped. A couple were somewhat darker than on screen.  There is, of course, no ability to calibrate.  So, that might be something that needs to be considered.

My next job is to locate appropriate matts for them.

Business Matters

Things have not gone altogether is envisioned.  I was kind of hoping that this year, I might start getting some actual paying clients, but so far it is not working.  Debbie and I had a little chat about things and decided there must be some way of getting the word out and marketing.  But, what that is eludes me.

I have visited a few internet sites and they provide a fair amount of information on the business aspects and getting those going.  I have completed a form to register the name and do business in the county.  I have gone on line and looked into insurance, but it seems like that is not really necessary unless I have clients.  So, that is kind of on the back burner.  Everyone says I need a business plan.  So, I will be giving that a lot of thought as I proceed.  But, there is very little in the way of advice on how to find clients.

It is July 4th, and I will be giving this topic a great deal of thought over the holiday.