Influencers and Mentors

Most photographers have people that have influenced their careers.  Randy and Jeri Masoner were a big influence in my photo career.

Many years ago I met Randy at McClue studios here in Kansas City.  Randy was the studio manager and let me hang out and watch his photographers shoot while I was still going to school.  Fast forward a few years and Randy opened his own studio where he hired me as a freelance photographer to come in from time to time to help photograph product when they didn't have enough staff photographers to finish a project on time.  At that time Jeri had her own interior design firm she ran out of the same building.  A few years later, Randy and Jeri shut down their KC studio and moved to Dallas.  Randy was hired by Omega studio's to be the studio manager and Jeri was the head set designer.  Omega studios was a 250,000 square foot studio with a huge staff. They shot room sets, product, and apparel for some of the largest big name retailers in the business.  Retailers like J.C. Penneys, Neiman Marcus, Dillards, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue were some of their clients.  A few years later Randy and Jeri opened their own 23,000 square foot Dallas studio, R&J Creative Images.

From the beginning I always felt like one of the family.  Randy was always so patient teaching me how to photograph and light. He also taught me to be an efficient shooter and manage time.  Jeri was like the studio mom.  Always caring and kind and would often cook a huge pot of food for all the employees for lunch.  My favorite was her gumbo!  Jeri would always make you feel special and appreciated and that's so rare in a work environment.

Before Randy left for Dallas he asked if I wanted to buy some of his equipment.  I explained I would love to but didn't have the money at the time.  Randy said no problem, just send me $100.00 a month until it's paid off.  He left me with the equipment and we shook hands on the deal.  Randy's trust in me and that equipment deal was one of the biggest aids to get me going in business.  Oh, by the way, I did pay it off and I'm still using that equipment today.

From time to time the Kansas City market would die and there would be no work for months.  I'd call Randy up and see if he would need any freelance help in Dallas.  Somehow every time I called he would find me work.  I'd go to Dallas and work for 2 to 3 weeks or until it got busy back in KC.  Being able to work in Dallas when the Kansas City market was slow was invaluable. This allowed me to keep my doors open and opened my eyes to different styles of lighting and big productions.   Any time I would have a question about photography or lighting, Randy was more than happy to stop what he was doing and help me solve the problem.

This week Randy and Jeri stopped by the studio on their way through town.
We were able to have lunch and catch up on old times.  If you don't have a mentor or someone you can trust to tell you the truth reach out and find one.  They are invaluable.  Thanks Randy and Jeri for all the help and encouragement over the years.  It was so good to have your influence in my life and career.

Backing Up Your Images

This is a short but important post. Part of a photographer's "behind the scenes job" is to back-up, archive and catalog every image he shoots for his clients.

This is a great article (and video) describing how one photographer handles backing up his work. This process may seem a bit excessive, but it's a good, safe approach. At our shop, we charge between $75 – $350 per job.

Remember, none of your equipment, software or time is free, so charge for it!

https://fstoppers.com/business/bulletproof-backup-strategies-digital-photographers-23906

It more than about beautiful photography

"Behind the Scenes" would be remiss if we only showed what goes on behind the scenes of a photo shoot. Advertising photography is a business and there are all kinds of things that go into making the business side work. This post is about some of the organizational aspects of the business of photography.

During the holiday season our studio slows down. Most clients have spent their budgets for the year, holiday activities abound, and many agencies take the week off between Christmas and New Year's. You would think it would give you time to relax and take a break. Wrong. It's your time to catch up on all the things you didn't get done during the year, put last year to bed and get ready for the next year. You might say, "like what?" Here's a small list of must-dos:

- Box up all last year's records

- Issue W-2's

- Meet with your accountant to go over taxes owed

- Make sure all the business insurance is up to date

- Make sure all your archived images are up to date

 - Organize files on the server and RAID

- Review estimates on jobs not awarded and reasons why

- Work on a new marketing plan and set goals

 - Toss or recycle out-dated promos

- Work on new promotional materials

- Review and update your portfolio

- Get rid of out-dated props 

- Do a general file and office clean

- Restock supplies

- Make a list of equipment that needs to be replaced

- Repair broken equipment

- Catch up on the latest software

- Catch up on the latest trends

- Catch up with friends and associates

- Catch up on your sleep

- etc., etc., etc.

These are just a few of the things we do on the business side. Not as fun or exciting as the creative side of the business, but just as important. 

Job files we store in our studio vault.

Job and Recept files should be stored for 7 years for the IRS.

Self-promotion mailers all neatly organized for quick access.

RAID image archive hard drives in the studio vault. 

Our 5 bay RAID to archive new jobs and access old archived projects.

What REALLY happens behind the scenes!

In past post I’ve been able to show some awesome thing we get to do at our studio.  What doesn’t get discussed much is all the “not as much fun things” that really makes a studio run.  This is not a “complain session” post, but some of the realities of running a photography studio that many starry-eyed young photographer or clients don’t see.  All they know, and all we want them to see, is we have a fun, clean, organized place to shoot photos and video and everything work’s perfectly. 

Last week, an average week:

1.     It rained and my intern noticed the, 4-year-old roof, had developed a leak.  Had to quickly get some plastic and cover a bunch of boxes so they wouldn’t get wet.  After the rain stopped I went up on the roof and noticed that when the workers had removed a tall brick chimney, one of the bricks fell and put a hole in the roof.  Will have to call the roofer and get it repaired.

2.     It seems like one of our two 12.5 ton air conditioner units was starting to squeal when it turned on.  Called the AC repairman to come change the belt.  I noticed that the pulleys weren’t aligned causing the belt to wear out fast.  More time and money.

3.    I noticed that weeds were beginning to grow in the cracks of the parking lot.  Mix up the weed killer and sprayed.

4.     Noticed that there are some sharp edges on the tile we put in our new restrooms.  I brought in a hand held grinder from home and ground the corners smooth.  This is important so someone won’t get cut and we get sue.

5.    Went through the 150 emails I got in over the weekend.

6.     A client rented the studio for a video shoot.  Need to mop all the floors, empty the trash, and clean all the bathrooms.  Oh, I forgot need to clean all the glasses and coffee cups that were used.

7.     After a wonderful 3 day photo shoot then we worked another 57 hours on retouching, making clipping paths, making zip files and uploading them to the clients server.

8.    Put together all the bills and time sheets too bill photo project.  Invoice client.

9.     Scouted location for upcoming photo shoot.

10  Attend 8 hour conference on photo marketing.

11  Answer more emails

12  Call client to make sure they got all the files and were happy.  They were thrilled!

13  Package up client’s product and ship back to client.

14  Called food stylist to schedule some test shots.

15  Assemble and addressed more direct mail promos

16  Opps, ran out of ink in the printer.  Go to the store and get more ink.

17  Checked my Google Analytics report to see how my sites are performing.

18  Back-up and archive Clients photo files

19  Install new hard drive on server.

20  Meet with Accountant to go over quarterly numbers.

21  Open and sort mail

22  Send email with photos to new Art Director I met.

23  Pre-Production meeting with client about upcoming shoot

24  Phone conference with interactive development company to find a way to upload images to our website easier.

25  Faxed insurance papers to our loan company.

These are just 25 of the things I could remember.  Behind the scene at most advertising photography studios, the mix is 80% business and 20% photography.