A quick note for the weekend

Rich and I are heading to NYC for the weekend, but I wanna leave you with this, from Don Gianatti.


"If you aren't making calls today... someone else is.
If you aren't working on your portfolio today... someone else is.
If you aren't showing your book today... someone else is.
If you aren't adding to your web site today... someone else is.
If you aren't marketing today... someone else is."

Read rest of entry

Farmboy Fine Arts Featured Artists

What can I say, it's been a pretty good week over here at douglaslevy photography. As Kate says, when it rains it pours.

So I just opened up my e-mail to see my monthly copy of Farmboy Fine Arts' newsletter - and I'm one of their features artists! Click here to download the PDF. I think all the images pretty much rock, but for you mom, (because we both know you'll do this), you can skip to my images on pages 31, 35 and 52.

I've been working with Farmboy for a little over a month now - they're a Vancouver based company that sells art to hotel chains worldwide - so don't be shocked if you roll into a hotel one night and see one of my images staring back at you. OK, don't be shocked, call me. Really, I don't care what time it is, call me. Thanks.

In other news, if you're looking for a little Friday inspiration, take a few minutes to hop over to Vincent LaForet's blog and listen to this audio presentation by Platon from the recent Eddie Adams Workshop

-Doug Levy - Boston Hotel Fine Art Photographer -

Read rest of entry

New Site!

Check it out! After 3 days and late nights (and some help from my neighbor's high speed internet), I'm VERY excited to announce a new development in the world of douglaslevy photography.

While the web address will stay the same - www.douglaslevyphotography.com - the site is now being hosted by a new company, Photoshelter. While there may be some small bugs yet to work out, I'd love for you all to take a look (and please, please e-mail me if you have any trouble with anything on the site).

I'll spare you all a lot of the details of why I decided to move my site and cut to the good new stuff:

• Bigger images - because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about, the images.
• Built in ordering - every image has a "add to cart" link - with integrated credit card processing via PayPal.
  
• New products -in addition to the fine art prints I've been offering for more than a year, I'm excited that I am now offering gallery wrapped canvas prints, greeting cards, mugs and calendars.
  
• Canvas Prints are one of the things I'm most excited about. They can be printed in any size and they come ready to hang (no frame needed).
  
• Digital downloads - in addition to all my new print products, I'm also offering low-resolution downloads of my images (for only $4.99!) so you can make them your background on your computer or as part of a screensaver.

Read rest of entry

My New aStore

Just a quick post in between wedding edits (check back soon, I've got lots in the pipeline), to announce I started my own aStore at Amazon. So if you want to know what my favorite photo books are, what lenses I use, or are just a gear junkie like me, click on over and take a look.

I'll try and keep the store updated as I buy new stuff (so expect frequent updates, I've got an itchy PayPal finger), and I've added a permalink on my links section. (Look to the right, it's with all the other cool links, like my Facebook link).

Read rest of entry

Quote of the year

What I think is interesting in this debate is that a lot of this problem is usually blamed on hobbyist photographers who are in it more for the experience or "art" and less for the money. But that's really only the case in a model such as Flickr and some publications beginning to use the free work there under creative commons licenses. With the ad world I think the problem is actually the pros who really just feel uncomfortable with the price tags that they might be delivering to clients. I remember the first time I wrote down a 5-figure number on an estimate... I was almost embarrassed as if the client would see right through me.

A company like Mercedes, though, is able to charge what they do because they've spent umpteen millions on branding their product to have the cache of premium quality. Maybe if more photographers spent a lot more on advertising, they would feel more confident with their higher (and reasonable) prices.

-John Loomis

Read rest of entry

Odds & Ends.

I know, it's been a while since I've blogged. I've been busy! I thought I'd just check in real quick.

Anyway, a few quick links first.

• I did sign up for this - a small business tax seminar (free!) put on by the Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue. Probably a bit dry, but, you know, necessary.
  
• I also picked up this new toy. I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but I'm very excited. I sold my Tokina 12-24 (it just wasn't sharp enough for me, and the new lens is a full stop faster (that means it lets in twice as much light at it's widest aperture).
• I did update my Flickr favorites this week though, so click there for some inspiration.

I wish I had more, but that's it for now. Tomorrow's the last game of the season, then I'm working the first round of the playoffs before wrapping it up for the year.

Oh, and lastly, I wish all my clients (and perspective clients) would read this - and photographers this.

Read rest of entry

An Exciting New Partnership

I'm excited to announce that I've formed a new partnership here at douglaslevy photography. All new clients of uber-photographers (and new friends of the blog) James & Kate over at The Feds Studio will receive a unique discount on my fine art prints.

I got to thinking about this the other day, and it just makes sense. Get married, move into new house with new spouse, need new art to decorate said house. I'd be glad to extend this offer to any other wedding studios that may be interested, but only for a limited time. Drop me a blog comment if you're interested and I'll get in touch with you.

Read rest of entry

A night with some PUGs

I just got home from a fun night with the Boston Pictage User Group. In addition to hanging out with the always cool Tony and James (and getting to put names with faces with both of their lovely wives), I got to meet Matt and Enna (thanks so much for hosting us all) as well as newly-minted Bostonian Shyla.

I had a great time and picked up a few cool business ideas from the special guest speakers and Connecticut-based photographers Justin and Mary.

In other news, (you know, my "real" job), I found out this afternoon I'll be heading down to spring training on 3/12 with the Reds in Sarasota. It should be a good time and will get me out of this snow! Anyway, I'm totally exhausted so I'm off to bed.

Oh, and because I don't like blogging sans-photos, the image above is an old from spring training at Cocoa Expo in 2004.

Read rest of entry

More on business and value

Yesterday evening I received the following e-mail:

"Hi Doug,

I work for XXXXX Magazine. We're running a profile on XXXXXX in our March/April issue. I am designing a small facebook ad to promote the article and I'm looking for a free image of XXXXX sport - XXX athlete. I found your image of him on flickr and I wanted to know if I can have your permission to use it. I understand that you're a professional photographer and I won't be able to credit the photo in the ad - so I wanted to check with you first. The ad will only run on-line for two weeks and the image will be about 200 x 200 pixels. Please let me know.

Many thanks,

XXXXXXX"

I wrote back:

"As I'm sure you understand, except in special circumstances I am unable to make my images available for publication sans credit or compensation. However, if you wish to license the image for use, for the size you specified, the price would be $250 if it was to run online only for two weeks. I know you said you were looking for a free image, and if that remains the case, I certainly understand, but will have to pass on this opportunity. Thanks so much.

-Doug"


I just received this response:

"Hi Doug,

I totally understand. Thank you for getting back to me.

Best,

XXXXXX"


I'm pretty frustrated about this, as I posted previously, I'm not in the business of giving things away. Such is life in the digital age I guess, I made the client a more than fair offer, but apparently they were looking for someone who would have been all, "You mean I can get PUBLISHED?!!" Well, you came to the wrong photographer. Then again, at least they asked, and it never hurts to ask, that is after all how I get some dates...

For more on this and other similar topics, I refer you to the Photo Business Forum blog.

Read rest of entry

I decided to go with these

So...after some hard proofing I decided to go with these. The white just pops more on the sky, and the text was illegible on my test prints on the chair, and the card is two-sided (duh). I think I like these better, and the text is larger on both.

The top is the front, the bottom the back where the mailing label will go.

Read rest of entry

Promo Card, Draft 1

This post from A Photo Editor got me thinking about how I'm going to promote myself in 2008. The above is my first draft/shot at something that will hopefully become some kind of direct mail campaign. Thoughts?

Read rest of entry

A Quick Thanks, and some Links

These late night Patriots games are killing me. It's like those baseball playoff games that all start at 9 p.m. Maybe I'm getting old, I dunno, but I can't hang with MNF games that go until midnight then be productive in the morning. I think I need a TiVo.

My new site just passed 1,000 total unique visitors since going live in September, so I wanted to thank you all for visiting and your support. Also, I wanted to throw some speedlinks out there, including my favorite Google Analytics. GA is how I know that I've had 2 visitors from China to my site and that the average, "bounce rate" (those who navigate away after looking at only the first page) is just more than 25%.

Other news/link:

• I finally have an album company to call my own. I'm pleased to announce I'll be offering KISS Wedding Books to all my 2008 clients. I love KISS's business model - fast and simple. Kinda a cool model for life if you think about it. Throw away all the extras you don't need and stick to simple excellence.
  
• David Tejada, the "Annual Report Photographer", blogs about his assistant finding his driver's license in his shoe.
• The Ravens, so it seems, are a little upset about the officiating from last night's game, going as far to say that the fix is in. Now, I watched the game, I know almost nothing about football officiating (maybe Marky Mark Evans can weigh in on this?) but as someone who officiates professionally myself let me tell you this, the refs don't care who wins. Flat out, period, end of conversation. There's no such thing as makeup calls either, while I'm at it. Think about it, if I miss one, do I really want to miss another on purpose to, "even up" things? I don't sleep sometimes when I miss 'em, I'm not missing 'em on purpose.
• And finally, Bo still knows best.
  

Read rest of entry

On Digital Negatives & Wow That Looks Nice, How Much Is It?

It used to be, back in the day (apparently), that wedding photographers would never ever never sell their 35mm negatives. If you wanted prints you had to buy them from the photographer, plain and simple.

This had two effects - it increased/guarenteed revenue for the photographer, and, perhaps more importantly, assured quality control over the printing process. The photographer used their printer, and knew predictably what the results would be.

In the digital age, Web 2.0 as it may be, people want/expect things faster, they want them yesterday.

I have not had ONE conversation with a client or potential client this year who has not at a minimum inquired about the availability of a disc of their digital negatives.

Let me share an e-mail from one such client when I asked her why she wanted the disk (to make her own prints for $.39 at Wal-Mart) and explained the quailty issue, she responded:

• "When we were looking at photographers I will flat out tell you that if a CD was not going to be handed over to us with all of the pictures and with rights...I didn't even look into them...My grandmother, family and friends just want pictures to have. Most of them aren't going to put them in a frame. You understand what I'm saying?A bride wants the best pictures (ordering through the photographer) but my friends and family they just want a pictures that look good (ordering from a place like kodak that doesn't cost a lot)... Money is always an issue. "Wow that looks soo nice...how much is it."
  
  

I should add that I shot this couple's e-session but will not be shooting their weddings due to my umpiring schedule.

In response to her (valid) questions, I told her that basically that my files are color accurate and corrected, and I can't vouch for the quality from (insert retail printer here). Basically, she didn't care. I care. Poor prints has the potential to severely impact my business. Prints are my largest form of advertising, and that's even more important when it's my name on the door.

At the crux of this issue is, clients don't care, and as photographers, this challenge is not going to go away. We need to find a way to deal with it - it's a liquid, evolving issue, and instead of dragging our feet on it, I challenge other photographers to find ways to work around this issue and to continue to satisfy our clients and provide a high level of service.

What am I doing about this? Currently I'm making discs available to clients that come with images sized both for e-mail and print, with explicit instructions on how to get the best prints. Their cost is comparable to what I expect to receive in print income, and I'm hoping that by pricing the discs as such I can somewhat dissuede that option.

Read rest of entry

Of Love & Discounts

I think that at any time in business, but especially with new businesses, there's a temptation to giving into our friends when they ask for discounts/freebies. This is a mistake I have made, and I'm just as guilty as everyone of this, to this point. We love our friends, we want to keep our friends and make them happy. BUT. And here's the kicker - love will not pay for my new 17-55 2.8, or, metaphorically speaking, feed the kids.

Also, I should say right off that no one, not even family, gets freebies from me on photos (unless they're a gift, but that's different), but even family pays my costs. My list of those who will continue to get items at cost is itsy bitsy, and if you don't already know who you are, no, I will not add you to the list.

Why am I blogging about this? Because this is not a conversation I wish to have with every friend who thinks, "I love your work," means, "Your prints should cost me the same as they would on Snapfish." Because, well, I don't print with snapfish, I print with a high-quality professional print-house and especially in the print market I've found, you get what you pay for. Now, I do offer discounts from time to time, and those are available to everyone, but discounts do not equal free/at cost.

For more on this, check out a recent discussion thread on Flickr.

And for those of you who asked/wanted to know about my blind date last night? (First in two years (blind, not date that is)). Well, you'll just have to ask me later, because I'm just not going to blog about that kind of stuff.

Read rest of entry

Cyber Monday

I had never heard of it either, but apparently, or so according to Wiki, we just passed Cyber Monday. I guess you can chalk that up to, "you learn something new everyday."

Also, here's a quick but interesting link - 27 ways to increase your Web site traffic.

Read rest of entry

Some exciting new developments

I'm pleased to announce that I'm now offering matting and framing for my photos - just in time for the holidays. To start off I'm going to keep it simple and limit it to black, brown or silver frames with white matting - I may get more fancy in the future, but for now I think simple is the way to go. Anyway, the photos will be mounted on 100% acid free archival mounting board, framed behind non-glare acrylic.

What does that mean? That means my photos will last and last and last, and you'll be able to see them because your ugly green fluorescent lights won't reflect off my pretty photos. Click here for some more info, but pricing will vary dependent on print size.

I'm wicked excited though, maybe it's just because I love new things...like my Nikon 17-55 2.8 that I just picked up yesterday. I'm starting to do more events, and my wide angle (12-24) super awesome landscape lens just wasn't going to get it done, nor was my telephoto (70-200) tack sharp vibration reduced kickass sports lens. Sooooo, now I have pro-level glass from 10.5 to 200mm. This new lens replaces that old 18-70 lens that broke a month ago on me in Rochester when the zoom ring got stuck. It's a perfectly workable 18-21mm lens at the moment though, sometimes even 18-24 if you ask it real nice...

I did give some thought to waiting for the new 24-70 2.8 that's due out in mid-December because it's not a DX lens (DX lenses will only work on the smaller sensor Nikon cameras, basically, any Nikon digital SLR except for the brand new D3, which will retail at around $5k).

There was some consideration that Nikon may at some point release a full-frame (FX is what they call it) camera in the $2k range, much like Canon's 5D in which case I'd have only two lenses that would work with it, the 70-200 and my 50mm 1.8, I figured though, lenses retain their value, and better to make kickass images today with my D200 and than wait around for the 24-70 to become available (which, given Nikon's history, could be July).

The good news is I'm done buying lenses for the forseeable future, the bad news is, my bank account just started lobbing grenades at me...

Read rest of entry

Jon & Vanessa

Friday I shot Jon & Vanessa in Cleveland Circle. We had so much fun - 901 photos of fun! They were game for everything, despite the cold (why couldn't we have had Thursdays heat?) Anyway, here's a link to the gallery of all the images, and I've included a few of my favorites here. Their wedding is next summer, while I'm off umpiring, so I won't get to shoot it, but I'm sure they'll look great.

If you're interested in a session similar to what we did on Friday, here's some more info with a special holiday discount!

For $500:
-3 hours of unlimited shots, anywhere within 50 miles of Sharon.
-10 4x6s, 5 8x10s
-90 day online gallery
-Animoto slideshow set to music
-CD with low-res images for e-mail only

Extra options:
-$150 - CD with high and low res images, for unlimited prints and e-mail
-More 8x10s - $20 ea., 4x6 $8 each
-Extra hours available at $100/hr
-20% discount on any session scheduled before 12/31/07

Read rest of entry

Odds & Ends & NYC

A few things off the top today.

• I just joined the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. They'll hook me up with all kinds of sweet discounts (like at the Apple store and B&H Photo).
• Can you believe this? It seems Sony is using a photo from the 1960s to advertise for it's new A700 SLR.
  

I just got done processing some images from my weekend in NYC - I shot more than 1,000 photos in two and a half days. Thanks to Rich for putting up with me while I went a bit overboard with my new fisheye. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites. You can see more cityscapes, including some shots from NYC last year, at my site here.

Read rest of entry

The Boss is for old people

As my friend Rich might say, but I still love him. And according to U.S. News & World Report, CEOs can learn from Springsteen too.

Read rest of entry

Two Quick Links

From A Photo Editor, and Editorial Photo.com, we get advice for new photographers, from photographers. Click here and here for the stories.

For me, I would think that the most valuable bits are in the Photo Editor's post, especially the following,

"8. Eliminate excess Drama from your life.

9. Live beneath your means. Keep things simple.

20. Travel out of the country as much as possible. Learn how other people live. Learn that America is not the center of the universe, and learn that you don’t need your cell phone 24 hours a day. Again, be a sponge, about how other people live."

Read rest of entry