Whittle your photography down to a recognizable style!

The narrower your focus, the broader your appeal. You need to be a specialist, not a jack of all trades. Decide what you do best and do it the absolute best you can and build your name (brand) in that area. If possible, be the first in your community to launch any new style, product and/or idea. When you are the first, you own that “real estate” in your client’s mind. No matter who copies or follows you, they will not be perceived as the original author which translates to “not as good!” A copy is never as good as an original.

When you are all things to all people, you become a “guppy” in the photography aquarium. Be the bright, yellow, odd-shaped fish so that people will notice you. They may not like you, but they will notice you and that is the key! It is more important that people know what you do than like what you do, and the people who like what you do will pay what you ask for it! And guess what? The people who don’t like what you do won’t bother you at all! That is a win-win situation!

Once you are established and well branded in your style and feel the need to expand, do so VERY carefully. After 15 years of doing Black and White Relationship portraiture in our area, we were super established, but felt the need to offer more color work and something a little more “journalistic” and interactive to catch the eye of the younger moms we were seeing, so we started Studio B. It is the associate-run division of our studio offering a completely different look so that it doesn’t compete with Walden’s at all. We even divided our studio space into Walden’s and Studio B and we have separate entrances into the building. Studio B galleries are in one area and Walden’s galleries in another. When you do this type of thing (expanding), keep everything as clean and simple as you can for the client so they are not confused. Everything is kept separate including product lines, pricing structures, the photographer, etc. This has been very successful for us and has allowed us to expand in an intelligent way rather than trying to be all things to all people without a plan. I have put the Studio B logo plus a few of the Studio B images from this year below for you to see. If you want to see how they compare to Walden’s or to see more Studio B work, you can visit our website at www.waldensphotography.com.

So, as we go into 2010, evaluate your photographic work and if you haven’t narrowed down what you do, start now. You need to go into this next year strong, with purpose, new vision and clarity. Figure out who you are photographically and go for it!

Happy New Year! Be Blessed!  Bev

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