Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Seeing as a Business

Thinking more about this "seeing" versus "recording" thing, I'm puzzling out what it might mean for a working photographer, someone working to put bread on the table.

As social media becomes (perceived as) more important, and as this notion of ephemeral, single-use, photos rises with it we see a curious thing. While the actual news media is firing photojournalists, we see corporate clients and individual clients increasingly wanting contemporary photos, in the sense of "relevant right now" photos, which look a bit like news. The senior wants pictures that show how cool and hot she is now. The semiconductor manufacturer wants pictures of the latest thing, and the cool new phones it's powering.

Let's imagine, oh let me just pull some crazy product out of the air, say, Crane Trucks. Let's say you had a client who built crane trucks and had you help them with their annual report. Not that they necessarily do facebook and twitter now, but if they did decide to, what would they want? They might want immediate, relevant in-this-moment photos of their crane trucks. They want their crane trucks fixing power lines after the storm, and they want them right now.

This feels like a retainer opportunity to me. For so and so dollars a month, I'm on call. You hear of your products being used in my area in a immediate, relevant-now kind of way (i.e. in a newsworthy way) call me, and I will roll out to wherever it is and shoot some professional looking stuff for you to use. You can post it to your twitter or whatever the hell, and heck, even license it to the news media. Because, it's news. Branded news. Of course, it also costs you when I get in the car. The retainer just gives you the right to call and ask me to go, and a reasonably certainty that I'll go, at my agreed-to-day rate.

Ditto the seniors. For a small monthly fee, you can stop by whenever you're having a great hair day, or whenever you've got some great new shoes. We'll do thirty minutes (at the usual session rate) and off you do to tumblr, right now.

It's about helping people see or, perhaps, be seen. It's not about recording, preserving, saving.

Also, Retainers are awesome. Monthly guaranteed cash flow, paid in advance? Sweet like honey.


  1. I like this. I have never done a formal retainer but I do have regular clients who let me know when they have new outfits or otherwise want timely social media photos. Were I still in business this would be most interesting. In fact, this might become part of my retirement plan if I can find a couple of likely clients.

    I never found time to reply to your earlier post, but your talk of ephemeral photos reminded me of my days as a newspaper photographer. The majority of my photos back then had a lifespan of one news cycle -- say from 6 in the morning when the paper hit the streets until about 9 or 10 that night when the readers went to bed. That's shorter than the life of my Facebook posts today -- most of them attract looks for about a day and a half, sometimes two days.

  2. Funny to think about in the context of my business. Last Thurs. we had a shooting assignment with belts and two models. We were shooting for online catalog and website use which has a shelf life of three months to a year. As soon as the 20-something models arrived the first question they asked was, "Can we take photos and video for social media?" The client was thrilled to say "yes." I was happy to have them shooting with their phones. They included me in a number of shots so I now have proof that I am still working and not just reviewing equipment (smile emoticon indicated here). The client got free "buzz" for the product and the talent got whatever it is people get from doing social media. I pulled out a video camera at one point and did a short film that we immediately uploaded to Vimeo, etc. I see our involvement in that kind of social media as icing on the cake for the client and a way to still seem relevant even though I am generally older than everyone else on the set. Not sure I want to be on anyone's retainer. Seems like a lifestyle leash to me...

  3. Kirk's post reminds me of the current "thing" with retail photographers -- family portrait, high school seniors, boudoir and the like. Either photographer or the client makes a cell phone photo of the screen on the photographer's camera showing a photo from the session, then posts to social media as a "sneak preview." Of course everyone involved tags everyone else, and everyone says nice things about everybody and talks about how much fun they are having. Then a few days later finish photos go up with another round of tags and praise. And maybe later on someone posts again with pictures of the framed prints on the wall, or a spread from the photo book.

    1. I think that certain kinds of retail photographers are finding that they have to embrace social in a pretty big way. The 16x24 canvas wraps of Little Susie All Growed Up are fading, and instagram (or whatever) is rising.

      Kirk knows his business better than I do, that's for sure, and he's right that a retainer is a leash. That's kind of the point ;) If you don't have to sell people the other end of a leach around your neck, then you definitely shouldn't!

      I'm just trying to think my way out in front of the present and see what sorts of things might be coming down the road, as usual.