Senior Portraits

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Originally uploaded by Dan Lovell Photography

Every year I try to bring in senior portraits, and this year I managed to take some family senior portraits. They came out great, but as always I cannot seem to find myself into the senior portrait market locally. Go figure.

We all have a need to continue finding ways to stand out, but how do you stand out when the majority of the market I am trying to target go for "Brand Names". It is very hard to compete with the competition when the competition barrages the market with images every where they shop. Go figure. How can I, mr little guy manage to compete with the large studios? Do I need a Large STUDIO??? larger than the competition? Or can I compete with my little portable studio where I meet my clients at their favorite place?

At this point, I have no clue how to compete, but I do know that I can take some great photos. Who knows, the season is not over yet.

FROM THE NEW WORLD

So it has been a long week here in the Burlington Area. I have been a teaching assistant for Burlington Glass Studio and I have been documenting the rehearsals of the dancers for the "From the New World" which premiered last night. This was an absolutely stunning performance by a great group of people. They were a lot of fun to work with, and provided me with ample opportunity to photograph them in some very beautiful compositions. You can see all the photos, most of them unedited, at dglphoto.smugmug.com. Here are a few of my favorites from the week.

My absolute favorite image is of the lone dancer against the blue image in the background. To me, this image is very stunning, and dramatic. It is very beautiful. The rest of the images are favorites, for exposure and an all around great image.

Ok, The fireworks show last weekend was also entertaining. I had played with my camera and tripod, and was very excited to see a few of my fireworks shots. Makes you think of that famous song... the one that goes something like, " Oh say can you see..."



Let's hear what you all think about these images. Please leave me a comment on them, and let me know what you think.

FlickR and its amazing marketing abilities...

Ok, so a few weeks ago I had gotten contacted by a representative from http://www.cleanfish.com/ to use an image I had posted to FlickR. Of all images that could have been used, it was of a good friend when we went fishing for cod and haddock, and was certainly not my best work. So, I hesitantly said yes to selling the image. I had offered a reshoot for the very reasonable price of $500 and could offer the images to them in a weeks time.

Well, they opted for the image at the right, and no reshoot for $150. Now, I have been asked about a photo with a haddock. So, I am delving into my image banks looking to see what I can find. Again, I offered the service over the images I might have on hand, but to no avail. It looks like from now on, if I am going to be using my camera, that I need to treat every photo opp as a professional shoot, because I will never know when someone wants to use my images...

Can you imagine, two images for $300, when they could have had an entire array of images for only $500. Go figure... Well, I am still open to reshooting, especially if they want to hire me to photograph salmon running in Alaska. Any takers out there? Send me to Alaska for a salmon adventure, I will guarantee some spectacular images, maybe even a grisly or two.

Go figure, and did I mention the fishing trip the photo is from was taken at my "bachelor party"...

Art Copy: Photographing Art

So recently, work has been slow, but over the last week or so, I have been able to find some income. Now, I have begun tutoring people with their cameras, and am now pushing Art Copy work as well. I enjoy working with individual artists, as they are most often unique and entertaining individuals. I find I learn from them invaluable ideas, not to mention more about their technique and the process they use to create their works.

I try hard to satisfy all clients regardless of the job, and will continue to adjust light until it fits their vision uniquely. Since all artists have a unique vision that helps create their art, why can't they have that vision extend to the photograph that represents their work on the web, in catalogs or magazines. I discovered the uniqueness of my shoot on location style of copy work last friday when shooting for the Burlington Community Glass Studio, and Terry, the owner had seen the work I had done from the beginning, but was not 100% satisfied, and I asked her what her vision was for the pieces, and she began to chat about how the light hits them when they are in the window.

Instantly, I realized why her vision and mine had not met, and quickly turned lights on, off, and readjusted their location. Next image, while previewed on camera, Terry says, "WOW!" and was completely happy about our new representation of her work. How else can you get work done and your client satisfied in a more timely manner than to shoot for them in their studio, where they can see your proofing instantly.

Anyway, here are a few of her pieces. Her work is beautiful.

Just a few thoughts.

So, business seems to roll in surges, and currently I am on a lull. I am at the point of seeking ways to add business, and would like to find anything reasonable. So, tomorrow I will try my hand at photographing then printing on location. A good friend of mine is going for this trial run with me, so we will use his booth location on Church St. in downtown Burlington.

Tomorrow was supposed to be a day of Corvettes in Stowe, but somehow it got canceled, and now I have a day to fill and hopefully earn something. We have thought up a few possibilities for making this work, and we now have a location and electricity. It is intriguing to see if this will work, or for that matter, if it is even worth my while.

For the future, I am planning to make a setup for inside my car to print and display images, and be able to setup at a popular location for tourists to offer professional portraits and landscapes of them while in VT. It is interesting, and seems that it could be rather lucrative. So, lets all cross our fingers and hoe that it does well tomorrow.

See you on Church Street!