Royalty Free Music Resources

Before you use any resource, always make sure you check the usage rights so that you understand the limitations of each agreement.

Triple Scoop Music - a fairly large collection of great music from around thet globe, including popular musicians and grammy winning artists.

Stock 20 - search by genre, latest upload, or even featured artists

Red Beard Music - a site for more popular music artists to offer their music for a limited annual license at a very reasonable price.

StockMusic.net - searchable database of royalty free music, available by individual download or as a discounted set

Pump Audio - from Getty Images comes great artists and music for purchase and download

Royalty Free Music - subscribe, download tracks, or buy a CD of royalty free music

ShowIT Music - David Jay is passionate about finding and offering cool music that is royalty-free for photographers and videographers to use professionally

Soundtrack Arcade - a growing archive of royalty free music for a variety of genres

Granite Audio Pro - dedicated to professionally composed royalty free music for photographers and videographers

Music Bakery - a one time subscription with unlimited downloads

TrueTone Productions - pay per song acoustic instrumental tracks

PD Info - royalty free music library arranged by genre and ideal uses

Pod Safe Music Network - one of the largest collections of creative commons liscense music and artists

Pod Safe Audio - unsigned artists share their music for download

How to Get Published in Magazines

To help me put together some advice on getting published, I turned to someone who has been published many times in more publications than I can keep track of: Joe Photo. Click play to see what he has to say!


Joe also has a great blog called "Cup of Joe", which he updates daily with inspirations and photos.

Amy Squires also gave me some great advice:
• Send the magazine editor a link to one of your best events to get them interested
• Make sure the event has great details and is fashionable
• Send a CD with a selection of images- but not too many
• Make sure the images are already corrected to your tastes
• Include a printed proof sheet of the images with reference numbers
• There's no money in submitting images to magazines

Granted, both of the photographers above are speaking of wedding publications, but there are some basic principals that can be applied to almost any publication. I've also learned a few things along the way from my mother who is a former editor, copywriter, and still acts as a publicist in her current position.
• Think about the type of person you want to attract and what publications that person would be most likely to buy and read
• Think like an editor and take a close look at the magazine you're interested in and the types of images that are being chosen by the editors for publication
• Submit current work and avoid anything older than 1 year
• Include contact information for the bride & groom as well as any other relevant details
• Include your business card and make sure your name and phone number are on the actual CD
• Make sure photos are 300 dpi, at least 5x7 resolution
• Choose the publication wisely and do not submit the same images to multiple publications
• It may take up to a year before your images are published
• Local magazines will have less competition for publication versus national magazines
• Photographers who advertise with the magazine are more likely to be published with that magazine
• Show them something they've never seen before
• Make it a habit to submit your work regularly

Now that you have lots of great information about what to submit for publication, the how should be pretty easy to find. Most magazines list their submission guidelines somewhere in their publication or on their website. In magazines, check near the table of contents or in the rear index. It's often in very small print with little more than an email address. If an email address is all you get- make sure that your first impression has plenty of positive impact and concisely requests any release forms neccessary. When you're looking on a website, look near the bottom of the page for a "contact us" link or an "advertise with us" link. Then look for submission guidelines.

Once your work has been accepted, make sure that you read release forms very carefully. You may not want to agree to all of the terms a publication puts in place. If you find something that you don't agree to, simply cross that part out when you send the release back. For example, consider the following:
• Will you be given credit by name for the work you're providing for free?
• How long will the publication have the rights to publish your images? (advice: make sure it's a year or less- especially in case of a divorce!)
• Are you giving the publication the rights to use your images in their own advertising?
• Are you positive that you will be maintaining the copyright and not transferring it?
• Are there any terms about exclusivity and not using the images elsewhere?

While submitting images from one entire wedding seems like the most logical thing to do, also consider creating a type of editorial out of images with a common theme. Perhaps there's a very inventive florist in your town who you would like to team up with and produce commercial images for, which you could then submit for publication. Think like an editor and create a compelling story with images that would appeal to both your ideal client and the publications they would read.

If you use the advice mentioned here and end up getting published, please leave a comment with a link to your published work so that we can celebrate your success!! Likewise, if you have any additional advice to add, please share it in the comments as well!! If you're a member of the following forum, you can also use the following link to view more throughts on this topic: DWF

Conducting Research

Just wanted to let you know that I haven't updated in a while because I've been doing a bit of research on a few different topics that people wanted to know more about! I'm in the middle of getting permission to use some material, which I hope to share with you soon! If there's something you're interested in reading more about - please leave a comment below so I can add it to my list of topics to research!

Note: I've updated several previous posts to reflect new resources and links!

The Psychology of Pricing

It seems like the question of how to price photography packages and services comes up over and over for many people - even people who have been established for quite a while, so it seems like something we should really have a conversation on. Here are some of my thoughts - I'd love to hear yours!!

1. Understand the buyer you want to attract (aka target market).

I can't tell you who your target market is because it's different for everyone (at least it should be), but I can give you some questions to help you think about how to price for your ideal buyer. Print these questions out and write down the answers. Yes, it's hard work and it's time consuming, but these are things you should think about in your business.

• How will your ideal buyer find you?
  
• Will anyone else have an influence over their decisions?
  
• Are they bargain shoppers who will analyze each item and price?
  
• Are they all-inclusive package people who want to pay for everything up front?
  
• Are they likely to negotiate?
  
• How much research will they do, and how will their research into other photographers affect their expectations of you?
  
• What level of service do they expect (do they just expect you to show up, take pictures, and hand over a disk... or do they expect you to help them plan their wedding and make decisions)?
  
• What does THEIR referral network look like and does that have an impact on the pricing they expect?
  
• How important (honestly) are your services to them? (it's very easy to fool ourselves on this one... make sure you do a reality check)
  
• What do their other purchases say about their values and how they make decisions?

2. What does your pricing say about you?

• A la carte pricing tells the buyer: Do-it-yourself, include what you need, you can add on later (or not), my profit is built into my shooting fee and the rest is bonus
  
• Package Pricing says: I'll help you decide, all-inclusive, pay up front, profits are built into the package as a whole.
  
• Lowest Price Says: This is the minimum I'll work for.
  
• Highest Price Says: If you wanted to get everything I think you should have, this is what it would cost. (This SHOULD be a dream number that most people don't actually pay. If your clients are booking your highest package- you need to raise the price on it.)
  
• Middle Price Says: Just right- not too much, not too little. If you have several middle packages, you will spend more time helping the client decide which on to choose.
  
• One Package Price: this is what I need to make it worth my time and this is what I think you need to walk away with, there's room for negotiation. (Be sure that you are comfortable with the negotiation process if this is your structure. Some people like it, some don't, and you need to make your pricing fit with your personal style of doing business.)
  
• Retainer Fee: will your ideal buyer be able to have the amount in their bank so that they can cut you a check at your meeting, or will they have to save for a while in order to simply secure your services? How much of a commitment/risk are you asking them to take on securing your services so far in advance?
  
• Payments: Can you take ANY form of payment to make it easy for the client to hire you? Do you allow flexible payments over time if the client is stretching their budget for you? Do you accept all of the money before the wedding day? Do you take part of the payment after the wedding day? Do you require any payment on the wedding day? What do those answers say about your level of service or the risk you expect your clients to take in trusting you?
  
• Market Comparison: Where are your prices in comparison with your competitors? Do your prices reflect the quality of work and service that you provide when compared to your competitors?

3. The REAL costs and the REAL profits.

• What are your COGS (cost of goods sold)? You NEED to know exactly what it costs for each product you offer before you can decide what the price needs to be. Generally, your costs should be no more than 33% of the price. Cost does not neccesaily include the time it takes to create the product.
  
• What are the service costs associated with providing each product (goods)? (if it is something you currently do on your own, what would it cost to outsource it if you were ever too swamped or injured to do it yourself?)
  
• Did you include tax, shipping, and packaging into your figures? Do you expect the client to pay those in addition?
  
• What are your costs outside of your goods? How much do you spend on education, professional organizations, advertising, marketing materials, accounting, legal fees, phone, internet, travel, promotions for clients, photo contests, studio space, equipment upgrades, emergency backup services, etc. Add up the annual costs for these items and divide them by the number of jobs you want to take in order to find out how much of each job goes to your overhead.
  
• How much money do you REALLY expect to make in reprints (after you've subtracted your COGS, shipping, packaging, and the cost of your time)? Could you sell a DVD of the images for that amount or more? Would the profit margin be higher? What would that say about you & your services?
  
• How much is your time worth? How much is time with your family or friends worth? Are there tasks in your business that you're taking care of which could be done by someone you could pay less in order to free up more of your own time to work on things that only you can work on?
  
• Are you REALLY the only one who can complete the project or task? Can you train someone else to do it if you had the time? If so, than you're really not the only one who can do it- and you have to consider how valuable your time really is if taking care of that task prevents you from doing other, more important things that only you can do- like making decisions about your business or building relationships with clients or vendors - or being a mom, dad, or friend to the people who love you.
  
• Write down the list of tasks in your business that make you happy (or in your life for that matter) . Then write down the list of tasks that bore you or frustrate you. Then think about how much it's worth for you not to take care of those boring or frustrating tasks and where you might find someone who is happy to do the tasks you don't like, who may even do them better because they are happy doing them.
  
• How much do you need to make in order to live the lifestyle you want? How much do you want to work in order to live the lifestyle you want? In other words, how does your overall cost of living get divided among the amount of work you want to take each year? How much net profit do you need from your gross income to take care of everything outside of your business?

I'm sure I've left out a lot of questions and things to think about - but hopefully this will be a good starting place. I'd love to hear your thoughts as well so that we can have a deep discussion about the issues at hand. Posted on OSP 3/14/07

Update: 11/8/08 Check out this great blog on the psychology behind why customers buy:
http://www.psychotactics.com/

Painting With Light

Check out this awesome SPM video on Painting with Light, by John Michael Cooper (AltF).



Here are the basics of the technique:

• A completely dark room
  
• Low ISO - 100 ISO
  
• Tight aperture - f13+
  
• Long exposure - 15-30 seconds
  
• A "snooted light" created by wrapping a dense and dark material around a lightsource to avoid light leak out the sides (like Sticky Black Craft Foam Sheets)
  
• A handheld light such as a video light or flashlight
  
• Tripod or table - whatever you need to make sure the camera doesn't move
  
• A subject that can stay still (doesn't work so well with pets)

Once you've mastered the basics, play with the light in different ways:

• Use different colored lights, or create a gel for your flash light by using wax paper and colored permanent markers
  
• Turn the light off, move the subject in a different location and turn the light back on, all within the same exposure for a double exposure effect
  
• Try using the light at different angles to create different effects and highlight different parts of the image
  
• Vary the intensity of the light in different places by being closer or farther from the subject with the lightsource
  
• Create spotlighting or selective lighting by turning the light off when moving from one part of the scene to another
  
• Create shadows and silhouettes on walls with objects off-camera
  
• Draw pictures with your light source
  
• Have fun with things like sparklers, glow sticks, and other light emitting goodies

Check out the cool things that Polite In Public has done with light painting!


View more inspiration on the Light Paint and Light Painting Flickr Groups!

Share your experiments on your blog and post your link in the comments section below to improve your Search Engine Optimization and to share your mad skillz with others!