Respecting Images of Our Clients

The debate over offering unwatermarked images to bloggers has continued in many different places online. Some are furious that bloggers are making money off of unwatermarked work, while others could care less about where their work ends up and how much credit they receive for it. Regardless of where you stand as a blogger or as a photographer, this post is for the consideration of the clients who hired you, for the guests who attended the private event, and for the other hired creatives that produced original work at that private event.

Since moving to the Northeast, I've had many more clients seeking a higher level of privacy with their wedding images. By watermarking my images (putting my logo or copyright statement directly on the image itself) and refusing to provide unwatermarked work to bloggers for content use, I reduce the chance that someone is going to take that photo and use it elsewhere online without permission, while also increasing the chance that brand management tools will be able to find it for me on the web so that I can resolve any improper or unapproved image use. Notice I did not say PREVENT, just reduce. Obviously, ignorant people and those who mean to do harm will do whatever they want and when we find them we will kick their ass ask them to cease and desist. I usually have to send at least two emails each year to some company whose website designer grabbed my work, cropped my logo out, and plastered it on their commercial site without my permission. Because my watermark was there- the web designer KNOWINGLY did something wrong. If the image has no mark, it's easier to assume it's free content that can easily be used to populate someone else's website.

So, even if you do not care about receiving credit for your own work- at least consider respecting your clients' likeness and the likeness of the original work created by the other event professionals, which can be grabbed easily and used elsewhere without permission when there are no deterrents in place, such as a watermark.

See also:
Why You Need to Watermark Your Work

Anne Ruthmann is a lifestyle & wedding photographer from Boston, MA. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography as an independent small business. She loves helping others find creative and low-cost solutions to business problems. Follow her on Twitter to see her daily adventures and thoughts.

WPPI 2011 Parties

You know as much as you want to say that you are there for LEARNING we all know that the parties are just as much of a draw as the classes. I always have all the parties saved to my calendar and my friends know who to ask when to comes to wanting to mingle after hours. I thought I'd share that list with you and if there is anything you'd like to add, please let me know in the comments so I can keep this list updated!

Sunday 2/20

2:00PM - 5:00PM WPPI Launch Pad

5:30PM - ? Photo Lovecat Happy Hour

7:00PM - 9:00PM Sony Fashion Show

9:00PM - ? DWF Get Together - comment on the forum to be on the list.

10:00PM - 11:00PM [b] School Party - find the registration info in the forum.

Monday 2/21

7:00PM - 10:00PM Madera Mad Men Party, $10

7:00PM - 4:00AM SmugMug/BayPhoto Slumber Party - Follow @smugmugpro and @bayphoto on Twitter for details

8:00PM - 10:00PM Canon Mardi Gras Party, Grand Garden Arena

10:00PM - 3:00AM Airplanes and Blazers Party, $30

Tuesday 2/22

8:30PM - 11:30PM Pictage/ShootQ Party - emailed registration, must be either a member or guest of a member

Wednesday 2/23

6:00PM - 9:30PM WPPI Awards Night

Tips & Tricks for WPPI Tradeshow

In the past couple of weeks I've seen a few posts on forums from newcomers to WPPI fretting about the tradeshow and curious about the best ways to go about tackling it. Anne has already posted a pretty great guide but I thought I would expand upon it just a smidge for you to hopefully demystify the tradeshow a bit and calm some nerves!

• Hit up the WPPI Tradeshow link on their website and print off the map. Trust me, this will come in handy!

• Confession: I'm a total geek so I also take the map and attack it with a highlighter. Everyone has their own priorities for their own tradeshow experience. If you are looking for albums, highlight all of the album companies in one color. If you are looking to buy some loot, highlight all of the booths that are selling loot in another color etc. I know it sounds silly but it helps me remember who was important to see and get my bearings once inside.

• Here's my usual plan of attack: visit one - see the sights and get the lay of the land, find good free loot (sorry, I'm a total sucker for anything that blinks) and get a price list from the sellers that are selling goods (Sammy's, Midwest Photo Exchange etc). Visit two - hit up the vendors that I really want to see (typically album companies and print suppliers). Visit three and more - wander aimlessly. Get what you WANT done first, then browse. If you browse first you may not make it everywhere you wanted to go :)

• Wear comfortable shoes and clothes.

• Water, water, water!!!!! If you aren't acclimated to the desert you are going to be dry anyways but the tradeshows are generally HOT so make sure to stay hydrated!

• I know I keep banging on about the hydration thing but trust me, desert climate (which most of us are not acclimated to) + the tradeshow heat makes you crazy parched. So make sure to also bring along chapstick and lotion, you will thank me for it later!

• If you are buying a bulkier item (camera bags, light stands etc), hold off on buying until the last day if it isn't a MUST HAVE. Often the booths that are selling will do deals the last day of the show so they don't have to ship the item back and the bulkier and harder to ship back the greater the chance of scoring a great deal (I did this last year!).

• Keep an eye out for cheap memory cards. There are generally great deals on them!

• Don't be afraid to compare prices between vendors there and vendors online! Sometimes it may SEEM like a deal but isn't.

• The cheapo batteries are cheap for a reason. Don't go bonkers ordering the cheap $10 batteries for your camera thinking you hit the mother load. I did that my first year, whoops. Turns out they are good for backups to the name brands and not much else as they last in my camera for maybe 30 minutes to an hour. Buy one or two for emergencies but don't order much more than that!

• If there is a neat freebie you want to make sure you get, hit that booth the first day - the really neat stuff tends to be gone quickly. My annual favorite is the tote from my beloved Shootsac booth. Also don't be afraid to ask someone where they got an item that catches your eye.

• Some of the retail sellers (Sammy's, Midwest Photo Exchange) have things in stock on site. Other of the retail sellers (B&H, Adorama) either have a limited supply or all of the stock is off site and will be mailed to you. If taking the gear home is important to you, make sure you know when you start shopping which ones have supplies on hand!

• If you ARE planning to bring things home, don't forget to make sure you have a way to GET it home :)

• If you are using an iPhone on the AT&T network, you may loose 3G signal inside the tradeshow area (last year this was a huge issue). Turn off your 3G to continue to get text messages and stay in touch with the real world.

• Many of the tradeshow booths will have speakers during the day. Sometimes the presentation is all about how awesome their product is but often they go beyond just the product and do more of a general presentation. The week or so before WPPI the vendors will start releasing timelines for their speakers during the week - it's a great chance to learn from someone up and coming or hear from a speaker you missed. Some of the areas fill up quickly so if someone is important to you make sure you nab a seat early on.

• One of the things that I actually reference to quite often that I pick up yearly at the tradeshow is paper samples from my photo lab. I know it's a weird thing but I really have found that it's crazy helpful when ordering products and press items because I don't always have something in every paper type. I highly highly highly recommend doing this.

• You will get a LOT of information and much of it is just too much to process but it is hard to sometimes slim down the options of what stays vs. what goes for sake of space and weight in luggage. Bring a self addressed pre stamped flat rate envelope or box and toss in all of your info from the tradeshow! No more worries about the weight! Ta-da!

• My biggest tip? DO NOT TRY TO DO IT ALL AT ONCE! You will miss something, get overwhelmed and regret it.

• Finally if you are feeling overwhelmed and crazy always feel free to say hi to me or any of the lovecats!! I can't speak for everyone but if you want to tag along with me at any time when I'm bopping around the tradeshow you are more than welcome, just say hi! I promise I don't bite :)

Corey Ann is a wedding & lifestyle photographer from North Canton, OH. She is a mix of everything - fashionista (runs Clothes for Pros, clothing suggestions for photographers), travel guru, deal hound and geek rolled into one. She's had a website online since 1997 and a blog since 1999. When not plotting world domination or her next trip, she can be found reading one of the 100+ books she reads a year. Follow her on Twitter.

How Much Do You NEED To Make?

This is usually one of the first questions I ask people before I start consulting with them on their pricing. Some people don't even know what they need to make before I ask that question, so it's the essential first step to determining what your goals and prices should be. Most newer freelancers just pick a price based on what they think other successful people are doing- but that's the kiss of death. You have no idea how successful those people really are, how much they're working for that price, who is actually buying that price, what kind of expenses they do or don't have, and what other sources of income they might have in order to support their price. This is why the most important question to answer for yourself is: How much do YOU need to make?

What would your annual gross salary be if you worked for someone else? $30,000? $60,0000? $120,000? $250,000? What salary amount do you need to maintain the quality of life you have right now? Just for fun, what salary would you need if you're going to live your dream life?

Once you know what you need your salary to be, you can double it to find the amount of revenue your business needs to make in a year (this is the super simple method for sole-proprieters and for the sake of keeping this easy). If you were working for someone else, everything you make can be taken home and contributed to your household income. If you're running a freelance business, it's good to aim for taking home 50% of your business revenue so that the other 50% can be reinvested, cover overhead, COGS, expenses, upgrades, emergencies, and benefits (note: income taxes may be deducted from your salary and from the business depending on how you account for it.) If you have employees or if you outsource part of your service, you may take home less than half of your revenue, which simply means you need to earn more in revenue in order to take home what you need.

If you'd like to go one step further to help you budget: consider how many weeks you'd like to work each year- so that you can make sure you're leaving time in your schedule for vacations. Do you want to work 50 weeks with 2 weeks off? 48 weeks with 4 weeks off? 26 weeks because you're only part time? Once you know how many weeks you want to work, we can find out what your business needs to make each week.

Now let's do the math... oooohhh.... calculators.... ahhh....
[Annual Salary Needed] x 2 = [Annual Revenue Goal]
[Annual Revenue Goal] / [Working Weeks per year] = [Weekly Revenue Goal]

Example:
$60,000 salary x 2 = $120,000 annual revenue goal
$120,000 / 48 weeks = $2500 weekly revenue goal

Want to go further and find out what your hourly rate should be?
[Weekly Revenue Goal] / [Weekly Working Hours] = [Hourly rate]
$2500 / 40 hours per week = $62.50 per hour

What can you do with that number?
Determine if the hours and costs you're investing into a product or service are being covered by the price you're charging. So, if it takes you one hour at $62.50 to fulfill a print order and you have a $2 print cost, $3 packaging cost, and $5 shipping cost and the client paid a total of $25 for the product & delivery, than the hour that you spent on ordering, receiving, and packaging that product just made you lose money on your sale. In order to make that print order worth YOUR time, you should have charged $72.50.

Now, you could have hired someone else to do it at a lower rate- let's say $15/hr, which means you can now just charge for the $15 hour + $2 print + $3 packaging + $5 shipping = $25, and now you've just broken even and not made a dime on that print order. As long as you weren't counting on that print sale as part of your total revenue, you're probably fine. If you count on print sales as part of your revenue to support your salary, than you need to figure out how to make them profitable and how they factor into your revenue goals. If you work with a lab who does print fulfillment, you only need to make sure you've accounted for the costs plus commission for them to produce that product- and you might even have some profit left over because you didn't need to hire someone and you didn't have to do it yourself - saving you both time and money.

Is this scary? Eye opening? Informative? Confusing? Let me know in the comments below!

Anne Ruthmann is a lifestyle & wedding photographer from Boston, MA. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography as an independent small business. She loves helping others find creative and low-cost solutions to business problems. Follow her on Twitter to see her daily adventures and thoughts.

Photo Lovecat WPPI 2011 Happy Hour!

Come meet the lovecats and make some new friends (and reacquaint yourself with old ones) over a tasty beverage on Sunday night after classes end.

Event registration for Photo Lovecat Happy Hour @ WPPI