Commercial Photographer: Your Guide to Marketing, Creativity and Growth

Are you still shooting basic headshots? This week, branding photography veteran Heike Delmore reveals how she elevates her work into a premium service. Learn how to transform your approach to personal branding photography and attract high value clients by focusing on their future, not just their present.

• Purpose over Pose: Discover the game changing technique that starts every shoot with your client's five year goals, making checklists and poses obsolete.

• The Time Collapse Secret: Find out how this method has helped clients achieve their five year ambitions in just six months, instantly justifying your premium fee.

• Google's Free Traffic: Learn the simple, powerful marketing strategy for photographers using your Google Business Profile that Heike uses to attract new high value clients for free.

If personal branding has you thinking about image, Styling Yourself as Part of Your Brand takes it a step further.

Marcus started as a bass guitar session musician. He did this freelance for about ten years during the 90s. So, in his early 30s, he had a change of direction. He got hold of a camera and thought this was what he wanted to do next. He realised that as a session musician, he was always playing other people’s ideas, while with photography, he could be much morecreative.
Marcus then went to university to study photography. While studying, he worked as a session musician and photographer. He moved after university to be an assistant in the fashion and advertising world at the end of the 90s.
Marcus then moved to hair and beauty photography in the US. His sister was working in that world, and he went over and joined her. So, he ended up in New York, doing beauty and hair shoots. Then also for advertisers. He did this until the financial crash of 2008, when it all started getting quieter. IN 2010, Marcus was offered a post as a university lecturer. They wanted to start a fashion photography course and asked Marcus to run the course. This was the first time Marcus had ever had a job interview. Marcus was a lecturer for about ten years. He said by the end he was missing doing his photography.
He wanted to stay in Bristol and decided that he would go into branding photography and set up his business about 6 years ago. He also does some teaching and has lots of ideas for this going forward. Marcus still does music. His band (sub-jagger) have just done their last gig. He is also part of a wedding funk band.

Curious where it all started? Meet Marcus and Sam goes right back to the beginning of the show.

Christian is an expert in cinematic storytelling. They don’tjust look beautiful, but sell beautifully. Christian started as an insurance broker and then moved on to setting up his own business. But eventually, he thought something was missing. He didn’t start knowing he wanted to move into filmmaking,he just knew he wanted to do something different. Based on a childhood memory, he went to film and started by setting up a green screen studio. He did this with no training or knowledge about filming.

He got a breakthrough through his network and was introduced to people who organise an elite tennis tournament. He did lots of filming there and created a film to tempt next year's sponsors. That went very well, and things expanded from there. He did all the editing and everything by himself.He said he had the imagination but just needed to learn the technical skills.
After the breakthrough, it became much easier. He had work to show, he had a great connection from previous businesses, and the business took off. In 2019, he was introduced to his first end hi-fi client. He has then moved into that area as a niche. When shooting these products, and in all his work, he makes a story. He spends a long time finding out who the target market is and what they are interested in.

He doesn’t have an agent, people tend to pick up the phone, having seen his work.
Sam asks if getting the initial big client is important. He says it is very helpful. Try things to get that initial work with a big client. Do some low-priced work for a big client to get a foot in the door. But make sure you explain what the cost should be.
Christian is based in Malaysia and travels most months. He has a second base in Germany, which he uses to access the rest of Europe. He is usually in Europe every other month, and from Germany, he can easily access most of Europe.
Sam asks about how his network from his previous business helped him in his film business. He says it has helped a lot. He said it also helped that he understood how to build and run a business.
Christian says he doesn’t have employees, but he does have freelancers that he works with. In terms of equipment, he says when he started, he bought lots of expensive equipment which he hardly ever uses. He says what you need is a camera, two or three lights, and some good sound. He was awarded best branded content director just a couple of weeks ago. Christian also has his project, a 42-minute film called Seconds in Eternity. It has gained 33 awards at film festivals. It isn’t available to the pubic at the moment as it is showing in film festivals.

You can find Christian here

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Corporate photography gets another expert's take in Expert Corporate Photographer Stephanie Belton Shares Her Business and Photography Experience and Expertise with Us.

Fabrizia started with family photography, but moved into brand photography. She says brand and pet photography are the two rising genres. She started as a brand photographerwas emerging. She used to work as a fashion and beauty editor. 
She started photographing young people and managed to get a headshot of an author (family friend) of hers to be published on the book cover. In her 50s, she made a move to be a photographer. At the time, she was living in a tiny village in the Austrian mountains, so she realised it couldn’t be in fashion. So she started brand photography in 2011, but it wasn't called brand photography then. She also did lifestyle shoots with families.
After she had run the business for a while, she moved to teaching photography business skills. She had an issue in Austria, as there was an exam to become a registeredphotographer. She got around this by setting up a UK business and operating that in Austria. She found that she could not pass the test as her German was not good enough. Eventually, the law was removed.
Fabrizia found that on Facebook groups, there were lots of photographers who were asking lots of business questions. So she eventually ran a course about how to run a photography business. She has been doing these ever since.
Fabrizia talks about brand photography being storytelling. Lots of brand photography shoots show women with laptops, coffee and champagne. She thinks it should be much more personalised to the person in the shoot. Marcus asks how you can delve deeper with your clients. She says it’s best to reflect where they are, not where they want to be. And she says this work is AI-proof, and you can charge more for it.
Fabrizia is running a brand lab again soon. She is speaking at the Wales and West Photography Show, as will Marcus. She is going to open the show talking about AI. She is also talking about branding. The show is from the 19th to the 21st of June.

Fabrizia also invites anyone who wants to chat to meet her fora coffee after the talk.
You can find Fabrizia on
Facebook
Linkedin
Insta

Website

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For a very different route into high-value work, Find Out How Christian Schu Gets Work from High End Clients is worth hearing next.

In this show, Marcus interviews Sam.
Marcus asks Sam to start at the beginning, and Sam splits this in two and starts sharing his photography story. Sam’s Dad was a professional photographer who shared his interest in photography with Sam. He had cameras from a young age and an SLR from a young age. Sam says that after university, he was travelling. One thing he did was photograph white water rafting trips in Nepal. He sold images to the rafting clients of their trip. Sam also talks about his kayaking trips to the UK, the Alps, and Nepal. Sam says that from then forward, his photography became just for personal use. When he setup his Web Design Business in 2017 he did some photography for clients as he got started. And then finally Sam started doing wildlife photography while living in Mozambique where he stilllives. So he got a 600ml wildlife lens to help capture the wildlife particularly the birds.

Sam then talks more about web design. Sam’s had a computer in the house from the age of about ten. Sam’s first website was written in notepad by hand for the university canoe club. From there he made websites for various people over the years. For example he joined a local choir and setup the website for them. He set up blogs, for example when he had a Small Holding hesetup a blog for that.
In 2017 Sam decided it was time to move on from teaching and decided to setup his own Web Design Business.
Marcus then shares how the podcast started.

You can reach out to Sam on LinkedIn here.

Or find his website here.

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Turnabout is fair play. Marcus Gets Interviewed About His Journey as a Photographer flips the mic again, this time with Marcus in the hot seat.

Ros Jones spent years in corporate change management before buying into a business coaching franchise — and burning herself out chasing the same income she used to earn as an employee. This episode is about not repeating that mistake.

Ros and Marcus talk through the beliefs that quietly hold photographers back, and the practical habits that keep burnout from creeping up on you.

• The "Be × Do = Have" formula from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and how to work it backwards from your goals
• Why the beliefs holding you back were often set before you turned 7 — and how to spot them
• Why last-minute shoots make boundary-setting harder for photographers specifically
• The early warning signs of burnout Ros says most people ignore until it’s too late
• Why Marcus thinks men are generally worse at self-care and self-awareness than women
• Why delaying "the personal stuff" for one more work task is the habit to break first

A practical case for treating your own wellbeing as part of running the business, not a distraction from it. There’s a related episode on fitness for photographers worth pairing with this one.

Ros has written a book, When I Was a Girl, and hosts her own podcast, Bold Business, featuring female business leaders in Yorkshire.

For another mindset-focused conversation, Guest Interview with Olga Geidane is worth going back for.

 Kate works at Humber HR and has been doing HR for over 20years.  Kate has lived in several European cities before coming back to Yorkshire.

Kate says understanding how people present and communicate at work is useful for photographers. Understanding how this works will help us work better with more clients. Kate’s degree is in psychology, and she says the way we present ourselves to the world depends on a huge number of factors. She says people present themselves in several ways. Extraverts and introverts are examples of this. And it can be difficult when people at the opposite ends of the spectrum meet. Another concept is pace. With pace, some people pick up work and run with it very quickly, while others need a lot of time to get the details and understanding before they feel able to start. This is the basis of disc profiling, and anyone can get a disc profile of themselves.

Disc stands for Drive, Influence, Steadiness (pace), and compliance, and these are sections of the disc “pie”. Sam asks how you can do this when you can’t ask your clients and leads to profile themselves. Kate says understanding your profile is an important part of this. So, for example, don’t give a longquote to someone who doesn’t want much detail and vice versa. Kate says you don’t need someone to do a profile to work out what their disc styles are. We can use clues in the way they communicate, dress and behave to determine where they fit into. So knowing your profile and understanding the system helps you with this.
The conversation moves on to working with freelancers. There are two types of working together in the UK. Either working together as freelancers or being employed. There are no grey areas in between. There are 7 tests to see if someone is employed or a freelancer. It asks questions like Does someone have to wear a uniform?

Or do they use their equipment?

The way to ensure this is clear is to put together a freelance agreement. This needs to make it very clear that this person is afreelancer, not an employee. You have to be careful that this doesn’t creep over time. The issue is that if someone could be thought of as an employee, they could be entitled to all sorts of things like holiday pay, and they could take you to a tribunal asking for backdated holiday pay.
Once you start to employ someone, there are lots of things you need to think about. But it’s not as scary as it seems, just set it up correctly at the beginning. There are day one rights that need to be made clear, like how they are paid, etc. Having a handbook is also an idea. The key is that the handbook is written for your business. So, for example, including intellectual property in the handbook makes it clear that the work they create belongs to the business.  

Marcus asks how to put together these documents. Kate says Don’t ask your mate down the pub, Google or a previous employer. The Chamber of Commerce and FSB have some templates that you can use. There are lots of HR consultants who can do this for you.

You can find Kate on LinkedIn here

Or email her at[email protected]

Self-awareness comes up again from a different direction in Ros Jones Explains How the Only Person Blocking Your Success Is You.

This show is about how to be seen as an expert in a particular topic without being seen as a poser and a know-it-all. How do we get that balance?
The relevance of building a position of authority is linked to the type of photography you do.
How can you build authority?
Posting authoritative content on Linkedin. Use your knowledge and experience to help people rather than explain things to them. And in helping them, you are building your authority. Engaging and commenting on other people's content also helps build your authority and give you a good reputation, as you are helping others get their content found too.

Blogging

This is again helping people, and people will realise you are an expert by reading your blogs. Having your blogs focussed on one area, linked to your area of expertise and focussing your blogs on this area
Webinars

These are a great way to show people you are an expert
Podcasts

Being a guest on a podcast can show you to be an expert inyour area. Our guest Toby Lee (listen to our interview with him here) is an expert at this. Another guest, Martin Hobby (listen to our interview with him here), is very good at building his authority
Offline

Speaking events: Speak at networking events or biggerevents. This shows you to be an expert. People presume you are an expert as you are on that stage.

TestimonialsThese are other people saying what an expert you are.

Avoid self-deprecationIn the UK, we often self-deprecate rather than promote ourselves. You can come across as an expert without being pushy or showy.

Authority and leads set up the pricing conversation directly — Commercial Photographer Marketing: Why Niching is the Strategy for Premium Pricing argues niching down is the real strategy behind premium pricing.

Charlotte set up Shot by Char in 2019 and is a brand Photographer. Charlotte studied fine art photography at the University of Manchester. After university, she started working for photographic studios, selling portrait vouchers on the streets. From there, she also managed to secure work as a photographer in the studios. While working in a studio, she also started to build her own business. Eventually, she earned enough money to pay off her debt and started to travel. And while travelling she taught English and worked as a photographer. Gradually, the photography went well enough that she could drop the teaching. Eventually, she moved from shooting tourists to shooting brands. She noticed how there was a big disconnect between the photos the brands andpersonalities who are being photographed.
Marcus asks about the market in Thailand, and she says there is less money in Thailand. However, Charlotte says she is still changing her pricing and increasing her prices. Pricing is an area she is still working on. She lives in a relaxed rural area but is getting clients, both local and those passing through. But she also works in the capital, Bangkok, which is very different. She is also building customers in the UK.
Charlotte is opening a “creative space”. It has different floors, including a studio, podcasting space, headshot area and a lifestyle studio that you can also rent and stay in as an Airbnb. This is going to be available to photographers as well as businesses.

Charlotte Graham has over a decade of professional photography experience working with businesses and individuals across different backgrounds. Her end goal is to take pictures that help open up more opportunities for her clients. She works to capture beautiful photographs that showcase brands’ vision and their authentic vibe. Originally from the UK, Charlotte is currently based in Chiang Mai and covers the whole of southeast Asia.

You can find Charlotte on LinkedIn here

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Working internationally as a brand photographer opens up in Building your position of authority to get more leads, which looks at building authority to attract more leads.

Are you a commercial photographer afraid to niche down because you think you'll lose work? This week, industrial photographer Dan Barker reveals the secret to making specialisation work. He explains why nichingfor photographers is a powerful marketing strategy that not only reduces competition but also allows you to significantly increase your prices

• The Niching Secret: Discover the simple truth that allows you to confidently niche down your commercial photography marketing without having to turn away other profitable work.

• Website Tactic: Learn the brilliant website move that instantly communicates your value to clients and ensures your 'About' page is focused on the visitor, not your history.

• The Price vs. Competition Trap: Find out why being a generalist is the fastest way to the bottom, and how niching allows you to charge premium prices and accelerate your business growth strategies.

Get the Commercial Photographer Guide to marketing and Creativity here.

Niching for premium pricing has a creative flip side — Beyond the Pose: How Personal Branding Photography Unlocks a Client's Future Goals is about how personal branding photography taps into a client's future goals.