Get noticed, get a reaction & get remembered

When you're at a networking event most people are dressed in a similar way, most people have similar ish business cards and promotional materials, so how exactly are you supposed to remember anyone, or more importantly how are you personally going to stand out from the crowd and get remembered?

For me two things are making a difference.

The hat.  It started off life as a purely practical thing, keeping the light out of my eyes etc, but it's evolved to the point where it gets me noticed, helps people find me in a crowd, and even gets me business.

However the thing that is making the real difference is my change from using 'boring' images on my business card and promo materials.  I was in a room full of business people, trying to get them to use me for commercial photography, so I had photos of that nature on my cards.  Although they were fairly well designed, printed on nice card stock they almost never got a reaction.

Things changed however when a few months ago I decided to put a photo of a moose on one side of my business card.  When I hand it to people I often say "here, have a moose".  I'm sure a few people think I'm a bit simple, but you know what, I don't care.  It gets a reaction, and more often than not people make a comment and a conversation starts that isn't business related.

All of this brings me neatly back to the photo at the top of the page of some of the staff from telephone answering company Frontline.  I met one of their company directors, David, at Business South a few months ago.  Within moments of him seeing the card we were talking about road trips around the American West.  Despite there being no talk of business, a few weeks later I got a call to come in and do some photography work for them, and this week I was back there doing a second stock photography shoot for them.  Would I have got the gig if I hadn't got noticed, got a reaction and then remembered?



Towards the end of the shoot I was asked do to a few group shots of some of their staff.  Now having spent a couple of afternoons there I knew Frontline although very professional at what they do, they like to have fun at the same time.

As we'd done plenty of 'safe' shots on the previous shoot I suggested that they write out the company name in big letters on A4 paper and then hold them up while standing outside their offices.

Silly?  Yup, a tad, but will you remember them?

That reminds me.  I'm running out of moose cards, I need to order some more.

I shoot mooses

Yes, I know the plural for moose is moose, but mooses sounds more amusing so I'm using it.

I was at a CityLocal networking event at Eastleigh Football Club earlier today.

Anyone who has networked with me knows I don't really do the whole public speaking thing - which is partly why I use the "I talk in pictures not in words" catch phrase.

It was a slightly odd 60 second round because everyone was getting a polite ripple of applause after they'd said their bit.  I've been to loads of networking events, and this was a first.  Even BNI wasn't that bizarre.

So this morning I had to stand up and give my "60 second" pitch directly after another photographer.  This guy was the polar opposite of me, loud, outgoing, well spoken.  He'd done his pitch standing on his chair.  Upon finishing he turned to me and in a friendly way said "follow that".

I stood up, held up my moose postcard and said, "Hello, I'm Michael Palmer, another photographer.  I don't stand on chairs, but I do shoot mooses." and sat down again.  At the risk of offending some of my fellow networkers, some of the 60 second pitches I hear are so deathly boring that they made you want to self harm yourself.  My current marketing thinking is to make an impression and to be remembered.  The moose theme does actually seem to be helping that somewhat.

It was the first public outing of my new moose postcards and I was rather pleased with the reaction.

Being different and original is where it's at, and it's starting to work.

I don't airbrush my work

I am often asked if I airbrush (ie Photoshop) my work.  My answer is always a simple no.

It's not quite so simple though, because I do do things with the photos I take.  What you see as the end result often looks quite different to the image you saw on the camera display.

I have a process through which I take the RAW image file from the camera and adjust things like exposure, colour balance, contrast, saturation, and sharpness.    I've also got another process that softens the skin just a little to make selected portraits more flattering.

I also love playing with the overall look of an image and I have another process that simulates the look from films of old, which is particularly fun and interesting to use for black and white images.

What else do I do?  I'll edit out the occasional speck of dust that creeps onto the sensor, and I'll crop.  I'm never afraid to crop images.

Basically though that's all I do.  I won't airbrush out your wrinkles to make you look younger, or elongate your body to make you look slimmer.  I don't do that stuff now, and frankly I never will.  What I will do is to capture the real you, your character, warts and lines and all.

Take a flick through my portfolio pages, and the photos here on the blog.  None of them have been airbrushed.

Occasionally a client does do a little more editing with my finished image.  I've known a few who've airbrushed out the background so it's all one colour and works better with the design the image is to be used with.

You name the price

So you've seen my work, hopefully you like my work, but you've not commissioned me to do any work?  Well, now is your chance.

February is a quiet month for me so I've decided to try something new from now until the end of the February.

You get to name the price you want to pay for my photography work.

It can be for any of the subjects I photograph, from weddings, business portraits, products, properties, models etc...

Just give me the job specification, what you want, when you want it, the amount you're willing to pay and I'll come back to you within 24 hours and let you know what I can do for that price.

This offer is open to anyone, so whether you're a new or an existing client, make me an offer peoples!

The photo above has nothing to do with the offer, I just like it so you're getting it.

Credit where it's due. I always like to give appropriate credit, and this idea is not mine. The idea comes from the guys over at Phoenix Marketing UK.  They're a young team, but have some great ideas. If you need some marketing done I can highly recommend them. Contact them via their website - www.phoenixmarketinguk.com.

Only the best

Sometimes I get asked by my clients, "but you've taken xxx photos, why are you only letting me choose xx"?

No, it's not because I'm being mean or lazy.  It actually goes back a couple of years to the first time I photographed a wedding.  I was working as a second shooter with a local photographer so I could get a feel as to how weddings worked (I had not been to one for years).

After the wedding he told me that I could use 30 for my portfolio.  Baring in mind that I'd shot over 500 images at the wedding, 30 seemed an impossibly small number to get down to.

It took me some hours, but get down to 30 I did.  It was a very useful exercise because I found myself using only the very best images from the wedding.

Ever since then I've limited the number of images my clients can select and use.   The upshot is they only use the very best images from out shoot, and in turn this makes both them and me look better as a result.  Sure it might take them a little longer to select down to the number, but trust me its a positive exercise.

The photo up top is one of my 30 from my first wedding.

I'm a photographer...

In London today there are hundreds of photographers protesting against being stopped and searched by the rozzers under the "I'm a photographer, not a terrorist" banner.  I've done shoots in London and other cities around the world and thankfully so far haven't had a problem with being labelled a terrorist by officials.

This post isn't about that, it's about me being a photographer and from what people tell me doing it fairly well, but being generally a bit crap at the business and marketing side of things.  People will probably tell me off for being so negative, but the truth is my passion is in taking photographs, and the rest, well it simply bores me.

It's taken me until just recently to wake up and realise I need some help if I'm going to move my business to the next level.  So I'm starting to surround myself with good people who enjoy the bits I don't and ya know what, it's actually starting to make a difference.

I'm finding myself with more time to get out and do what it is that I love, take photos.

If you think you can help me in some way, please get in contact.