Last Saturday I had the pleasure of speaking at an American Society of Picture Professionals event in Seattle called Branding and Marketing That Works For Photographers and Creatives. The program was organized by ASPP Seattle president Mark Ippolito and was hosted by The Art Institute of Seattle. ASPP is an interesting organization because it’s made up of all kinds of people who work with pictures, including photographers, art buyers and reps; so there’s a great spirit of collaboration. In fact, Mark is a partner in a new stock agency called Evolve Images, which is worth checking out.
Mark had heard good things about Wonderful Machine and thought I might have something interesting to contribute, so he invited me to give the keynote presentation. I was very honored and frankly a little intimidated because of the high caliber of the other participants. My talk concentrated on branding and marketing as you might guess. I provided an overview of the things photographers need to know in order to present themselves properly, what creatives are looking for in a photographer and how to find and communicate with clients who are appropriate for them.
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The rest of the event was filled with some terrific panel discussions and breakout sessions where smaller groups were able to trade stories about what works and doesn’t work for photographers trying to reach creatives. Alex Hayden was hilarious describing his early attempts at marketing. And film director Max Kaiser of Hand Crank Films had the audience on the verge of tears showing some of his short films, including one for CAIR called 9/11 Happened To Us All, where he interviewed 9/11 first responders who are Muslim.
The event was well attended, and it seemed like every one of the 90 participants came away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the industry.
The night before the event, I met up with a bunch of our Wonderful Machine photographers from Seattle for dinner at a cool Mexican restaurant in the Capitol Hill section of the city called Barrio. I had the green pepper stuffed with Dungeness crab which was excellent.
The group (from left in above photo) included Alan Majchrowicz, Thomas Barwick, Andy Reynolds, Melissa O’Hearn, retoucher Janko Williams, David Clugston, Kiliii Fish, Barbara Kinney, Kevin Casey and Jay Goodrich. I jumped around the table throughout the evening so I could talk to everyone. I learned that Kiliii has twins just like me. I enjoyed hearing Melissa describe her experiences shooting for Nordstrom, which is my favorite department store, and I envied Jay Goodrich because he got to test out the new Canon 1dx. I also confused Andy Reynolds with Drew Reynolds who lives in Chicago. We just added Eric Skaar to the site, who also spoke on Saturday, and who I will try not to confuse for Evan Sklar who lives in New York. And I got some extra time talking about stock photography and how great it is to work with our wives with Thomas Barwick, who was nice enough to give me a ride back to my hotel.
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