One Door Has Closed

I’m very sorry to announce that my agreement to collaborate with Nesting Newbies as Director of Photography didn’t work out. It’s a shame, but sometimes things just don’t work out the way you want them to.

This will allow me to focus more of my time and talents towards my responsibilities as ASID CA Peninsula Industry Partner Director in the coming year.

So, although one door has closed yet another has opened.

Windows and Beyond Seminar with Sally Morse

Sally Morse & Doreen Yun at the Windows and Beyond Showroom

“Where do you want to be on one year?” was the title of the presentation I attended. I found it to be inspiring and informative. Doreen hosted a second event that evening titled “10 steps to a Perfect Room” again presented by Sally Morse that was focused more on helping her retail customers.

Doreen Yun owner of Windows and Beyond hosted the event at her Fremont showroom. Her showroom is fantastic with many little vignettes spread throughout the vast space showing the amazing variety of items and materials she has to offer. Any designer would be well served to tour the facility and bring their clients by to see the variety of styles and effects that can be created with good quality, creative window coverings.

Sally Morse Director of Creative Services for Hunter Douglas spoke on many subjects. She discussed color trends for the coming year, fundamentals of customer service, sales technique before during and after the job has been completed, intended to help us secure the clients business over the long term, not just to get a check today. She also discussed lifestyle issues.

This seminar was more about tactics than strategy, not focused just on sales but on satisfaction. The satisfaction of the customer as well as our own satisfaction with our lives and businesses.

Overall I am glad I attended. I walked away with a new perspective on quite a few things a few more nuggets of wisdom and was reminded of a few things that I had forgotten, such as the importance of making the customer feel good about spending the money it takes to do the job. Not just for the customer to feel good about the quality, timeliness and result of the job we do, but for them to be glad they spent their hard earned money to achieve whatever goal they set out to achieve or solve whatever problem they were faced with. It’s a big difference and requires much more energy and effort than just doing what you get paid for, but the return on your investment in the happiness and well-being of the customer will be immense over the years.

You can review the photographs I took of the event in my gallery by following this link.

Interior Design Photography – Photographers Responsibilities to the Designer

Photographing interior design is a challenge not only because it is difficult to define a clear subject, but because the interior designers are talented artists in their own right with high expectations and sophisticated tastes.

In choosing to work with a specific photographer a designer has decided to not only make an investment of time and money in their photographs but to let that photographer have an impact upon the future of their business and their career.

Many photographers do not understand the level of trust placed in them by their clients and therefor do not recognize the importance of their photographs to the designer. The designer will use their photographs in sales presentations, to submit for editorial publication, in mailers, magazine advertisements and on their web site. The interior designer will be using their photographs in more ways, to do more things than any other business tool they posses other than their telephone. An interior designers photographs are every bit as important to their professional image as their business cards.

As an architectural photographer San Francisco Bay Area it is my responsibility to ensure my clients get high quality images that meet exacting technical standards in regards to exposure, focus and color rendition, but these technical issues are only the beginning of the photographers responsibilities. In order to  craft a visual representation of another artists work the interior design photographer must also have a strong talent for composition as well as the ability to communicate complex concepts to the client in terms the client can understand and to understand the communication of complex concepts being directed at them.

Communication is the Key – You Can Learn Nothing if You Do All the Talking

For many photographers it is not difficult to share their ideas with others, but it is difficult to have others share their ideas with them without being “put off” or offended in some manner. As interior design photographers we must be able to accept criticism not as  judgmental  or as condemnation of our ides, but as constructive contributions to achieving the goal of communicating the interior designers ideas and design concept. To achieve this we have to acknowledge that we are part of a team and be willing to accept that the other team members ideas are every bit as valid as our own and we have to hear what they are saying not just listen to the words, and incorporate their ideas in our compositions.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

As professional photographers we are expected to create dynamic images that catch the eye and elicit a visceral response from the viewers. By openly collaborating with our clients we not only create the best images we can, we create images that clearly speak with the designers voice. And this is what our clients’ need to make sales, win competitions and get published.

ASID Industry Partnership

ASID Industry Partner Logo

Today I joined ASID as an Industry Partner.

I am proud to be associated with such a distinguished organization with such high professional standards as ASID. Since the vast majority of my clients are ASID members I felt joining this professional organization would be a good way to meet other members and expand my professional network.

I look forward to participating in the chapter activities and become a part of the interior design community as an architectural photographer in the san francisco bay area.

A job well done

I just delivered a completed project to Marie Chan of Interspace Design, she is also the President Elect of the Peninsula Chapter of the California ASID.

Here is one of the images from that project. You can view the others in my Gallery.

Interior Design Photography: Breakfast counter through kitchen to diningroom.

We shot this residence in Saratoga, CA – a town on the south-west end of the San Francisco Bay – a couple of weeks ago. It was a lot of fun working with Marie. She has worked with some very good architectural photographers in the past and understands the need to be careful and work hard at getting things set up just right. She always brings fresh flowers and a good selection of vases. She really is quite good at floral design and her minimalist discipline really worked well to contribute to the final images without taking over the shots.

The home was bright and airy and the interior design had a clean, fun feeling to it. I shot it using the High Dynamic Range Imaging technique to capture the natural softness of the light to enhance the contemporary design.

The homeowners were absolutely wonderful about letting us come into their home and make the changes we needed to create these wonderful images. They had a remarkable collection of glass figurines. I was almost afraid to touch any of them but we did what needed to be done to get the job done… we just did it very carefully.

Marie and I had to go through a few rounds of proofing because both she and I wanted to make sure the colors were just right. I’m always happy to work with my clients to ensure their work is being represented the way they want. It took us about a week and five different sets of digital proofs, but I am very proud to say that the color is perfect – according to Marie. I am very proud to hear a client say such a nice thing about my work.

Photographers directories

I signed up with a bunch of photographers directories and they asked for a reciprocal link. I’m happy to do link backs, really. I’ve never liked the idea of putting them on my web pages because it looks cheesy and cheap. The blog gives me a good place to put them and if any impress me I can always put them on the permanent link list.

In my studies on SEO everyone says the same thing – sign up and link back but don’t pay because unless they’re a Google or Yahoo the pay-off will be minimal. And the idea is to “get the word out” about your business, not get nickle and dimed to death.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTORY

Photography links directory at FreePhotoGallery

PhotoClicksPro-Photography Directory

PhotoDirectory

ProsPhotos – Photography Website Directory

• Photography Blog Directory

80% of success is showing up

It’s been my experience that the single most important thing you can do as a professional is to simply show up. You cannot succeed if you’re not “there.”

Today I have to prepare a proposal for a client and don’t have time to invest in the interesting and informative post that I had planned. This blog is an integral part of the growth of my business, but helping my clients always takes priority.

So, in the spirit doing the best I can I want to let everyone know I will be adding more commentary as soon as I can make the time this afternoon or evening. I have an outline for a post on compositional guides and am gathering my visual aids.

Check back tomorrow morning.

Thank you for your time.

On Posting Comments

I have been advised to allow comments to be posted without prior registration for two reasons: registered posting is annoying for the person posting and it will complicate my life and consume vast amounts of time for me to have to authorize each registrant.

So, with great trepidation I am going to allow unregistered users to comment, until I am given reason to change this policy.

I trust my clients, colleagues and associates to conduct themselves in a professional manner, it’s the odd surfer than stumbles upon the blog I am worried about. I can always delete offensive posts after the fact. And I will do so at the drop of a hat, after all this is my place of business.