Dismal response

Maybe my pictures suck, or I didn't get the perfect shot, or it's confusing. But after a week, absolutely NO ONE has inquired about the Cheer Ltd. Dance/Cheer at Robert Morris University last week. The perfectionist in me say's the pictures suck. The business person in me says no one knows how to access the sales site and email me the image number. Of course, a big issue that causes difficulty in finding and ordering pictures is that the web sites that exist to SELL prints all want 40% of the sale. That's a big chunk of change. It's almost not worth it to sell a picture for $6 and only get a few bucks out of it. Can't replace camera gear at that rate.

I was excited about the initial response from parents when I was giving out my cards at the event. But something happened, I just don't know what it was. That is the bane of shooting on "spec". I bust my butt getting the best images I can (over 2,200 that day). I take two days editing, creating web galleries and blog posts and get zero dollars for it. Lots of people can take pictures. Lots of people can take really good pictures, especially with all the low cost digital cameras out there. But are you getting "exceptional" pictures consistently? Or is it "eh, it's acceptable". You're settling for McDonald's images when you could have a meal prepared by a chef....so to speak.

I know even I have to work hard at exceptional images and I missed several key opportunities. But this was my very first indoor cheer/dance event. What I did get was good, but I know I can do much better.

Cheer Ltd. at Robert Morris University

UPDATE: Pictures have been uploaded to the sales web site. DO NOT BUY FROM THE SALES WEB SITE. EMAIL me with the photo ID located under each image. In this period of change, I am selling the edited .jpg file, NOT PRINTS and this is an interim band-aid. Thank you.
brent (at) thenextlevelphoto (dot) com


Here are a few pictures from the competition last Sunday. I took over 2,200 pictures, narrowed them to less than half, maybe more like a third. Then I had to cull them down to about 60 then again down to these six. They are not my best work. But I will try to justify it by saying this was my first time taking pictures of an indoor cheer and dance competition. I hope I get much better the next time I get the chance.

The sales site will have the UNEDITED images up later today.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.

DIRECTIONS TO PURCHASE:
1) Browse the pictures.
2) Make note of the image number BELOW the picture.
3) Put the picture #'s in an EMAIL message to me.
brent ( at ) thenextlevelphoto ( dot ) com
4) I will reply with a few more directions.
5) You will be purchasing the actual file, NOT PRINTS.

DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.
DO NOT PURCHASE THEM DIRECTLY FROM THE SALES SITE.

Sometimes it's the small things

To most people, web stats are benign. They just don't matter. To me, they matter. I like to know how many people are reading the blog and hitting the web site. It helps me determine if the amount of time I spend on the web site and blog is relatively worth it. I also have marketing materials that I use and when the new stuff hits the streets, I should see an increase of web traffic. I can sort of direct my advertising in a sense.

The web site has it's own stats from my web host GoDaddy. My blog was on blogger's server until I put up the new web site then I moved it to GoDaddy. I have always had SiteMeter running on my blogs for stats. SiteMeter upgraded this weekend and now my stats are broke. UGH!

Hopefully, there will be a semblance of normalcy by the end of the week.

In all reality, it's only important to me, but I had to share since it is part of the business of photography.

Weekend (to come) update

Well, it finally stopped raining. It's been more of a mist, but water from the sky nonetheless. The sun is now out (drying my grass so I can mow it) and the season's first football game is slated for this Sunday. Soccer is still a week away. Photographically I am still trying to get last weeks scrimmage game edited and posted to the sales site. But alas, we have company coming and the Clean House crew hasn't arrived so I have been picking up the slack. LOL Another item on the football front is a raffle item. I will be donating a sports poster to every home game of Potter & Raccoon Football/Cheer. I have the mock ups on paper and need to scratch one together before the game on Sunday. I suppose I have about 6 hours of work for that.......need more hours in the day and days in the week.

I booked a wedding for early October. It's a small one so not a lot of stress as normally associated with the huge production weddings.

This week I had talked to a dog groomer about doing a little referral work. Still need to work out details, but hopefully she can send some of her clients my way. I will be getting some prints for her to put in her salon in the upcoming few weeks.

Wednesday and Thursday I worked at the studio above Head to Toes Salon. I am hoping to get the key to the building next week. I put up insulation and hung some drop ceiling then I swept and vacuumed. Once I am in, I can start high school senior marketing. The poster is almost done and I had Lori D look it over and she gave me the "not bad for a non-graphic artist" comment. I took it as a compliment. :) I also pushed a logo design job to her this week. Can't wait to see that too.

The invitations for the Fe Gallery have been proofed. I will pick up printed versions next week and electronic versions will be forthcoming. The exhibition opening is Sept 12th. The pre-orders for the printed catalog are available, if anyone wants to order one, they are just under $40. I can send you an order form if you send me an email. Remember, this catalog is almost 300 pages, glossy FULL COLOR paper. It is a top notch production. The artists are from the 13 counties surrounding Pittsburgh PA, but more than that, they may be the next best artist to be. Given the limited print run, it's a $40 well worth it.

I also contacted the middle schools counselor's to begin work on this school years Career Day. Last year was so fun for me, I want to bring it to "the Next Level".....if you will. I proposed two presentations. Depending on which one is selected, will depend on how much work I have to do over the next 4-5 months. I hope they pick Idea#2.......when they do come back with the acceptance I will let everyone know what's in store.

One down, many to go

I have v.01 of the poster done. I would love a little critique on it. Good, bad, ideas, something that isn't quite right????? Let me know.

The locations it will display are: high school, coffee shop, burger joint, ice cream joint, drug store, concession stand.

The two rows on the bottom are smaller versions of my business card. They will be scored and perforated so interested parties can tear off a mini card and take it with them. I can somewhat gauge interest by the number of cards missing.

It's not designed to be a high school senior poster. It's more like a a blanket photo poster. A little of everything. I know I don't have any guy picture in it, and I am working on that. Like I said, it's v.01. (v.02 is being worked on and will have sports and wedding pictures on it).

Freaking out

My mind is going a million miles an hour lately. Right now, I physically feel like I have downed a gallon of Mt. Dew and a couple of Snickers bars. But I haven't.

I received my NEW business cards from 4cusa.com. They are very very nice. My ONLY issue is that the template I used was smaller than the actual cards, so my image is not full bleed, nor does my text cover as much of the real estate as it was originally designed. No bother, I seriously doubt many other people will see that bit of detail. But as a photographer, it's all we see.

I will make adjustments on the next batch. in 1000 cards....LOL

I have been compiling a list of things I need to accomplish this month. It seems to be getting bigger every day. ACCKKKK! I have a few vendors to seek out, contracts to finish up, a few photo CD's to burn and ship, a poster to create and data backups to do. Of course each of those items has several sub items, especially the contracts and price lists.