Approaching potential clients/portfolio?

[Mike Hoyer]

I could do with making more cash out of this. I have a few fairly regular clients, but I'd like to expand... I think I have the skills to do so.

I was thinking about putting together an online portfolio of a select few images, and emailing various people. Main thing is how many images, which ones and how to present it.

I was thinking of using Simpleviewer, simply because I'm familiar with it. Maybe 800px wide images, perhaps one for every month of 2006.

Anything else you think I should do? I've never really had to approach people before, it's always been them approach me.

[Dennis Murray]

How many good images do you have? I wouldn't go more than a dozen.

Pick your best, from any time period.

As far as drawing people in...that's always the tough one!

[John Thawley]

Personally, I don't put a whole lot of faith in online portfolios. That's not to say I don't have one... but I don't find the online environment all that credible. Let's face it... online images can be propped up pretty good. .... it's not that hard to crop out 75% of an image and oversaturate it for a snappy screen presentation.

I prefer to hand a potential client a hard copy in booklet form. I keep them fresh with my most recent work. I also will tailor them for a particualr series or type of work.

To me, your web-site you be a quick resume about you, your work and your philosophy. Sure, people will look at your work, but I think they get to more about you and your sensibilities from your overall presentation.

JT

[Mike Hoyer]

How many good images do you have? I wouldn't go more than a dozen.

Pick your best, from any time period.

As far as drawing people in...that's always the tough one!

I have loads of images. Some good, some great, some dull "car-in-the-middle-of-a-track" types. I don't have a problem selecting a few "killer" images hopefully.

For 2007 I already have a pretty firm calendar... which in a way makes things difficult. I WANT to go to certain races, and for several I should be getting paid. For others possibly not paid, but getting stuff published. The downside of course is that I will be enjoying myself, but at the same time spending a lot of my own cash (I have a day job). Essentially I want to find a few more clients that can pay or at least help spread the word around.

I prefer to hand a potential client a hard copy in booklet form. I keep them fresh with my most recent work. I also will tailor them for a particualr series or type of work.

That is a good idea. I know that whenever I've had images printed, they do really impress me more than what's on screen. Of course that could amount to some expense.

I think I will start off by doing a fairly simple online portfolio which I will put on here for you guys to critique. Then I'll investigate who to send it to, and see what sort of response I get... then take it from there. Perhaps something like "hard copy available on request" etc...

[Todd Corzett]

An online portfolio is a good thing to have, but to make a more serious impact... have a hardcopy. Since you are going to be shooting a few events, bring the portfolio with you and setup some meetings where you can show your wears. Online is a nice way to show-off some stuff, but I think the real way to market yourself is in person (or other more 'traditional' ways).

As for numbers... I would say no more than 20 images, but more isn't necessarily better. Make sure that every image makes a statement, and your portfolio is only as strong as your weakest image.

-Todd...

[Jacob Leveton]

my suggestion:

first of all, get together a portfolio. how you want to present it is up to you, but make sure you have SOMETHING to present (i'm currently failing in this department).

Then, prepare a list of who you've worked with in the past, aka people who will vouch for not just your photography work, but your professionalism, pricing, relationship, etc. This will probably go just as far if not farther than the actual photos.

Next, figure out what you want, and how to present it. An email that says "hey, look at my work, give me money" sounds like spam. Make it sound like "hey, I'm available for these services at these races, should you need it."

Lastly, follow up. I wouldn't suggest spamming people that you don't know in some way... if you already work for 1 race team, approaching other teams in the series wouldn't be that far fetched (as long as they don't passionately hate each other). You just have to be very very careful not to step on anyone's toes. Try and find out who does and doesn't already have dedicated photographers. this can be very tricky.

Once you email, give them a week or two, then follow up.

Good luck

[Mike Ditz]

Who is your target market? Rich guys with exotic cars, Race teams, Aftermarket / OEM, magazines, ad agencies?
And don't say all, that's too easy. They all have different ways of looking at/ seeing your work. Mr DeepPockets kid has a website so he might not be impressed with a basic online portfolio, but he probably hasn't seen a lot of really nice actual portfolios full of nice car pictures. Out of town magazines like web portfolios because it's cheap and fast to see your work. Most people are happy looking online but the higher $ clients will use it as a way to weed out people and then call in portolios form the 'lucky' few, so they can look at 5 or 6 people's work at the same tiome in the conference room. While the online and the actual portflio should be similar they should'nt be identical.

For like 10 bucks you can make softcover booklets using (Apple's iPhoto)customized for potential clients.
Todd's right about the weak link, if you don;t love it, leave it home. If you insist on 'filler' put it in the middle as you have to open strong and close strong.

[John Jovic]

Once you email, give them a week or two, then follow up.
Good luck

Do not ignore that advice. IF YOU DO COLD CALL ANYONE YOU MUST FOLLOW UP WITH A TELEPHONE CONVERSATION. If you do not then you are SPAM as your email has not been solicited. You might even get blocked. If you call then you are real and a relationship may follow. You must call. Do not send an email to anyone that you do not intend calling to follow up.

You know, I rarely work for anyone within about 400km of where I live. I have no 'book', I used to, and I suppose I could find it if I had to, but you know, got better things to do...

I do editorial stuff mainly and the editors I deal with are basically never anywhere that I am so my online folio, though rarely used in anger, is the only way most editors can see my stuff. In my case my online folio is everything but I also often 'cold call' editors with jobs and the folio is just a support to show all the other stuff I've already done and to give an editor I've never dealt with some confidence that I'm not a hack, well not a complete hack...

I'm not really sure how many pics to have in a folio. In a real book you have to limit the number, maybe 20 is too many, but a dozen not enough, and everyone has to be a killer image. Otherwise go home. Online you can have all kinds of catogories and have a dozen or so images in each. My own site uses thumbs which are large enough for you to get a good idea of what the image really looks like so I think that any one visiting my site will select a handfull of images to view rather than look at every one. I do not force someone seeing my site to view a predetermined sequence of images. I think that is the wrong way to show an online folio. When I look at an online folio I prefer to zero in on the few images that interest me and ignore the rest. I have about 20 images in each of the categories on my site, maybe too many, but I think it's OK.

JJ

[Mike Hoyer]

I do have a hardcopy as it happens. It basically chronicles my 2006 season, and looks pretty nice.

My main target is editors/media really. In the UK getting media passes just to sell to teams is a bit frowned upon...