Sun Studios – 42 Maddox St, Alexandria

Sun Studios – 42 Maddox St, Alexandria

Sun Studios have been going for about 3 years. We were given a talk by Peter Osborn who was co-creator of Sun Studios with Richard Ludbrook. Peter had run Baltrinics a photographic supplier & Richard had a studio called Pioneer Studios. The two minds got together to produce a world class photographic rental studio facility with retail, rental, post production computers & café areas. As well there is good parking for 50 cars. The warehouse was built in the 30s & Peter stripped all the paint back to give the place a ‘rough looking industrial feel’ but with modern equipment.

There are 6 large studios each with a cyclorama, a make up area, lounge area and a kitchen. Two of thse studios have a shutter door so a small car could be photographed inside. (Most automotive photography is done outside these days).

There are million of dollars tied up inn the extensive hire facility. They seem to have everything that a photographer would need to do a studio shoot. These can be used on site or taken on location.

Then we were given a demonstration of some relatively new equipment – a Broncolor Scoro A4S. That is 3200J total & each of the 3 outlets for lights can be operated independently. The piece-de-resistance in that studio was the paralight, a 220cm umbrella looking reflector which is directional. It costs $253/day. The studios cost around $1000/day.

top photos from Sun Studio's website: http://www.sunstudiosaustralia.com/

Studio Commercial - Sydney

Studio Commercial – 53-55 Liverpool Street, Sydney

www.studiocommercial.com

Jason from Studio Commercial gave us a talk about their business. Studio Commercial do editorial, advertising and fashion photography but mostly commercial portrait work. About 40% of their work is commercial portraits (both just heads and/or creative). 60% of their work is on location & the remaining 40% in the Studio. Customers like Ernst and Young are their bread & butter.

In Liverpool Street they have a large factory-type room on the 4^th floor. This has been sectioned into an office/postproduction area, one cyclorama & several smaller studio sectioned off with black curtains. This costs $7000/month. Apparently there is a similar area upstairs for which they are not charged rent. The business was originally started by Ron Freer.

Their marketing is mostly word-of-mouth. An email newsletter is sent to customers 2-3 / year with some of their current work on it – for advertising. Occasionally they put on an exhibition of their private photographic work & ask their clients to the show. This is a type of advertising.

Each of the 6(?) photographers does his/her own postproduction work. They cut down the number of photographs from a shoot & send the proofs in a pdf file (20/page) by email. Then the customer gets back to them picks some out & proper postproduction work is done. Ie only retouch the images that are good so not as time consuming.

Each of the photographers does the photographic work that he/she likes best - depending on the jobs that come in. When the recession was on they had periods when they worked 4day weeks. At least they all kept their jobs. Now it is back to normal weeks’ working. They work in a relaxed atmosphere.

They do plenty of back ups – at least 4. Two stay in the office & a BlueRay & a hard disk are taken home. The backup software they use is retrospect.

When they do a job for a corporate client, they let them use the images for 1 year for things like websites and newsletters. If it is for advertising work, then they charge an extra 20@ & this covers copyright issues. If they want to buy the image outright, then they negotiate with client.

A good talk.

gm photographics in Mosman

Graham Munro & Lauren Mills from gm photographics in Mosman

Graham gave a very inspiring talk to we students on Tuesday. He owns & runs a very successful wedding and portrait photographic business.

First of all Lauren (Graham’s studio manager) gave us an overview of the business. They have 6 photographers whom they have trained up to Graham’s standard. When they go out to shoot, one of them is put in charge & one goes as an assistant. When they return, the photos go to a postproduction team who are on site. The numbers of photos is considerably reduced so as not to confuse the client too much.

They interview the possible clients in the white leather couch room where they can see all the images on the wall & also face a large screen which is flipping through lots & lots of images. They charge $150 to take the photos, then the client is asked in to view their photos digitally. There are quite a few types of product in terms of books or framed photo to chose from.

Then Graham took over. He is Mr Personality who was extremely stimulating and incredibly passionate about his chosen field of work.

He started off photographing motor bikes; moved into the non-girly side of Playboy magazine, but eventually went from his asking the editor whether their was work for him to the editor ringing Graham & asking him if he had any ideas for the magazine. Eventually ha was talked into doing a wedding & became good, then very good then excellent at that. He set up business & from there it grew. He is an AIPP Master photographer II & is enormously respected Australia-wide as well as having a clientele worldwide.

He is always looking for something different in his photography. He always has a camera with him just in case he sees something that takes his eye (like a new location). His products are always on the change as non-professional photographers catch up with technology in terms of cameras & things like canvas photographs. His products are always a step above everyone else’s. He is a little weary about sharing his newest ideas with local photographers (but will if there is give & take in the deal) but shares them readily with photographers in other locations.

His main tool of marketing is purely word-of-mouth. An excellent photographer is admired & the word spreads. Interestingly he does very little studio work. He has a small studio out the back but far prefers to shoot on location. His images are very creative, casual and warm feeling.

He considers his success is due to a three things. First he is a business man. Second he is an excellent photographer. Thirdly he has the personality that draws people out. You need all three to really succeed in a photographic business. He treats all his clients equally and with great respect whether they spend $500 or $10,000. Sometimes someone who was initially unwilling to spend very much comes back with more requests & some even buy his fine art photography.

He did not let on how he charged for his services.

Reference:

http://www.gmphotographics.com.au/

Geoff Comfort - Commercial Photographer

Geoff Comfort - Commercial Photographer

Geoff took us through a number of his photographs which he says are good but not arty & this is the bulk of his work – aerial and architecture mainly. Then he showed us what he says are his competitive-type photographs.

He is the president of AIPP in Canberra & strongly advises us to join. They can help us in so many different ways.

ADVICE: Own the copyright on your photos. There is a small book on copyright – get to read it.

Eg he spent 2 nights & 4 hours photographing a new building (one night each side). He gave the client 2 exterior shots & 5 interior shots – charged $1600. (noted that in Sydney a good p’her could charge $5000). Then window company wanted copies – for this he charged 50% of the base usage charge (= this is the fee for taking the photo).

AERIAL P’hy:

Geoff doesn’t get the company to pay for the choppa. Rather he marks his fee up. This is an extra charge along with post prodn fees.

HOW DO YOU FIND WORK?

Geoff works for construction companies & word-of-mouth is good. He also emails personal fliers with appropriate photos on them.

Advises: a simple website – simple is quicker to load photos & flip through them.

CHARGES

Can’t give all of these 3:

Quality

Price

Speed

Geoff goes for quality & the price reflects this.

Price reflects lots of things such as:

Overheads – fixed expenses

Competitors

What the client will pay.

You have to decide how much do you want to work & what is your income goal.

He says to get $110,000 pa you need to earn $3780 per week. For this he works 10-20hrs of photography (plus post prodn).

So cost to clients:

$350/hr photography + $125 post prodn = $500ph

$190/hr photography + $125 post prodn =$300ph

Then he went on to talk about quotes & then the AIPP but he went too fast to take notes.

HINT foe aerial ph'y: Stitch photos

GOOD TALK

Photos from Geoff Comfort website: http://www.geoffcomfort.com

Assignment 2 - Careers in Photography - BEN MESSINA

Ben MASSINA - a landscape fine art photographer from Sandgate in Queensland

We asked him these questions:

1. How long have you been a photographer.

He has been a photographer since he was 18 years & he is 35 now

2. Did you get a photographic qualification.

Did a year at Tafe. However his father was a photographer & he was using a darkroom from an early age.

3. Did you get any other sort of artistic qualification.

No

4. Are there other areas of are in which you work now or in earlier days.

& 5. How did it all start?

& 6. If so was that worthwhile in helping you get to where you are now.

& 7. How DID you get to where you are now?

& 8. Are there any other areas of photography that you have concentrated on – now or in earlier days. –

His father moved from Cairns where he had worked as a photographer for years & so Ben took over the business. At that time it was architecture, fashion & aerial. Well known photographer Peter Lik worked there too & sometimes Ben worked for his company. Lik lent him his Linhof 6x17 panoramic film camera & he realised how much he loved the camera & the photos it produced. He started selling some non-commissioned landscape images & gave up the rest of his commissioned work. Cairns was a good place to start as it is so naturally beautiful.

Later Ben moved to Brisbane & then onto Sandhurst when the rent in Brisbane became too much.

9. What made you concentrate on art photography.

The main reason was that he was hating the other work. They were not creative even though the money was good. The briefs were so specific that he had almost no input to the photo.

10. What is your definition of 'art ' & ‘fine art’ photography. Is there any difference?

Well it is just a matter of what you call yourself. He indicated that many average photographers call their work ‘fine art’ which I think he would question.

11. How is art/fine art photography different from other forms of photography.

With art photos are your time management is basically up to you. You need to be motivated especially as when you photograph these are so often times when people are usually at home or enjoying themselves somewhere – that’s the case with landscape photography anyway because of the good light. Commissioned photographic work is often 9-5. With fine art landscape photography you also need to travel to places which is costly

12. Is it necessary to present your work to critics or get oral & written reviews in order to 'pass the test' in being an art photographer? Didn’t do that.

13. Did you go in competitions or have gallery exhibitions? No

14. Have you won awards? No not interested in that.

15. How do you get inspired? He watches documentaries to decide where to go. He doesn’t look at other photographer’s work as it might damage one’s own creativity. So he gets a good idea about where he will go, marks it on the GPS & goes there. If the light is no good, then tags the spot on the GPS & goes back when light is good.

16. Are there extra bits of equipment that you personally need in order to be a fine art photographer such as what lenses do you use or what way of lighting do you use?

His primary camera is a 6x17 Fugi, but he also has a Canon 5D mark II & a 4x5 camera. He takes transparencies generally which he scans & works on then digitally. He uses Fuji Velvia 50 speed film. He gets his film processed at ProLab. The only artificial lighting he uses sometimes is a 5 million candle torch & also a 1 million of same. (Used the torch for the desert photo that was a 6 hour exposure.

17. How do you promote & market your work? Doesn’t. He works in a tourist area & has no problem selling his work. He has done this successfully for 9 years. He prints & frames in house. He recently bought a framing business. He business took a few years to build up. When he goes away his partner (life partner) runs the shop. Incidently when he worked in Brisbane, there was not such a good tourest market so they did market themselves a bit but in Sandhurst & when he was in Cairns, there was no need.

18. Do you get commissions and if so how do you price your work?

& 19. How do you work out how to price particular photos that you sell?

He has a good idea what the other photographers’ work is selling for & he prices for the particular market.

20. Do you need to do other work as well as your fine are photography? No

From his website his prices are as follows:

75cm x 25 cm - $245

120cm x 40cm $360

150 x 50cm $595

The price includes image printed on canvas & it is stretched around a 3cm thick frame & it also includes freight in Australia.

References for photos

http://www.benmessina.com/

Ben Kopilow - Wedding Photography/Stock Photography

Ben Kopilow- Wedding Photography/Stock Photography

Ben Kopilow is a Canberra based photographer. He concentrates on Weddings but also does portraits & stock photography. He took us through the reasons why he LOVES wedding photography:

It encompasses romance, portraits, fashion, architecture, landscapes, photojournalism, products, urban grunge and food. He finds weddings happy, challenging & a photographer needs a variety of photographic skills.

There are 3 types of wedding p’ghers:

1. Shoot & burn - ~$600 for job

2. Middle of the market - ~ $2000 for job

3. Top end - ~ $12,000 for job

He believes that the shoot & burn p’ghers no good; middle of road Ok but need an extra job to support yourself. Best is Top end.

HINT:

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Expenses – hidden (don’t quite know what all the numbers mean):

1. Adv/marketing 10,000/50 =$200

2. Camera wear – 150,000/2000 =70-7000/75 =$100

3. Consultation/correspondence time =4@100 = $400

4. Misc Management time =$400 (means that if 8 enquiries & only 4 accept, then need to have a cost for the time for the other 4)

5. Electricity/storage/back-ups/computer wear = $100

6. insurance/liability/ tax/ travel – 10,000/50 =$200

BOTTOM LINE = $1500

So: work SMARTER not harder. – TOP END clientele is best. Have to cost sacrificing weekend. Minimum is $1500 (hidden costs). Ben thinks $5000 should be fee.

He offers 5 packages:

1. $2,500- He gets assistant to do this

2. $3500 - ditto

3. $5700 – with basic album

4 $8500 – MOST PROFITABLE

5. 12,950 – incl negs

NB the last one is just to get people to take the 2^nd last one but sometimes the 5^th option is taken.

HINTS

Don’t undercharge

Don’t give away negs ‘ copyright

Don’t give away beautiful PROOF book

Don’t rely on the family ordering reprints

TAKE: snakes, sissors, needle & thread; do tie bow ties for blokes; dod some ironing

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Look up photographers Yervant (Victoria) & Gary Jones

Albums by: Dream products