PhotoFav Wednesday: Wow! That Was Cool - A Great New Way To Show Off Your Portfolio

Good Afternoon Everybody,

OK, What's going on around here lately?  Well, there are rumors that we may be heading out on a road trip come Fall.  It's true, we are planning a lecture tour beginning in September right after Photoshop World in Las Vegas.  It will be entitled, "Captured By The Light."  We are just starting to round out the program, but I can assure you, it will be quite a bit different from last year's program.  I'll keep you posted as all the pieces come together. I think you'll like what you see.

Hey gang, yesterday's Technique Tuesday [link] kind of got out of hand and ran a bit longer that I had planned.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Thanks for all the nice comments you’ve posted.  I promise a much shorter read with today's post. Let's get right to it.

PhotoFav Wednesday: Buy the iPad- Just Do It!

You know I've been waxing fantastic over my new iPad since I picked it up a few weeks ago. I have to say, I love nearly every single thing about it.  "Wait", you say, "DPT is a photography blog, so what does an iPad have to do with a photography blog?" Frankly, if you are a photographer, your new iPad could really enhance how you interact with your clients and is a wonderful tool to build business. 

Maybe I should have held this post till tomorrow, but I just couldn't. The iPad is just too cool and too useful for photographers.  Here's why.

Last year during my Digital WakeUp Call tour, I mentioned how the iPhone and iTouch make such handy on the job portfolio devices in showing off your work.  Last year the iPhone and iTouch were about the most impressive portable solution for showing a potential client your work while shooting a wedding.

Well, the ante has been raised considerably with the introduction of the iPad. Now those of us with an iPad have a VERY impressive way of showing off our work. Anywhere –anytime.  The large screen coupled with your on board iTunes library make for a very exciting slideshow preview of your work at a wedding.

A client sees you "working", comes up and asks for a card.  You give them a card, pull out your iPad, and proceed to show them a few examples of your work. I promise you, they WILL be impressed. But here is the deal, how often does that person call you back? Unfortunately, not very often.  People are busy and many times, just forget. How can you change that outcome? Here's how.

They are really impressed with your work on the iPad - heck, it look great on the iPads big screen, right? So now that you've really got their attention,  ask them to click off 5 of their favorite images so you can send them to them.

 DAZNOTE: 5 images was the most my iPad would let me select.  Here's why.  It has to do with the size of the image loaded on your iPad.  I loaded up my portfolio images at 1024 pixels on the long side.  That's native resolution for the iPad and they not only look great, but take up less drive space.  5 selected images adds up to about 3.2 megs, just about the right size for an email.

Add a little message and hit the "send" button and the images are on their way to your new found potential client. You mention to them that you will follow up with them next week about discussing their wedding plans in further detail.

In that little exchange, you've impressed them with your photography on the extra large iPad screen. You've had them interact with the images allowing them to select their favorites. Now you have an indication on how to make your eventual presentation to them showing them images that favor the same type of style as their selected images.  And, you've captured their email address so you get do the follow up and don't have to wait impatiently for them to call.  Now you can be pro-active in contacting them in trying to close the sale.

Folks, I could go on forever about the iPad marketing/sales possibilities.  This is just a quick easy example. Remember, it's more than just showing pretty pictures on the iPad.  It's about how you leverage the impact of those pretty pictures with your clients and use that great first impression to proactively get your foot in the door for further contact with the client. The iPad is an impressive tool to make that happen. 

DAZNOTE: I've also set up my portfolio images by size orientation - all "verticals" in one album and all "horizontals" in the other.  That way when I show my portfolio images, I get a full screen view of each image without any downward image resizing to accommodate combined horizontal/vertical images. Now every image is presented full screen and looks great during the show!

How about more on the subject tomorrow.  I'll point you to a few iPad products that just may be what your client is looking for.

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Hey gang, I'm out of here.  We are getting close to the weekend and need to organize a few things for the trip.  Have a good one and I'll see you tomorrow for another Business Day Thursday.

See ya' them,  David