3 of My (current) Favourite Things

For fellow photogs out there, here are 3 things I'm digging lately:

• Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) Being able to upload files by syncing a drive on the computer is awesome, and probably the best way I've found so far to deliver images online. You can share folders using a unique email link for each folder, and your recipient can download them, saves heaps of time.
• Billings 3 (www.marketcircle.com/billings) I've just started using the program Billings for all my accounting, and so far I've found it to be AMAZING. You can use a timer for tasks to accurately track your work in progress, enter activity slips for each client, then raise a bill when you want to. The reports module ties everything all together, and if that wasn't enough, you can sync it with your iPhone for when you are on location. So much easier and more relative for creatives than MYOB. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I got mine from the Apple store for $69AUD!
• My custom made lighting case. I used a Stanley "Fat Max" giant toolbox, removed the inside molded compartments, lined it with molded foam and now have a watertight case to house 3 strobe heads, all the cables and attachments. It's key lockable, and my foam lining ensures nothing moves out of place and can be flipped upside down without disturbing anything. I've attached some iPhone pics, check it out.

And the Winner Is.........

Jai Mitchell and the Grassroots Street Orchestra!
First of all a massive THANK YOU to everyone who applied, emailed, said they're were going to apply but didn't, and even booked fully paid commercial gigs but didn't apply (true story) over the last month.
There can only be one winner so Jai's appication takes the cake for a few reasons:

• His initial post on my Facebook Wall "Yo Kenny, save a mofo a penny" showed personality, creativity, and a personal favourite of mine, swearing without actually doing so.
• Then he sent me a message saying him and the GSO liked what I do and how I do it....flattery will get you EVERYWHERE.
  
• Next, his follow up email detailing his proposal of WHY he should win was perfect. In 4 paragraphs he told me about his band, their vision, and the fact that they had blown all their resources on hiring top end studios cutting their first record and were out of money to pay for much needed promo images for their advertising; a sign of a creative obsessed with achieving excellence in their product, I like that A LOT. He even included links to their Myspace page so I could check out their music online, and I DIG it. He ended by giving me a list of all the gigs they had coming up locally so I could check them out live.........A+ for delivery.

Congrats Jai, let's DO THIS

Win a Shoot for Free with "Hey Kenny, Save Us a Penny"

This is for REAL! Are you a band, business, organisation, amateur sporting team, dancer, new magazine, writer, actor, or creative individual? Keep reading.

Normally, I shoot promotional photoshoots at a considerable cost to my clients, and rightfully so, they take a lot of time in pre and post production. But right now, I'm in a giving mood, here's why:
American lighting company Alien Bees has been lighting shots and putting smiles on the faces of photographers in the USA for years, and now they have recently become available in Australia. I've been lucky enough to get my hands on a great complete set, and to celebrate, I want to do something for fun. I'm going to shoot a project for free. That's right, it will cost you nothing other than turning up. I will even cover hair and make up.

To enter, this is what you have to do:

• Join the KSP Facebook page here
• Write "Hey Kenny, Save Us/Me a Penny" on the wall
• Email that you have done so to info@kennysmithphotography.com and include information about who you are, your goals, past achievements and WHY you are the right project to shoot for free.
• Be original in your application/pitch. Feel free to use colourful language, funny photos or drawings, anything tha best descibes who you are and what you are about.
  

The winning entrant will be chosen by me after the close of competition and in return get a photo session free of charge, with all fully retouched final edits in high res. I will then grant the winner usage of the photos for their own promotional use absolutely free! There is no hidden catch, just show up, and we'll shoot!

Entries close March 31, and on April 1 (April Fools Day) the winner will be announced!

The shoot will take place within the Gold Coast/Brisbane area

Tell all your friends and nominate whoever you want, may the most creative win!

Storytelling In:Series

As I eluded to in a previous post, Mike our web guy here at KSP and I have been working on ways to get out the work for your enjoyment beyond delivering our commercial product to our clients.
They say that great photographers need to be great story tellers, and often out of all the frames I'll shoot, only one or two will have a life beyond sitting on a disk drive.
In order to storytell a bit more, and share some of these images with you, we've built a new page onto the KSP website, called "In:Series". This page will contain picture tales narrated by imagery which when you look at it all together, tell a certain story that I hope you will find interesting.
You can view the new In:Series page here.
This first Series is with a friend of mine on the East side of the island of Oahu in Hawaii named Debbie. I stayed as a guest with her and her husband Ivan and their 2 boys Christian and Allen while I was over there in Jan.
You can view my blog post with more pics from Hawaii here

What I'm Reading: You Might Like It

If you're like me, pricing is a pretty big challenge. Get it wrong and you're either underselling yourself and possibly setting a dangerous precedent, or overpricing yourself and risk losing the job.

A while back I made a decision to make a living as a photographer by doing what I love to do, creating pictures that I want to see and hopefully others are willing to pay for.
That love of photography even now bubbles up when I'm in a meeting pitching a creative concept, and it is literally all I can do from keeping myself saying across the boardroom table, "you know what? heck I'm so excited about my concept I'll shoot your print campaign for free". A feeling that I regard as healthy and I hope I never lose. It's my love for shooting that keeps me going to those meetings in the first place. Luckily I've been blessed with a bit of resolve and some really good people around me to keep my business smarts and realise I have mouths to feed, bills to pay and equipment to purchase and maintain.

To that end I've been reading Pricing Photography, the Complete Guide to Assignment & Stock Prices by Michal Heron and David MacTavish. I've found this book full of helpful information for anyone who is already or thinking about making a living as a creative individual. While the book is made for the US market, the useful information doesn't appear in the literal values, rather in the concepts and direction it gives. Everything from negotiating, writing out invoices, quoting for commissioned work or stock photography is in this book.
Anyway, I thought some other people might find this book helpful. I got mine on Amazon

Giving it Away

I wish I had a five cent piece for each time I’ve been asked “Was this a paid shoot?” while showing someone some photos I had just taken.

Now I know that people are just being engaging when they ask that, and are genuinely curious, but I think that the misconception out there is that if the answer is no, that somehow the photos have less value or the time you spent taking them was more disposable than if they were taken for commercial purposes.

The reality is, you should work for free, we all should a lot more.

Fellow photographer and contributor Adam Bolt recently wrote an article about his experience with an initially free shoot and how he successfully used it to get his foot in the door with a corporate client.

There’s another reason why we should work for free, and this reason brings us back to why we take photos in the first place…..creativity. In order to be successful at any level, we have to maintain our creative edge. Someone throwing a roll of hundred dollar bills in our laps is not gonna turn us into artists. We take photos and create pictures because that is the only way that our chosen artistic medium works. We have to produce and share to validate our existence.

Let me qualify this with a disclaimer, by giving it away I am not talking about someone else taking it from you. There is a huge difference between embarking on your own creative works and being taken advantage of. The way that I approach it is it has to be my idea, sometimes a result of collaborating with another creative individual, but I have to want to do it for me.

I know now more than ever that I have to set aside time for my own creative works, even if this means delaying or passing up on a paid shoot, and never regret it.

Bottom line, noone can ask me to work for nothing, but I can never give it away enough.