Blue Ridge Region March 2014
Thoughts
With convention wrapped up it’s time to get back out there and gear up for some warmer weather! At 65 degrees today it’s amazing to think we had snow/sleet a few days ago!
Cover Image
This months cover image comes from your Secretary. Steamin’ down the track! An old engine was brought up from NC for wanna-be engineers to pilot one cold Saturday last fall. EXIF: Canon 5D mkII, ISO 320, 1/250, f/4.0, Focal length 200mm To have your image featured here, email to
info@michaelsinkphotography.com with details.
this issue From the Governor P.1 From the Lt.Governor P.2
©
Article from the Gov. P.3
From the Governor... Herewith a little rant I was inspired to write in response to a post in a photography forum online by somebody who said they’d been doing photography for a couple years now, their mom said they were great at it, and they wanted to hang out their shingle, and asking the scads of other amateur shooters there how much they should charge. I couldn’t resist the bait, so herewith my answer:
The Top 5 Worst Ways to Set Your Business Prices: #5 Charge whatever you paid for it the last time you bought at retail -after all, THEY surely knew what to charge.
#4 Pick a number, any number, and watch closely how the shill, er, I mean customer, reacts. If they don’t flinch, continue the price quote with something like “that’s for the left one, now for the right one . . . “ and be sure to make the add-on more expensive. Repeat until they do flinch.
#3 Double (or triple) whatever the wholesale price is. #2 Call your competitors and ask what they charge. Of course, THEY have been in business longer and are probably better than you are, so be sure to discount their fee so you get the business, and have a chance to get better to where you can charge as much as they do. #1 Ask anonymous strangers on the internet what you should charge. None of whom, BTW, are going to pick up the pieces when you go bankrupt because you’ve neglected to account for expenses they don’t happen to have.
All these methods, of course, are SO MUCH EASIER than actually figuring out what you need to charge for the way you work and the real costs you will incur for things like utilities, equipment wear and tear, your time, and so on. If you insist on pricing your services and products so you can actually make money, you’ll buy the book “Pricing Photography” from Amazon. It’s by Heron & MacTavish, and is about $30. Besides a solid survey of nationwide prices for photographic services, it also details exactly how to (continued on page 3)
From the Lt. Governor...
Side Notes... I missed everyone at the convention this year, maybe we can all catch up at the monthly meetings over a cup of coffee or soda. I look forward to a year packed with informative meetings and fun. Don;t forget this month’s meeting at Lisa Carter’s studio featuring Lori Jill presenting some great info on Painting techniques in Photoshop! - Michael Sink, CPP
2014 is started off with a BANG!, a POW!, and a HOLY COW, BATMAN! VPPA Convention was an amazing event! The speaker line up was great, the organization of the event was super, and the print competition winners and award recipients were just out of this world. Already looking forward to the next convention in the Summer! Plan now so you will not miss out…. As you all are aware by now, we have an amazingly talented photographer coming in to our local Blue Ridge meeting on Monday, March 17th from 1pm3pm. Lisa Carter has graciously assisted with not only hosting this event, but came to me at East Coast School last year with the excitement to bring such talent to our district. THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE, LISA! This is going to be a great learning opportunity for everyone, regardless of skill level. I am not sure about you all, but every time I attend one of these meetings, I take some valuable information to my studio/clients. It is all about continuing our education!! Please RSVP to Lisa by Friday, March 14th via email lisa@photobylisa.com and let her know you will be there. If interested in carpooling, maybe we can communicate via email to entire group so we get a great attendance. It would be fun to all go to lunch prior to the meeting, if interested… call me (540)521-1378. I know Lori has worked hard organizing this meeting, Let’s all show our support and be there in per-
son to thank her for her time. Here is a brief summary of what she will be covering: “Creating Art from your Photographs” - Starting with the basics; understanding brushes, brush tool presets, and saving and organizing the workspace for painting - Learn to mix paint, create texture, and add dimension - Learn an easy way to set-up an underpainting (similar to clone painting in Corel), and bring in details to your own style - I will also demonstrate a couple plugins, which can give a good starting place for an underpainting, but not necessary, as paintings can certainly be created with nothing more than Photoshop You can take a sneak peek at her website and bio online: www.LoriJill.me and bio is www.lorijillme/bio I am still working on lining up speakers for monthly meetings and would love your input. I truly appreciate Kevin and David Lee offering to host for upcoming events. If you have a speaker in mind and would like to host at your studio, please contact me directly at jollyjenphotography@gmail.com. See you on the 17th!! - Jen Chaconas
(contined from pg 1) determine what YOU need to charge, as well as a thorough explanation of WHY you want to go to the trouble of working that out for yourself.
{RANT OFF}
I trust everyone had a great time at the VPPA annual convention in Richmond. Coming up in March is the Blue Ridge monthly meeting at Lisa Carter’s in Sutherlin, at which Lori Jill will be our speaker. I’ve heard so much about her, I can’t wait until the 17th. Meanwhile, exciting news from the Convention and the VPPA Board: (1) the new Enthusiast member classification has been finalized and tweaked a bit to answer concerns of some of our current VPPA members. (2) To encourage VPPA members to seek out and recruit new members, the “Get 1 Membership Campaign” has been announced. The deal is this, recruit just 1 new member to the VPPA in any membership category, and your name goes in the hopper for the drawing to get YOUR dues paid in full for the next year. Drawing to be held at the end of the year when folks are getting billed for dues. But wait . . . there’s MORE! Recruit just THREE new members to the “Active” category, and your dues are free. You can download a pdf of the application form from my website. The Enthusiast category form is at http://www.expressions-photographics.com/ forumpix/Enthusiast_Application.pdf and the form for all other membership categories is at http://www.expressions-photographics.com/forumpix/VPPA_ Application.pdf. - Michael Corbin
©opyright Corner
Yes, registering your copyrights is important. It is, it truly is. And the crazy thing is that it is cheap to do at $35 per application, and each application you file can cover thousands of photographs! If you do it right, as part of your normal workflow, you file one application every three months and register EVERY PHOTO YOU TAKE in the preceding three months. Four times a year, four applications, $140 total cost along with 15 minutes of your time, and you are prepared to deal with theft of your photos. It’s easy, it’s quick, it’s the cheapest insurance you can buy and covers the most likely loss you are going to suffer. You’d be a fool not to do it. I’ve been preaching that for quite some time now. It’s my personal crusade to help the industry, and YOU, make money this year. In fact, I care so much about it that I’ll make you an offer if you’d like help doing this the first time (and you make a template in the process, so it is even easier and faster after that!). Here’s the offer: I’ll log on with you and share the screen on your computer, and walk you through the process. No need for you to come to my place. No need for me to go to yours. All you need is to call me and ask for help. Go ahead, I’ll wait. The number is 434-845-0613.
Upcoming Events March 17, 1-4pm - BRR Monthly Meeting at Lisa Carter’s Studio in Sutherlin, VA, presentation by Lori Jill on Painter in Photoshop
From the Lt. Governor...
Side Notes... I missed everyone at the convention this year, maybe we can all catch up at the monthly meetings over a cup of coffee or soda. I look forward to a year packed with informative meetings and fun. Don;t forget this month’s meeting at Lisa Carter’s studio featuring Lori Jill presenting some great info on Painting techniques in Photoshop! - Michael Sink, CPP
2014 is started off with a BANG!, a POW!, and a HOLY COW, BATMAN! VPPA Convention was an amazing event! The speaker line up was great, the organization of the event was super, and the print competition winners and award recipients were just out of this world. Already looking forward to the next convention in the Summer! Plan now so you will not miss out…. As you all are aware by now, we have an amazingly talented photographer coming in to our local Blue Ridge meeting on Monday, March 17th from 1pm3pm. Lisa Carter has graciously assisted with not only hosting this event, but came to me at East Coast School last year with the excitement to bring such talent to our district. THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE, LISA! This is going to be a great learning opportunity for everyone, regardless of skill level. I am not sure about you all, but every time I attend one of these meetings, I take some valuable information to my studio/clients. It is all about continuing our education!! Please RSVP to Lisa by Friday, March 14th via email lisa@photobylisa.com and let her know you will be there. If interested in carpooling, maybe we can communicate via email to entire group so we get a great attendance. It would be fun to all go to lunch prior to the meeting, if interested… call me (540)521-1378. I know Lori has worked hard organizing this meeting, Let’s all show our support and be there in per-
son to thank her for her time. Here is a brief summary of what she will be covering: “Creating Art from your Photographs” - Starting with the basics; understanding brushes, brush tool presets, and saving and organizing the workspace for painting - Learn to mix paint, create texture, and add dimension - Learn an easy way to set-up an underpainting (similar to clone painting in Corel), and bring in details to your own style - I will also demonstrate a couple plugins, which can give a good starting place for an underpainting, but not necessary, as paintings can certainly be created with nothing more than Photoshop You can take a sneak peek at her website and bio online: www.LoriJill.me and bio is www.lorijillme/bio I am still working on lining up speakers for monthly meetings and would love your input. I truly appreciate Kevin and David Lee offering to host for upcoming events. If you have a speaker in mind and would like to host at your studio, please contact me directly at jollyjenphotography@gmail.com. See you on the 17th!! - Jen Chaconas
(contined from pg 1) determine what YOU need to charge, as well as a thorough explanation of WHY you want to go to the trouble of working that out for yourself.
{RANT OFF}
I trust everyone had a great time at the VPPA annual convention in Richmond. Coming up in March is the Blue Ridge monthly meeting at Lisa Carter’s in Sutherlin, at which Lori Jill will be our speaker. I’ve heard so much about her, I can’t wait until the 17th. Meanwhile, exciting news from the Convention and the VPPA Board: (1) the new Enthusiast member classification has been finalized and tweaked a bit to answer concerns of some of our current VPPA members. (2) To encourage VPPA members to seek out and recruit new members, the “Get 1 Membership Campaign” has been announced. The deal is this, recruit just 1 new member to the VPPA in any membership category, and your name goes in the hopper for the drawing to get YOUR dues paid in full for the next year. Drawing to be held at the end of the year when folks are getting billed for dues. But wait . . . there’s MORE! Recruit just THREE new members to the “Active” category, and your dues are free. You can download a pdf of the application form from my website. The Enthusiast category form is at http://www.expressions-photographics.com/ forumpix/Enthusiast_Application.pdf and the form for all other membership categories is at http://www.expressions-photographics.com/forumpix/VPPA_ Application.pdf. - Michael Corbin
©opyright Corner
Yes, registering your copyrights is important. It is, it truly is. And the crazy thing is that it is cheap to do at $35 per application, and each application you file can cover thousands of photographs! If you do it right, as part of your normal workflow, you file one application every three months and register EVERY PHOTO YOU TAKE in the preceding three months. Four times a year, four applications, $140 total cost along with 15 minutes of your time, and you are prepared to deal with theft of your photos. It’s easy, it’s quick, it’s the cheapest insurance you can buy and covers the most likely loss you are going to suffer. You’d be a fool not to do it. I’ve been preaching that for quite some time now. It’s my personal crusade to help the industry, and YOU, make money this year. In fact, I care so much about it that I’ll make you an offer if you’d like help doing this the first time (and you make a template in the process, so it is even easier and faster after that!). Here’s the offer: I’ll log on with you and share the screen on your computer, and walk you through the process. No need for you to come to my place. No need for me to go to yours. All you need is to call me and ask for help. Go ahead, I’ll wait. The number is 434-845-0613.
Upcoming Events March 17, 1-4pm - BRR Monthly Meeting at Lisa Carter’s Studio in Sutherlin, VA, presentation by Lori Jill on Painter in Photoshop