I have been thinking, lately, about how a photographer who calls herself a fine art photographer decides to adopt that label. How did she get to the place where it was decided that the photographs she took would fit within that genre? What has she done in her marketing to to get her to that lofty position? Does she only sell high priced, museum-quality printed limited edition prints, that are accessible to a very limited audience, or has she honed her program so that there is something for anyone who might want to collect her work?

Well, the answers to those questions, and quite a few more, quite frankly, can be found in the latest edition (#89, July-August 2010) of LensWork. this seminal magazine, the offspring of Brooks Jensen and Maureen Gallagher is consistently “above the fold” when it comes to quality in printing and content, both in images as well as editorial. When I opened the cardboard envelope in which the magazine arrived in my PO box, the first aroma to arouse my senses was the smell of fresh ink! Once I removed the book from its shelter, however, I was ready to sit down, pour a glass of wine, and browse the contents. Once that ritual was completed, I began to read Brooks’ Editor’s Comments, which for this issue was titled, “Levels of Involvement.”

His words flowed right into a lot of what has been rolling over in my mind for the last few months, explaining what one might do when one chooses to accept the surreal label “fine art photographer.” Brooks, who I think is one of the most prolific, as well as ascerbic writers about marketing your work, hit the nail right on the proverbial head when he questioned the integrity of that choice.

Recently returning from Houston Fotofest, where he spent the majority of his time reviewing portfolios, he noticed that he “consistently found the photogrpahers had no idea as to how to go about finding an audience for their work, what kind of audience, strategies that help an audience connect with the artwork, or what they might do to facilitate the process.”

Many times when I have been participating for various organizations as a portfolio reviewer, I have also received the same question, as well as a blank stare from the participant. One group of photographers I was once reviewing were all recent graduates of a prestigious photography program, yet when they came to my table they did not have a single clue as to what to do with the knowledge they had (supposedly) accumulated. Sure, they might be able to produce an acceptable image, but what would they do with it once it was printed? Again, the blank stare. None of them even hard a business card or a postcard to leave with me.

The analogy Brooks uses is that once their “training” is completed they stand on the steps of that institution and “announce to the world, ‘Here are my prints. You can buy any print you want for $1,000.” He then goes on to state that in order to become successful in the fine art photography genre is to build your success, one step at a time. This is where he gets into levels of involvement.

“…. this is a strategy I call levels of involvement. Once we recognize there are lots of different kinds of audiences, the implication for us is to simply create variations of our work that fit the various audiences we might encounter,” he writes.

He goes on to explain how he produces and markets his work, in a step-by-step fashion for a variety of audiences: Note cards, folios, pdfs, audio and video pdfs, fine art prints. He has work for every level of audience. The person who is casually interested in his work can download a pdf with images and information included. That is the first step, and you may be able to guess how he proceeds from there.

Brooks writes with a great deal of intelligence, insight, experience, and integrity. He doesn’t sugar-coat what we might need, he states it, matter-of-factly, based on a weatlhg of pertinent experience, learned and accumulated in the trenches, day-by-day, and year-by-year. If you haven’t become a member of the LensWork family, yet, now may be the time.

The following is a response to an email I recently recieved from a photo-friend. She has, like most of us, expertienced little financial growth in the last year as lamenting her position. She is a very good photographer who has a well-developed sense of composition and is able to create stunning images. Not well-known she struggles with a common challenge, which many of us face: “Where do I go from here?” Below, is my response:

Another avenue to explore, which you have pursued, is to have your work reviewed in a variety of portfolio review sessions that are held around the country. Several of the top are: Photo Lucida, Reviews Santa Fe and LA, and Fotofest (Houston). They are just a few of the better ones. One of the really good things about these is that you can get quite a few opinions by proffessionals in the field. At many of them you can even select who you want to see.

Photography is a wonderful occupation, no matter what degree of participation you choose. Even in these cyber-silly times, a single image can still cause a tear to fall, widen a smile, or change the course of history.

So… how have you succeeded as a photographer? How many irons do you have in the fire? Are you positive or negative, or maybe even realistic about the future of photography, and your place in it?

A few posts ago I wrote about cleaning up my act, and removing those tasks or obstacles that were cluttering my life and my business. Actually, it was more busyness than business. Over the last few months, I have been very diligent (for me!) in keeping my desk clean, tasks up-to-date (mostly!), and commitments fulfilled. I has been quite a chore for me to focus on only a small part of what it is that I do, rather than attacking the whole broad spectrum of all that is what I want to accomplish.

The first thing I had to do was silence my mind, which has a tendency to run at 200mph. That was probably the hardest thing to do. The next item on my “clean up my life” tasks was to keep detailed to do lists of my business day. Now, this something I have done in the past, but not with as much regularity as I am now. Some days I end up with more than 20 things I have done. For the few I didn’t finish, I simply put them at the top of tomorrow’s list. 

Then came the most difficult item of my transitional process: have a concerted desire to make a few more bucks. Well, in order to do that I had to add items to my life that would take up even more of my time. But, I fugured, the end would most certainly justify the means. One of the first things I did was to create a folio of my work and put it up for sale on my personal site. The next was to clean up my site, and make it more condusive to sales (I’m still working on that!). Then, I created 5×7 note cards of my “Outlander” series. I used Red River Paper for the cards, put them in groups of five, and put them on my site.

Since I put up the folio (right), I have sold a few of them, and my note cards will be announced soon. I guess the point is not how many I sell, but it was good for me to complete the process. Another thing on my agenda was to enter more competitions, something I haven’t done much of in the past. So far this year, I have entered several calls for entry and have been juried in on a couple of occasions. For me, after spending so much time on the other side of the “table” as a reviewer and juror, this is, probably one of the most daunting tasks on my to-do list.

And, so I continue the “clean-up” process. How are you doing with your process? Are you spreading your wings as you go?

Some people can’t handle responsibility. And I know from my recent experience jurying a call for entry that too much responsibility in the wrong hands, can lead to a very challenging experience.

It all began innocently enough, at the first couple of clicks-through during the online jurying process, with the first category, Black and White: Still Life, Floral, and Landscape. Although the first couple of images were entered correctly, there ended up being more color images in this category than B&W. An email to the group sponsoring the call for entry competition brought back a confused response. They had no idea how to remedy the situation, other than going through the whole process, from the start, and re-entering the images in the correct categories. After a couple of back-and-forth emails, it was decided that I would reclassify the images.

In order to do this correctly, I had to create a spreadsheet for each entry and each category. The whole process took much longer than it should have, but then, I was starting from scratch. Not one category was “pure.” Even if there were only a handful of entries in a particular category, more than half were incorrectly placed.

This is not the fault of the organization hosting the event. It is not the fault of the company hosting the online jurying process. It is the fault of the photographers who didn’t put much though into what they were doing. By all rights, I could have simply disqualified the majority of images I viewed. If you think a call for entry is valuable enough to enter, and you send in your money and your images, only to not follow “the process” correctly, you are the only one to blame.

In the past, when I juried, we worked with prints, and it was easy to reclassify them if they were entered in the incorrect category. But with most of your organizations and foundations that have calls for entry going to the online jurying process, you need to be VERY careful with your entries. Make sure that your very favorite black-and-white flower photograph is in the B&W: floral section of the entry process, not in the Color: Animals and People section. The juror who looks at your work may not be in a good mood, and all your great work may be for naught when that juror simply passes over your image for one that is in the correct category. It doesn’t really matter if your image is branches and petals above the other one. You will lose!

Pay attention and enter your images correctly, and you stand a chance to have a much more positive experience. Good luck!

When you open your email in the morning, with that nice, hot cup of coffee in your hand, you are relaxed and ready to take on the day. Pretty soon, a couple of hours have slipped by and your cup of coffee is empty, and you’re tired. What happened? The Facebook time warp is what happened. You first open that email that says Joyce Tenneson wants to “friend” you. So you go and respond to that, and realize it’s not the Joyce Tenneson you thought it was. Oh, well, it’s always good to have a few new friends, right? Now you are on your Facebook page, and you are scrolling down to see what your friends are saying. What they are saying, however, appears to be in a different language than you know. And, they are talking about things of which you have no interest.

Well, now, what to do? You don’t want to de-friend them all, and take everyone off. You just don’t want to have to go through all the chatter to find something that interests you. In my email box, this morning, I received an email newsletter from Alyson Stanfield, of “I’d Rather Be In the Studio,” fame. The title of the newsletter? “Save Loads of Time on Facebook,” of course!

Below, I have included the text and images from her newsletter, in order to give you a clearer picture on how you can control the Facebook time warp:

Facebook is one of the biggest time-suckers out there—if you allow it to be. In addition to setting an alarm and limiting your Facebook time, there’s one big step you can take to save time on Facebook: Group your friends into lists.

Friend’s lists help you organize your Facebook connections. Rather than hundreds or even thousands of friends in your profile stream, you can select whom you are most interested in hearing from at any point.

There are numerous ways to create lists in Facebook. I’m going to share the two methods I use most often, and then I’ll show you how to use your lists.

1.One way to create a friend’s list is from an invitation. From your invitation, select “Add to List” (a) before you “Confirm.” Here, you can add to previously created lists or start a new one (b).

2. Another way to create a friends list is to select Friends from the left sidebar of your Facebook Home page (c). Notice the + Create a List button in the upper right of the center column (d).

After clicking the Create a List button, your entire Friends List will open up. Give your list a name (e) and start adding people by typing their names or clicking on their names+images.

Voila! That’s it.   Now let me show you how to use your lists.

To view your lists, select Home / Friends and then click on the name of the list you want to view (f). Your carefully selected stream will display updates only from the people you included on that friend list.

From here, you can also add to a list. Click on the Edit List button above the stream (g). Your list of friends will open up, and you can either type names (h) or click on the names and photos of people that you want to add to the list,

As you can see, I have 10 friend’s lists. These include Favorites (people and clients I really want to keep up with), as well as Family, high school pals, and more.

FINAL WORD: Take a few minutes to organize your Facebook friends so that you don’t spend too much time on social networking and not enough time in the studio. Categorizing your friends will also help you stay up to date with those who are most dear to you.
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I appreciate these newsletters from Alyson, and I encourage you to take this opportunity to wander over to her site, and check out EVERYTHING she has to offer.

Facebook doesn’t need to be a mystery, and by following the steps outlined by Alyson, you will be one step closer to control of your own cyber world.

We live in a time where we can be completely inundated with electronic, and otherwise, media. We have our Website(s), Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, texting, Stumbleupon, Tumblr, etc. You get the picture. So, when do you decide then to shout, “I can’t take it anymore?” It’s a personal decision, I know. Many factors weigh in when making the decision of what to drop and what to continue with.

Currently, I publish an email newsletter, Red Dog News, which is sent out to more than 15,000 bi-weekly subscribers. I also manage four Websites, and release a couple other smaller email newsletters. I also created and manage a Website, Red Dog Journal that carries articles, portfolios, commentary, news, and a variety of other things. Then, there is my publishing company, Cygnet Press, under which I have published several books of my own, as well as a couple other authors. As you can see, it would appear that I have reached my limit. You couldn’t be closer to the truth. Having that much on my plate leaves me no room for dessert, other things I want to pursue. I have no room left in the day to work on a few fun things, namely my own creative pursuits.

So, how do I decide to relinquish control of one or more of those items? Two things are driving me right now: creativity and money. Creativity drives my internal soul. It is the food which wakes me up in the morning and gets me through the day. No matter what I am doing, it is always rooted in creativity, whether it is through my writing or my photography (or the drawing class I recently began to attend). In spite of all the creative things I do, however, just like you, I need money.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be spending some time looking over my options. I would like to have your input on this topic. How do you decide which to drop and which to keep? Or, do you just keep going until something falls by the wayside? Let me know.

How many times have you received an email that offers a great product, at a great price, only to find that when you go to the directed Website there is so much information on the home page that you can’t tell what to do next? Far too many times, probably.

For most of us who use the Internet consistently, we want things to be simple. We don’t want to have to go through a half-dozen maneuvers to get to the page where we can actually see how much a certain product costs. Sometimes there are far too many “teasers,” those words and phrases that enable you to keep turning “pages.”

In my research, I have discovered that the following list best illustrates what criteria one should follow when setting up her/his Landing Page, that page your reader first lands on that will either make them more (or less) interested in whatever it is you are attempting to sell or share with them.

1. Make it simple. Don’t fill up every inch of the screen with bold text. Text, by itself, is boring. Illustrate the page with graphics, be it clip art, photographs, paintings, or whatever you can insert that will make the page more compelling.

2. State the purpose of the page. If you want people to click to another location for additional information, tell them so, clearly. Don’t make them wade through so much “stuff” that they get bored and move on to another site.

3. Make your Landing Page “sticky.” Whether you are offering books, artwork, candy, poetry, or tumbleweeds, you need to let your viewer know right away that this is the best site for their interests. Whether that is through a “lowest price” or “information not available elsewhere” banner, do whatever you can to make them stay (stick) on your site.

4. View other Landing Pages. This item is true for just about any pursuit. If your interest is in left-handed baseball pitchers, give it a Google and let your fingers do the research. The more sites you visit, the better your chances of finding a few sites from which you can borrow ideas.

5. Make it convincing. Your Landing Page has to convince the reader to stay, whether it asks she/he to fill out a form, access information, or buy something, you need to convince them to stay as soon as possible.

More times than I care to remember, I have received emails pleading with me to “click here” to go to another site for additional information. Once I get there, I am faced with the option of scrolling down through way too many lines of convoluted text, to only find (once I get to the bottom) that I have to “click here” again to find out how much this is all going to cost me.

I’m at the point now that I just go to the end of the “scrolling,” and if the product has lost its luster, away I go. the only way I will continue is if the product is tremendously compelling. But that doesn’t happen very often.

It’s a big world out there, these days, isn’t it? Sometimes it is so big that it is overwhelming. As artists it seems as though there isn’t enough time in the day (or night!) to get everything done we think needs to be done. Those times, as least for me, is when I try to turn everything off, metaphorically speaking.

I create a blank slate, and write down the first thing that comes to mind. I then write the next thing that comes to mind. And the next. And the next. And the next. I don’t set a time limit. I don’t set a quantity limit. I simply quit when I run out of things to list.

Usually, the most important items on that list are those I listed first. I scan the list, jotting down check marks for those I want to get done first. Notice I said “want” instead of need. For me, the “needs” on my lists seem to take care of themselves, without any any inteference from me.

Once I have a few items marked, I take care of them, without regard to whether or not taking care of them satisfies my creative side, or not. It’s not about creativity at this point, it’s about uncluttering your mind so you can move on. You can’t go forward and follow your creative path, be it in photography or whatever, if you have a two-ton burlap bag holding you back.  

How do you lift the burden of indecision and too much perceived responsibility in order to progress in your day, as well as your life. Let us know!

As we continue to build our creative life and work, many times we are faced with situations that may cause us to stop and take a breather; a moment to reflect. At these times, we sometimes reach a cross-road, one that we may not want to traverse. It is at these times that we need that little bit of inspiration, that piece of the puzzle that enables us to continue on our chosen artistic path. In the book mentioned below, I have found many of these, which are referred to as “No-excuse Principles.” I have selected a few for you to ponder, to reflect on, to use as your own jump-start.

I take a few of these “No-excuse Principles” from the great art marketing, must-have book, I’d Rather Be In the Studio! by Alyson B. Stanfield. These principles are at the end of each chapter, and, basically sum-up the chapter. I offer these as jump-starts to your marketing process, if you are mired in responsibilities, or just plain stuck.

Define Success for Yourself
• Don’t let anyone define success for you. You are in charge. What works for some artists may not work for you. It’s up to you to forge your own path.

Organize Your Information: It All Has to Go Somewhere
• You won’t do an efficient job of promoting your art or maintaining critical relationships if your records are a mess. Spend time on what’s most important, not on looking for stuff.

Live With Routines to Free Your Creative Mind
• Building your art career is hard work. It takes discipline and dedication. Taking control of your time is taking control of your career and your life.

Differentiate Yourself: The Power of Your Artist Statement
• Your artwork doesn’t speak for itself. The process of writing your statement will give you the confidence (and words) you need to connect with new audiences as you promote your work in formal and informal situations, as well as through text on your Web site, blog, applications, and in media releases.

Fill the Rooms: Speak and Teach to Become an Expert
• Speaking and teaching spotlight you as the leading advocate for your art. A room full of people means a bigger audience. Those who see and hear you in person are more likely to be raving fans that will help you fill rooms in the future.

Create a Portfolio to Knock Out Your Competition
• The marketing materials in your portfolio reflect the image you want to project to the world. Maintaining control of how they look means you’re in charge of your image, which is a good place to begin.

These are just a few of the hundreds of great tips that are designed to make you think a bit harder about what you want to achieve with your chosen creative path, whether it be in photography, sculpting, fine art painting, or otherwise, within the covers of this book.

So, you’ve finished another piece of art. Is this now the time for you to get out there and tell people what you’ve done? Who you are? What you are? Are you a painter, a photographer, a writer, or a scultor? It really doesn’t matter how you fulfill and release your creative spirit. The first thing that matters is that you’ve done it! You are way ahead of a lot of people who continually moan about not having the time to pursue their dreams and/or aspirations. Congratulations! You deserve it.

Now what? How does one decide what the best way is to let other people know you are the next Van Gogh, Ansel Adams, Rodin, Norman Mailer, etc.? There is only one sure-fire way: you tell them. You can shout it from the roof-tops, or be a bit more subtle and hope for good “word of mouth.” I think there is one thing for certain, however. Not a single soul will know you are an artist unless you tell them. The mechanics of how you do that is entirely up to you. 

At one low point in my life, I was in therapy, and my therapist asked what I wanted to be, and I told him I wanted to be a writer. He then suggested at our next meeting that I bring him a business card reflecting that very desire. At that next meeting just as we had each sat down, I very proudly handed him my new business card. He took a look at it, turned it over and and over and over, and…

“So, you are Tim Anderson, and you are a writer,” he said, in a very low whisper. I could hardly hear him.

“If you really want to be a writer,” he continued, “your font is going to have be a little larger so people can read it.” I sat, deflated and bewildered. But I got the point. Do you? What would be the first thing you would do to market your work?

Take Red Dog’s current survey and let him know what “fears” you have about marketing.