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NEW HOME FOR MICHAEL ONEILL FINE ART

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

It is with great joy that I announce that we finalized the real estate transactions today for the new home of Michael ONeill Fine Art. Our new studio and gallery will be located at 81 Larkfield Road, East Northport, NY in a newly renovated historical building on this main mercantile thoroughfare. Our past gallery locations have been on Larkfield Road since 1984 and it feels great to return to this wonderful community following a brief period of working from our home.

Formerly the East Northport movie theatre, this property has been completely renovated into luxury space with an art deco feel inside and out. When you enter the main lobby a large expanse of glass looks in to the Michael ONeill Fine Art gallery space.

Beyond that glass is the reception area with glass-partitioned walls and double french doors wrapping around the conference area.

The open format conference area will serve as our client consultation space and also as a small ‘classroom’ for the photography workshops I offer here on Long Island. Our computer workstations and fine art printing room will be located in the office immediately adjacent to the conference area. This office opens directly into the conference area allowing our clients access to our computer workstations, where we retouch and enhance our images, and create our award-winning custom album designs.

A long hallway runs the length of the facility and will be set up as our fine art photography gallery. The initial presentation here will be of my fine art works, but plans to host shows for other photographic artists are in the future. The second office space in line will be our production/fulfillment area.

The wall between the third and fourth offices will be removed and the area will become our camera room. In addition to our state-of-the-art lighting gear a north facing glass block window will allow for beautiful natural light portraiture indoors!

At the end of the gallery hall there is a service area perfect for cosmetology and wardrobe changes. This service area also includes a compact fully-equipped kitchenette. A private restroom and a storage closet completes the space.

The physical move into our new home will be taking place over the next few weeks. There is so much to do…installing telephone, internet, WiFi and security systems; construction for the camera room, accepting delivery of furnishings, adding custom interior lighting for our gallery of photographic art, etc., etc. We are confident that the transition will be efficient and painless. One down side of the move will be the loss of our existing telephone number. We will be updating all of our clients and colleagues with our new information as soon as possible. Our existing phone number will remain in place for a period of time and will forward calls to the new location. Stay tuned to this blog for progress reports and for information on our grand opening reception to be held this summer. Our sincerest thanks go out to all of our wonderful clients and colleagues that contributed to making this dream gallery a reality.

Posted in Customer Relations, Events, Phtographic Education, Sales and Merchandising | 1 Comment »

GREAT NEW WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Hot off the press is another great new book from Author, Bill Hurter and publisher, Amherst Media, Inc. The book is entitled “Wedding Photography: Advanced Techniques for Digital Photographers”. For those of you that don’t know Bill Hurter here is a small portion of his impressive biography:

“Bill Hurter has been involved in the photographic industry for the past thirty years. He is the former editor of Petersen’s PhotoGraphic magazine and currently the editor of both Rangefinder and After Capture magazines. He has authored over thirty books on photography and hundreds of articles on photography and photographic technique. He is a graduate of American University and Brooks Institute of Photography, from which he holds a BFA and Honorary Masters of Science and Masters of Fine Arts degrees”.

Bill has once again used his incredible editorial and authoring skills to compile a book that is a must-have for every wedding photographer. The book is filled with extraordinary images from some of the most highly regarded wedding photographers working today. The list includes Marcus Bell, Joe Buissink, Mike Colón, Jesh de Rox, Dan Doke, Bruce Dorn, Jerry Ghionis, Greg Gibson, Kevin Jairaj, Charles & Jennifer Maring, JB & DeEtte Sallee, Ken Sklute and Yervant Zanazanian. I am truly honored to have my photographic work and techniques showcased in this book alongside some of the finest photographers in the world.

The book is already available on Amazon.com, Amherst Media’s site, Camerabooks.com. and in the online store on the WPPI web site. Be sure to check the archives of my blog for information on other great books from Bill Hurter and Amherst Media. (Search Word: “Book”)

Posted in Books and Publications, Camera Techniques, Customer Relations, Guest Posts and Features, Nikon, Photoshop, Phtographic Education, Sales and Merchandising, WPPI, Workflow | No Comments »

FIRST IMPRESSIONS • PART 2

Monday, March 15th, 2010

First off let’s get some news out of the way…

I returned last week from WPPI 2010. What an extraordinary event this was. This is the definitive conference and trade show for every one in our industry. Mark your calendars and save the dates for WPPI 2011: February 17 – 24, 2011 at The MGM Grand Hotel and Conference Center in Las Vegas. I am proud to report that I returned from WPPI with five Accolades of Excellence in the 16″ X 20″ print competition. You can check out my award-winning prints on my blog.

A quick update on your mentorship requests. I have read all of your emails, visited your web sites and have sent out the first set of invitations to some lucky individuals. I wish I could work with all of you but unfortunately I must limit these on-the-job mentorships to about a dozen wedding events in 2010. I look forward to meeting all of you and working with you in the very near future.

Now onto today’s feature with some more insight into the initial sales consultation with a prospective bridal client. This feature started a few weeks back with the post “First Impressions”. You may want to give that feature a read first. Click here and it will open in a new window.

After my clients have relaxed and viewed my samples at their pace I return to the room and get them to start talking about the subject they are so excited about…their wedding. Keep your mouth shut and your ears open. Resist any urge to start telling them what you do…you’ll get to that soon enough. I ask them questions that will keep them excited and talking about their wedding, but also ask questions that reveal to me a lot about their personalities, their friends, their families and their budget. Spend a few minutes finding out how many people are in their bridal party, who is important in their formal family photographs, how many guests are going to attend the reception, who the other vendors are, etc? My clients are all unique and I can’t see them that way until I know some of the little details that make up who they are. I try to bring something unique to each and every wedding I’m given the privilege of photographing. The only way to do this is by finding out what your clients are all about.

I then spend a little time educating my clients on a number of subjects relating to their wedding photography. I talk to them about off camera lighting and the role my photographic assistants play in creating dramatic, detailed images for them. I talk about Photoshop and how it is a tool used to enhance fine photography. I have an album of “before and after” images that I display showing beautiful complexion enhancements and dramatic image effects. I talk about the importance of proper archiving of my clients images, telling them about our in-house RAID storage system and offline backup on a server at a remote location. I talk about the importance of doing their engagement session…to get to know them better and to build their confidence for the wedding day. I talk about how all of my image editing and finished album design is done in-house and how they will have a real influence in the theme of their finished album presentation. What it really comes down to is I talk about ALL of the things that I offer that set me apart from my competition.

Only at this point do I start to discuss pricing. There is basic pricing information on my web site that has already told my prospective clients that my average couple invests between $5,000.00 and $6,000.00 on their wedding photography. Don’t be put off if the only question your client asks is “How much”? Remember…you’ve done this before, they haven’t. They don’t know what else to ask. Address the subject with confidence and professionalism…you know what your services are worth.

I give my prospective clients the information they will need regarding my payment schedule, acceptable methods of payment, my retainer of the copyright to all of my images, etc. I finish my presentation by thanking the couple for the opportunity to discuss their wedding plans with them and encourage them to call me with any other questions that might come up as they continue to shop. A great deal of the time my clients confess that after sitting down with me they didn’t feel the need to shop anywhere else and retain my services within a day or two of our initial meeting.

So there you have it. An accurate description of the manner in which I handle the initial sales consultation with my brides and grooms. Take the ideas that work for you and incorporate them into your efforts. Remember: differentiate yourself from your competition and always remember that it is your client’s wishes and desires that must be met. If you’re the right man or woman for the job you will be granted the privilege of capturing that special couple’s memories for a lifetime.

Posted in Customer Relations, Sales and Merchandising, WPPI | 1 Comment »

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

A lengthy post, but well worth the read…

I’m going to start this post by saying this is going to be just one of many features to follow on sales and marketing philosophies that will enable you to grow your business in 2010 and beyond. 2008 was a great year. So was 2009. 2010 is going to be a great one, too. I know those are tough words to swallow in these economically challenging times, but read on. I personally photographed 60 weddings in 2008, 54 in 2009 and will end 2010 with about 45 weddings under my belt. It’s a shrinking trend but it is exactly where I want it to be. Even though the number of weddings I photograph every year is declining, my revenues are steadily increasing. I have managed to raise my prices steadily through tough economic times while maintaining a strong client base. I’m willing to bet that every one of you would like to earn more money while doing less work so I’m here to share some of the things that will enable you to increase your revenue, attract a more affluent clientele and free up more of your time to pursue other activities in your personal life.

I will admit that I’m working harder at my sales efforts today than I ever had in the past. I used to book 90% of the potential clients I sat down with, now it’s more like 65%. The reasons are many. Yes, we’re in a recession and some clients are scaling back their budgets when planning a wedding. Some simply can’t afford my services and I accept that. Yes, there is more competition in our craft these days. The digital technologies we enjoy today, and the relatively low start up costs for photographic equipment when compared to film-based gear, has opened the floodgates of new talent into our industry. Over time myself and my guest authors will be talking about various ways to stay ahead of the competition and grow your business. Today I’m going to talk about the beginning of the initial sales consultation.

I’m going to preface this feature with a great quote: “It’s not WHAT you have, it’s WHAT YOU DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE that matters”. For more than 20 years I had a brick and mortar storefront on the main mercantile road in my home town. I had a beautiful 2,000 square foot gallery with a magnificent 900 square foot camera room and I catered not only to my wedding clientele, but also to retail portrait customers, seniors, maternity sessions, editorial photography for magazines in the motorcycle industry, etc. In 2006 I underwent a complete reorganization of my business and changed my entire business model. I gave up my storefront and decided to work from my home. I gave up my retail portrait business to focus completely on high end wedding photography on location, my fine art photography and photographic education. I was apprehensive, at first, about being taken seriously without a boutique studio storefront, but have found that it’s my images and my personality that my clients are contracting me for…not my real estate. Here I am, not even four years later, grossing more revenue that I ever had in the past with none of the fancy storefront overhead eating away at the profits.

First Impressions are important and when prospective clients come to see me for the first time they walk into the scene pictured above. The small living room in my home is set up as my gallery. It is warm, inviting and showcases some of my favorite wedding images, hanging gallery style, on one wall. The room is eclectically furnished and kept spotlessly clean. An assortment of my fine art photography images are beautifully framed and showcased on walls adjacent to the gallery wall and two of my most prized possessions, two wonderful sculptures, are displayed on the mantle of my fireplace under low-voltage spot lights. The entire area is understated, intimate and reeks of my passion for art and my sense of design.

There is no television in this room…nor do I use any audio-visual programming in my sales consultations. I don’t deny the effectiveness of romantic slide shows or video presentations, they just don’t fit into my scheme of things. Let me explain…

I want my customers to feel like they’re sitting around the kitchen table with me. A great salesman once told me that the living room is where you entertain company, or the life insurance salesman…the kitchen table is where you hang out with friends. I don’t want my prospective clients to feel like they’re being force fed a professionally tailored sales program. Instead I encourage conversation and I make my clients comfortable. When my clients first come in I tell them to relax, to leave their checkbooks and credit cards in the car. I tell them right upfront that I have no intention of “closing a sale” and that I am just going to educate them and send them off to make their decision. A relaxed client is a lot easier to get through to than one who is on their guard. Under no circumstance should there be a desk between you and your clients…unless you want to make them feel like they’re about to square off with a car salesman.

Once seated I leave my clients to peruse some sample albums at their leisure. Again…no A/V presentations. I sell wedding photography packages that include custom bound albums of exquisite finished images. I need to show them those albums. Any photographer that is just shooting weddings and burning images to disc for their clients to tinker with is missing the boat. The proper enhancement and merchandising of your images in elegant bound albums will triple the revenue you receive over simply “shooting and burning”. If you’re serious about building a long standing, profitable photography business you can’t afford to leave this money on the table, and, more importantly, you can’t leave the production values of your images up to your clients. My images are not going to wind up at the 60 minute photo counter in Wal-Mart!

So what do I show my prospective clients? First I steer them towards a compilation album…a beautiful book full of my favorite images from the last year or so. Keep your samples current, folks. Hopefully you are improving at your craft every day…show your freshest work, not the stuff you were shooting years ago. Here’s a short video of what my guests see inside the cover of this first album:

The music for this video slideshow was provided by Triple Scoop Music. Photographers that are looking for an amazing source of licensed music for use in their video and slide show programs, as well as on their web sites, are encouraged to visit their web site.

This album, like all of my custom albums, was bound by the artisans at Leather Craftsmen, Inc. This particular album features the finest of Leather Craftsmen’s offerings: a striped edition cover of Distressed Brown leather and Sand Top Grain Cowhide, an inset cover photograph, branding in lieu of imprinting and cork end lining treatment. It is a work of art. Any photographer seeking to upgrade their album offerings should look no further than the folks at Leather Craftsmen, Inc.

I steer my clients next to a complete wedding album…a 255 picture design from one wedding. This particular album was featured on this forum previously in the post entitled “First And Foremost We Sell Images”. I invite you to read that post for more insight on our sales philosophies. I usually leave two or three additional wedding albums on the table for my guests to view.

When my clients have finished looking at my work at their own pace I return to the gallery and continue with the initial sales consultation. In a later post I will tell you what goes on next. For now I encourage you to take a good look at what you are doing at the start of your sales consultations and make sure that you are making a great first impression.

Posted in Bookbinding, Customer Relations, Leathercraftsmen, Sales and Merchandising, Triple Scoop Music | 12 Comments »

FREE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY MENTORSHIPS WITH MICHAEL ONEILL

Monday, February 15th, 2010

The 2010 WPPI convention and trade show is just about two weeks away now. Last year I had the honor and privilege of presenting my platform program “FUNdamentals” to some of the more than 12,000 photographers who attended WPPI 2009. As a speaker you get to look out at your audience and see the desire to learn in their attentive faces. As rewarding as the speaking experience is, I was overwhelmed by what transpired after I wrapped up my presentation. Members of the audience rushed to the podium after I concluded my presentation to ask more questions and seek more answers to their particular challenges. A few offered to come to New York for the opportunity to assist me and learn from me on actual wedding assignments. I accepted some of those offers and they turned into the catalyst for some great 2009 wedding experiences. Photographers came in from all over the United States…Illinois, Mississippi, Massachusetts, California…to accompany myself and my team on a number of wedding assignments here in New York.

This year I’ll be returning to WPPI 2010 as a judge in the Accolades of Excellence 16 X 20 print competition. Though I won’t be speaking at this year’s convention I do have quite an eager audience nonetheless…more than 2,400 subscriptions to The Pro Spot and more than 4,000 friends on Facebook. So using this, The Pro Spot, as my podium I am extending an offer to any photographer who wishes to learn from me…on the job…on an actual wedding assignment here in the New York area…to contact me. Send me an email with a link to your web site and a brief statement of why you would like to work with me. I will choose a number of you and arrange a mutually convenient time for you to come to New York and work with my team. I seek no compensation from you for this experience. I just ask that you pay your own travel expenses and bring your camera gear, your enthusiasm and an open mind towards learning while creating some new and exciting images. (Stick around an extra day after the wedding assignment and you’ll witness my two hour editing workflow to finish 1,000 images and learn some of the Photoshop enhancement techniques I employ to create award-winning images). This is a win-win scenario for everyone involved. You will learn, firsthand, the posing, camera and lighting techniques I employ and will go home with some great images for your own personal portfolios. I get the benefit of having a second creative professional on my assignments; not only enhancing my client’s product, but also challenging me to perform at the top of my game.

The team at Michael ONeill Fine Art photographed 54 weddings in 2009 and will photograph a similar amount in 2010. Opportunities will be very limited so I encourage you to contact me as soon as possible if you are sincerely interested in spending some quality time in New York with myself and my crew. I expect the response to this post to be staggering and I apologize in advance as I certainly won’t be able to accommodate all of you. I look forward to creating some spectacular wedding imagery with some of you and to helping you grow your businesses in 2010 and beyond.

Posted in Camera Techniques, Customer Relations, Lighting Techniques, Photoshop, Phtographic Education, Posing, WPPI, Workflow | 8 Comments »

FIRST AND FOREMOST WE SELL IMAGES

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

In today’s feature I have chosen to talk about a subject that I addressed during my 2009 WPPI platform program “FUNdamentals”. This traditional sales philosophy generated a lot of discussion during my program and I feel it is worth talking about here on this forum. Application of the principle I am about to discuss will certainly add to your profitability as a professional photographer.

We are professional photographers and the number one item we sell are our images. Seems simple enough, but in this digital age the marketing line sometimes seems to get blurred between our artistic efforts and our merchandising schemes. Today’s digital world has opened up a whole new arena for marketing add on items to the initial fee we charge for our photographic services. In the past we offered the bride an album, the parents an album of their own, and the occasional large wall portrait, often sold in conjunction with exquisite custom picture framing. Today there are literally countless new products borne of the digital age: press-printed albums and fine art cards, canvas gallery wraps, purse-sized companion albums and brag books, etc., etc. Yes, I offer these exciting new products to my clients but I maintain that the number one product I have to offer my clients is still my photographic work.

Back in the dark ages of film photography we used to produce 120-150 images on an entire wedding. Today I routinely shoot twice that amount during the bride’s preparations. On an average wedding assignment these days I’ll capture 800-1000 images per day or more. In the “good ol’ days” a finished album of 60 or more images was a big sale. Today I see some photographers offering starting packages that contain 100 or more images. This is a short sighted practice that undermines your profitability and dilutes the industry as a whole. Remember…we SELL images. My wedding photography packages start with a bridal album that contains 50 pictures…30 choice pictures plus a 20 picture/2 page candid composite panorama. Each additional picture a bride adds to her album costs $40.00 which may not seem like a large amount until you realize that the finished wedding albums that leave my studio average around 150 images. Do the math and you’ll see that selling (not giving away) your images is a lot more profitable than any add-on novelty.

Industry icon, Jim Garner, adopts a similar approach in his sales. His masterful “Story Shooting” lends itself to selling additional two page spreads in his award-winning albums. At his appearance at Skip’s Summer School in August 2009 Jim stated that “People want to spend. They just need to be led there. Show it…They’ll want it”. After the wedding Jim shows his clients mockups of two page spreads that he creates with his personal choices from the amazing images he captures. His clients want them and purchase them.

Here’s an album we recently completed for a client. I trust all of my finished bound albums to the artisans at Leather Craftsmen, Inc. As always they did a masterful job of binding this client’s book. Some add-on merchandising was done upgrading the client’s album from the 10″ X 10″ size they had contracted for to the 11″ X 14″ size they fell in love with. They then added a Euro Leather cover upgrade, imprinting on the spine, four pictures inset into the cover, copper page gilding and an Asian Rice Paper end lining treatment.

The biggest upgrade to the album, however, was the number of my images that they chose for the finished presentation. Here’s a short video slide show of the finished 255 picture album!

Resist any inclination to engage your competition on a price level. They know what their product is worth. Believe in your mastery and be compensated accordingly as an artist and a professional. I’ve had clients tell me that they would rather have 50 of my images than 100 of my competitor’s. Renowned photographer, Jerry Ghionis, said it best at Skip’s Summer School: “What is priceless tomorrow has to be expensive today”. Make your images the best that they can possibly be and sell them first.

Posted in Bookbinding, Customer Relations, Events, Leathercraftsmen, Sales and Merchandising, WPPI | 12 Comments »

WHAT MAKES A GREAT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

For the first guest post on this forum I have called upon Bill Hurter to share his thoughts with us. Bill Hurter has been involved in the photographic industry for the past thirty years. He is the former editor of Petersen’s PhotoGraphic magazine and currently the editor of both Rangefinder and After Capture magazines. He has authored over thirty books on photography and hundreds of articles on photography and photographic technique. He is a graduate of American University and Brooks Institute of Photography, from which he holds a BFA and Honorary Masters of Science and Masters of Fine Arts degrees. With Bill’s kind permission I am reprinting, in part, the introduction to his fine book “100 Techniques for Professional Wedding Photographers”. When this book first came on the market in early 2009 I suggested that “What Makes a Great Wedding Photographer” should be required reading, not only for everyone who calls them self a professional wedding photographer, but also for every single bride-to-be.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER?

CONSISTENCY. Those photographers that produce splendid albums each time out are well on their way to greatness.

LIKABILITY. A common thread among the really good photographers is affability and likability. They are fully at ease with other people and they have a sense of personal confidence that inspires trust. Maximizing these personal interactions allows the best wedding photographers to create animated, filled-with-life portraits…images that bring out the real personality and vitality of the subject.

COOL UNDER PRESSURE. To be successful, wedding photographers must not only master a variety of types of photography but also perform them in a very limited time frame. This means that, aside from technical skills, achieving success requires calm nerves and the ability to perform at the highest levels under stress.

UP TO DATE. To stay on the cutting edge, the leading wedding photographers also scour bridal magazines, studying the latest looks in editorial and advertising photography. These magazines are what prospective brides look at and want to see in their own wedding images.

A GREAT OBSERVER. The truly gifted wedding photographer is also a great observer. He or she sees and captures the myriad of special, fleeting moments that often go unrecorded. The great wedding photographer develops the knack of predicting what will happen next and making sure he or she is ready to capture it.

THE ABILITY TO IDEALIZE. The exceptional photographer produces images in which the people look great. Through careful choice of camera angles, poses, and lighting many “imperfections” can be made unnoticeable.

CREATIVE VISION. Australian wedding and portrait photographer, David Anthony Williams describes this perfectly by saying “Good wedding photography is not about complicated posing, painted backdrops, sumptuous backgrounds or five lights used brilliantly. It is about expression, interaction and life! The rest is important, but secondary.

IMMERSION. Great wedding photographers involve themselves in the event and with the people. It’s interaction and communication, but also a little magic.

There you have it. The short version of the introduction to this great book….a book that is a must-have for every wedding photographer working in today’s fast-paced digital world. The book is filled with extraordinary images from some of the most highly regarded wedding photographers working in the world today. The list includes Marcus Bell, Joe Buissink, Cherie Steinberg Coté, Mike Colón, Jesh de Rox, Dan Doke, Bruce Dorn, Jerry Ghionis, Greg Gibson, Kevin Jairaj, Claude Jodoin, Kevin Kubota, Charles & Jennifer Maring, JB & DeEtte Sallee, Ken Sklute and Yervant Zanazanian. I was truly honored to have my photographic work, techniques and philosophy featured in this book alongside some of the finest photographers in this industry. Bill’s book is available at Amazon.com, Amherst Media’s web site, Camerabooks.com and at the WPPI online store

Posted in Books and Publications, Customer Relations, Guest Posts and Features, WPPI | 49 Comments »