Fashion Photography EXPOSED – The DVD!

We’ve kept it under wraps for over a year. But now the secret is finally out! If you haven’t heard by now, we are releasing the first full blown educational fashion photography DVD ever made!  We have pulled out all the stops to leave no stone unturned, no question unanswered. And I am honestly very pleased with the results!! Initially we wanted to base the format of the DVD loosely around what I teach at my workshops: a chance for photographers to work on a real fashion shoot with top models and professional hair stylists, make up artists and fashion stylists. And that’s great for a seminar when you’re in the room with me so I can show you what a difference it makes when you work with a pro team. But then we took a look at the bigger picture and realized that the real challenges that most young or up and coming fashion photographers face is inside knowledge on how to break into the industry. On Fashion Photography Exposed,  I show you how to produce better fashion shoots with better lighting and then I show you the importance of  promoting yourself and your business so you can compete in a very competitive and unpredictable industry. There is so much that the DVD offers but I’m not going to go into all of the specifics here in this post. You can find out all the information about it on the Fashion Photography Exposed DVD website.

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Getting your Foot in the Door Isn’t that Scary!

One of my blog readers, Troy Copes, wrote to me recently and suggested I write a post about how to approach modeling agencies. In truth, I have gotten a fair amount of emails asking the same question. So I thought I’d try to answer the question and post some of my early work from my first portfolio, the very same portfolio that I used to get my own foot in the door of the modeling agencies. Keep in mind, I first approached modeling agencies back in the late ’80′s and early ’90′s. Also keep in mind that this is just from my personal experience. I can only write about what I have experienced myself. And it’s been a few years since I first started out…….but hopefully you’ll find some useful information in the post!

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Figuring out the Flow

Word on the Tweet is that I don’t blog often enough. So I have a question: Would you rather read a blog by a photographer who doesn’t work but who blogs all the time or would you rather read a blog from a working fashion photographer who’s too busy to write that often, but at least when you read the blog posts, you know that the person writing them is actually working in the industry?

I thought so. ; ) Look, I’m up at 5 or 6 AM most days. Today, I was up at quarter to 6. Had a skype meeting with Vincent De Vries who is producing my London Seminar. Put out a casting call for an editorial shoot I’m shooting next Wednesday. Booked my ticket to New York with Delta. Put together the call sheet for Saturday’s seminar. Wrote out an estimate for a potential client’s Look Book. Locked down hair and make up for next Wednesday’s shoot. Spoke to my agent about the flow of my book. Spoke with Debra Weiss about the flow of my book. Spoke to my printer about the paper stock he’ll be using for my book. Saw a new Russian girl, who was exquisite by the way, at my house at noon. Re-negotiated the usage terms on the estimate for the potential client. Looked at hotels in New York. Wrote some friends that I’ll be coming soon. So, I’m busy but I always have that nagging voice in the back of my head…..”need to write a blog post soon!” So just trust me that it isn’t because I don’t love to write for this blog it’s just that I don’t have enough time in my day to update it that often!

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Continuing on with YOUR Questions!

Kevin Pohl Says:

Ok so, I seem to have a trump card opportunity with this weeks blog request. And I’m sure you are tired of me nagging you with this question, but you did say that you were gonna blog about this, and you still haven’t written me your thoughts on this so here it goes. I would like you to blog about: “How does a photographer go about defining his/her creative vision? Is it something that you just have or do you need to develop it? And, if a photographer struggles with finding his/her own voice as an artist with a vision, can that photographer take certain steps to develop and define that creative vision? ” Hope you’ll blog about this soon, as it’s an important question on everyone’s lips. Everybody says, create your vision!, build your portfolio!, and market like crazy! But nobody tells us HOW to create that VISION part of the equation. Love your work, and this Blog! It’s Awesome!

Poor Kevin! He’s right…….he’s written to me personally a few times with his question. And I kept writing back to him promising I will blog about it soon. I don’t know why I keep putting it off…it sort of hits a nerve, I guess. He asks, “How does a photographer go about defining his/her creative vision?” Is he asking, how do you define your vision or your Photography STYLE? Your style is the look and feel of your work as a definitive and continuing stream. Is your work moody and surreal? Is it bright happy? Is it colorful and smiley? Or is it dark and thoughtful? These are words that would be used to describe the look or STYLE of your work. And yes, as a photographer that wants to compete in the market, a style is something that art directors and editors look for when they look at your work.

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How to have a good relationship with your agent

I know….I haven’t written in over two weeks. I don’t like to have such huge gaps of time in between posts, but I had a tiny disaster recently over a shoot and I’ve had to figure out how to work around it. Plus I signed with an Australian agent and have been busy sending her images from just about everything I’ve ever shot so she can edit down what she wants to put up on her site. AND we’ve been knee deep in post from the beauty shoot (sneak peek shown above!) that I wrote about in my last post! So my plate has been full and my attention has been on “damage control” over the small hiccup from a recent shoot. I will write a post soon on how to side step problems, because they do happen and it does come up from time to time. But not today. Today, I’m going to share my thoughts about agents. How to get a good one and then how to keep the good one.

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