Recently in Photography & Marketing Category

October 12, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - Maybe it is because I am involved in advertising.  When it comes to commercial photography specifically for advertising I have learned that perfect isn't always the best nor does it always sell products the best.  The flaws of reality can be and often are better and more effective.

One day I was amazed after visiting the studio of a commercial photographer friend.  He was getting paid to grow grass.  His client was a major retailer who was paying him to grow grass to be used in an ad image.  Some time after that I had a client that needed grass in one of her ad images.  I bought some sod.  I learned something of great value.  The sod cost my client just a few bucks.  It wasn't as perfect as the carefully grown "studio" grass but it was real.  When it was done my clients product looked great as did the total image but there was something more to that image.  There was reality.  You could see it.  Maybe you didn't "see" it but the reality was there.  Some might say the $20.00 piece of sod was more effective than the grass that cost $1000 or more for the photographer to grow in his studio.  I'm sure the retailers ad agency wouldn't agree.

There is a great value to reality that is most often overlooked by advertising executives.  Often days or even weeks and $ thousands are spent building the perfect set for the background.  Everything has to be exactly the perfect color and the prefect size.  Then days can be invested in getting the lighting just perfect.  I've been there and done that and in the end there were many beautiful ad images.  Maybe it was just me.  No I don't expect my cheese Whopper to look like it does on TV when I pull it out of the bag and I don't believe Burger King would sell a lot of Whoppers if they used a photo of the one I pulled from the bag in their ads but...  there is a real value in reality more than manufactured perfection.  

October 9, 2009 Cleveland, Ohio - DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has launched another new web site, ClevelandCommercialPhotography.com, and this new blog, Cleveland Commercial Photography News. This new web site and blog will be focused directly on marketing to our home market of Cleveland, Ohio.

While we have had good success with our primary web site DOUGLASPhotoInc.com and our DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. News blog I wanted to expand my marketing effort directly to better promote our services directly to the Cleveland, Ohio market.  Where DOUGLASPhotoInc.com focuses on DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. and refers to our being located in and serving Cleveland this new web site and blog focuses on Cleveland as the focus of our services.

We also just launched DOUGLASCommercialPhotography.com and DOUGLAS Commercial Photography News to focus on marketing "DOUGLAS" as a brand itself.  A brand that includes DOUGLAS Art Prints® contemporary art and fine art photography.

Watch for more news about DOUGLAS here in the near future.

Cleveland Commercial Photography - DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. - DOUGLAS Commercial Photography™

Advertising Image Services™ -  DOUGLAS Art Prints®

    

October 9, 2009 Cleveland, Ohio - DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has launched a new web site, DOUGLASCommercialPhotography.com, and a new blog, DOUGLAS Commercial Photography News. This new web site and blog will be focused directly on marketing "DOUGLAS" as a brand.

While we have had good success with our primary web site DOUGLASPhotoInc.com and our DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. News blog I wanted to expand my marketing effort directly to better promote "DOUGLAS" as a brand.  There is more to me, Douglas Konkol, than the commercial photography.  There is also DOUGLAS Art Prints® as well as my new Fine Art Photography project.  Our primary sites focus on the commercial photography aspect of our business and therefore they are designed to attract visitors looking for this service.  DOUGLAS Art Prints® focuses on marketing my contemporary art. I really have wanted to add a focus directly on the brand "DOUGLAS" and all that it includes.  That is why we launched the new site and the new blog.

Watch for more news about DOUGLAS, the brand, here in the near future.

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc.
800-226-1083
Office in Cleveland, Ohio.  Clients Nationally and Internationally.

DOUGLAS Art Prints®
Contemporary Art | Fine Art Photography
800-252-0680

Advertising Image Services™
Instant Availability of Your Ad Images™

    

October 9, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - One of my premier clients advised they are nearing completion of a total package redesign.  As is almost always the case once a client is ready to roll they need it yesterday.  I'm making sure everything is ready when the call comes.

I have been aware this was coming for weeks and now it's almost here.  Multiple shots of each and every product in it's new packaging.  The challenge now will be more than just shooting the products.  This is a coordinated effort to make sure I get the products as soon as they are available.  To insure the products are in top condition for the photos I will personally oversee picking them up from my client so there's no risk of things being damaged in shipping, even a little.  Then there is the coordination of making sure we get all of the necessary shots of all of the products.  This requires advanced planning with the clients marketing team to insure they will get all of the shots they need.

Making things easier will be my investment in a larger server months back when the economy didn't justify the investment.  My client is international and their folks here and overseas will have access to these images the same day they're shot.  I have the server to handle this volume and more.

It is exciting indeed to have such a major project especially in this recession and this is one of two big projects I'll be shooting this month.  My secret?  I'm cost effective. I don't even charge overtime.  When it comes to service when a client needs images the rest of my world fades away.  To my client they are the only client in the world and I am here do do what ever is necessary to get them what they need, when they need it and where they need it even if it's half way around the world.

Quality commercial photography means more than just taking quality photographs.  It means doing whatever is necessary to get the job done even if it means doing some things for free.

October 9, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - We are working on a new YouTube video showing a large series of photos using kids in advertising.  This photo shoot was actually done with my location studio on site in a day care center while it was open and full of kids. 

This shoot was done earlier this year and I posted the original series of photos in a video form as one of our 8 video portfolios on the DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. web site DOUGLASPhotoInc.com.

I am especially pleased with this shoot for several reasons.  First was my ability to quickly get the kids relaxed and focused on the dolls and accessories instead of me and the powerful studio flashes constantly going off.  Another success was being able to set up the backgrounds and studio lighting with so many other children near by and of course there was the working with a multitude of distractions.

This afternoon it finally struck me that this would make a cute YouTube video and the balance of the evening was invested in producing it in the YouTube format.  I'm about half way through and hope to have it posted in the next day or so.  You can see the original portfolio video, Kids in Advertising.

Quality commercial photography requires more than the ability to take quality photos.  It requires people skills and adaptability to serve clients needs.  It could even mean working with children in the middle of a day care.

September 27, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - Two things seemed clear.  When this economy began to recover my clients and my potential clients would be doing far, far more with far, far fewer people.  Especially in marketing departments any recovery would require getting marketing programs back on track and back on track fast but with fewer people.  I believed that would mean they'd need photography and they'd need it now.  

Several months ago that's what I anticipated.  Several months ago I wanted to be ready if and when it came to pass.  At that time my server was more than sufficient to handle my web sites and my client needs.  I believed that the future meant making client images available as fast as possible and that meant FTP service.  I leased a new server with more than twice the capacity.  Even when I was trying to make DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. just survive the recession I bet on the future.  I wanted that new server up and running when needed. It is.

I am pleased to say that one of my newest clients was using my FTP service for their new images I was providing.  I set up a separate FTP service for their web design service so they could access the images specific to their needs.  Last week I was informed that their marketing department was using even more product photography.  Because this need was almost always last minute and it was needed now they had one of their design staff doing the shots.  When they became experienced with the fast FTP availability of their other images from my DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. server they turned to me for these additional product photo requirements.  Not only do they get the image fast but their designer could go back to spending his time designing.

Commercial photography is far more than having the talent and ability to take quality photos.  It's about service.  It's about getting the images where they're needed when they're needed any where in the world.  For me, for DOUGLAS Photography, Inc., that also means finding a way to do it but maybe more important, not charging clients rush charges.  Maybe I could and maybe I should but I don't.  That's not how I do business.  I have had clients with me for over 15 years all based on a hand shake.  I like it that way.

September 24, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - I take great pride in my ability to work on location.  That means being able to work along with people who have other things to do and maybe don't even want you there.  Construction sites are a perfect example.

A new client makes products used in construction.  In the past their photographers had been refused permission to take photos on actual construction sites.  When they were allowed on a site it was extremely limited.  The result was that construction had to be reproduced in a studio with all of the added costs.  My challenge was to get on construction sites.

In a related story, there have been a couple of times that clients have called me asking why I didn't show up to photograph an event.  When I said I had been there there was some doubt because no one remembered seeing me.  I had the photos.  I not only didn't disrupt the event but I was virtually invisible.  That takes talent.  The same talent that's needed to work on construction sites.

OK, I had another advantage.  Over the years I have had the pleasure of working with commercial and residential developers.  I knew some people I could call.  Better yet they knew me and they knew how I worked.  My experience helps 

For almost 4 weeks I was in and out of about 9 different construction sites.  Before I was done I had guys, who at first wished I wasn't even there, asking how they could help me get the shots I needed.

I now have a very happy client that not only had over 100 photos of actual construction as well as their products being used in actual construction but are also happy that I pulled this off and without a single studio shot required.  They got more than expected for less than expected.

Sometimes being a talented commercial photographer requires far, far more than just taking quality photographs.

September 8, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio based DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. has succeeded in adding several new clients in this tough economy.  "We have added some wonderful clients from a major energy national energy production company, a major U.S. international product manufacturer to a major Canadian consumer product manufacturer," Douglas Konkol, Senior Photographer and owner of DOUGLAS Photography said.  "We have added other new clients in billiards, exercise equipment and even spa's."

"I would love to publish the names of these new clients but especially in this economy that would be stupid," Douglas continued.  "I am extremely pleased that most of these new clients were from referrals by our other clients.  We gained the Canadian company based on a referral by an ad agency we've served in California.  We focus on being cost effective and we work on trust.  I have had clients for over 15 years all based on a hand shake and I believe that's why we're growing today."

DOUGLAS Photography, Inc. is a full service commercial photographer based in Cleveland, Ohio with over 25 years of experience in everything from product photography, big and small, to food photography, to architectural and interior design.  

Now serving clients nationally and in Canada.

Any time I am invited to be involved in a project from or almost from it's inception is exciting.  Most often my job is to create the images based on an existing project design and what my client wants the images to look like.  Ever so often a project comes to me in the just post idea stage.  The thrill and the creative challenge for me then becomes suggesting ways to use my talents to help this idea to become reality.  That's when it's more for me than just the photography.  It's personal.

A while back I got involved very early with a new showroom project for Snow Bros. Appliance.  A family run business competing with the big boys in a very competitive business.  When I got involved one of the family showed me the early construction site.  There was an energy, an excitement and maybe more important the sense of importance to the success of this family business in the description of what was going to be where.  This was a family idea, a totally new marketing concept for them that was becoming reality and they wanted my help to make it successful.  

There were publication deadlines and of course construction delays.  By the time I was able to get in I had very few hours to do the photography and to get the images to the designer that afternoon for the printing.  They say you only get one chance to make a first impression and it was my vision through my camera that was going to produce the images that 10's of 1000's of people would see first.  There would be no do-over, no re-shoots.   I did have one great advantage.  I knew the vision of this project before it was reality.  I knew what they wanted it to be before it was.  I wanted to use what was there to create their image of what was to be when they described what would be in place of the open studs that were there when I first saw it.

Getting contacted to do the food photography for a cook book is exciting all in itself but when I learned this cook book had a twist and at this point it was in the basic concept stage with the client not only open to ideas but welcoming them I got a rush.  This is more than the photography project for me.  This is about helping someone's dream become reality and that is a thrill.

May 29, 2009 - Cleveland, Ohio - Using real kids and doing the shoot for a client on location at a day care was more than the usual challenge.  Using kids even experienced at photo shoots is a challenge.  Shooting on location is always a challenge.  Having the location with the noise and distractions in a day care and ad using real kids has the potential for chaos. Toss in the client and parents all giving direction.

Luckily my client wanted photos of the kids interacting with a new doll.  Kids being kids and that's always a winner in my book.  No trying to get a kid to be the perfect kid.  I love working with kids.  Actually finding a way to work in the kids environment I prefer, even with the distractions in a day care center.  

I have always had the ability to tune out the world when I'm shooting.  Experience tells me kids have the same ability if you let them.  Experience tells me if you can make the kids comfortable and get them to focus on anything but having their photo taken your half way there.  Then provide something to gain their attention and start shooting.  Experience tells me once a kid focuses on something of their interest a train could roll through the room and they wouldn't notice.  It takes about a nanosecond for them to ignore the pop of the studio flashes.  

The next challenge was getting all of my "directors" to believe the best thing we could do was to just let the kids be kids.  With that almost accomplished the challenge for me was not to miss a shot.  If you see the video I put together you will see I even shoot my models reacting to people off of the set.  Especially if there is a good facial expression I like these shots.  I believe they get viewers to look and imagine what the child is reacting too.  I believe that in a photo it can be what you don't see that draws the greatest interest.

In less than 2 hours it was a wrap.  My client and I were both pleased by the results.  When I saw the good shots as well as the "out takes" I knew this would make a good video for my portfolio in part because it just might be entertaining.

Commercial Photography

800-262-1083