Holly McCaig Designs & Photography » Blog

Oh wow, it’s Tuesday! How did that happen?

I haven’t blogged in a few days. Laid low on the work front this weekend and spent all day doing some file clean up on one of my external hard drives. I should do a post on my backup system for tomorrow’s Pay It Forward, huh?

Well, it’s been way too hot to do much photographing outside. We’ve been pushing sessions to early mornings and some even a few months out. I certainly do NOT want my clients looking miserable in their photos. Makeup running down your face isn’t pretty. I don’t care how bad you want to make money. Don’t do it. Or, figure a way to make it cooler for them by beating the heat early morning. I have a hand-held air conditioner device. Fans work good too. Oh, and always try and have water on hand for you, your assistants and your clients! If they don’t mind, work indoors. If you don’t have  studio, think about the client’s home – incorporate it!

I did want to say today that we have some big news coming up. A few things are in the works and some announcements too. I was reading on another photographer’s blog about changing things up every day. Do things different. I follow a lot of photographers on Twitter. And, by doing so, I end up clicking links to their blogs through their tweets. One thing I often find on some is that they don’t do a very good job at keeping my interest. They aren’t thinking outside of the box. Boring is the best word to describe it.

A few weeks ago, I was feeling a bit down because business was really slow. But, then I was reminded by my friend that I’m lucky. I’m lucky to be in a city that has a lot of photographers that challenge me to do better and think outside of the box. Having little to no competition can put you in a rut. Your work looks the same within your own business. Sure, you can get away with that, and you’re making money. But, are your images stellar? From what I’ve seen. No. Are you really satisfied with just clicking and taking a credit card? Or, do you want to be your best?

So, if you have no competition, why not challenge yourself to do something different? This is all a part of my new outlook. Opportunities present themselves to us in many forms. Just because business is slow doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep shooting or improving your business. We’re scouting locations, looking at new ways to shoot, and talking to our seniors. We’re listening to them and learning about what they love, don’t love. What they do and don’t do. How things are in their area. We have new projects planned – and by “we” – I mean those that work with me and inspire me.

What do I mean by change? Well, for starters – everyone “knows” me from the iPhone photos I would take of my seniors. I still do this. But, everyone has started doing this too. I’m not the innovator of this idea, but I don’t want to be confused with what everyone else in my area is doing. So, we went bigger. Hello iPads!

That will get them talking again! Get out of your ruts. Think different. Make yourself be unique and awesome.