MONDAY
I have so many negatives languishing about after so many trips away this year so this week I’m in a mission to churn out as many prints as I can in the dark room, and get posting on Instagram, update my portfolio and for a couple of the hotels, potentially pitch out a hotel story or two. I’m not wedded to getting anything published but it would be a nice cherry on top of all these trips, so i’ll put a couple of the locations into a pdf and send over to a few titles; either travel-focussed magazines or newspaper supplements with good travel sections and a good photo offering.
As a run up to launching the art prints, I’ve put together a spec sheet of the first print with a list of sizes and prices, and a lifestyle image of the picture on the wall at my client’s house, which I took last week. I’ve started gathering email addresses on my Instagram to use as a mailing list to the spec out to, and it’s growing nicely. The prints aren’t cheap - I’ve decided to give them a mid-luxury price point and a Limited Edition run so they feel special and so, whilst I received 80 email addresses via the Instagram sign up, I’m not expecting this to be an impulse purchase for anyone. My plan is to continue to build up the interest into the pre-Christmas period so ‘soft launching’ now is part of that strategy.
Printed some outtakes from the Boteh shoot - I’m really happy with the client selections (but they’re never the exact ones that we would choose are they!?) so spend the day building out a few of my favourite looks with extra imagery.
TUESDAY
Last week I shot an event for a long standing UK client, who do a huge sports day for their staff summer party at Chiswick House. The brief was to shoot snapshots of the fun, the colour and the vibe all on film. As events jobs go, it was heaven. They didn’t want any posed shots, just pure documentation on a sunny day in a beautiful part of London. Scans came back this morning - I do a quick edit, get rid of anything out of focus and send them off. I used my two Contax’s for the occasion - the G@ and T2 but think my T2 is coming to the end of its life - the focus is just too unreliable. Thankfully i’d used the G2 for most of the day but there were a few great shots missed because the T2 lens just isn’t performing. Should I spend £700 odd on getting it fixed…? Or sell it for parts and invest in something else. It’s always worth having a good point-and-shoot in the kit bag so need to make a decision. Any thoughts?
Afternoon mentee call with a new mentee. Always so interesting and energising. This mentee asked me a bit about courses and resources that I use and have found useful in the past. Would this be a post that you guys would find interesting? I love a course and have countless recommendations that cover a lot of different angles of photography so would be happy to put a list together if you thought useful.
WEDNESDAY
Power hour with my new accountant. He offers these quarterly so you can troubleshoot anything you’re not sure about, and make a bit of a financial plan for the next quarter. I cannot tell you what a difference it makes to have a good accountant who’s engaged with my business. The old company just didn’t give a sh*t frankly, and sometimes made me feel quite bad about myself but this new guy is on it, really engaged, really quick on reply and is helping me restructure my accounts in a way that give me better visual on my earnings, and make sure I’m not dipping into my VAT or Corporation tax pots.
I read a really interesting article by Dina Litovsky on her brilliant Substack ‘In The Flash’ which I thought you should all have a look at. I get a lot of people emailing me asking me about how they should price a ‘full buyout’ for a client, to which I always say, you shouldn’t (unless they’re paying a fortune). I think there’s a lot of confusion for younger brands or private clients about language in our industry, who pick up contracts online from larger companies and don’t full understand the meaning of them. The more this language is normalised, the more ‘full buyouts’ and 'working for hire’ become ubiquitous, and we start to loose ownership of what is ours - i.e. our images. It’s a great piece and a great Substack in general - I highly recommend.
Super 8 back from Florence - is there any better feeling than a delivery from the lab - after all these years, still no.
THURSDAY
Record this month’s case study and reveal two new interviewees coming up - have a listen here.
Another few hours in the dark room, trying to nail the final picture in my first collection for the shop. Trying to get the colours right is proving incredibly tricky and I’m reminded of why I’ve taken so much time to get it finalised - I keep getting to the same point with this picture and not quite nailing it, so moving onto to something else. Not this time. Gritting my teeth and think I’ve finally go there. Now to send it to the scanners and printers to get the final final ready for testing.
Head off in the afternoon to drop Skylar at her new school for a try out and then chaperone Sadie and her mates at her school disco so sign off early for the day.
FRIDAY
Interview a new nanny this morning as our (totally wonderful) nanny is leaving once Skylar goes to school in September. The parenting and freelancing juggle is taking on a whole new world since I did this piece so I’ll definitely do an updated version for you soon about these next stages. School, wrap around care, travelling and inconsistent timetables and the weighing up of childcare costs, nanny hours, school holidays etc. is a whole level of admin that I was frankly not ready for and is causing a lot of headaches. I don’t want our nanny to leave at all, so spend the rest of the day wracking my brain about how to keep her instead of doing any work.
A x
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It would be great to know your thoughts on investing in a contax and which model/type you prefer? I keep toying with the idea as an upgrade to my Pentax P+S for sharper / better quality images?