Get the Job Done: The Value of the Impulse Buy During Presentation

Kim and Mike's Favorite of the Set

During the presentation of my first set of engagement portraits on Sunday, I discovered the value of the "impulse buy," and how it can be used to generate more print sales.

An "impulse buy" is a spontaneous purchase of an item that a shopper hadn't planned on buying. According to a survey conducted by The Yankee Group, shoppers are driven to make an impulse purchase by a "special sale price," free shipping and holiday or seasonal promotions. Other studies have long assumed that impulse buying happens at the cash register, which is why many small items such as batteries, candy, magazines and mints can be found on display racks or on the counters around cash registers in retail stores. I think I unwittingly tapped into that unconscious buying pattern by having prints available for purchase during the presentation.


My favorite of the set

When Kim and Michael arrived to my home to see the photos I had taken of them for their upcoming engagement party, several of my favorite photos had been printed out in 8x10s and displayed to tell the story of their romance fueled by outdoor activities including bicycling and skiing. The prints included with a laptop photo slide show set to a play list of love songs made quiet the impression.

It was the first time I had printed images from the KODAK ESP 3 All-in-One Printer I had received to review for my job at the Denver Post. To be honest, I didn't have high expectations of the prints thinking they wouldn't look nearly as good as anything I'm used to getting from the professional printers at Wolf Camera. To that end, I didn't feel comfortable selling them at full price, and I told the couple that if they purchased any prints that same evening, I would sell them for a discounted prices -- 8x10s for $10 and 4x6 for $2.50. After that, the price would go back up to $15 for 8x10s and so forth if Wolf or my online printing service did the work later.



As you can guess, the couple brought nearly all the prints and I made an extra $85 that night. That may not seem like a lot of money, but imagine how much more I might have made if I had other products on hand during the presentation, including more prints or even announcements for their party. I'm learning that accessibility and convenience are important to clients and make it easier for me to earn extra money too. I've already found out the hard way that the chances of securing additional print packages decrease unless you include them in upfront costs. So this could be another business strategy to spur more sales.

This Weekend: Shooting First Assignment for Auraria Campus

This is going to be another busy weekend for me, but I'm looking forward to all of my assignments, including my first official freelance assignment for the Auraria Higher Education Center.

The weekend starts out with a presentation of senior portrait shots to Gloria at noon. It was a lot of fun shooting Gloria, and she was definitely a trooper. Our photo shoot encompassed land, air, and sea -- well, sort of, if you count a flower bed as "land," climbing a tree "air" and playing in a fountain "sea." She was a real trooper and was generally open to anything I suggested. I can't wait for her to see all of her pics and pick out her print packages.


Gloria posing in a flower bed.


Gloria frolicking in the water fountains



Gloria climbed up into a tree for this playful shot.

Late Saturday afternoon, I will shoot another senior portrait session with Nina, another friend Jordan referred to me. I will shoot a few images of Nina in studio to try to recreate some similar poses of Marilyn Monroe that Nina said she wanted, and then I hope to take her around our neighborhood (she only lives a few blocks from me). There's also a really cool outdoor water fountain with beautiful lights that I thought might be a good background for some night shots with Nina, but we will see what time we have to work with.

I blogged earlier about being hired as a freelance photographer for the Auraria Higher Education Center. On Sunday, I get to cover my first event for the campus public relations director Cheryl Carter. If you remember, I shot a rededication ceremony for Cheryl's parents last year and then reconnected with her a few months ago when I discovered she was the event coordinator for my first wedding shoot. Tolisa and Jordan's wedding was held at St. Cajetan's Church on the Auraria Campus, and it was then I learned that Cheryl had just recently taken a job with Auraria.

Cheryl said she has been trying to find work for me, but many of the events that have been held on campus in the last few months have been during the week. I haven't been able to do any shoots because I still work full-time at The Denver Post (no, don't go there, I am SOOOO not ready to give up my gig at the newspaper yet and be a professional photographer full time!)

On Sunday though, the campus will be hosting an upscale food expo, and I will be shooting it for four hours. Cheryl has also asked to purchase two CDs from the wedding and reception held at the church and the Tivoli Student Union so she can use them for advertising on the school's website.

Get the Job Done: The Ultimate Client Compliment

My Favorite Shot from My First Senior Portrait Session

I received the ultimate client compliment on Saturday when I presented my first set of senior portrait shots to Jordan: "I want to be up on your wall!"

That's what Jordan said after I showed her what I think is one of the best portrait sessions I have taken to date due to the diversity of shots and locales. To Jordan, having one of her pictures blown up to a poster size and placed on one of the display walls in my home has become one of her goals. Since I have become her family's official photographer, I have images of her mother Teri, her brother Bishop and her baby sis Avery hanging up as a reminder to myself about my own growth as a professional photographer. So I've decided that I will honor her request and hang my favorite picture from the shoot, shown above. I love how the red of her shirt pops with the golden yellow background. Taking the shot from above is a complimentary angle for her features, while the vignetting adds a sense of timelessness to the image.

What shot did Jordan pick to go into her high school yearbook? This gorgeous pic taken of her on top of the 10th floor balcony of the Denver Newspaper Agency building where both her mother and I work for the Denver Post.


Jordan's Yearbook Pic

I could barely contain my excitement while she sorted through the images, and the fact that she had a hard time deciding meant there were tons of great pictures to choose from! I let her take control of my MacBook Pro as she sorted them out, and I think that personal touch really made her feel as if she was an integral part of this process (which of course she WAS!) It was difficult to try to take a back seat and let the client decide what photos she wanted because I definitely had my favorites, and I was surprised that she didn't like the same images I did, or even the same images her mother liked.

Overall, this was a great learning experience, and her referrals got me two more potential customers, one of which I will be shooting this weekend after the Democratic National Convention is laid to rest.

One other note: since I only had several hundred of images to edit, I went ahead and edited all the images before presenting them to Jordan. But what I found interesting is that out of the 50 I shot, she only picked about 20 that were her favs. Does that mean I spent unnecessary time editing shots she didn't want? I will have to chew on this a little more.

Get the Job Done: Presenting Senior Portraits

I will be meeting with Jordan in about 30 minutes to present the images from her senior portrait shoot. I'm extremely pleased with how this session turned out! During post processing, Jordan's mother requested that I edit out Jordan's piercings near her right eye. I followed those instructions, but I left this one image with the piercings just for Jordan because I believe they are a part of who she is right now in the course of her life. And what more is photography but a moment captured in the life of a subject? Congratulations Jordan!


Throughout the week, I've been posting up my favorite pics to my Flickr page where Jordan has been able to take a peak at my editing process. I did this to create a sense of excitement and adventure for this young woman, almost like unveiling a Christmas gift before the actual holiday. She was able to share the images with her friends and helped me land two more senior portrait sessions.

I didn't post up everything because I wanted Jordan to be surprised by some of the images. Today she will be picking out which photo she actually turns in to her high school yearbook department, as well as orders for additional images and the ones she wants to have printed as part of her session package. She gets to choose from two 8X10s or four 5X7. Because she gave me two referrals, Jordan gets to order extra prints for free or take $50 off her portrait session cost. She has also purchased a CD of all of 50 edited images re sized to only print 4X6s.

This Weekend: Wedding Photos Presentation and a Night Shoot

I will be presenting all of my wedding photo galleries Tolisa, the bride, tomorrow morning, so send me some good luck vibes! Mike and Jason will be there as well, and I'm pretty excited, as well as relieved to be just about done with this project so I can move on to my "gallery" showing at Heidi's Deli.

I have uploaded all the galleries to my website, save for the reception pics which I want to present to Tolisa when she views them on a slideshow on my MacBook Pro. You can get a sneak peak at some of my favorite shots from the reception held at the Tivoli in this thread. Taking the time to see the photos full screen the way your client will see them has been very beneficial for me. It helped me decide which shots to ultimately keep or reject. It can be difficult to see images or catch mistakes when files are only viewed in thumbnail or monitor screen sizes. I didn't realize so many images were out of focus or had some color balance issues until I blew them up to 100 percent viewing (a trick I learned to spot problematic noise issues from iStockphoto.com).



It also helped to allow more "eyes" to look at the photos. I finally got the nerve to let other photographers on the various forums I frequent critique the images. Most everyone had great things to say, and others were very constructive, yet helpful, in pinpointing some of those tale-tell issues.

I am also going to surprise Tolisa by presenting her with a photo album she can purchase that I created at the Wolf Camera store in downtown Denver. One of the clerk's there gave me an amazing deal and coupon to have the album built and produced right in the store. At first I thought about printing and framing a large 20x30 image, but I think the photo album showcasing the complete story of her nuptials will have greater emotional impact (and more likely lead to her buying the album as well as other prints).



Also this weekend, I will be heading downtown with Efrain Cruz, director of Illuminate Photography Workshops, and several of his students for a fun "Night Shot" outing. If only this event could have happened earlier in the month, I might have had something more innovative and creative to submit for my own blog's monthly assignment (besides the overly done shot of the moon). But hey...I haven't had that much experience shooting at night, so that moon shot was the best I could come up with. It will be fun to learn how to master this challenging photographic technique that really forces you to use all your knowledge of exposure.

Here is a great shot Efrain took during the outting he held last month:





Efrain will likely host a new outdoor session every month for socializing and meeting potential new students. Want to hang out with us and shoot? Email Efrain at efrain@illuminateworkshops.com or check out the school website here.

This Weekend: Presentation of Wedding Photos Next Weekend!

Next Saturday, I will present my first set of wedding proofs to the bride and groom of the Villanueva/Simpkins nuptials. I completed the wedding ceremony set this morning and just have to edit the reception images to be completely done.

The above photo was taken by Jason Peckovitch for Picture Your World Photography. Shots of the newly married couple walking down the aisle are a must have, and I'm so pleased that Jason was able to capture this image from the front while I shot a picture of the couple from behind.



I've been doing more research about how to present my images, making the presentation both memorable and emotional in hopes to garnering more sales. I had no idea so much planning went into wedding photography. It seems as though taking the shots was actually the easy part!

Do I have the bride and groom look at albums, prints inside a box, a computer slide show, DVD movies or framed prints? I'm thinking about doing a combination of these options, minus the DVD movie. I can frame one large image into a 20x30 to show them what the images look like in poster-size print and put some 4x6 in an album. I think I could pull out 20 to 50 of my favorites and showcase them in a slide show and then have them look at all the proofs online. What do you think? Do you have any tips on wedding proof presentations?