As most photographers, I’ve had numerous portfolios over the years. Some good, some bad. Last summer, I hired Paper Chase to print three, 11×17 inch portfolios and was very happy with the results. Then, only a few days later I flew out to New York and showed my books to current and potential clients.
(I wrote about the portfolio reviews in a previous post that you can read HERE)
A week ago, I attended Shoot LA where I heard a lecture by Rob Haggart, the founder of the blog A Photo Editor. (Side Note: If you are a photographer…you should be reading it daily.) He also owns A Photo Folio, the company that hosts our main website. He spoke on the importance of incorporating Social Media into your marketing plan. One of the points he stressed was the importance of treating your social media presence as a distribution channel.
This got me thinking, what better way to ‘distribute’ my physical portfolio to potential clients – with no shipping cost – than to place it online for all to see. So this past week I filmed myself going through my portfolio, page by page and then posted it on my main website as a stand alone gallery HERE. And yes..I am drinking the tasty Americano I made for myself.
I did not place my ‘physical’ portfolio online to replace any future, in person showings. Quite the opposite. I still believe that a face to face meeting is the best way to gain the trust of a potential client. But as we know, most assignments are commissioned from our online presence. In doing this, I figured I would give people another way to experience my photography.
The video was edited Adobe Premiere CS5.5. The soundtrack was licensed through Vimeo’s online music store.
In closing, I am fully aware that I am not the first person to do this – but it is the first time I’ve done it.
Below is a gallery of the process of putting this video together:
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