Archive for June, 2013
Going off, half-cocked!
Monday, June 24th, 2013
Sometimes it pays to do your homework. Don’t just read the headlines. Several times in the last few years, I have gotten some strange phone calls. One day, late in the afternoon, I got a call on our business line. A woman breathlessly asked, “How late are you open?” I was somewhat taken aback by this, as we are basically location photographers who have a studio, but do most of our work outside of it. We have used the studio for food and small product shooting, but our work is mostly on location: commercial, industrial, large product, and architectural.
So it was surprising to get a call like this, and I said to the person on the other end that we are open 24/7. Whenever a client needs us, we are there. Then the caller said, “Do you have an indoor range?”
I realized that this caller had only read our headline on a search engine, and typed in “Shooting Range” for their search. In the headline, a lot of times, our phone number comes up. So, instead of clicking on the link to get more information, they call our number.
I told the caller that the name of our business is We Shoot, that we are commercial photographers – the only things we shoot are cameras – and that our website is weshoot.com. She sounded a little sheepish and apologized for calling. And, she still hadn’t found a shooting range, which I assumed she was in a hurry to find.
In like respect, when choosing a commercial photographer for a project, see if they are what you are looking for. Many photographers who specialize in weddings also advertise for other types of work. Now, this is not to say that wedding photographers can’t do commercial work, but if you go to their website and the first images you see are wedding related or portraiture heavy, this is what comprises the bulk of their work. You won’t find weddings or portraits on our website. Just because we all use cameras doesn’t make us all the same. So, choose wisely for the type of photography you need – it can save you time and money in the long run. Then you won’t be going off, half-cocked!
– Gary Silverstein
We Shoot
