Expert Advice

There’s nothing quite like face time to make yourself memorable to an important client. But if setting up meetings isn’t your favorite thing to do, we can do it for you. Whether you’re making a trip to the big city or you’d like to arrange meetings in your own back yard, we can help you get in front of the right folks. First, we’ll create a hand-picked list of high-priority clients based on your interests and skills. Then we’ll send emails and make two rounds of follow-up phone calls to schedule meetings for you. We can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to schedule any meetings, as we’re at the mercy of the client’s availability. But historically, we’ve been able to arrange about 3 visits per session.

 

 

Project Pitch

Do you have a unique project that you’d like to pitch to magazines? Our marketing team can help get it in front of the right people. Whether it’s a completed project or just in the idea stage, we can develop a strategy to identify the best audience for your project and then connect with them. We’ll start by looking at your project and discussing your goals. We’ll then develop a list of appropriate prospects. We’ll send personalized emails with a description of the project and some samples of your work. We’ll follow up with a round of phone calls to make sure they received the emails and to explain it further. While our main goal would be to get your project published, we have also found that this process is a great way to promote you for future assignments. If a publication does decide to run your story, we can also help you negotiate fees and licensing based on the number of images and how they are used. This process would take an additional 1-2 consulting hours.

 

Estimating

Whether it’s a stock quote for a small magazine or a treatment for a large ad campaign, we have the experience and know-how to research, price and negotiate just about any project. We understand the value of commercial photography and we know how to structure agreements to give you the best chance at getting the job — and at a fair price. We can scale our services to meet your needs, whether it’s simply to review an estimate that you’ve created yourself, or to build a proposal from the ground up.

 

Estimates

Our producers have extensive experience creating commercial estimates. We will first talk with you (and your client if you like) to get a thorough understanding of your project. We will then draft a proposal, factoring in the complexity of the job, the photographer’s time, skill and uniqueness, the licensing required by the client, the necessary production elements and overall market conditions. We will review the details of the quote with you and then negotiate (or assist you in negotiating) the final terms with the client.

 

 

 

Contracts

Our producers have created and reviewed a wide range of contracts ranging from editorial assignments to long-term ongoing contracts and even contracts presented to photographers by reps. We can review a document and help you turn legal jargon into plain English, or help you develop a contract from the ground up. Either way, we’ll make sure your interests and rights are well protected, and that you fully understand what you are about to sign, or are about to ask a client to sign.

 

 

Treatments

Whether it’s an estimate with a 6-digit bottom line or a smaller project for a new client, you should always consider delivering a treatment with your cost estimate. A treatment is a multi-page document that allows you to elaborate on your approach to a project and supply additional information not typically included in your estimate or terms/conditions. Treatments should integrate your branding elements and typically include a cover letter and sample images, but can also be more complex and include crew bios, a detailed overview of creative and production approaches and references for past clients. Whether you include a lot or a little, a treatment will allow you to convey an elevated sense of professionalism that may ultimately help you land your dream assignment.

Our experienced producers, photo editors, designers and copywriter can work with you to create a branded treatment from scratch, and we can also work with information you provide to compile a treatment with existing content.

 

 

Production

Once you’ve landed that big assignment, we can handle the logistics so you can concentrate on the creative. Our team of producers can manage all aspects of shoot production — everything from booking travel, crew, talent, locations, studios, equipment, catering, permits, to working on-site, making sure everything runs smoothly on time and within budget. We have an extensive network of resources and years of experience working on projects ranging from local corporate collateral to international ad campaigns.

 

 

Casting     

Whether you need a studio casting call or help pulling cards from talent agencies, we have the experience to help you find kids, adults, seniors and even animals (or taxidermy…trust us, we’ve done it before). We have an exhaustive list of talent and model agencies and can cast, negotiate rates and develop model releases for any type of project anywhere in the world.

 

Location Scouting

With plenty of local ties, we’ve helped clients find shooting locations ranging from community ice rinks to residential properties with pools. We’ve even flown across the country to scout client-supplied locations to help determine the best plan of action for upcoming shoots. If we don’t already know where “it” is, we know the people who do, and can tell us how much it will cost.

 

On-Site Production

We’ve been there. We’ve done that. We know your wardrobe stylist is a gluten-free vegan and has peanut allergies. We know what time you need to be on set in order to finish the 2^nd hero shot before lunch. We know how to communicate with agency and client representatives. We know how to work within a budget. We know how to put together a production book. We know how to keep a man in a bear suit hydrated so he doesn’t pass out, and we know where to get a freshly caught salmon.

Whether it’s a small editorial shoot or a project for a large advertising campaign, we have the experience, know-how and resources to produce any shoot.

 

 

Retouching

Retouching has gone from a luxury to a necessity for most editorial, corporate and advertising shoots. Rather than an afterthought, photographers now collaborate with retouchers to produce pictures that a few years ago they could only dream of.