059: Lee Duguid - Why have a Wedding Photography Business if your Passion is Landscape Photography?

I’ve received a few emails from landscape photographers that wanted to hear another one of “their kind” interviewed on the podcast. Because Photo Biz Xposed is a wedding and portrait photography business podcast, I was a little reluctant until I emailed Lee Duguid. He said in one email, why have a wedding photography business if your passion is landscape photography.

That comment alone didn’t really inspire me to chase up a landscape photographer for the show, although I know there would definitely be some great marketing ideas they would be able to share about what I would consider tougher market than portraits and wedding to have a successful business.

It was another comment that had me more intrigued and pushed me to invite Lee onto the podcast. It was that a lot of landscape photographers are shooting weddings and portraits to subsidise their passion for landscape photography. For Lee, that didn’t really work out and he decided on a different route and focus.

• Having a day job to support your passion rather than shooting something you’re not really passionate about
• How to set up a website to sell prints and make it an easy transaction
• The critical importance of identifying your target audience if you want to have a successful photography business
• Identifying a niche or gap in the market and adapting your business model to target that group of people, if it’s large enough
• Why even try and make a business out of photography if you already have a great day job
• How difficult is it to evolve your business as it develops and take a new direction when something isn’t working
• The benefits that go with having a day job – are they worth giving up to go full time as a photographer
• Being critiqued by your peers – how it helps your photography and where you can go to have it done
• No matter your genre of photography, trying to sell prints online will always be tough
• If you can have your clients touching, feeling and really seeing your work, you have a much better chance of selling or converting
• How to make it as simple and easy as possible for people to buy your products or prints online

Following this episode, will you be asking yourself the same questions Lee did about your lifestyle, your photography passions and who your real target audience/market is.

Is it really worth pursuing a dream to make money as a photographer if you you have to shoot something you’re not really passionate about? Will it just be a matter of saying no to some jobs or something much more drastic like taking on (or staying in) a day job to fund the style of photographer you really want to be?

I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments below.

If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this episode where you can hear a further 20 minutes with Lee where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones which included:

• Managing the backend of a print order via your website, what are the pros and cons of doing it manually
• A landscape photographer selling prints online has to have their images looking fantastic on all monitors – learn what Lee does to maximise his sales and keep his photos looking fantastic on screen
• The beneifit for you and your client to reduce the onine options for your clients
• Getting found in your area – on page SEO
• To outsource or not
• Finding where your target audience are hanging out and go there
• Why you need to cull hard for your website and show only your absolutely best work

Following this interview with Lee, I’d love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you’d like to implement or learnt from what he had to share? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

If you’d like an easy way to show them your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically and let them know you’re listening: http://photobizx.com/tweet

The Resources Page

Remember the ever expanding resources page that has a listing of products, programs, hardware, books and directories mentioned in each episode of the show. If you’re looking for something that a guest has mentioned on a previous episode but just can’t remember who or what it was – you’ll find it listed in order on the resources page.

Each week before recording the podcast I check iTunes for any reviews. If you have time, it’s a big help for the show. It’s these reviews that make a big difference to the podcast being ranked well and found in the iTunes store. To leave your review, head over to iTunes.

Don’t feel your comments have to be long, involved or gushy, an honest opinion is all I ask. Don’t be shy about leaving your business name in the review either – that way I can add a link in the show-notes and show my appreciation with a proper thanks and a Google loving back-link to your website.

If you’d like to get in touch, ask a question or make a suggestion for the show, you can email me andrew@photobizx.com, find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/andrewhellmich or on Facebook at http://photobizx.com/facebook - I’d love to hear from you!

Lee’s Website for print sales, tutorials and photography education

Lee’s Blog with a wealth of great information for all genres of photography

Lee Duguid Photography on Facebook

Lee’s Education and Photoshop Tutorials

Lee at Google +

Free Photo Guides – a resource for landscape photographers

Mark Gray Fine Art Photography

Ken Duncan

Peter Lick

AIPP

SmugMug

Colour Munki Monitor Callibration

Yoast.com for learning about SEO and website and page optimization

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens

Brian Chapman’s upcoming 1 Day WORKSHOP – How to Sell Nicely but still get great sales figures

That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, I’d love for you to tell another photographer about it via Facebook, a Group you’re a part of, a photography forum, with a photographer friend or on twitter.

If you do have a twitter account, simply click here: http://photobizx.com/tweet or use the share buttons below.

Thanks and speak soon Andrew

The post 059: Lee Duguid – Why have a Wedding Photography Business if your Passion is Landscape Photography? appeared first on Photography Business Xposed - A Photography Podcast on how to have your own successful portrait and wedding photography business.