As per my doctor and the government the building is still closed to the public. Several of my serves are available.
Photography / studio photography
The studio is not open nor do I have any idea on a date that I will be open. As I have no idea when this will be over I am not booking any photo sessions at this time and all sessions till the end of May are now cancelled. I would be happy to take your information and when we get an all clear I will call you to book.
Photography Courses
All in person photography courses are cancelled till the end of May. Courses are now available on-line. Click here to see my courses.
Printing & Restorations
The printing department is now open!! Supplies are in stock and some more are coming in to top everything up. A couple frame suppliers are closed but I have good stock on most sizes and types. Files can be sent online (I can help you with a couple different programs to easily do this), once the order is done then I will send an invoice that you can pay by Etransfer or Paypal. When you come to pick-up your work call me when you are at the studio and I will put your order outside on the table. (You cannot come into the building). Delivery also available for an extra charge.
Customer service
I am known for my customer service and this will continue even with Covid-19. You have two options to continue this. First you can send in your files and I will adjust and print for you. All images will be corrected to professional image standards. You will get the best possible image from the file that you send in. Or if you like I can do the editing for you while you watch on-line. This way you can see the changes and the cropping that I will be doing. The viewing program is free to use but you must have either Internet or data to take part in this.
People have been asking why the changes here at Paterson Photography? Well it is simple, I am trying to stay organized and that is a HUGE project in itself. Over the past years several of my businesses and hobbies have merged into one HUGE mess.
People that are looking for my nature prints find my woodworking or my teaching information but cannot find my nature prints. People that want to follow the happenings with my van find my nature prints, etc, etc.
So I have been slowly separating things to make it easier for me and for my friends and clients. Well to be blunt it is like separating an omelette, it has not been easy. I am glad that I am doing it but it will take a lot of work to clean things up.
So be patient and someday I may have things all organized. You may see posts overlapping for a while but slowly things will split completely, or at least that is how I plan it 🙂
So some of my sites if you are interested are below…
People have been asking me how to improve their photography business, simple it comes down to the print! The past couple of weeks I have had a chance to sit down with a number of photographers. I have been hearing a lot of the same things from these people and I thought that it would be worth sharing with others. The main issue is how do you impress your customers, set your business apart from others and improve your sales?
Several points keep coming to the forefront
Set yourself apart with the print!
1) For those that do shoot & burn weddings (shoot the wedding and burn the digital files to disk or USB for the client) I have been hearing a number of photographers mention that their customers are complaining about bad prints. Their clients are taking the images to a discount lab to get prints made. When they get the prints back they are coming back horrible. Most times the photographer does not know how their client feels as they don’t hear about the bad prints. The clients think it is the photographer ~ because the lab says it is not them. If the photographer hears it is through a third party and the bad printing has damaged the photographers reputation.
2) Many photographers have seen a drop in the number of assignments they get. A couple photographers actually inquired of past customers and received some feedback. One of the biggest points is that clients were not happy with the final prints. Many clients mentioned that it was a pain to go and get the prints done themselves. All had mentioned they were having prints done at a discount lab.
The common statement went something like this…….
“…. the photographers service was great”. “We were not happy with the way the final prints looked”. “The prints looked like the ones that you get from a one hour lab ~ not professional prints”. “It took me a week to get a couple pictures done properly. It was a HUGE waste of my time”. One photographer actually brought me a couple of files to print. Their customers had them done someplace else. They wanted to see what their client thought. The response from their client was “These are amazing, we never thought that the printing would do that!!!!”
3) Many of the photographers also mentioned that they needed something to add a WOW factor to the services that they were offering. They have been giving clients 4×6 & 5×7 prints. The small prints were not impressing their clients.
The consensus
In just about all the comments one thing was clear. The photographer’s clients want/demand something more than a cheap 4×6 or 5×7 one hour print. I have been saying for years that if photographers want to survive that they need to set themselves apart. Something more than what uncle Bob is doing ~ usually for free because he is a relative and wants to be helpful. Uncle Bob can have the nice camera. Many times he is handing the wedding couple a disk and that is it. Or he is printing some prints at the one hour place and handing them to the couple. The problem is if that is what the “professional” photographer is doing we are not setting ourselves apart and WOW’ing our clients.
So what should professional photographers be doing?
First, every client should be getting a WOW picture. Something that stands out like a 16×20 or 20×24 portrait fully finished!! Second you should be providing your clients with some professionally printed images that they can show friend’s and family so they can see what a great picture looks like. Prints that they cannot get at the local one hour!
Finally if you are handing over the disk to the client make sure they know the difference in the printing that they will get.
Remember we need to set ourselves apart for the positive. One of the best ways to do this is with professional printing!
To help with giving some wow to your photography we are offering a coupon for a discount in printing that you can give to your client to get professional printing. That way they will get the best image possible from your files. Drop us an E-mail and we will run off some discount coupons for you!
If you are looking for an amazing road trip may I suggest Red Rock Coulee. I have driven past on highway 3 a number of times and always wondered what was there, now I know. It is well worth the drive for a day or even if you want to stay in the area for a couple days.
Will be heading back that way soon for some more pictures and exploring! Funny thing is that all the rock pictures that I took and I like the flower ones the best!
This place is amazing, a little out of the way and NO services. There is one broken picnic table and that is all the extras that are there. But it is well worth the drive. I do suggest that you go WELL prepared. When it is hot out this place is even hotter. If it is dry this place is drier. When it is cool this place is COLD!! There is no shelter to get out of the weather unless you hide behind a rock and they are not that big!
So as 2018 comes to an end I am planning what goals I want for the next year. I have the same general items for each year that I am in business …
Improve my photography
Keep my website & blog up to date
Improve print quality and types of prints offered
Add more courses and workshops
But those are general and if I did not have them then there would be a big problem as everyone or every business should have something to work towards.
So what do I have to work toward? I have heard many experts say we should have three types of plans / goals in our lives. The first are the BIG ones, or the dreams. The second is the more achievable ones (medium goals) but still will require some work and the third is the easy ones. SO for the next year so far I have the following…..
Upgrade my 70D’s to the promised Canon 7D mark III
Add a vacuum press to the printing department
Head back to the coast for a whale watching trip
Head to Jasper to photograph Caribou
Add more premade frames to my selection
Update some of my display prints in the studio
Build a copy center for artwork and get polarizing filters for lights
Market more of my nature / wildlife work
Little Goals
Clean-up the backroom and the attic
Clean up my camera gear, and organize
Get out shooting more
Organize the shooting room more
Update my outside sign
Switch out my main hard drive in the office
Build more specialty frames
I know that these will change but I like having things to work towards. On last years list was a major rebuild of my website and I FINALLY got to it with two weeks remaining in the year, but it feels great to have that mostly done.
Headed out to shoot the (almost) full moon rising tonight. I thought that the cloud in the distance was too thick to get the moon coming out of the horizon. I was surprised to see the moon right on time. For shots like this a really cold night generally gives less distortion. But I can never resist the opportunity to shoot the rising moon when it is clear. Was nice to have the White Turtle III with me to use as a base of operations.
