No, I didn’t get that backward. I continue to be successful with a concentration on people, using technology only when it actually provides more value for and brings me closer to my customers. This means avoiding technology when it creates distance between myself and my customers.
This may seem like the opposite of the trend of the last decade or so. But it works for me. It may work for you, if you dare to be different.
The images accompanying this post are high touch. I could try to do something similar if I had the parents or staff pose the children, but it would take a lot longer and it wouldn’t work nearly as well. To create the images that have become my style, I have to work in the way that has become my style. You can see how I work on YouTube.
I deliver speculation packages on most of my shoots. I try to have staff watching my sessions. First the staff, children and the parents are impressed with my “high touch” style of photography. I put on a good show. Then the parents and the staff have actual prints in their hands. My sales average (or percentage) keeps going up. This is especially important in these days when staffing in child care centers is ever more stressed.
Today’s trend is toward less contact with the children and the parents, contactless photography and online ordering. I guess I’m different. The child care center I photographed today likes that difference. They texted all of their friends in the child care business in the area to promote my services, while I was shooting their center today. (Yeah, I put ’em up to it.)
Always so happy with the pictures! Next year will be the last year at daycare for my Little! You have photographed him every year and his sister since she was 3 now 7…and I just want to say thank you! Thank you for capturing both my kids’ awesome smiles year after year. A happy mom from Canton Area Preschool in Canton,SD.
Thank you, Nicole.
Maybe you can ask April to notify you when I photograph Canton Preschool next year. There are some centers that do that. I have looked up and seen high school kids waiting to be photographed.