I’ll be the July 1st guest speaker on ASMP’s Wednesday webinar

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I’m delighted to be speaking with ASMP’s executive director, Tom Kennedy, talking about two of my favorite subjects: Marketing and Mindfulness.

For more info and to register:

Click here!

“Rebooting your Business Brain” is coming to Atlanta

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The next presentation of my photography marketing seminar “Rebooting Your Business Brain” will be in Atlanta, GA on January 17, 2017. I’ve updated and revised it for 2017.

The Atlanta Southeast chapter of the ASMP has invited my to present to their chapter and to some of the photography students enrolled at SCAD which is where the talk will be held.

Registration and more info can be found on their web site

As usual, I will be available to meeting privately with photographers who’d like to book a consulting session with me to get personalized strategy, feedback and editing of their work.

There are early-bird discounts available for proactive photographers who book in advance of my arrival.

Minneapolis Portfolio Review event on April 29, 2016

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On Friday April 29, 2016  I will once again be doing portfolio reviews at the third annual 612 Review-The Portfolio Review event which is being put on by the ASMP Minneapolis-St. Paul chapter.

I’ll be joining a team of Midwest-based art directors, art buyers, reps and others who’ll be reviewing photographers’ portfolios in 20-minute segments from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m at the same venue as last year’s event: the Minneapolis Community and Technical College in downtown Minneapolis.

The list of this year’s reviewers and their biographies can be found here.

Both year’s previous event were super well-attended and many photographers made many new business connections.

Register HERE on the ASMP MSP’s chapter web site.

Hope to see you there!

Carolyn Potts doing a portfolio review

Mindfulness and Virtual Reality: two of my fave trends

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Anyone who’s been following me on my Facebook page, knows I’m a big fan of meditation. As filmmaker and long-time Transcendental Meditation advocate, David Lynch says, meditation is a great practice for all artists as it helps you focus and contributes greatly to one dropping down into the source of one’s personal well of creativity. I’m all for that.

I recently heard Terry Gross do a great interview on Fresh Air with author Jo Marchant about her latest book, Cure:A Journey Into The Science of Mind Over Body  It’s fascinating stuff on how our brains work and can be brought under control –something useful for anyone who’s stressed on regular basis.

The recent post-CES media buzz about virtual reality finally going mainstream, is something I’ve been watching for about 10 years. I think there are amazing opportunities for both healing and artistic expression. So watch this space as I’m going to be posting more about VR soon.

Photography Portfolio Review Event on May 1st in Minneapolis

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On May 1st, 2015  I will once again be doing portfolio reviews at the 2nd annual 612 Review-The Portfolio Review event put on by the ASMP Minneapolis/St. Paul chapter. I’ll be joining a team of Midwest-based art directors, art buyers, reps and others who’ll be reviewing photographers portfolios in 20-minute segments from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Last year’s event was super well-attended and many photographers made great new business connections.

This year’s event will be held in downtown Minneapolis at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College .

Sign-up information is available on the ASMP Minnesota chapter web site.

The last day to register is April 27th.

I’m presenting my photo marketing talk and all-new workshop in Houston.

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Next week I head to Texas. I’ve been invited by the Houston chapter of the ASMP to present a seminar, workshop, and private consulting sessions in Houston, TX  Jan. 29-Jan. 31st, 2015.

I’ll be presenting a newly-revised and updated version of my popular “ReBooting Your Business Brain 2.0.” This photo marketing and photo business talk will be held at TexCam in Houston.

But I’m also presenting an all-new photo marketing/photo business workshop that will be limited to just 10 participants. The workshop registration has been brisk; so I recommend to not delay in registering.

Both the seminar and the workshops will focus on the business of photography and what photographers need to do to attract new clients in the 21st century.  I’ve presented the talk at various other photo trade organizations over the last 6 years and am always updating it to reflect the fast-moving world of photo marketing.  But this will be my first half-day workshop which will go deeper into the materials presented in the evening seminar.

More information and registration links are on the ASMP Houston site. Go here.

NOTE: The remaining early-bird discount pricing for any private consulting sessions while I’m in Houston, will expire Jan 27th. 

You’ve got to know what it cost to run your photo business.

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You’ve got to know what it cost to run your photo business if you want to be around more than a year or two. The economic reality of running any small business must be faced. You have to have a pricing structure based on what all of your business costs are– or sooner or later, you will be the one who puts yourself out of business. Not your “cheap clients.”

Photographers often are told their bids for a shoot are too high and they lose a bid to someone “cheaper.” You didn’t lose the bid because of your estimate. Your real failure was a failure of eduction. It’s likely that you failed to educate both yourself–and subsequently your clients– about what it really costs a pro photographer to keep the doors open. Yes, it hurts to be underbid. But that doesn’t have to happen as often. When you have built a relationship with your client and they have some sense of why you’re charging what you’re charging they’re not as likely to automatically go with the lowest bid.  In this case, ignorance is never bliss.

I read a great article today on PetaPixel. It’s one that I recommend to all emerging photographers (and some old pros as well!).  It was penned by photographer, Tom Meyer, who lives in Decatur, GA. It was originally published on his own blog. It’s worth reading.

Here’s an excerpt.

 There are hundreds of students graduating every day as “photographers” who can under bid me for a year… maybe two. But eventually these realities also become unavoidable to them, at which time they become real estate agents or go back to being baristas… or they start billing at that “job killer” rate of $100 per hour.

Tomorrow is the inaugural portfolio review day at Chicago Creative Review

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I will be one of the portfolio reviewers participating at the inaugural day of the Chicago Creative Review event.

I will be joining 9 Chicago ad agency art buyers, 12 art directors/creative directors, 2 photo editors, and 9 photo reps at the studio of the late Steve Grubman at 456 N Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60642

All sessions with all reviewers are completely sold out as of today, but there will be another event in the Spring of 2015.

A portion of the proceeds of the event will benefit the Off the Street Club.

I’m looking forward to seeing some great local talent.

The next batch of portfolio reviews I’m doing will be at PhotoPlusExpo in NYC at the end of October for the Palm Springs Photo Fest’s Portfolio Reviews.

Sign up deadline for those sessions with dozens of photography influencers is fast approaching.

Next up: NYC Oct. 29-Nov. 1, 2014 for PhotoPlus Expo and to do Portfolio reviews at PSPF

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Once again I’m heading to NYC at the end of October to attend PhotoPlus Expo , the huge photography trade show and conference being held, as usual, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. PPE is a great place to connect with friends and colleagues you may only know “virtually.” In an ever-increasing digital world, face-to-face meetings are precious and wonderful. I am looking forward to meeting up with many photographers––both old friends and new–some of whom I know online and on the phone, but who I’ve not yet met in person.

For the fourth year in a row I will be doing portfolio reviews for The Palm Springs Photo Festival , alongside dozens of art buyers, photo editors, gallery directors, book publishers and other photo industry professionals. This is an ideal opportunity for photographers to get a valuable and potentially career-changing advice from industry insiders.

The reviewers’ schedules will be listed here. Slots sell out quickly .

I won’t be doing free reviews at the ASMP booth at PPE this year as I’ve done for the past 8 years. But I will be available for a limited number of free, private review sessions for ASMP members who are on my mailing list and/or who I may have reviewed previously in the ASMP booth. Details will be sent to my mailing list in late Sept./early October.

If you want to know my availability at PPE for a free session and you’re not already on my mailing list, you can join here.

I’m heading to California next week to see two great photo exhibitions in LA and then do portfolio reviews at The Palm Springs Photo Fest

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Next week I’m headed to Los Angeles to attend the 2nd annual Paris Photo LA fine art photo exhibition which is being held April 25-27th.  I was amazed last year at its inaugural exhibition at the depth and breadth of the work shown. Can’t wait to go again. Once again, it’s being held at the same great venue:  Paramount Studios on Melrose.

Concurrent with Paris Photo LA there’s another and brand new fine art photo exhibition: Photo Independent. This show will feature photographers not currently represented by galleries; the current exhibitor list is filled primarily with California-based artists. The exhibition is being held nearby at Raleigh Studios.

I’ll be curious to see how the quality of the work compares at the two shows. The number of people inhabiting the professional photography universe has exploded exponentially in every direction– both those seeking commercial and editorial assignments and those seeking to be exhibited. I’m very curious to see what percentage of work will be truly inspirational and move the fine art photography world forward.

After my full weekend of seeing great fine art photography, I head directly to Palm Springs to once again be one of the PSPF faculty doing portfolio reviews at the 9th annual Palm Springs Photo Fest. Both fine art and commercial photographers attend the PSPF as the reviewers are from both worlds of photography.

PSPF always has a great list of seminars, workshops and portfolio reviewers. This year is no exception. It’s not too late to register for the portfolio review program.