Action stations....

The website is now up and running and, for v.1, I am very happy with it. I need to add some more pictures and give others a little more umpf as they seem a little flat: http://www.anthonyjohn.net

One thing I am less happy with is facebook. I was following some instructions to create a business page and it says when you are ready hit the publish button - what publish button!! Also to give your site its own address you need 25 fans, okay, so I have to become a fan of my own page first... where has the become a fan button disappeared to??? Very frustrated!!!!

/rant

The telesales/direct-marketing I was hoping to do today didn't happen because of my fiddling around with the above amongst other things. This is not good because I should have made the calls this afternoon and done the fiddling this evening. And tomorrow will be a busy day so its going to be Wednesday when I make the calls - but thats okay, got no choice really!!!

But at least I am making progress!!!

Quick update

Well, not enough has been done today. The website is woefully partly constructed but at least all the constituent pages work and there is a level of consistency about it!! If I get the rest of the pages completed one day at a time then it will all be ship shape by the end of the week... or at least that is the plan!!

Took my dad for Sunday dinner at the Windmill Inn near Macclesfield - fabulous it was too. And such a nice day to go out!! Highly recommended... http://www.thewindmill.info/home.php

Felt lethargic this evening after a couple of drinks with the food so little has been done!!! Its late (or early) and I have a lot to do tomorrow. Bed me thinks.....zzz

Still preparing...

Well lots of prep being done - mostly by being sat on my bum but my bum is in gear.

Put together a list of over 100 potential clients, with phone numbers - all to be called on Monday.

But what am I going to say? I kind of created a script, but decided I needed to do more research.

I managed to download from those really nice people at yudu.com a book called "the complete book of phone scripts" which has allsorts of scripts from openers to the right stuff to say to closers. Excellent!! I have already read the thing from start to finish and will read it again tomorrow.

Not all of it is relevant (at the moment) but there is a lot of very useful information. And one very key tip - which the author assures me is extremely important and I will implement it - in fact I will do it this evening - and I will see how it goes.

The football/soccer season kicked off today here in the UK......zzzzzzz.

Busy busy busy....

Well, its been a busy few days getting stuff done.

I have all my non-photography tasks for the moment sorted which has left time to get the old "bum in gear" for my promotion...

The web page will be completed this evening, the flyer is done, a cover letter is almost complete - just need to go through the yellow pages and build up a list of solicitors for personal injury work.

I have also spoken to a fellow photographer who also does this sort of work who was managing to charge £400-£500 a time but that part of the market seems to have dried up for him. Doing some research there appear to be quite a few photographers who are out there doing this work and are charging a much smaller amount, between £65 and £125, and they are providing sets of 7x5 prints and a CD. Hmm, that's not good. However, I need a USP to beat them!!

In MC's video they talked about reliability and that is going to have to be mine. Also, availability! I am sure that these lower end photographers will not want to get out of bed at 2am for that sort of money. I will go and do the work but I am going to charge them a call out fee of £95 on top of my professional services charges - I am doing this for a living.

Another USP could be the compassion and empathy that I can show the end clients.

Back on Monday I went to see my friend Martin and his wife and discussed pregnancy shoots. It just so happened that Martins cousin was about to "pop" one out and she was a more than willing model - the only problem was that it was due imminently and the doctor told her to take it easy, shucks!! However, Martins wife knows a few others who are towards the end of their pregnancy and is sure they would be interested - this is good but is likely to be a great task for next week - I need to get on with my promotion in the meantime!!!

Baby portaits are in the bag, but, I also need to get the child portraits done too using some of the ideas from nbp - I especially like the one of the legs against the black background.

I absolutely HAVE TO finish the web site this weekend, as basic as it may be, it has to be finished. I clicked on a link to "the Theme Foundary" and I really like their WordPress theme. I really like it and believe it has a lot to offer me going forward hosting on my own site unlike people like Clikpic. Maybe this will be version 2 of the site, but, I need to get to grips with Wordpress first.

Finally, there is Aperture 3. I really need to delve into that further, really hone my skills and wouldn't it be interesting to put together some "quick tip" vids for FroKnowsPhoto.com!! I need my new iMac before I go any further with that - less than 3 weeks to go before I get it!!

Bum in gear....

Yes, there comes a time when ones arse must be put in gear - get of the sofa and get some business.

I have been watching some photography business films on the internet, all about marketing in different sectors and one struck me straight away. I re-watched it and made extensive notes.

Now I need to formulate my own plan around this, put together another web page, a cover letter, get some flyers printed, get calls made to said businesses to get names to send the information to, post it, make calls within a few days to see if the information had been received and see if I can make an appointment based on whether they want to use my services.... or not!!!

Telesales is not my strong point so I am going to have to come up with a script which I need to rehearse so it doesn't sound like I am reading from a script and think of as many objections as I can so I can try and overcome them!! That is not going to be easy either!!

This could take up to three weeks to come to fruition which is a shame as I would like to do it immediately but I need to build a longer term business here so it really has to be done right!!

Albums and printing....

I have just about recovered from Thursday evening and had a busy day working on some wedding photographs that a friend took. I have re-post-processed them and am now building up an album for her. This is great for me because Photoshop skills which I learnt recently are now being put into practice including making individual albums rather than relying on templates.

I also had a chat with another friend of mine who, after admitting that she was extremely jealous that I went to the opening of the "Manchester Photographic Gallery", pointed me in the direction of Hotbed Press who run printing courses. She is goign there for a two day course next week book looking at the list of courses they have one called "The Complete Printmaker" which is every Tuesday between now and the beginning of October. It sounds very interesting and I am rather interested in attending, it may be the perfect accompaniment to my photography degree!!

The response has been very good to my abstract work. This has made me very happy and encouraged me to get out and do more!!

image....

No, not a photograph, but the corporate image and that got me thinking. And whilst thinking and surfing I came across http://www.wordle.net/ which allows you to create collages of words based on a list. The more a word appears in the list the large the typeface - cool.

The image it creates has a 50's/60's feel to it, maybe not the image I am trying to put across but its still rather neat...



Thinking of maybe putting it on a business card, but some of the writing may be a bit small. And it would make a good larger picture for hanging on the wall at wedding fayres. Hmm!!!!

website

One thing that became abundantly clear last night at the Gallery opening was the power of the internet and how important it is.

So today I started work again on getting a site of some description up and running.

The front page was done but I needed to get some of my abstract and flowers work up quickly. The abstract images I decided needed to be re-post-processed before being put up which I quickly did and then quickly created a photo page in iWeb and uploaded it.

http://www.anthonyjohn.net/Abstracts.html

I then quickly repeated the process for the images of flowers but they didn't require re processing so was done quite quickly.

http://www.anthonyjohn.net/Flowers.html

I am getting there!!

Opening of the Manchester Photographic Gallery

Yesterday I was lucky to be able to attend the opening event for the Manchester Photographic Gallery on Tariff Street in the Northern Quarter, "is a three-floor homage to the work of Mancunian photographers and a centre for the development of the art."

The event was well attended and I also met most of the photographers whose work is on display including Paul Wolfgang Webster... http://www.wolfgangwebstergallery.co.uk/gallery_320125.html

It was also useful as an event for networking and managed to make some useful contacts whilst I was there.

The only trouble was that there was free wine and it was flowing all evening and I had a little too much and today, oh boy, I am regretting it!!

However, one thing I have decided is.....

by hook or by crook I am going to have some of my work exhibited there!! My abstracts perhaps!!

CUBE

First let me review the exhibition at CUBE...

Previously Christian Jankowski had put on his "Perfect Gallery" exhibition at the Pump House in London. Now this major exhibtion at CUBE is "based" on the one down at the Pump House.

The basic premise is that the gallery becomes the exhibit so there is nothing on display but the gallery itself.

However, unlike the Pump House where CJ had been involved in the transformation nothing here had actually been changed, other than the previous exhibits had been removed and the walls given a fresh coat of paint!! Infact CJ hasn't even been to CUBE and his involvement has been minimal!!!

From my perspective the gallery feels empty, sparse but with nothing on the walls it returns to its warehouse origins. The trouble I was having in this installation (if you can call it that) is that I had been to CUBE several times before so I was well aware of the layout of the gallery and with nothing having been changed it spoilt the effect for me.

It also felt like I was viewing an empty flat in a warehouse conversion and I was not going to be able to buy it even if I had wanted to!!

Although there was a clash of the old beams and joists and the new bare walls where many exhibits have previously been shown it all came across as being lonely, too plain, sterile even. This was magnified as I was the only person in the whole gallery.

There is a separate dark room showing the BBC program giving the background to the exhibit and describes the installation as an alternative view in a different way, and that it is dynamic.

Personally I felt that it was lacking and left me cold.

Gallery opening.....

Well, this evening I am back into Manchester AGAIN!!

Its the opening of the Manchester Photographic Gallery and I just called up and got myself an invite. Their web site is still under construction if you want to take a peak...

http://www.manchesterphotographic.com

exhibitions...

On the photography front I have just emailed causeandeffect as they have a couple of shows coming up in the Autumn - "Staged" and "Solitude".

http://causeandeffectart.blogspot.com/

Definitely going to put some work up there!!!

A blustery day....

The weather is just pants and I have to go into Manchester in a couple of hours.

I have neglected this blog for so long (its been over 2 years since my last post) and I need to dump all my thoughts agonies and ideas somewhere so this is as good a place as any - my online diary.

A lot has happened since my last post, way too much to put in a single update so I guess I will simply refer back to it as and when and try to look forward most of the time.

The main thrust must be for me to get work though - either in IT or photography jobs but both seem difficult at the moment as a result of the economic downturn over the past couple of years. And I can no longer afford to stay in this house I am renting so I am moving in with my father; this will work on a couple of levels in that it will be cheaper for me to live there and allow me to regroup without worrying about bills to pay and will be good for my father too.... he is 87 in September and has told me that he gets very lonely in the house on his own after my mother passed way a couple of years ago. I have mixed emotions about it but cannot allow them to cloud my decision.

I need to blog every day now. And absolutely no procrastinating either!!!