Insights from photographer representative Ally Godfrey
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 by Tracey Clark 
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with successful photographer’s representative Ally Godfrey who owns and runs her own rep agency named appropriately Ally Godfrey Reps. We spoke of all sorts of ways photographers can make money shooting their passion. I love conversations like that and I found what she shared with me very enlightening. Since Ally works as the liaison between photographers and the clients that hire them, she offered insights on how to present yourself and your work in a way that is attractive to the clients looking for photographers. Photographers like, ahem, YOU!
Many (um, most) of the photographers I know do not have any ‘formal training’ under their belts (myself included) and let me start by saying that Ally doesn’t think that matters one bit. Am I hearing a collective sigh of relief? “What matters is the photography and delivering to the client consistent, high quality imagery that they can use” Ally emphasized. “You have to know lighting and develop a style”. We all know this is easier said than done but Ally offers a few simple rules of thumb for photographers who are looking to parlay their passion to a commercial or editorial professional status. She begins by sharing, “I think that every photographer, no matter what they want to shoot, if their goal is to make money from their photography, needs to create a “brand” for themselves. Decide what it is that you want to shoot and move your portfolio, website and testing in that direction.”
So, where to start? Well, if you think you’re ready to make money with your photography then chances are you’ve been shooting A LOT. So...now you’ve got the work to start building your portfolio. Ally reminds us that “Less is always more. Put together all of your BEST photos and then cut by 25%! Get someone in the business that you trust to go over your portfolio with a critical eye. You can also hire someone to do this professionally. Note: Ally offers this service to photographers so keep her URL handy when the time comes. In the end Ally says, “Make sure that the presentation is professional.” If you are looking to shoot commercially, “the industry has moved away from photos in sleeves to images that the clients can actually touch in a bound portfolio...less of a barrier between them and your work.” Good to know.
Next is creating an effective, eye-catching website that sells your work; your brand. This is where you showcase the portfolio you’ve worked so hard on. Ally suggests the most important element in a website is that the photos are featured “big and beautiful”. The site needs to be easy to navigate (which includes making sure the images load quickly, the intro is short and sweet and your bio is quick and entertaining to read). Ally adds, “If you are a creative person, some of your creative flair needs to come through in the design as well. Also (and this is important), the site needs to be easily updated.” Ally and the photographers that she represents all use and tout LiveBooks as their website developer of choice. She also mentions not to have too many portfolios to browse and if you have a blog associated with the site to keep the content relevant to your site and the work you are doing and trying to get more of. She adds that if you are also shooting weddings and portraits you might have trouble attracting commercial work so be sure to decide on what types of jobs you are looking to get and separate them if you are doing a little of both.
For those of you just starting out, slowly building a portrait business (or those who have booming businesses already), you still can follow these same guidelines. They translate just as well as you build your portfolio and website for clients that want to hire portrait or event photographers.
Above all else Ally emphasizes that photographers need to shoot what they love. That’s good enough for me.
LiveBooks is offering the Shutter Sisters' community 10% off their services. Woot! Pop over and see what they've got to offer (pretty great stuff I must admit). For inquiries contact J. Sandifer at LiveBooks and tell them Shutter Sisters sent you!
A special thanks to Ally Godfrey for sharing her wisdom, Stacey Allaire for making the interview possible and the fine folks of LiveBooks.
Reader Comments (18)
http://esterdaphne.blogspot.com/
http://www.meredithwinnphotography.com/
there is so much more out there! the world is so wide and beautiful. i recently had brunch with an old friend of mine visiting from Brooklyn. her husband is an amazing photographer, truly creating art for ADVERTISEMENTS. it opened a whole new world to me as i heard him speak. "you could move to NY and get work immediately" seemed to stick in my head and gypsy heart. (always thinking of the young fresh girls heading to NY to become actresses) it made me curious about the world of advertising and how he mixes his art freelance style with magazines.
http://anthonytwomoons.com/
any thoughts on fine art like this? has anyone had success selling photos or getting contracted for such a thing?
I always liked photography, but it was the birth of my first child that got me taking pictures everyday and loving it. Don't know it will ever lead to anything, but I think I have that "shoot what you love" thing covered.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12418609@N00/3441627612/
Any suggestions for websites that are a bit more...er...affordable? My wallet jumped up and smacked me in the face when I even looked at Livebooks :) .
Again, thanks for the wonderful info, and I cannot wait to see what websites other shutter sisters have to share!
I am smitten with the photography bug BAD and am self taught so to speak. I have learned everything I know from you Shuttersisters and my reading. I am ready to pursue "making money" off my work. I have started an Etsy shop and Redbubble shop but no bites yet =)
I did just buy some MOO cards and will hand them out to people when the opportunity arises. I would love a professional site like Livebooks but it's beyond my reach finacially at the moment.
I did get some very good advise here and have now bookmarked Allys blog for reading. Great stuff. And thank you SS again for helping us all along our paths of creativity!
www.hellosweetworld.wordpress.com
I hope it's ok that I'm a guy who thoroughly enjoys this blog. :)
I've combined that with a new photography template for my blog (still not entirely happy with this one yet):
www.dianeschuller.com
and am still working on reducing the size of my portfolio though I've done a better job on tying together the colours and logo with both. So, although part way there, I'm still working on it. Thanks again for such useful information!