Here's some of what we cover:
I'm unsure whether or not Jeff misunderstood my question when I asked him to share an embarrassing moment but his resulting story of thugs, threats of violence and other photographers paying to have people do him harm was way more than I was expecting. It seems success in Malaysia may bring about its own unique problems.
Premium Members
During the main interview Jeff covered some marketing advice for newbie photographers to get noticed in their local community, for premium members, we dive deeper into the topic and look at it from the perspective of an established photographer looking to increase their prices and profits. Although some of this advice may not be possible for the newbie, it's still worth a listen and will definitely lead you in the right direction from the start. If you are established, you need to hear this.
What is your big takeaway?
Following the interview, I'd love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you'd like to implement or remember from what Jeff had to share? Let me and other listeners know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.
What have you implemented so far?
If you have implemented something that you've learnt or heard from the podcast interviews, I want to know about it! I really am interested and love to hear about your success stories, especially if I've helped play a small part. If you feel up to it, leave a voicemail message by clicking the tab on this page or record and send me an .mp3 file – I'd love to play your recording on a future episode. Don't feel confident or want to send a voicemail? No problem, shoot me an email, I'd love to hear from you – andrew@photobizx.com.
iTunes ratings, reviews and Shout-Outs
Three amazing ratings and reviews in iTunes this week which I truly appreciate – thank you guys! It's these reviews that really make a big difference to the podcast being ranked well and found in the iTunes store.
If you have the time and are happy to leave an honest rating and review, head over to iTunes.
Also, a few shout-outs to photographers/listeners that have made contact via email or social media this week:
Rhona of http://rhonaviloriaphoto.com
Trish of http://rtphotos.biz
Terry of http://www.terryrichards.com
Stacey Carpenter from the UK Lisa of http://www.lisaeasterphotography.com
Jacqui and Steve of http://jacqui-marie-photography.co.uk
Thanks guys, it's been great chatting and hearing from every single one of you this week. If you'd like to get in touch, ask a question or make a suggestion for the show, you can email me andrew@photobizx.com, find me on twitter https://twitter.com/andrewhellmich or on Facebook at https://photobizx.com/facebook – I'd love to hear from you!
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
Jeff Voon Photography on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/JeffVoonPhotography
Jeff Voon on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jeffmiri
[jf] Academy of Photography – https://www.facebook.com/pages/jf-academy-of-photographyInformation about Jeff's workshops – http://www.aswpp.com.au/jeff-voon-world-tour-2013/
Bernie’s main website – http://www.berniegriffiths.com
Advanced Success for Wedding & Portrait Photographers – http://www.aswpp.com.au
That's it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you. I'd love for you to leave a comment below to let me know what you took away from this episode of the podcast.
Speak soon
Andrew
Great episode andrew and thank you for getting a interviewee that has a completely different view on marketing.
I don’t think this is a very wise stratagy for 99% of photographers as I believe Facebook is not as credible as a website but is just a great tool to use for testimonials and a alternative was to talk to customers.
This may be the best thing for him in his country but I can’t see the conversion rate on Facebook ever being as good as a bride actively looking for a photographer on google.
Cheers Andrew and is a great show!
Hi Shane
Thanks for adding your comments and nice to hear you enjoyed the fact Jeff has a totally different “spin” on marketing.
I agree with what you say about Facebook and Jeff voiced his concerns during our chat too – I’m pretty sure he mentioned that he was looking into starting a blog/website as well.
What I do like though, is that Jeff doesn’t spread himself too thin between all the different social media outlets and focuses all his energy into one platform.
So he shoots RAW yet uses camera presets?
As far as I know presets are only for used when shooting in .jpg and have nothing to do withshooting RAW.
But yeah, loved how he talked about being different as a Photographer. It is even in his post production. Very unique indeed.
Joey Joiner
Hi Joey – sorry mate, I can’t help with the presets and RAW comment – as you know, I’m a JPG shooter. Maybe someone else can enlighten us or Jeff will stop by and clarify.
Hi Joey – I messaged Jeff to ask about the presets and RAW topic you brought up, here’s what he had to say:
No matter whether you use jpg or raw… the camera still can preset the contast… sharpness… saturation… WB… thats very important. With my white balance, I like to set it to K4900 for a lot of my shooting.
My contrast in my camera always set to ‘low’ because I prefer not to have too much contrast in my photos. The ISO I don’t set on auto.
If you use good in camera presets your photos will need a lot less work in Photoshop and/or Lightroom.
Some of my students prefer to change settings or convert to black and white after transferring to lightroom… they can then choose either color or monocrome output.
For me, I select in camera while shooting.
My big take away from this episode is actually another business idea! If Jeff earns 30x more than the average photographer in Malaysia, and his price for one wedding is the equivalent of two months pay for the average person in Malaysia, and its still to expensive to hand out business cards to anyone other than royalty…. I think I need to move to Malaysia and sell business cards!! 🙂
All joking aside, there were a few interesting ideas that Jeff had, his idea about marketing yourself at a charity event got me thinking that doing a photo booth at an event with a canon selphy printer for prints on the spot, the only cost being a donation to the charity, and giving them the print along with your business card (they are much cheaper here 🙂 would really be a great way to market yourself, and get your name out there!
Love it Terry, let me know when you set up your business card business and I’ll be sure to give it a plug on the podcast 🙂
Good to hear Jeff got you thinking in regard to marketing in different ways. With the charity event idea, I don’t think you necessarily need a Photo Booth, you could just as simply set up a basic backdrop (or use the natural environment, depending where you’re situated) and shoot away with your normal set up.
If you try something like this, I’d love to know how it works out.
hiya Andrew, agree with above comments and in terms of the business cards he should get them from Melbourne where i get them, digital printed cards for 80 bucks. Also it’s funny to here my own business name within the podcast, I have owned funbooth for 7 years now the first digital photo booth in Sydney, and to be honest although we do a lot of charity events its still not cheap to supply these at charity events, good marketing but not a cheap exercise.
Im not sure if i heard correctly though, when Jeff said he gets other photographers to shoot the International bookings he gets, did he say he sometimes uses student..? maybe i heard wrong..
great one Andrew i also liked how you explained the questions over so Jeff understood what you meant very well done but i’m still confused does he shoot Canon or Nikon…ha
Hey Paul – I agree with the cost of setting up a photo booth – I recently read an article on what was involved in regard to components and cost and it was no surprise that hire costs are what they are to make it a viable business. Hats off to you for getting in early with what is a great and fun idea.
You heard right about Jeff using students for some of his overseas weddings but I’m pretty sure the term students he is referring to are his workshop attendees. These attendees are for the most part professional wedding photographers looking to learn from the way he shoots and handles post processing.
Yep, the language barrier was a bit of a challenge but I hope worth the listen none the less. As for Canon or Nikon, I think Jeff, like most of us, would go either way, depending on who was throwing gear at him. I’m sure he understood the question but wasn’t crazy about answering because he shoots Canon but it was abundantly clear (in my mind) what he’d rather be shooting 😉
Fascinating interview….Jeff is shooting everyday…while travelling around the world…getting paid for it too…fascinating insight into a photographer doing it differently. .
Thanks Bernie – and thanks to you I found Jeff online. I hope the workshops are a great success.
Andrew — first off, thanks very much for the shout out! I really appreciate it. I think you deserve every praise you get for your podcasts and more.
Enjoyed this interview just because the ideas put forth by Jeff Voon are so unique — I can’t help but think that most of his business practices are culturally-nuanced. I was mostly intrigued by his unique marketing strategy of creating a “mystique” around his brand (not having a website, not readily giving away business cards, not putting his logo at the end of slideshows) — it seems to me that what he wanted to say was that the more “elusive” your brand is, the more sought after you will become, but only by people that know they can afford his prices. Very interesting, indeed. Also, KUDOS to the working photographer in Malaysia!! When Jeff mentioned that a wedding photographer in Malaysia mostly works 12 hour days that sometimes begin at 4(!) am, my jaw literally dropped. Cannot believe they have to work that hard for relatively so little. In crazy tropical heat. Hats off to all of them.
Also, kudos to you Andrew for skillfully pulling off an interview that had its own language barrier challenges. You proved once again what a great interviewer you are..you could certainly pursue a career in broadcasting if you weren’t a photographer 🙂
Hi Rhona – no worries for the shout out!
You’re the first to bring up the massive wedding coverage expected in Malaysia – I can’t imagine starting at 4am every weekend!
Once again, I think you’ve captured perfectly what Jeff was saying in your summation – it’s the elusiveness that he is seeking to promote a feeling of exclusivity.
Interestingly, Andy Marcus talked about exactly the same idea in regard to New York restaurants and how wonderfully the strategy works.
Thanks again for your comments.
BTW – love the envelopes and stamps for your new stationery that you linked to with the Comment Luv plugin!
Hi Andrew
Thanks for mentioning me on the podcast put a big smile on my face lol
Are our children going to want to use the same social media as their parents or are they going to want to use the new hip thing out?
Google+ is going to influence your google rankings some day so I’m am building my community there 🙂 with a little Facebook to point customers to my website! 🙂
Hey Shane, no probs mate – glad it made you smile 🙂
I agree that there probably will be something new for the next generation with social media and that G+ is great for building authority and SEO.
My only concern with your strategy is that your current clients may not be on G+ yet? I much refer it over Facebook but most of my prospective clients are still using FB so I feel I have to be there… for now.
I’d love to know if you’ve seen something different with your clients.
Thanks for commenting and great to have you listening.
Hi Andrew
Most of my clients are on Facebook and only a handful on G+ but its not really important. Where are they going to be in 5/10 years time and does that matter? If you was going to get married again how would you look for a wedding photographer google or facebook?
I use facebook as a tool to get my potential customers to my website where i know I can convert them into a paying customer and google+ as a tool to increase my google rankings. They are only tools to market my business. My website is my base and where 99% of my customers contact me from (its my shop! Social media is only marketing)
Hey Shane – yep, I agree with most of what you’re saying here. I don’t think anyone can go wrong if they are using their website as their “home base” or “shop front” and the location to try and route all potential clients. Building a business purely on Facebook or any other platform or network that you don’t own seems risky to me – I like to be in control of my online destiny, where possible.
If I were looking for a wedding photographer to photograph my wedding, I’d use Google and FB, not G+ at the moment – that may change in the future.
And yes, G+ is a great way to help your Google rankings – make sure you don’t miss the upcoming podcast on SEO with Gabriel where we go deeper in to ranking well with the search engines today.
I’m from Malaysia too, is true enough about the wedding industry in Malaysia. We are trying to educate the market to appreciate good wedding photographer.
I think what you’re trying to do in Malaysia is what most photographers from around the world are doing now. It seems photography has been valued less in the past few years but I’d like to think that’s turning around now.