New Zealand fine art photographer, Bianca Duimel first appeared on my radar when I saw her stunning mother's day video pop up in my Facebook feed – I contacted her right after I saw it to discover if it's possible to make a living as a fine art photographer. Her work is simply stunning and I urge you to take a look and be visually inspired before hearing how you can combine your passion for photography with the possibility of a successful photography business.

Bianca has recently won two gold awards at the NZ AIPP print awards, spent time judging alongside some top Australian and Kiwi photographers and is planning a two day creative and composite workshop in Queenstown later this year. She's been in business as a photographer for over 25 years and is as passionate about photography and business as ever… so much so that she's about to open “FLAUNT”, a brand new glamour studio in the centre of Aukland New Zealand.

Here's some more of what we cover:

  • Being in business as a portrait photographer for 25 years
  • Is it possible to make a living as a fine art photographer
  • Discovering different avenues where you can sell your photography work
  • Where to find inspiration as a fine art photographer
  • Why you need to have a goal and a vision before every shooting session
  • Bianca's workflow process
  • Overcoming the common client expectation of “just Photoshop it!”
  • What's bringing in the money in Bianca's business today
  • Creating and using fine art imagery to stand out amongst the competition
  • How constantly up-skilling yourself allows you to separate yourself from the “average” photographers
  • How creating fine art images helps Bianca enhance and develop the style she wants to achieve
  • Giving up a successful studio location to start a family
  • Why Bianca's average number of shoots dropped from 10 per day to 4-5 shoots per week
  • The importance of goal setting
  • What areas Bianca is targeting to find clients and what strategies she applies in her business to target the right market
  • Identifying future clients – knowing her target market, what they do, where they shop, demographics etc
  • Despite her success, Bianca is still opening another studio… learn why
  • The content of the emails sent out to prospective leads
  • Emotional videos and how you can use them to attract your target market's interest
  • Texting systems
  • The importance of bringing awareness to future customers on what their business is all about – a great step towards convincing and swaying prospects for a pre consult or for a pre shoot meeting
  • Utilising a mini e-magazines as a time-saver to skip pre-consults while still being able to showcase your work and pique client interest
  • What happens during a fine art photo shoot
  • Pricing for a fine art photography
  • Lessons Bianca learnt after concentrating her marketing on just two stores
  • Choosing the right stores to attract the right market to prevent devaluing your vouchers
  • The importance of delegating tasks to continue shooting for clients
  • Outsourcing as a means to develop and grow your business
  • Why Bianca doesn't send out only framed work for clients
  • What Bianca is doing to kick off her new photography studio in the city
  • Why you need to study your competition if you want your business to stand out
  • Why Bianca is hooked on glamour photography
  • Computing costs to identify how many sales are required and how many clients are needed to succeed each day, week or year

Following this interview, I'd love to believe that you'll be in a better position to combine your love of photography, in particular your photography style and the possibility of having a successful business where you can combine the two… just as Bianca has.

Fine art image of two children in a fantasy hot air balloon at dusk while examining the globe and looking through binoculars

What's on Offer for Premium Members

If you're a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this episode where you can hear lots more implementable content from where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones that I pushed hard for that include:

  • Discover Bianca's secret to attracting people that book and buy photography
  • The importance of finding the type of people/businesses that you want to work with
  • Voucher systems. Learn how Bianca uses this technique to gain a constant flow of clients
  • Different strategies to consider to increase your leads
  • Why clients are so willing to give away their information and how you can use it to your advantage
  • Vouchers as a reward system for businesses you want to partner with

Bianca Duimel fine art image of a child flying a crazy machine from the imagination

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I'd love to know what your biggest takeaway is – what is the one thing that you'd like to implement or learnt from what was shared? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below.

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you'd like to ask or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them below.

If you'd like an easy way to show Valerie your thanks, and support for the show at the same time, click the link to create a tweet and automatically let him know you're listening: https://photobizx.com/tweet

Flaunt - glamour photography studio in Aukland

Artwork for Bianca's brand new glamour studio opening in Aukland

The Resources Page

Remember the ever expanding resources page that has a listing of products, programs, hardware, books and directories mentioned in each episode of the show. If you’re looking for something that a guest has mentioned on a previous episode but just can’t remember who or what it was – you’ll find it listed in order on the resources page.

Get in Touch or Leave a Voicemail Message

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!

Tara Eveland from Tara Eveland Photography did exactly that this week and you can hear her message in the podcast.

eskimo childs face surrounded by a massive fur coat hoodie

Price Rise for NEW Premium Memberships

In the last couple of episodes I mentioned the price for Premium Membership will be doubling this month… that’s right DOUBLING to a massive (sarcasm) $20 per month. The good news is that for existing members, they will continue to stay at the existing rate of $10 per month – that will not change.

So… if you’ve been thinking about a Membership, now is the time to check it out. Get in at the existing and soon to be old  and existing rate of $10 per month. Why the change?

Primarily, the content is worth it. I’ve received email after email form members that have seen just incredible results after implementing what they’ve been hearing in the interviews.

Secondly, the “back catalogue” has grown to be a terrific resource that new members instantly get full access to the minute they start their membership.

The price will be going up before the end of the month – September 2014.

Here's a recent comment from premium listener Tara Eveland following the episode with Zach Prez.

Sorry to jump in here but I just wanted to say that if you listen every week as I do and you love it, the $10 a month is SO WORTH IT, and get in now before it goes up closer to what it's actually WORTH lol.

I've told Andrew it should be more, there is SO MUCH valuable stuff there. And you get ALL the past info and episodes as well.

But for real you should get the premium and lock in the 10 bucks!

Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:

Bianca Duimel Website

Bianca Duimel Blog

Bianca Duimel on Facebook

Bianca's beautiful slideshow that caught my attention on Facebook

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Adobe Photoshop

Sue Bryce

Equipment

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Standard Lens

Bianca Duimel fine art photography workshop

Bianca Duimel's Fine art Photography workshop is coming up in October and at the time of posting has only 4 available places left.  Bianca via her website or Facebook page for more information or to reserve your spot.

That's it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!

If you've been enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to tell another photographer about it – it could be in a Facebook Group you're a part of, a photography forum, with a photographer friend or on twitter.

If you do have a twitter account, simply click here: https://photobizx.com/tweet or use the share buttons below.

Thanks and speak soon Andrew