PBX426: Sarah Louise Jackson – How to succeed in the profitable genre of building and architectural photography

Sarah Louise Jackson of www.sarahlouisephotography.com.au has been photographing buildings for 25 years. Yes, buildings! She's a Construction and Architectural Photographer based in Melbourne, Australia.

She offers still photography, drone and aerial photography, time and hyper-lapse photography, and Snappy Videos!

With a very long list of well-known clients, a few you may be familiar with include McDonald's, John Deere, Air New Zealand, Costco, David Jones, and so many more.

In addition to her fantastic photography, there's also a podcast! It's titled… Adventures of a Construction Photographer.

In this interview, you'll hear many takeaways, no matter the genre you photograph, around sales, marketing, pricing, client acquisition, plus how to get started and succeed in the profitable and little known construction and architectural photography industry. 

Here's some more of what we cover in the interview:

• How Sarah Louise started in the construction photography genre
• How to structure your pricing to get off to a great start
• Earning a multiple six-figure revenue with construction photography
• What is aerial photography today
• Requirements to fly a drone commercially in Australia
• The difference between a time-lapse and hyper-lapse photography
• How to setup time-lapse photography
• What are snappy videos
• How Sarah Louise attracts clients
• Sarah Louise's gift card system and how it works
• Sarah's goal each time she pitches her service to new clients
• What clients receive at the completion of each project
• How to secure remote video files each day
• How to price a 2-year time-lapse project
• What gear to pack for construction photography
• The need to have safety certification when working at construction sites
• Camera and lens choices for contraction and architectural photography
• Post-processing
• Copyright and usage rights agreement
• Factoring in weather when doing construction photography
• The best times for construction shoots
• Sarah Louise's pricing
• Is construction photography a male-dominated world
• Competition in the market
• Using social media to showcase work
• Clients are checking Instagram stories
• Measuring social media engagement
• What to do when someone shares your photos on social media
• Responding to email inquiries
• What to say on follow-up calls to secure more bookings
• Sarah Louise' advice on how to start in the niche of construction photography
• How to find new clients
• Sarah Louise' dream equipment set up.

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Sarah Louise shared. Is there something you heard that excited or motivated you to the point where you thought, yeah, I'm going to do that! If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the members FB Group. What are your takeaways, what do you plan to implement in your business as a result of what you heard in today's episode?

If you're just offering yourself for free, there's no sort of investment on their side, they're not invested in the process. – Sarah Louise Jackson

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Sarah Louise or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to comment inside the Members FB Group too.

COMPETITION TIME – Dual Camera Harness

Murray Redpath of StrapZphotography in Australia recently sent me the most beautiful dual camera harness, and it's up for a giveaway to PhotoBizX listeners. 

To say this product is beautiful is a total understatement!

Opening the parcel, I was shocked to see a beautifully branded burgundy coloured box containing the camera harness.

I lifted the box flap to reveal more colour and beautiful branding on the inside of the box and a small instruction card laying on top of the handcrafted leather and CARBON FIBRE harness. 

The harness is a serious piece of kit that will last generations.  The fittings look super strong, the straps – thick, quality leather and what looks like stainless steel fittings. Plus the carbon fibre parts – who doesn't find carbon fibre sexy! ?

This thing is gorgeous. AND IT'S UP FOR GRABS. 

To go in the draw to win a dual camera harness for yourself – visit https://strapz.photography/ and email me at andrew@photobizx.com with the size and colour you'd like for yourself. The colour MUST be one of the listed colours from the StrapZ website. 

I'll draw a random winner at the end of the month – August 2021. 

Good luck!

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

Sarah Louise Jackson Website

Sarah Louise Jackson on Instagram

Sarah Louise Jackson on Facebook

Sarah Louise Jackson on LinkedIn

Master Builders Association of Victoria

Master Builders Association of Australia

PBX242: Tony Knight – How to Create a Photography Business with No Competition

PBX425 Episode: Jeff Brown – How to use LinkedIn for photography lead generation

PBX261 Episode: Jeff Brown – How To Positively Influence Photography Buying Decisions with Your Social Media

PBX313 Episode: Jeff Brown – Leveraging LinkedIn to proactively generate more photography clients

Thank you!

Thanks again for listening and thanks to Sarah for coming on to share her thoughts, ideas and experience on how to get started and create a super successful building and construction photography business with an approach and price list that shouldn't fail.

If you see a company that you'd like to work for, there's no harm in getting in contact. Put yourself out there. I just think every time I've done that it's paid off. – Sarah Louise Jackson

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to let me know in the member's Facebook Group or feel free to email me at andrew@photobizx.com.

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

Thanks and speak soon
Andrew