I've received a few emails from landscape photographers that wanted to hear another one of “their kind” interviewed on the podcast. Because Photo Biz Xposed is a wedding and portrait photography business podcast, I was a little reluctant until I emailed Lee Duguid. He said in one email, why have a wedding photography business if your passion is landscape photography.
That comment alone didn't really inspire me to chase up a landscape photographer for the show, although I know there would definitely be some great marketing ideas they would be able to share about what I would consider tougher market than portraits and wedding to have a successful business.
It was another comment that had me more intrigued and pushed me to invite Lee onto the podcast. It was that a lot of landscape photographers are shooting weddings and portraits to subsidise their passion for landscape photography. For Lee, that didn't really work out and he decided on a different route and focus.
Here's some more of what we cover:
Is it really worth pursuing a dream to make money as a photographer if you you have to shoot something you're not really passionate about? Will it just be a matter of saying no to some jobs or something much more drastic like taking on (or staying in) a day job to fund the style of photographer you really want to be?
I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments below.
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 a further 20 minutes with Lee where we dive deeper into some of the earlier topics plus some new ones which included:
What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview with Lee, 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 he had to share? 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.
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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.
iTunes ratings, reviews and Shout-Outs
Each week before recording the podcast I check iTunes for any reviews. If you have time, it's a big help for the show. It's these reviews that make a big difference to the podcast being ranked well and found in the iTunes store. To leave your review, head over to iTunes.
Don't feel your comments have to be long, involved or gushy, an honest opinion is all I ask. Don't be shy about leaving your business name in the review either – that way I can add a link in the show-notes and show my appreciation with a proper thanks and a Google loving back-link to your website.
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 [email protected], 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:
Lee's Website for print sales, tutorials and photography education
Lee's Blog with a wealth of great information for all genres of photography
Lee Duguid Photography on Facebook
Lee's Education and Photoshop Tutorials
Free Photo Guides – a resource for landscape photographers
Mark Gray Fine Art Photography
Colour Munki Monitor Callibration
Yoast.com for learning about SEO and website and page optimization
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM Ultra Wide Angle Zoom Lens
Brian Chapman's upcoming 1 Day WORKSHOP – How to Sell Nicely but still get great sales figures
That's it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!
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Thanks and speak soon
Andrew
Lee,
Thanks for the info on the colour profiles. That’s something that I haven’t thought of yet. #takeaway
Andrew,
“For premium members there is a fair bit more to go with that interview” at the end of the premium version of the interview threw me off… Is there more? Or is that where the non-premium version cut off? I don’t see anything extra in the premium content area.
Anyway, once again great stuff!
Hi Chris – nice takeaway!
Yep, my bad with the editing and thanks for letting me know. I’ve just re-editied those comments out which were for the non-premium members only. You have heard the complete interview with Lee 🙂
Sounds good! And you know what else sounds good? I think this was the first podcast where there wasn’t the presence of Skype sound effects! I’m not sure if that’s always on the other person’s end or if it’s yours Andrew, but it was a constant through the first 58 episodes 😉
Haha, I made sure all notification sounds were disabled before we started. I think I heard one in this interview, Andrew?
Oh there was one there? Maybe I’ve just grown so used to them that I filter them out now 😉
Yep, my bad Lee – I’ll check my settings before the next interview 🙂
Hey Chris – do you mean the Skype notifications or other noises? Let me know so I can locate where they’re coming from.
Hey Andrew, yeah I’m talking about the Skype notification sounds.
I’ll be sure to check they are off at my end in future Chris… thanks for the heads up.
Hi Lee & Andrew,
Thanks both for the interview. I attended two of Lee’s photoshop courses last year and it has made an amazing difference to my post-processing skills. I can vouch for the need of a day job to fund landscape photography, particularly having a stable income to support a young family. I’m between day jobs at the moment so looking to earn a little more income from photography – photobizx is helping to motivate me. Always great to listen to guys like Lee who are passionate about photography and have worked hard to be where they are today.
Hey Mike – thanks for adding your comments and great to hear you enjoyed Lee’s interview.
That’s a great rap you give about his photoshop courses too – other listeners will be happy to read that.
Having never given landscape photography a lot of thought, in regard to generating an income, I always thought wedding and portrait photography was a tough genre with an overcrowded market. I know for sure it’d be a lot tougher as a landscape photographer.
Make sure you have a listen to the episode with Peter Eastway, a super talented landscape photographer and an accountant. Definitely good footsteps to follow and he dishes out some great advice on surviving and prospering in this business.
Thanks Andrew for the opportunity to come on your show, very happy to see the comments and people listening. Glad there have been some takeaways and the interview has been of some value.
Chris thanks for your comment. Yes more of a technical takeaway but none the less very important to represent yourself online in a professional manner. Thanks for listening.
Mike, thanks for the comments and the plug! I hope the holiday to Bali was both relaxing and inspirational. Did you listen to this over there? Enjoy the Aussie winter, I know you will!
Absolutely my pleasure Lee – hope your move went well and all your processions arrived in tact. Speak soon.
Andrew
Thank you Lee and Andrew it’s been a great interview to listen at.
Lee, I’m French living in New Zealand and I really admire you to try to start your buisness in France : I do know how hard it is to build a buisness over there as the administrative is so complex. When I arrived in NZ all I had to do was to give a call to IRD to get a number and… That was done! I couldn’t even believe it. When I come back to france once a year I charge my jobs with the AGESSA as an author, which seems to me to be the easiest way as it isn’t a big income.
I will be between Paris and Lyon all May so if you were ever somewhere around I would love to meet you, show you around if you like. If you do give a workshop on sales I would love to come over as well so please let me know.
Good luck with your lofe in Nice and I hope that you will meet some nice French people.
All the best.
Anaïs
Thanks for listening and thanks for the comment Anaïs. Yes the administration is complex, made even harder as I don’t know the language. Thankfully I have an auto-entrepreneur friend who speaks fluent French and English to help me out.
Great photos, looks like you have several genres to fall back on. I hope New Zealand is treating you well, it’s a beautiful country. Always happy to meet up with other photographers, especially if they can show me all the good spots to shoot! So far I have met many nice French people, it’s a home away from home but with a rich and fantastic culture.
Cheers
Lee
Hi Anias – I love how helpful you are! And I love that such awesome people are listening to the podcast. If this is how you are in every day life, you must be wonderful to be around. 🙂
Great Podcast guys. I am from South Africa and I am in this very position at the moment. My passion is with landscapes but I am shooting a crap load of wedding and portrait stuff. I love shooting fashion type stuff so if I could be in an ideal world, landscapes, fashion and sports would be my choice.
However, I am trying to expand the landscapes section and I have actually started to get enquiries for commissioned landscape job and also some stock. Being in South Africa its a very difficult market, one needs to be in the right location with a gallery to get the type of clients that you want and people who buy art is people with expendable cash. Those people stay in expensive parts of the cities so to get a retail space their is like mindblowingly expensive.
I am also trying to go the route of workshops and courses and shoot lots of rights managed stock images. If you have enough lines in the water you will eventually get a bite and you will learn what you did to get that bite and focus more on that.
I enjoy the weddings, but my passion for it isn’t there, I have never gotten the adrenalin shakes at a wedding, but I have had it a couple of times with landscapes. What I must add is this, with the fact that I am good at landscapes, lots of my brides book me for the fact I can put a couple in a landscape and capture it, and they love that, cause you often get a very arty image you can easily hang on a wall without it looking like a police file image. So that has been one of the advantages.
just a question, are you guys on itunes, I cant seem to find you guys on there, if you are, please post the link for me.
looking forward to hearing more from you guys and feel free to check out my site and social pages.
Regards
Dewald Kirsten
Hi Dewald,
Thanks for the comment. You are exactly right, as a landscape photographer you need many sources of potential income. Some might succeed over others and each require fine tuning. However to mitigate risk and to ensure success this must be done. A gallery in the expensive part of town is a winner for sure but the outlay and potential loss makes it hard. How about a mail drop to the expensive houses with your images on? Or maybe a free small print for every house? That way they get to see your work, trust your brand and the risk is little for you? In fact that’s a great idea, I might just do that myself!
I’m not on iTune’s however Andrew is:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/photography-business-exposed/id620299393
Had a quick look at your site, nice landscapes there Dewald. beautiful part of the world.
Thanks Lee, you should come visit SA sometime, we can watch some rugby, drink beer and shoot some awesome landscapes LOL
Been following you on Facebook for some time already. I think the best place to get in with to market directly to high end users would be interior decorators and possibly architects that might specify your images, but that is also a buddy buddy business and if you are not buddies they will not sell your stuff.
It will be a topic to debate for years to come, but one just needs to keep chipping away at the block, somewhere one will find a crack and it will break apart. Now I just shoot as much as possible and get the images in the market via different social media channels and hope a fish smells the bait.
Chat soon!
Beer and landscapes are not a good combo, beer and rugby though…
Sounds like you are on top of the business side of things. Keep me posted how things are going.