Don't Be an Adam!

[Piewacket]

Hi,

I received an email on Saturday that inspired me to write a post for my blog on the importance of researching your potential clients. I think it is an important lesson for all freelancers, esp in this day in age when it is so easy to do but so many people take the easy route sending out blind promotions hoping to make a hit. Which in the end can be a huge waste of time and peg you as an annoyance to those you are trying to impress.

Just a little info about me (for those who don't know) so you understand where this advice is coming from. I have been a successful commercial photographer for over 25 years. I have also taught at well respected commercial art school and lectured at several others and for Leica. My blog, which I started about 5 years ago has crossed over from a photo blog to become popular as a decor/style blog and thus I get quite a lot of "Adams" contacting me... but also as I mention in the piece, potential photo assistants...

Now that all said here is the post... http://www.piewacketblog.com/journal/2013/11/25/dear-adam.html

Let me know your experience, good or bad or if you have questions. I will add that though talent is important, if you don't learn how to market yourself talent alone will not get you very far. I have had quite a few talented students who just could never grasp that part of the business and have sadly moved on to other things.

Freelancing is not for the faint of heart and for some a full time job as a photo editor, art producer or in-house photographer is a much better option. That is the good news there are other ways to work in photography, with out having to freelance, though to get your foot in those doors can also be tricky.

 

[erikhaugsby]

I was reading your post and, while you've got some good general points about soliciting work, all I could think about was "it's not fun to read text written with a typeface that's this short and squished and serif-ed." The block quote of your letter to Adam was much easier to read, even if it is in a bright red color.

 

[Lauffray]

I agree with Erik, it's a little hard to read.
That said, I've also gotten emails like that, I usually don't answer if I feel the person made no research effort prior. The funniest incident was some guy offering to have his music play on my website because he thought it was "a great fit for your style".
Needless to say it was neither a good fit nor a good idea to begin with 😀

 

[Piewacket]

I appreciate the feedback on the font. May I ask, are you both on computers or another device like an iPad or smart phone?

 

[erikhaugsby]

13" MacBook Pro, 1280x800 px display.

 

[Piewacket]

I just changed the font... better?

http://www.piewacketblog.com

 

[erikhaugsby]

The typeface is easier for me to read, yes. But now I have troubles because the text is center-aligned - left-aligned would make for much smoother reading.

Of course it's always easy to find problems or points to criticise so don't mind me too much as I've got just one man's opinion.

 

[Lauffray]

I'm on a computer as well, it looks better now, I think you changed the tracking ?
Usually point sizes less than 12 are hard to read on screen, especially with a long measure like you have.

 

[Piewacket]

Thanks, most of my post are more photo oriented than text, this is as wordy as I get and I do want the letter to be formatted differently from the rest of the text... So yes, it is just semantics from there. Thanks for the feedback though...


at Lauffray, not sure what "tracking" means. I just changed the font.

 

[Lauffray]

Sorry for some reason I assumed you were a designer, my bad. I do this for a living so I get a little carried away 😀
I'm not sure you care at this point, but I could give you some typographic recommendations for the web

 

[Piewacket]

Hmm, interesting... why would you think I was a designer when this is a photo forum and in my OP I state my background? Just seems an odd assumption to me?

 

[Lauffray]

I was reading another design article at the same time and must have confused both 😀
Besides you said you could change the font on the page I thought maybe you had some design knowledge, anyway, it's just me being distracted, sorry 😀

 

[Piewacket]

No worries..! I did try the left alignment for this and my next post... I see this is the common ideal... though common has never been my thing 😉

 

[Lauffray]

It's not really an "ideal" it's a guideline, the idea is that justifying everything creates artificial space of varying width between words that make reading and scanning harder