Hi Again Everyone! It’s been a little while since my last EnA Photography blog and that’s due to a number of reasons….

Firstly, as we move out of the lockdown restrictions life appears to be getting generally busier than it has been for a few months, which is no bad thing right? I am looking forward, as we all are, to getting back together with the people and places I’ve missed and to developing (get it??) new relationships and partnerships as the world opens up again.

“I’ve been quiet……. but really busy!”

What have I been busy with? Well, a few things really! I’ve been taking stock of various areas of my work and here’s a couple……..

I looked at how I sell my framed prints and previously I rocked up to a customer’s door with their order wrapped in bubble wrap and handed it over. Customers were happy with the product but other than that it was a pretty boring print buying experience and I wanted to upgrade it. Now you have to be careful here and strike the right balance between price and value, I certainly didn’t want to increase my prices substantially just to cover the additional costs I would incur on fancy boxes, wrapping and ribbons and bows just for the customer to bin them. But what I came up with has certainly improved the print buying experience over what it was.

I worked with the brilliant Lauren over at lddesign.co.uk to come up with a small “Thank You” card to include with all prints, it looks great and it also means that the customer has a reminder of my website and contact details should they want to make a further purchase. Looks great don’t you think????

Another thing I thought about was it’s great that people like an image enough to buy it and put it on their walls, that still makes me feel so chuffed as we say here up North, but that is only a part of the story isn’t it? I thought telling the story of how the image was taken, why was I in that particular place, was it a planned shoot or a lucky click, that sort of thing. So I now include a small printed page describing all of that and I also include a few details such as camera settings printing and framing information. This little change has gone down so well with customers complimenting me on that almost as much as the print itself! I have even had customer go off and get that sheet framed alongside the image and I’ll take that as a win as I am no great creative writer 🙂

I then wrap the framed print with these two inclusions in plain but quality wrapping paper and it is ready for delivery. Occasionally I may include a £5 gift voucher redeemable against future print purchases to reward returning customers. All of this improves the way the customer perceives EnA Photography and how they talk about my service when a friend asks where they got that new print.

Another thing I have invested a lot of time in is upgrading my studio capabilities at home. I regularly do product shoots for small businesses, crafters, artists and so on, and while the resulting images looked great the studio at home was a right pain to put together and take apart, it was cumbersome to shoot in and was too small to accommodate larger products or portrait shoots. So during down time over the last few months I took another look at the studio set up. I was lucky that my friend, neighbour and fantastic photographer, Mike from Yarm Studio, was having a clear out of his own and kindly donated me some additional lighting and a number of backdrops. A couple of online shopping trips later and a few hours putting things together and I now have a room big enough for my customers’ needs, one which is interchangeable in minutes, where I can shoot whatever I want, whenever I want and with no fuss. I have recently tested it out with crafter’s new product ranges and a green screen shoot with a Teesside entertainer and I love it! If you have products or people to capture, or you need new headshots then please give me a yell.

Finally for today, I have been really busy these past few weeks setting up something which I am really proud of. It’s a collaboration with another Teesside photography genius, the biggest hospital on Teesside and a wonderful charity. But more of that in a week or so when the press release drops!

 “Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.”

– Robert Heinlein.

Thanks Everyone, see you next time…

Ian

EnA Photography