Need help deciding what to call my photographic services

mrjames

mrjames

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Hi, i'm stuck for what I should call myself.

I am a bit of a hodgepodge photographer, covering everything from burlesque dancers, corporate portraits, fashion, events, art documentation and more. I don't know whether I should try and split all these services up into different names, or market myself as a photographer who is a 'jack of all trades, master of the camera' :P

I try to market myself as a artistic photographer with with finger on the pulse and a strong grasp of aesthetics and technical stuff, I guess I think of myself as being more of a fine art photographer who shoots commercial stuff.
I don't shoot family stuff, weddings, or pets but if I did they would definitely get a more friendly, less 'arty' webpage. But the stuff I do shoot is still pretty varied.

In terms of a name, my own name is Clark James, but I go by the alias mr James

my flickr handle is 'pretty in pixels', which I like, but more for the family/pets side of things I guess- although my flickr has a lot of darker stuff on it that belies that 'pretty in pixels' cute moniker, maybe I like pretty in pixels- I guess the proof of the pudding would be in handing out my first business card and gauging reactions.

So, currently I have:
facebook.com/clarkjamesphotography
flickr.com/clarkjames
clarkjamesphotographic@gmail.com

i'm lacking a website, but I think it's important to have consistency to all your social media- my flickr is pretty well established with 50k views, but my facebook is brand new.

I'm trying to chose between clark james photography, clark james photographic, clark james digital, digital james, C J digital, clark james digital services/solutions

I want something that sounds, official, slightly edgy, and more corporate than a 'kid in his mums basement' kind of thing, I want to sound like there is a real Clark james as the mastermind but there are also other specialists employed because Clark James can't do everything himself, hell maybe i'd even want to employ people to work for me in the future! 'Joe Bloggs photography' sounds a bit common, and I want something that also is transferable for showing me off as a technical guy too- retouching, one to one tuition, consulting about workflow optimisation, computer performance enhancement, graphic design etc, I think 'photographic' works better than 'photography', but maybe i'm overthinking?


I feel that just clarkjames.com works well for a personal site for my own artwork, maybe to sell landscape prints etc, but something like clarkjamesdigital.com and clarkjamesphotographic.com work better together as a website for my commercial photography and other digital services like retouching
 
Have more than one site?

Market the areas which you want to appeal to the most but also mention you do other types of photography. I never thought of myself as a particular type although I mostly shot automotive features.
 
Posting domain names on a public forum makes it more likely that they won't be available when you want them.
 
gramps said:
Posting domain names on a public forum makes it more likely that they won't be available when you want them.
Click to expand...

Yeah clarkjames.com is already gone but can be sold to him for a price lol
 
clarkandjames - makes it sound like there's more than one of you ;)
 
Err, I know this doesn't fit in with Clark James in any way at all but I quite like 'HodgePodge Photography'.

I saw that in the first line of your post and it made me smile. I'd probably click on the search engine result just because of that. :naughty:

Just a thought ;)

I'd suggest keeping with one site too, however you manage it. The more domains/sites you have, the more time you'll have to spend sat in front of a box instead of behind a camera. :)
 
I would suggest CJ Photography - but then again you might start shouting "I didn't get where I am today by...." ;)

Personally, I'd stay away from the 'solutions and services' bit - too long and a bit workmanlike IMO
 
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Better this was in the Bizz section, is it not?

As well as all you have done. you will need a web for each type of work.. If you have all the mixed work on flic and others it looks like a Jack of all trades. Clients will not waste time looking through to find what they want.

Example Business - commercial one site coving all variations from copr ports to pack shot product and location large set lighting etc.

Weddings and portraits.

Events should be it's own.

Schools it's own.

Maritime/marine = own site. Auto high styling it's own etc....

Music and Photo journo
 
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