new school photos - are the serious

hi Phil, like this you mean?

Year_6_Leavers.JPG



I want to rotate the styles but the schools just want modern funky. Private school are the best sellers and only do Traditional.

Example. School does the panoramic long print Size 6ln x 18in upto 8in x 24in. First year sells 90% 2nd year about 705 but we found the 3rd year dropped throught the floor to 50%- 60% take up. Thats why we do the reallt fancy stuff like the Frames and gowns for year leavers. We a few other new styles but i can not post those as the competition......

Portraits we do 3x multipose like I posted above. One full length and one Traditional head n shoulders. And a third style.

The Traditional is least popular.

wish we could do 2 years back to old style... Why? Because if the tog gets the framing right and exposure there is just the edit and upload to lab for proofing. No post work.

The New stuff, I say New we have been doing it 5 years now... costs too much. you need a tog to shoot, A 2nd to do the postwork. A freelancer to do extra work .

So the over heads do mount up.

The new stuff is great fun and you be as artistic as you like. the Traditional has better profit margins if shot correctly. but it's just bulk shooting.

I used to turn my nose up at school togs as I thought it was boring... But after shoopting for one of the best Nationals do ing groups correctly and logistics of shooting 500 sprogs by lunchtime is not as easy as some think.....................
 
Thanks Daryl, a good insight and I get you when you say trad is conveyer belt stuff, the new is better to shoot and look at.

I would have both if the option was there but a logistical nightmare I bet.

Phil.
 
To think... do Diddy Daves wedding training and I help with schools .within a few years you could working only 8-9 months a year and turning over near VAT threshold. Profit would depend on your tax. Overheads and what way of printing/products you use....But very doable.... but is is doable, very doable.

Those that do.....Can! Those that wont.... Just whinge and poo poo those that are...........
 
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haha, I know you love your job, I know you love the stress it brings...... ;)

6 months ago I got put in a position at work to sort the business out, turned it round from a 20k per month loss to a break even point. Now at the point of looking at what the next 6 months will bring and the insights are a helpful tool. It's not about those that do or those that wont, I'm a doer but not a dropout. If I had put the effort used into my photography then I would be leaps and bounds ahead of where i am now but trying to run both is not an option yet. Got a break in a few weeks with my first wedding so the door is creeping open and i'm taking a peek inside :D

Phil.
 
Daryl, obv in the trad group shots you shoot everyone but what about the newer individual stuff, you shoot everyone or do students have to opt in/can opt out of being even shot, nevermind buying?
 
Daryl said:
Hope all goes well Phil..... Daves course on marketing and pricing is very very good... worth dropping him a line. even if you just want to do part time togging.
Click to expand...

Thanks Daryl, I was booked to go on one of his first ones but work issue got in the way, timing was not great. I'm now sat on the fence on which direction to persue hence the 'next 6 month plan'

Everything is do-able in my book.

Phil.
 
hi Brian, We shoot every one in the portrait season as well. Only the parent that rants and raves about not having it done do we let it go... not really down to the tog, we leave to the school.

the reason every one if you can shoot them all is that the school has an image from us that auto loads the images to the School data base. This provided through Capita and is called SIMS.

We shoot 3 poses of all children so parents have more choice. in the three is still the tradititional head and shoulders as some parents still like this..... but mainly for the school to have that pose for the data base.

SIMS is done by the school sending you a CSV file of the childs info. We then print barcodes or QR codes from this. The cards are given out in the morning of shoot and the children hand you the card when they come to have photos taken. The tog then zaps the code and all the info for school data base is then decoded back at the office from the meta data on the images.....

The barcode readers are attached to the camera like a Grip. These only work with Fuji S5 pros and Nikon bodies.

You can shoot to laptop using software from a few companies and shoot tethered with almost any make.......
 
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