I’m a specialist in “Wedding, Portrait, Commercial, Baby, Family, Childrens, Fashion, Glamour, Architectural, Product, Boudoir, Landscape and Animal Photography” What does that really say about your business? To me it says I’m not sure what I do, so I’ll try my hand at everything. This dawned on me whilst I’ve been busy setting up my own business but I see it everywhere these days. By trying to appeal to everyone you end up appealing to no-one, you give the impression of a generalist, a Jack of All Trades. You’ll probably get by, but you never really have clients seeking you out because of your expertise or value. You could apply it to anything really. It’s the reason HMV are on their last legs (besides the extortionate prices!), or why Woolworths ultimately went under; a lack of direction or specialty.

When you first start out a photographer, it’s tempting to try and hit as broader market as possible. It’s difficult to know what you enjoy without experiencing shooting it first hand, and the only way to experience it is to put yourself out there to capture as many different audiences as possible. I started off shooting corporate events, that was my first break and it was great, I loved the photojournalist aspect of it, but found it lacked the creative flair I was looking for. I couldn’t really stamp my own style on it. When I shot my first wedding back in June last year, I didn’t even have weddings on my website, I had landscape, prints, stock, portraits, commercial (again massively generalising) but my friend was convinced I could shoot his Harrogate Registry Office Wedding.

I didn’t know what I’d let myself in for if I’m honest, I was nervous as hell as I drove up to their house to start shooting. In fact, I drove past their street on my first pass, too nervous to go down there. However once I starting the shooting and relaxed into it, I realised what a brilliant opportunity weddings are to create beautiful lasting memories. They combine everything I love about photography; love, emotion, drama, tension along with an ability to capture it all. I approach it almost like a photojournalist, most people probably won’t even notice I’m there. After it was all over and I was sifting through the images from the day I realised that the exhilaration of shooting weddings was what I really enjoyed and wanted. On a side note, I must have done something right as I’m starting to fill up with bookings! But I still get nervous before every wedding and every portrait shoot but love that feeling of excitement that I found lacking in other types of photography. So I spent the last few months really tightening my focus down to just Wedding and Portraits. It is a very difficult process accepting that should narrow your focus as much as possible with the fear of losing clients but the clients you lose would be better suited going to someone else anyway. By tightening my focus I’m in a much better position to provide a better service to my current and future clients.

But it’s a very easy trap to fall into when starting a business, to get caught up in trying to appeal to everyone all the time. What if someone wants to buy a print? What if someone needs some architectural photography but my website doesn’t say I do that? Well think about it, if someone needed an architectural photographer they’d search for “Yorkshire Architectural Photographer” and go with someone that specialises in exactly that. Just in the same way I want people to search for “Yorkshire Wedding Photographer” and come across my website. But if someone arrives at my website and I’ve got a million different genres of photography listed it’s going to be difficult for someone to make the decision on what I’m really good at. Why go to a generalist, when there’s a specialist available that understands my needs and can cater exactly to my requirements?

I guess it goes all the way back to the marketing message you’re trying to achieve. What sort of clients are you looking to attract? Show that work. Like I mentioned earlier I’ve spent the last few months honing my marketing message into an even tighter pitch whereby I’m trying to appeal to couples that want that journalistic approach to their wedding, that don’t want to hang around taking hundred’s of family portraits. Couples that want to see all the emotion and moments of their wedding day and not just a hundred shots of their shoes.

There’s a great book by David Duchemin called Visionmongers that probably somewhere deep in my subconcious prompted me to start focusing in on what I really enjoy and what I really want to do. I’d encourage any photographers to buy a copy and have a read through it. What it essentially boils down to is finding something you love doing so that your work is no longer work, that you’ll love the clients you work for and want to truly do the best you can do for them. Without a specialty who knows if your wedding photographer is just doing weddings to pay the bills, but their commercial work is where their heart really lies? To me, it’s summed up by what gives you butterflies before you start shooting, something you’re excited and nervous about at the same time because of how much you value your clients. My business is only in it’s infancy so I’m certainly not an authority on the matter but if I were looking for a specific type of photography I’d look for a specialist, not a generalist.