Inside the Photography Business: Scott Belzner
PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your photography business.
Scott Belzner: I’m a born and bred Gold Coast based photographer.
I did photography at a two year TAFE course in 1995-1996. From there, I taught myself. A lot of the course was based on dark room. This was back in the day when we developed rolls of film at Kmart.
My first job was at Paradise Country, Nerang in 1997-1999, doing tourist photography with Japanese and Korean tourists. I did koala photos that kind of stuff.
My first wedding was my brother’s wedding in 1998 in Perth. I got some good feedback from the videographer who thought I’d been doing it for years. Since then for I’ve been doing weddings on the Gold Coast and other locations.
When the Blaze started playing in the National Basketball League, I met a co-owner and we realised I had done his wedding. We hit it off and I’ve been the team’s official photographer for the last three seasons.
PM: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about running a business?
SB: Being organised and time management. Time management is probably the hardest part, because you tend to get a lot of little shoots that pop up between weddings. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are my wedding days, and then there are other smaller shoots for clients. I prioritise the smaller jobs and get them out of the way so I can work on the big jobs and not be delayed. I pride myself in a quick turnaround time for clients.
PM: If you’re too busy, do you find you ever have to turn away clients?
SB: Not really. You can always make time. For example real estate photography can be quite a fast job. You can shoot a house in a couple of hours.
PM: Why do you think your customers like working with you?
SB: I think it’s most important to be easy to get along with, especially at weddings. There’s nothing worse than clients thinking the wedding photos were nice, but the photographer had an attitude. The more fun people have on the day, the better the photos turn out.
PM: Is there anything you’ve changed about your business since you started?
SB: The websites are a big thing, and also advertising. There are so many advertising mediums out there: bridal magazines, websites, but for me, most of it is word of mouth referrals. Often I’ll shoot someone’s wedding and see two or three other couples whose weddings I’ve shot.
All my clients are friends afterwards on Facebook and people stay in touch, which I think is the best part of it because that’s where you’re going to get your word of mouth referrals. Being easy, approachable and able to run a day without being too controlling makes a big difference, especially for referrals.
PM: How do you manage your workflows and calculate the costs of running your business?
SB: That’s a tough one, especially when you have to justify costs to clients. For example there are 10 hours on the wedding day, and then another four to five hours are spent editing the photos, and album design, which could take anywhere from five hours for a basic album up to 24 hours. There’s also a certain amount of time going back and forth with changes. Even if a package seems expensive, if you work out an hourly rate, it doesn’t amount to much more than what most mid-range employees make.
It’s important to keep an eye on your workflow and not run too behind or have people wait for stuff for too long. At the same time you shouldn’t take the quick way out and just use pre-sets of everything. You need to treat every photo individually and work out what kind of look you want for it.
PM: What do you do to stay competitive with other photographers in your market?
SB: With photography, everyone has their own style that makes them unique, so staying ahead of the competition isn’t really the issue. My thing has always been shooting a correctly exposed image in camera instead of editing later.
Also important are the other services you offer that are a part of your personality. Being friendly with people is as important as running the business well. Obviously it’s a business but you’re also dealing with all kinds of people, so you’ve got to be a people person. You can’t be the guy who gets paid $4000 to be there and act like you run the show.
You can try to change your style, and that works for some people, and for some people it doesn’t. It’s better to be consistent with your previous work, but make sure you understand what the client wants.
PM: If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?
SB: Don’t be so concerned about what everyone else does. People pay you good money for your product, not to imitate someone else’s.
For people who show me another photographer’s work, I’ll tell them to go pay that photographer to do his work, because that’s the style they want. The clients don’t want to have the regret of choosing any old photographer, especially for weddings. That’s where you need to be honest with people: I’m not the photographer for you. If you’re helpful, even if you lose one job, the client will think, I didn’t choose Scott in the end, but I’ll refer him to a friend. That’s where the word of mouth comes along.
PM: Do you have any tips for new photographers?
SB: When I started shooting weddings on film, you had to really do the free stuff to get your portfolio going. You couldn’t think that because you’ve bought the equipment, you could expect top dollar. You’ve got to really earn respect and earn your name in the photography community.
PM: What do you think is going to happen in photography in five year’s time?
SB: I think the video side is definitely going to emerge. I like to do a lot of video on my DSLRs as well. But I don’t think people should be selling themselves being a photographer and videographer at once. You’ve got to dedicate yourself to one or the other.
Also it’s not just a matter of knowing how to use a camera. You need to know how to use a computer. Gone are the days when you had to rely on the skills to try to shoot photos on film without the opportunity to edit. You couldn’t turn around and say those five rolls were bad exposures. You had to know how to shoot it. These days you can correct a lot on the computer.
PM: What do you do in your spare time?
SB: I play basketball twice a week. I try to spend as much time as I can with family. Obviously the weekends are taken up with weddings. When I’m not shooting I try to spend time with family, socialise with friends and just relax. If you’re stressed out, it affects your work.
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Scott Belzner runs Scott Belzner Photography and is the Gold Coast Blaze official photographer. He is based on the Gold Coast, Australia. |
