To everyone in the Lehigh Valley area who cried that there "was" nowhere to shoot.
For almost a year now I have "tried" to run a photographers co-op in Allentown. We have 15,000 sf of space over three levels. We have a private room, 20 ft ceilings, beautiful hardwood floors, the ability to drive a small car or motorcycle right into the shooting space.
There were plans for an indoor waterfall and other interesting features.
Guess how many clients we had? Six, yes "6", of all the models & photographers crying for a place to shoot, six people made use of our service, and only one of them used it more than once.
Now, we are in a bit of an economic slow down, but it's not like we were charging $100/hr, you could 4 hours for less than that ($75 to be exact).
Look I understand that money is tight, but I heard the crying and "I did something" about it, but then I was left out to dry!
I heard the crying about nothing to shoot, so we came up with a book "FULL" of ideas, we offered wardrobe and props, seminars and shoot-ups (which we had to all but beg for people to sign up!) and we had a library of books.
We printed up little how-to books for the models to do their own make-up if there was no MUA, we offered wardrobe styling and consulting... so your portfolio didn't have the same outfits with the same accessories (oh yes, we had them too).
We offered more than anyone else at a better price and no one made any attempts to make use of our space - other than the six previously mentioned, of course.
So, when you feel the urge to cry about there no where to shoot, no cool shoot ups, meet ups and on and on, all I can say is this, "I'm so sorry about that, I tried but apparently no one in this area is as serious about their art as we thought they were."
Gary
Now, this is not a true blanket statement about the whole valley, after all, there are plenty of people who do not need/want a service like mine. Those who have a studio, those for whom it is truly simply a hobby, I understand that, this is for the complainers who after the co-op came to be had no reason to whine, but continued to do so.
Gary Stewart wrote: To everyone in the Lehigh Valley area who cried that there "was" nowhere to shoot.
For almost a year now I have "tried" to run a photographers co-op in Allentown. We have 15,000 sf of space over three levels. We have a private room, 20 ft ceilings, beautiful hardwood floors, the ability to drive a small car or motorcycle right into the shooting space.
There were plans for an indoor waterfall and other interesting features.
Guess how many clients we had? Six, yes "6", of all the models & photographers crying for a place to shoot, six people made use of our service, and only one of them used it more than once.
Now, we are in a bit of an economic slow down, but it's not like we were charging $100/hr, you could 4 hours for less than that ($75 to be exact).
Look I understand that money is tight, but I heard the crying and "I did something" about it, but then I was left out to dry!
I heard the crying about nothing to shoot, so we came up with a book "FULL" of ideas, we offered wardrobe and props, seminars and shoot-ups (which we had to all but beg for people to sign up!) and we had a library of books.
We printed up little how-to books for the models to do their own make-up if there was no MUA, we offered wardrobe styling and consulting... so your portfolio didn't have the same outfits with the same accessories (oh yes, we had them too).
We offered more than anyone else at a better price and no one made any attempts to make use of our space - other than the six previously mentioned, of course.
So, when you feel the urge to cry about there no where to shoot, no cool shoot ups, meet ups and on and on, all I can say is this, "I'm so sorry about that, I tried but apparently no one in this area is as serious about their art as we thought they were."
Gary
Now, this is not a true blanket statement about the whole valley, after all, there are plenty of people who do not need/want a service like mine. Those who have a studio, those for whom it is truly simply a hobby, I understand that, this is for the complainers who after the co-op came to be had no reason to whine, but continued to do so.
