One Family Leads to the Next

Imagine a newborn photographer named Tamsin Fell who works in clients’ homes. Two years ago, she took photos of the Kellers’ son, Oscar, at 10 days old, in the nursery of their townhouse. Mrs. Keller hung one large print of him in the front hall.

In March, Mrs. Keller calls again. She is expecting a daughter in May. Tamsin has worked with about 80 families since Oscar, and she is packing up after a session. “Congratulations,” Tamsin says. “Is this your first?” Mrs. Keller reminds Tamsin that she took Oscar’s photos. Tamsin apologizes, gives her the price of a newborn session, and books a morning in late May.

At the session, Tamsin works through the poses she uses for every newborn. Oscar spends the morning at his grandmother’s, because nobody asked about him. The photos of the baby are beautiful, and Mrs. Keller orders a print for the nursery. The next spring, she wants a photo of all four of them. She books the family photographer her sister uses.

Suppose instead that Tamsin keeps a page on every household she works for. Before she calls Mrs. Keller back, she looks at the Kellers’ page. “Congratulations,” she says. “Oscar will be two and a half by then. Would you like a few of him holding his sister, in the nursery where we took his?”

Mrs. Keller says yes, and asks whether her parents could come too. At the session, Tamsin takes the newborn photos first. Then she takes Oscar holding the baby, and the grandparents on the window seat with both children. Mrs. Keller hangs the print of the two children beside Oscar’s in the front hall.

In June, a mother from Oscar’s preschool comes for coffee. She stops in front of the two prints and asks who took them. She calls Tamsin the next morning. The next spring, Mrs. Keller books Tamsin for a photo of all four of them in the garden.

Tamsin did good work both times. What changed was whether she treated the call as a new booking or as the next chapter of a family she knew. In the first version, she took photos of one baby, and Oscar was not in them. In the second, the photos showed Oscar becoming a brother, with his grandparents beside him. The print of the two children hung in the front hall, where the Kellers’ friends saw it.

So treat each job as the first of many with that household. Here is why one family’s photos lead to the next family, and what four photographers found.

A family’s photos stay in front of its friends for years

Here is the course’s view of why a photographer’s next family so often comes through the last one. A family’s photos are still there after the job ends. They go on the wall of the front hall, onto the holiday card, or into an album on the table. They stay there for years.

Products that other people can see keep getting talked about for months, not only at first. Every friend who comes to the house sees the print in the front hall. Those friends are the families the household meets at school, at the club, and at its own parties. Wealthy families keep meeting each other in the same few places. So the friends who see a photo in one house also know each other.

When one of those friends calls you, they have already seen your work in a house they know. So they come to the first call already trusting you.

The household itself also keeps needing photos. A new baby, a first day of school, a senior year, and a grandparent’s 80th birthday each come once. Each is a new chapter for the family. A photographer who already knows the family can add each one to the same record of it.

A Naples photographer is hired year after year by families who heard about her from her clients

Michelle Tricca is a family photographer in Naples, Florida. In 2014, Shutterbug asked her and three other family photographers how they find clients. “For me, it’s attraction and referrals,” she said. “All of my work comes via word of mouth or by people seeing my work and hiring me based on my style.”

Part of her work comes from families who keep growing. She said that “as marriages happen and babies are born, I’m fortunate to be remembered when they want updated images of their expanding families.”

Naples has many retirees whose grown children come on vacation with young families of their own. Tricca is hired “year after year to document their growing brood, mostly at the beach,” she said. These families hear about her from her past clients. They “see photos, and want the same feel brought to their images when they come to the beach.”

Tricca’s work comes by two routes at once. The same families come back as they grow, and their friends see the photos and call. She also said that a referred family will usually “already have a trust in you at the onset of the shoot.” So each family you keep for years is also a family whose friends arrive ready to hire you.

A portrait photographer printed her client list and found families she had worked with since 1997

Sandy Puc’ is a portrait photographer. In 2013, she wrote on her blog about planning a new marketing program with her associate, Erin. They wanted to see which clients they had served the longest. So they printed a list of more than 2,000 names, in order of when each family started. The earliest records were from 2001, though many families started as early as 1997.

As the two of them looked at the names, they were both in tears. “Years and years of baby photos, then children’s work, senior portraits and of course always documenting the family along the way as well,” Puc wrote. Many of the families had since lost a child, a spouse, or someone else in the photos. “We talked about the value those images must have now,” she wrote.

So the studio invited the families who had been with it since 2005 or earlier to come back. Each was offered a free session as a thank-you, and a place in a book of their portraits over the years. When Puc wrote, more than 45 families had booked.

Puc’s list shows what one family can become for a photographer. First comes a baby, then a child, then a senior, with the rest of the family in the photos along the way. What carries over is the list itself. Printed in order of each family’s first session, it shows which households have stayed the longest.

A Miami wedding photographer said the planner books the photographer for the biggest weddings

Suzanne Delawar is a wedding photographer in Miami who runs a celebrity wedding business with her father. In 2016, she wrote for PetaPixel about how she books those weddings. For a celebrity wedding, “the planner will book the best of the best,” she wrote, from the caterers to the photographer.

“In order to book a celebrity wedding, you have to build relationships with the planners themselves,” Delawar wrote. Planners at that level “have their own photographers that they’ve likely been working with for years.” She wrote that the relationship with the planner is “probably more important than simply delivering superior quality work.”

Delawar also tells photographers not to be afraid to work for free, as a trial for a planner. Measured against this lesson, keep the relationship and leave out the free work. A planner who got your first event free has seen your price start at nothing. That matters, because clients hold you to the price you started at.

Most private parties are not celebrity weddings, and the step to an ordinary party is the course’s own. Here is the step. At a private party, the planner has watched you work all evening. So the planner is often the person who gives your name to the next host.

A portrait photographer built a base of families through schools, then relied on word of mouth

Vonda Hussey is a portrait photographer who works with families, children, and high school seniors. In 2014, she told Shutterbug how she found her first clients. She started with friends from her church, the Girl Scouts, and her business acquaintances. She spoke to PTA groups and offered their members special discounts.

“As the word spread I secured small private preschools and a performing arts high school for high school seniors, and that gave me a base of people who knew my name,” Hussey said. “Now after seven years, I rely mostly on word of mouth and social media.”

Measured against this lesson, the schools are the part to keep. Each school gave her a group of families who all knew her name. The discounts are the part to leave out with wealthy families, and the reason is the course’s own. A discount for one group of parents makes your full price look like the exception. A low price also raises a question about why it is so low.

Why making a planner wait for photos goes wrong

Imagine a photographer named Lionel Ashe who covers private parties. In September, he takes photos of the Hartwells’ 40th anniversary dinner at their house. The planner, Margo Pell, chose him for it. She plans parties for several families on the Hartwells’ street.

The week after, Margo writes to Lionel. “Could I have a few photos of the tables and the tent?” Lionel has three galleries to finish, so he replies, “Of course, once the Hartwells’ gallery is done.” The gallery takes him six weeks, and he sends Margo the photos in November.

By then, Margo has made do with photos the florist took on a phone. She plans two more parties on the street that autumn. For both, she gives the hosts the name of a photographer who sent her photos of her last party within a week.

Lionel’s mistake was treating Margo’s request as a favor to fit in after the paid work. The photos of her tables were what Margo could show the next host. Lionel did the party well, and the planner who chose him had nothing from it for two months.

The version that works starts before the party. On the first call, Lionel asks Mrs. Hartwell whether Margo may have a few photos of the setup. He tells her that none of them will show a guest. Mrs. Hartwell agrees in an email. Four days after the party, Lionel sends Margo 12 photos of the tables and the tent. For her next party on the street, Margo gives the host Lionel’s name.

How to make one family lead to the next

1. Print a list of every family you have worked for, in order of their first session, as Puc did. Next to each, write every time they came back, and what for. For example, a newborn photographer might find 14 families who came back for a second baby. Four more might have booked a family portrait later.
2. On the page you keep on each household, write who was in the photos and the date of the last session. Then write the next chapter you know is coming. Look at the page before you answer when that family calls again. For example, a senior portrait photographer might write that Jack graduated in June. His sister Maeve will be a senior in two years.
3. When a family books its next chapter, plan the session around the one before. Offer to bring in the people from the earlier photos, such as an older child or the grandparents. That is the course’s suggestion, because the new photo may hang beside the old ones. For example, a family photographer can say, “Last time it was the four of you in the orchard. Would you like your parents in this one?”
4. Write down the two or three planners who run the parties your clients hold. Before each event, ask the host whether the planner may have a few photos of the setup, with no guests in them. Get the yes in writing, as for any photo you show. For example, a gala photographer can write, “May I send your planner a few photos of the tables, with no guests in them?”
5. Within a week of the event, send the planner those photos, before the full gallery is done. That is the course’s suggestion, because what planners show the next host is their own work, and they need it soon. Do not give a planner a free event to get onto their list. For example, an engagement party photographer can write, “Here are 12 photos of the tables and the garden. The Lindqvists have given permission.”
6. Choose one school, charity, or club where several of your families belong, using your map of the town. Give it something only a photographer can, such as photos of its event or a session for its auction. Give the session your clients pay for, with no discount for its members. For example, a fine-art portrait photographer might give the spring auction at a girls’ school a portrait at the winning family’s house.

Next: The elective for photographers ends here. The next is for interior designers, and it starts with what wealthy clients are buying from a designer.