A Photographer's Guide To Pitching and Booking Work

It's time to ask for what you want...

Substack friends, welcome to another instalment of our 4 part series helping budding, aspiring and seasoned photographers looking to make a buck, be professional, commercial…whatever word you want to use to describe getting creative with your camera and developing that into a career or side hustle.

This series of guides and tips I have been offering is kindly brought you to by my friends at picdrop who if you aren’t already using, you should be! Google drive and dropbox can slow you and your client down and let’s face it it’s not the most exciting or professional looking tool to deliver photos and videos. Try picdrop for free for 2 months and see the difference for yourself.

Interested in the trends I’m seeing across photography both from a gear POV and what clients are wanting visually? - Watch my latest video below for predictions.

Let’s waste no time though and get stuck into something that I get asked all the time.

How do you approach brands or clients for work!?!?!?

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Hello, is it me you’re looking for?

First of all let’s just establish the fact that everyone pitches, no matter how successful they are. No one is free from the act that is pitching or reaching out.

Everyone has a white whale or a thing they really wish they could work on or be a part of and most creatives will be working on personal projects to showcase an idea/skill or be actively gathering material and making connections to try and land that dream client or job.

So there is no need to feel weird or icky about pitching or reaching out to essentially just say:

“Hey, I do this, I think we match well, I would love to do this for you, do you need it and want to do it?”

It’s kind of like dating tbh. If you don’t let the brand know you like them and have your eye on them then how will they ever know and how will you fall in love and live happily ever after in commercial photography harmony???

Closed mouths don’t get fed and photographers (or any creative) who doesn’t actively take charge and reach out for work and opportunities doesn’t book.

So now we know that reaching out and pitching yourself is normal and encouraged let’s talk about how to do it.

It’s actually stupidly simple and kind of underwhelming so I apologise if this comes across as anticlimactic…it will be useful though, so keep reading.

Reach Out & Touch Faith

So prior to reaching out there are a few things you want to get in place - like your portfolio which you could get together in picdrop for free if you don’t yet have your website up and running.

I would encourage you to read this post from the other week to refresh, or ensure you are ready to pitch.

I’m going to use fashion as an example because that’s my realm but this can be applied to hospitality, tech, event, general product, headshots, creative portraits or really any type of photography.

I would say the only time this method doesn’t work is for family or maternity shoots because let’s face it it’s kind of creepy to cold pitch yourself to a mum saying you wanna photograph their family….

Below is a screenshot of an actual outreach email I sent to a swimwear/surf brand here on the Gold Coast last year some time. This is a simple blueprint you can follow to craft your own emails and I’m showing you all so you can see how easy it really is. It’s not the outreach that’s hard it’s booking the work and also the steps that come once you’ve got the client interested that can be challenging for a newbie.

Pricing for example - the worst!

Why is this email (imo) a good example. Let’s break it down below.

• It’s short - don’t send long emails because people are busy and they won’t read them. I used to write long emails about how much I loved the brand and then paragraphs of ideas I had and it’s just overwhelming and unnecessary. Be concise.

• It establishes who I am and what I do without talking about myself too much. You could add something along the lines of “I’ve worked with brands like X” if you have more well known clients under your belt or ones that the person receiving the email will know of. This gives you credit and authority but don’t worry if you don’t have that yet it’s more about the quality of the work you’ve done that you have to show them that will get you hired.

• It links clearly to examples of my work. This is imperative to do and why you need a portfolio or some way to show your work. Make sure it’s the right link and make sure it’s easy for them to look at or through.

• I’ve shown that I’m varied with photo and video capabilities and I’ve also thrown a quick idea out there (shooting with fellow creator Charlotte who models for the brand already) that shows I know and follow the brand as well as coming to the table with a pre done-ish concept that could get the ball rolling asap. Fashion moves fast and marketing people love if you already have an idea, even though thats kind of their job.

• I have attached my base package/rates in this email which eliminates the need for back and forth emails which can often lead to time running out, or the job fizzling. We wanna get 'em locked in! Up to you if you want to come straight outta the gate with rates or not and tbh I sometimes do and sometimes don’t. It’s a good way to figure out if your pricing is too high or too low and it also stops time wasting and fear around bringing money up if you just hit them with your ideal rate and deliverables. Pricing sucks. I lose sleep over it. I hate it.

• It ends nice but strong. Avoid being too passive or “I would be so grateful to work with you OMG” it’s best to be strong and confident so they don’t think you are scrambling for work - even if you are and thats also normal, trust me.

I actually got an email back from this brand a few weeks ago apologising for the extreme delay in reply and they said I have been on their creatives-we-want-to-work-with list for a while.

This goes to show you that no reply doesn’t always mean no. Try and carry that energy when you are pitching.

How you’ll feel after weeks of pitching and not hearing back - lol.

My Hot Tips

Okay so I’m gonna list out a few things in a rambling sort of way that I feel will be super helpful to you and hopefully answer the diverse questions you all may have.

Please pop a comment below if you have any other questions though - or if you have experience you can offer in this realm because I’m just sharing what I’ve learned over the last couple of years and everyone does stuff differently right?

• You can normally find an email address on a brand or businesses website - scroll to the bottom of the page or go to the contact page. Big brands will have specific marketing emails whereas small ones will just have one that is likely monitored by the owner. Don’t be discouraged if you get an automated reply because someone might email you back and give you the email address of the person you need to talk to - it’s a process.

• You can reach out on IG! I sometimes do this first and ask for the email of someone I can send my portfolio to so I know I’m getting the right person. I’ve booked whole jobs in the DM’s so go for it.

• ALWAYS FOLLOW UP. Don’t feel like a stalker if you follow up even a few times or why not start a new thread and have a fresh go at pitching. You really have to put your ego aside here and just keep at it. Persistence is key and don’t be embarrassed to check in and make sure they don’t miss out on working with you!

• Tag a brand on IG if you post sets that feature their products so they can get a taste of what your work looks like and plant the seed that you would be a good fit. I’ve tagged Adidas before and yeah, that didn’t work but if it’s a local brand or someone more likely to see it, it could very well start a conversation!

• Consider getting a document that looks nice and breakdown your half day and day rate or packages. That way when brands request it you can just send it through. Or, have a document that is easily customizable so you can do up a breakdown of things like cost, deliverables, timelines, fine print etc.

• If you are new to this you might not have all that set up and it’s okay - you can still book work without it and charge someone a smaller amount because you are a beginner or want the work for your folio, but just ensure as you go along you get these things in place. I used a designer called Oddish for all my templates and rate cards and she was great because she had a corporate background and knew exactly what clients would want.

• Whilst it’s good to understand that Prada might not email you back don’t ever think that anything is too big for a pitch from you! I have been so sure that I wouldn’t hear back and then BAM I’m jumping up and down in my living room so excited when I check my inbox.

• For those of you in the fashion space or wanting to go into that world I can highly recommend

  Olivia Bossert
  for advice. She has a great free pitching template and works on sets and shoots for magazines etc. which is different to what I do. It’s good to gather all the info and then see where you think you might fit in.

I’m going to attempt to tackle pricing in part 4 of this series sponsored by picdrop so if you are hanging out for info on that make sure you are subscribed.

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This week’s newsletter is in partnership with picdrop, a photo and video delivery service I’m now using with all my clients. It allows me to create highly professional photo galleries in seconds and let clients download, select and comment on their favourite images. I can simply send my clients a link to access the gallery, no login or setup needed on their end, so easy!

picdrop is used by over 180 000 professional photographers, so if you are looking for a simple and effective tool to level up your work flow and look professional, then click the button above. They are offering Love Lucy readers a free 2 month trial to experience the difference that is picdrop for image delivery.