Class assignments are listed below, numbered by the week in which they were given. They are offered with this caveat: Each assignment is based on the information discussed in class, and so the description below will only be fully understood if you have followed that discussion. Come to class. Pay attention.
Strategic Vision
Read Weisgrau, Chapter 1
Write a description of what your business will be like. Consider your strengths, skills, interests, and other assets or liabilities; state who might want to pay for your service or product; tell how you might make such a venture possible.
Take note of the examples in the book and understand that nothing you write will be cast in stone. This is a starting place for your imaginary business that you will develop in this class. It may also be a starting place for your own business. If you stay in business, you will revise this again and again, so don't worry about perfection here.
Read Weisgrau, Chapter 1
Write a description of what your business will be like. Consider your strengths, skills, interests, and other assets or liabilities; state who might want to pay for your service or product; tell how you might make such a venture possible.
Take note of the examples in the book and understand that nothing you write will be cast in stone. This is a starting place for your imaginary business that you will develop in this class. It may also be a starting place for your own business. If you stay in business, you will revise this again and again, so don't worry about perfection here.
# 9/4
Bookkeeping Basics
1. Read Chapters 3, 4, and 6.
2. Download IRS Form 1040 Schedule C and study it to find common accounts for your expenses. This will be a starting point for your profit and loss statement.
3. For your eyes only, make an estimate of your personal annual income needs. You will consider this to be your minimum salary.
4. Create a working template for a Profit and Loss Statement and a Balance Sheet. Use the examples in the book and those posted here to help you get going. At the very minimum, your P&L should reflect the expense accounts that will allow you to fill out your Schedule C. Hopefully you will have a reasonable start at describing with numbers the business you described with words last week.
1. Read Chapters 3, 4, and 6.
2. Download IRS Form 1040 Schedule C and study it to find common accounts for your expenses. This will be a starting point for your profit and loss statement.
3. For your eyes only, make an estimate of your personal annual income needs. You will consider this to be your minimum salary.
4. Create a working template for a Profit and Loss Statement and a Balance Sheet. Use the examples in the book and those posted here to help you get going. At the very minimum, your P&L should reflect the expense accounts that will allow you to fill out your Schedule C. Hopefully you will have a reasonable start at describing with numbers the business you described with words last week.
# 9/12
Sales Goals
1. Read Chapters 5, 7, 8
2. Based on your income needs and the Profit and Loss statement you prepared last week (Assignment 2), determine
a. the number of sales you will need to make per month
b. the average income each sale must generate.
Give a brief explanation of your calculation. Take a really good look at this one before you turn it in, for it needs to do two things. First, it must cover the expenses you have laid out for yourself. (You are not done till it does.) Second, it must be possible. Use your common sense here, but you must leave time for selling and marketing, or you must pay someone to do it. If you pay someone, you need to make sure that their salary or commission shows up in your P&L!
Please check the examples here and in the book for help in doing these calculations.
1. Read Chapters 5, 7, 8
2. Based on your income needs and the Profit and Loss statement you prepared last week (Assignment 2), determine
a. the number of sales you will need to make per month
b. the average income each sale must generate.
Give a brief explanation of your calculation. Take a really good look at this one before you turn it in, for it needs to do two things. First, it must cover the expenses you have laid out for yourself. (You are not done till it does.) Second, it must be possible. Use your common sense here, but you must leave time for selling and marketing, or you must pay someone to do it. If you pay someone, you need to make sure that their salary or commission shows up in your P&L!
Please check the examples here and in the book for help in doing these calculations.
# 9/19
Prospecting
1. Read Chapters 9, 10, 11
2. List 6 possible contacts in your chosen market segment, level, and location. Include a brief note explaining why each prospect would be a good match for you.
a) If you are targeting a retail market, list the contact info for places you will find customers or promote your service as well as individuals who might buy your pictures. No relatives, please.
b) If you are targeting a commercial market, list the contact and name of the businesses or agencies, along with the product your images will help to sell.
Please remember that all sales are personal, and that contacts are human beings with names and addresses. Highest marks will go to those who include the individual's name to whom you should address your promotions. (You will get no credit for telling me about a broad category of industries where you will begin your search. That is what you were supposed to do in Week 1.)
1. Read Chapters 9, 10, 11
2. List 6 possible contacts in your chosen market segment, level, and location. Include a brief note explaining why each prospect would be a good match for you.
a) If you are targeting a retail market, list the contact info for places you will find customers or promote your service as well as individuals who might buy your pictures. No relatives, please.
b) If you are targeting a commercial market, list the contact and name of the businesses or agencies, along with the product your images will help to sell.
Please remember that all sales are personal, and that contacts are human beings with names and addresses. Highest marks will go to those who include the individual's name to whom you should address your promotions. (You will get no credit for telling me about a broad category of industries where you will begin your search. That is what you were supposed to do in Week 1.)
# 9/26
An Estimate
1. Read Chapters 12, 13
2. Prepare an estimate for a job that will come through your studio. It may be any photograph of your choice, but it must involve the services of at least one other person. The image you produce will be used in an advertisement inside the back cover of the AARP Bulletin. Assume that the art director has chosen you because your specialty is just what is needed for this photo.
The Client is Merck Pharmaceuticals. The buyer works for the client's advertising agency. Your image will run two inches square as an insert photo along with a 3/4 page main photo that will be supplied by a different photographer.
1. Read Chapters 12, 13
2. Prepare an estimate for a job that will come through your studio. It may be any photograph of your choice, but it must involve the services of at least one other person. The image you produce will be used in an advertisement inside the back cover of the AARP Bulletin. Assume that the art director has chosen you because your specialty is just what is needed for this photo.
The Client is Merck Pharmaceuticals. The buyer works for the client's advertising agency. Your image will run two inches square as an insert photo along with a 3/4 page main photo that will be supplied by a different photographer.
# 10/3
Copyright Registration
1. Read Chapter 14
2. Bring to class:
2 Copies of Copyright Registration Form VA
2 Copies of Short Form VA
1 Copy of the instructions to each form.
This will be an in-class assignment, and you will be lost if you do not have these forms.
1. Read Chapter 14
2. Bring to class:
2 Copies of Copyright Registration Form VA
2 Copies of Short Form VA
1 Copy of the instructions to each form.
This will be an in-class assignment, and you will be lost if you do not have these forms.
# 10/10
Model Releases
1. Read Chapter 2.
2. Prepare, print, and bring to class:
A Model Release
A Property Release
Weigh the benefits of your protection against the acceptability to the person signing the release to come up with wording that suits your purposes. (And talk to your lawyer before using it.)
1. Read Chapter 2.
2. Prepare, print, and bring to class:
A Model Release
A Property Release
Weigh the benefits of your protection against the acceptability to the person signing the release to come up with wording that suits your purposes. (And talk to your lawyer before using it.)
# 10/17
Image Annotations
For this assignment I would like to see 6 images you feel represent you as a photographer. Using the tool of your choice, annotate these images with a description that will allow me to find you if I'd like to buy them, and for me to be able to search for them in a database. This will require you to fill in the appropriate metadata fields in your images in Bridge, Photoshop, iView, or some other application that supports the embedding of this metadata.
Send me, by cd or email, your six images:
1. With all necessary annotation to contact you.
2. Sized as JPEGs between 800 and 1600 pixels on the long side.
3. Especially if you are emailing me, read 2 again! No tif or psd files please.
Here are some notes and an example to point you in the right direction. If you have never done so before, this will show you how to set up a metadata template.
For this assignment I would like to see 6 images you feel represent you as a photographer. Using the tool of your choice, annotate these images with a description that will allow me to find you if I'd like to buy them, and for me to be able to search for them in a database. This will require you to fill in the appropriate metadata fields in your images in Bridge, Photoshop, iView, or some other application that supports the embedding of this metadata.
Send me, by cd or email, your six images:
1. With all necessary annotation to contact you.
2. Sized as JPEGs between 800 and 1600 pixels on the long side.
3. Especially if you are emailing me, read 2 again! No tif or psd files please.
Here are some notes and an example to point you in the right direction. If you have never done so before, this will show you how to set up a metadata template.
# 10/24
Web Friendly
In a little over a decade, the web has evolved from a place where a handful of scientists could share their research projects to an entire medium that touches every corner of our lives-- from where we go for a weather forcast to where we shop, and from how we find information about the world to, well, how you are reading about this assignment. For photographers, the usefulness of the web began as a way to simply and inexpensively show their pictures to people all over the world. This assignment is to help draw a bead on where that usefulness may go in the future.
We are on a search mission this week, to find examples of tools, ideas, methods of doing business, and any other way that you can imagine to help bring clients to your site, to help keep them at your site, to help you keep them as clients. I am looking for:
Four urls to pages that illustrate these higher level functions, along with a brief explanation of your discovery and why you chose it. Your examples don't need to be in photography sites. They just need to be something that could be useful to photographers.
Since we are talking about the future, it may be that you have an idea that you cannot find an example of. More power to you. Just write it down.
This is not an assignment to show me your favorite photographer or to show off the basic purpose of every photographer's web site. Please think more about what is possible than what has been done since the end of the last millenium.
We'll look at as many of these examples as we can in the next, final, class.
In a little over a decade, the web has evolved from a place where a handful of scientists could share their research projects to an entire medium that touches every corner of our lives-- from where we go for a weather forcast to where we shop, and from how we find information about the world to, well, how you are reading about this assignment. For photographers, the usefulness of the web began as a way to simply and inexpensively show their pictures to people all over the world. This assignment is to help draw a bead on where that usefulness may go in the future.
We are on a search mission this week, to find examples of tools, ideas, methods of doing business, and any other way that you can imagine to help bring clients to your site, to help keep them at your site, to help you keep them as clients. I am looking for:
Four urls to pages that illustrate these higher level functions, along with a brief explanation of your discovery and why you chose it. Your examples don't need to be in photography sites. They just need to be something that could be useful to photographers.
Since we are talking about the future, it may be that you have an idea that you cannot find an example of. More power to you. Just write it down.
This is not an assignment to show me your favorite photographer or to show off the basic purpose of every photographer's web site. Please think more about what is possible than what has been done since the end of the last millenium.
We'll look at as many of these examples as we can in the next, final, class.
# 10/31