What you look for in a photographer?

[itk]

I am wondering what everybody looks for when hiring a photographer. My wife is a professional photographer and is looking at expanding into livestock photography. I was wondering what type of services people like, prices, access to files and any other thoughts and observations anyone would like to share. She has done a few local projects that have been well accepted, including my avatar picture. I'm not worried about the picture quality side as she has been named one of the top ten photographers in Kansas and had a picture on loan to the Smithsonian for the past year. Mostly we are worried about breaking into the industry and if there is a need for elite photographers any more. I remember when the first rule of bull marketing was have Christy Collins take its picture. Now it seems a lot of people are happy with having anyone take their catalog or bull's picture and "photoshop" them up. Again any ideas or services that we could use to try to make this transition would be appreciated. If you would like to check out a sample of some of her work go to Imagewise Photography on Facebook.

 

[simba]

Personally, I think personality is the biggest thing. I really like our photographer, because he's really calm with the animals and is extremely patient. He knows exactly how to make each individual animal look it's best and can simply look at your yard/farm and find the perfect area to take the picture, based on backgrounds, slope of the ground, etc. It sounds simple enough, but a lot of people can't do it, myself included. Another thing I like is when he gets the "money shot" he gets really excited, you can definitely tell that he enjoys his job. He charges $30-$40 for a picture taken at your farm. I don't know about other photographers, but I find it quite reasonable. I definitely think there's still a demand for good livestock photographers!

I checked out the facebook page, there's a lot of really nice pictures. Good luck to you and your wife!

 

[jason]

Offer photos in a couple different resolutions and filesizes.  It seems always get these emails with 5mb photos that I need to resize for web images.  I think for the web 800x600 is right on, these larger sizes aren't needed for anything but print.

Also you probably want to look into video.  Their is good video editing software out there that can be had reasonable - Pinnacle Studio 12 or if you already have the adobe suite, adobe premiere.