About 5 years into my photography career, (over 10 years ago) I had to ask myself a hard question… why wasn’t I getting the type of clients I was dreaming of?
Although, that answer was not as short as I would have liked it to be, I started with the fact that not only was I showing every kind of photography under the sun but I wasn’t taking the time to take out my “no one cares images” and I wasn’t focusing on what I actually ENJOYED photographing.
You wanted children/babies/families/maternity/weddings/events/boudoir/branding/creative fine art/commercial/fashion, etc. YOU GOT IT!
I LITERALLY DID IT ALL…. Until, I decided that I didn’t have to, nor should I.
It wasn’t just serving my clients trying to shoot all different types of photography, but it also wasn’t serving me.
Now I’m sorry, I’m very appreciative of all the wedding photographers out there, (especially my lovely biz partner Josie Brooks), but that’s just not my cup of tea, even though I’ve photographed some amazing ones with amazing clients.
And even though I have a family and 3 children, I don’t really love photographing families- it’s just not that inspiring for me and I had to come to terms with that after shooting family portraits for years.
I started to think I wouldn’t make money from my editorial fashion aesthitc, which I grew up loving and still to this day love.
I also believed people would not like my work if I showed the artsy images that I LOVED to create.
But, I found out quickly that simply wasn’t true and it was just a self limiting belief I had imposed on myself.
The first thing I did, to attract my dream clients, was CURATE my portfolio and I’m going to explain how you can do this to.
Curate, literally translates to, “to care.”
STEP 1: Only show the images that you care for.
Have you ever heard the expression, “You are only as good as your worst photo.” It’s an old photography expression and I first heard it form one of my very first photography mentors.
This expression stuck with me and I immediately started to delete any “who cares” photos, especially the ones I didn’t care for.
STEP 2: Narrow down your niches.
The second thing I did was to get rid of ALL the niches of photography and only kept up 2-3 things I wanted to focus on. This was a game changer for me, and literally felt like the weight of the world came off of my shoulders. Now I could step up to the plate for the clients I actually loved creating for.
STEP 3. Keep only 1-2 specific photography styles that you love.
The younger photographer me, was a pre-set addict. I had and expiremented with every pre-set I could get my hands on. And since I started my photophy journey learning photo-shop above all else, I had gizmos and gadgets galore.
I would edit all my sessions in completely different ways and I would experiment with composites and color processing on client work… I have to say, when I did something artsy or special on a photography client image, they would love it and always buy it as an art piece. HOWEVER, I didn’t show this in my work so it was not what people hired me for… come to think of it, I don’t know what they hired me for because of my many different styles.
The point is I wasn’t consistent, therefor I attracted inconsistent clients.
When I finally chose to focus on my favorite style, I attracted clients who appreciated my work.
Step 4: Do a portfolio review.
This was extremely helpful for me when I got stuck. I really loved two completely different styles and subjects that I was shooting, I was also still very emotionally attached to some old work. I hired a photography consultant to look at my body of work and tell me which photos were the most impactful and why.
This really helped me get out of my own way. Sometimes we know when there are certain images that we need to let go of but we just can’t.
And if you are on the lazy or not enough time side, which is totally me too and you don’t feel like getting rid of a lot of your work. Make a portfolio section of your best work for people to quickly browse through for each category and then keep your blog section of your galleries where you are seeing each session individually, like I did on my site: www.vaniaelisephotography.com
Step 5. Make a personal/or journal gallery.
This kind of gallery is great when you have personal projects you work on that don’t quite fit the scope of the work you already do. You can be more experimental with this body of work because it’s understood that these are your personal projects and not necessarily you would shoot for client work. However, it’s always a good idea to ask potential clients, “which images they were attracted to on your site”, through the contact form. That way, if you do have a few different styles or niches, this will help give you a better idea of what they are hiring you for.
I know portfolio curation can seem like a tough job to tackle, especially with your own photography work, but I hope I have give you five manageable steps when to curating your portfolio.
Annnnd if you are still feeling stuck, here are a few questions you can ask yourself when curating your portfolio:
What images DO YOU care about most?
What images do you want to be know for?
What images would you like your dream clients to hire you for?
What kind of feelings do you want to evoke in your audience, are the images that you are choosing serving helping to create that emotion?
If you found this post helpful and need some help with creating a beautiful portfolio, make sure to download our free guide on how to make your portfolio pop!
