Time to Talk About the Big”O”: Organization
In this week’s episode of Clued Up we take a deep dive into the importance organization to your photography life. No matter the genre you shoot, or whether you’re a hobbyist, semi-pro, or pro, it’s likely that you’ve figured out you’ve got to be organized. You’ve got to have a system for photography-related contacts, carrying gear, storing gear, processing your photos, and on and on! Organizing and developing systems for your photography simplifies and quickens almost everything that you need for a photoshoot. In this episode we talk about the big “O”! ORGANIZATION!!! I’m going to give you a few examples of how I organize different aspect of my photography life. Everyone needs to find what works best for them. Hopefully, after listening to this week’s episode, you get a few more ideas that may help you organize your photography life just a little better.
Simply put, there are so many parts to your photography, and especially to a photoshoot, that lack of organization is detrimental to your photography well-being.
Here are a few highlights from this week’s episode:
{1:48} It's [Lack of Organization] detrimental to your client, to your workflow, and to everything that you produce. Being organized assures a routine, it assures structure, and it has got to be an essential part of your workflow and your business.
{2:03} Let's break down this episode to segments of your photography life that require organization. I've divided them into three distinct areas:
Contact and interaction with clients, team members, and business partners.
Gear and equipment, and under this category, we include the gear that you carry, gear in your studio or your home, and gear that you store.
Post processing.
{4:13} Something with a little bit more capability is an app, or I guess it's best to call it online software that I use called Air Table.
Air Table Sample
{10:17} If you want to use a more sophisticated calendar, you can always move up to something like Acuity Scheduling.
{18:51} I know it sounds a little OCD. But believe me, when you need something, you may not be able to recall exactly where it is. But if you have a system for storing your equipment, you will know exactly where to go to find it.
{23:57} Well if you have to fumble around to find your gear, it kind of upsets the flow of things, it upsets your flow as a photographer, and definitely it upsets your client. Although they may not express that to you, something internal may click like, you're a professional photographer, how come you don't know where your gear is.
{24:18} Also, if you're doing something like an event or a runway show, or anything that's truly time dependent, you can miss a really important moment if you're looking in your bag for something because you don't know exactly where it is.
{26:32} When you're shooting an event, if you start going through your photos, and you start deleting, a couple of things are going to happen. The first thing is, while you're deleting, you may miss another moment. You may miss a moment that shouldn't be missed.
{30:26} You want to provide as many tags as possible for the photo shoot and use any tag that works. Definitely use more than one because that helps you narrow down those specific photos even more.
{40:17} I know it can be tedious, and it can be a pain, but you know what's really a pain? when you need something and you can't find it, or if you wait to last minute, and you don't even have time to search, and then you have to sort of pull a Hail Mary, or you have to go out and buy a piece of gear that you know you own, but you just can't find it and you need it.
Click here to listen to this episode and to get more details about organizing your photography life.
