TEACHING

Bill and Joe James, riding a single cylinder Monarch motorcycle, 1912.
Photographer unknown – probably Bill and Joe James.

I have taught a 16-week college class: Professional Business Practices For Photographers, along with  workshops, seminars, and webinars.

Colleges include Pasadena City College in Southern California, and online at City College of San Francisco, synchronous and asynchronous.  

Seminars include the Palm Springs Photo Festival and all-day workshops in Los Angeles, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Portland, OR, and San Francisco. Producers/sponsors include the American Society of Media Professionals, Month of Photography Los Angeles, National Press Photographers Association, Blue Sky Gallery (Portland), and The Los Angeles Center of Photography.

Other appearances include a panel on contracts at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena as part of the Bold Workshops; as a visiting lecturer at the New York Film Academy, San Francisco State University, and Michigan State University; and as a mentor for the Young Photographers Alliance.  I presented at the Society of Photographic Educators Western Conference: “Teaching Business and Understanding Professional Cultures”.

I spent many years in leadership in ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers), a trade association for photographers, including as a national director and an editor on the website.  One of the benefits of giving back are the countless conversations I’ve had with photographers at every level, students to established pros; those conversations have informed every aspect of my teaching.

I’ve posted five webinars on Vimeo, in the Barry Schwartz Webinars Showcase: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7950091. Among them are Contracts, Marketing, and Negotiating, each about an hour long. Overview is a tour of everything I cover in my 16-week class. A fifth webinar, Tour The Book, is about ASMP Professional Business Practices In Photography, which I contributed to and use as an educator – after all these years, it still has so much to offer.

In 2024 I was interviewed by Alan Blakely of The Association Of Independent Architectural Photographers (AIAP), posted on the YouTube channel.  
Part One is about my career as a photographer.  
Part Two is a one-hour breakdown of teaching business practices. 

Professional memberships include NPPA (National Press Photographers Association), AIAP (Association of Independent Architectural Photographers), ASMP (The American Society of Media Photographers), and PEN America.

CV and Syllabus available upon request.

WHAT IT TAKES:
Building And Maintaining A Photographic Career

WORKSHOPS and WEBINARS

Business issues for students, emerging professionals, and mid-career photographers.

Pricing and negotiating, copyright, industry cultures, contracts, insurance, releases, and art school.  Marketing: Social media, newsletters, blogs, mailers, websites, and SEO.  How to research clients and how to make it easier for clients to find you.  AI is on every creator’s mind these days, and while it’s not a settled topic, it must be addressed.

Soft skills are critical: understanding how clients think, what they expect from different specialties, and communicating what you have to offer.  Digital workflow is central to professional careers, so we cover color and data management, printing, metadata, all to speed your work, keep it safe and keep you sane.

Everyone gets 28 pages of resources, including links to free and paid software, books, and websites. Also template contracts, releases, spreadsheets for taxes, and more.

MARKETING
How to locate clients, reps, and galleries, and how to present yourself. Marketing plans and promotional materials such as portfolios, email newsletters, postcards, and leave-behinds. Letterheads, business cards, and logos. Cover letters, bios, and artist statements. Developing a resume or CV.  Looking professional online and IRL.

WEBSITES
Best practices for design, production, hosting, SEO, and registering domain names.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media marketing – how to use it to get noticed by – and locate – potential clients, as a learning tool, and why it’s useful to be part of a community.

LEGAL, FINANCIAL, and INSURANCE
Different industries require different contracts, including fine art. Releases: model and property.  Copyright law, registering your work, and the new Copyright Claims Board for disputes. Taxes, accounting, and spreadsheets. Insurance. Why to register yourself as a DBA (Doing Business As), and business plans. When to call a lawyer — and when not to. A method to help decide fees, CODB/COL: Cost of Doing Business and Cost of Living.

VIDEO
Photographers are increasingly asked to provide video, and while most cameras shoot video, there is more to consider, including copyright, audio, and post-production.

FINDING WORK
Negotiating and pricing, and discovering what the market will bear. Research methods to identify clients and employers. Assisting. Industry cultures, gallery and commercial representation. Why continuing education is critical to success and why it’s useful to be part of a community.

DIGITAL WORKFLOW
Those precious files: Easy ways to insure quality and safety, including data and computer backups.  Metadata and how it protects you legally, speeds your work, and may be required. Printing and color management – not that bad!  Online file delivery methods. Even if you hire people to do these for you, it’s important to know about them yourself.

AFFILIATED TRADES
Curators, stylists, producers, digital techs, assistants, gallerists, photo editors, art buyers, reps and consultants, graphic design, illustration, art directors, retouchers, and teaching.

ART SCHOOL
Academic culture and training, how undergraduate and graduate degrees can support and affect a career.  Translating what you learn — and who you know — to a career.

AI – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
It’s already here.  Will it be the end of photography as we know it?  Likely not.  We’ll look at the ways it is already used by clients and photographers to make better work, and why the world will still need photographers no matter what.

DRONES
Unmanned aircraft are easier to use, cheaper to fly, more useful and safer than ever.  Legal issues include flying for money, which requires certification from the FAA.  We’ll look at how to get certified and the general requirements of where and when drones are legal to fly.