The Blog

Stake Your Claim

I am in the attention retention business. I create images that invoke a response. Images that are strikingly different but of the same subject you see every day in your social media feeds. I create images that have the power to grab the viewers attention, to make them hesitate for a moment before swiping up or scrolling down. That brief moment of hesitation and curiosity could lead them to read your post and your message. With thousands of images being viewed every minute, the images that create a reaction are the ones that steal someones time out of their busy day.

Stake Your Claim

Every image I present to my client is my best. When I was younger I would call it “Shooting for competition”. I used to compete (and judge) in a lot of professional photography association competitions like WPPI and PPOC winning awards throughout the years. Each image entered had to have criteria that the judges were looking for. Was the subject matter eye catching? Did the image tell a story? Was the main subject the dominant factor in the image? (if you want to know just turn the image upside down and see where your eye goes to first). I strived to enter the best image I could each and every time. As professional photographers we took all these factors into account before we pressed the shutter button. Over the years it became second nature to look at things through the eyes of a print judge. This honed all of our photography skills and ensured that we strived for the best image we could create. To create an image that could stand alone and be judged.

Stake Your Claim

If you are going to showcase your product, company or people to the world wide web then you should be striving to use the best image possible. It’s easy to tell if you are. Just look at the images you use and ask yourself are these the best I can get? Do these images showcase my business in the best possible way? Some companies social media streams are filled with the exact same mundane visuals day after day. “Look what we created today” with a snapshot of the product. The next post “look what we created today”, another snapshot of the same product and so on and so on. Week after week it’s the same thing. I know this because I see it. I look for it. That is marketing failure 101 and it’s usually an affliction caused by someone not knowing the true power and importance of social media marketing. Ask yourself, do you want images that swipe or images that click?

Stake Your Claim

With the constant stream of posts at our fingertips and the ease of swiping up or scrolling down, the importance of grabbing someones attention is becoming more challenging. So how do you get their attention? By creating the best eye catching content your company can create. This is usually done with great photography and great photography is not everyday photography. Great photography is planned. Great photography is created to compliment graphics and layouts. Great photography is discussed before the shutter button is pressed. I like to discuss the end product with my clients. I like to know how the images are going to be used, how they will be implemented into design layouts and how they are going to be presented to the public. This ensures that the image used will compliment the message viewed.

Stake Your Claim

Where social media is the dominating platform for marketing which already has an over saturated abundance of content, your business must stand out from your competition. Your business name, your product, your brand must be seen on a regular basis and each time it must be different in order to be embedded in your potential clients brain. I wrote a daily studio photography blog years ago. Every day I would post an image with a story about the session and one time a new client said to me “I have been following your blog for over 2 years now but we didn’t need then. Now we need photography and your name was the first that popped into my head.” That’s branding, and it’s the same today as it was years ago, the only difference is the platform.

Stake Your Claim

If you want to be the best then work to be the best. Create the best product you can, employ the best people you can and use the best marketing you can. If you want something different, I will give you something different because different stands out.

I have staked my claim.

Created for:
The Drift Mining Magazine Cover 2020
www.northernontariobusiness.com
Thanks to Northern Ontario Business, Vale and Cindy Grenier
Photographed at Creighton Mine, Sudbury On