Kickstarter 101: What it Takes to Fund a Photography Project

by Laura Oles

When Sarah and Eric were planning their upcoming honeymoon, they decided to mix business and pleasure.  While other newlyweds might jet away to tropical locales to spend time on the beach, Sarah and Eric decided to opt for a road trip, taking Polaroid photos all along Route 66 – a trip that is being funded by a small group of supporters who have been promised photos in return for their micro investment. Sara and Eric love the nostalgia of documenting their road trip with this vintage but still very viable medium.

How did they come to the idea to combine their honeymoon trip with a photography-related business proposition?  It all comes down to Kickstarter.

Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) helps fund creative projects by connecting artists and inventors with investors.  Since the site went live in 2009, over four million people have pledged more than $609 million dollars toward 41,000 creative projects. Each creator remains in charge of all aspects of her project and anyone can launch a project as long as it meets Kickstarter’s basic guidelines.  Funding requests can range from a few hundred dollars to hundreds of thousands.  A select few have even been successfully funded at a million dollars or more.

In the case of Sarah and Eric, their first Kickstarter project is a modest one as they only asked for pledges totaling $1,000, but pledges totaled five times that amount.  Eric is a photography buff with an arsenal of vintage 120 cameras, including a 1914 Kodak and a German-made 1939 Twin Lens Reflex.  Sarah shoots with her Canon T21 DSLR and also likes experimenting with her Diana mini.  Both Sara and Eric enjoy the nostalgia of traditional shooting and the feel of experiencing a printed Polaroid print within minutes of capturing an image. 

Sarah and Eric have followed and backed several other Kickstarter projects over the last year and learned a great deal from the process. When asked what made them choose the idea of traveling on Route 66 with a Polaroid camera in hand, Sarah said, “I think it's a bit of nostalgia and a bit of a tangible result. I can be impatient and I love that I can have my photo in front of me in just a few minutes.” Their backers seem to share their enthusiasm and are looking forward to receiving Polaroid prints in the mail of their travels along Route 66.   For the trip, they will be using a few different Polaroid ColorPack Land Cameras, such as the 100 and the 250.

Even though Sarah and Eric are young in years, they are old school when it comes to photography.  Sarah enjoys shooting digital, but her love for film and the older format cameras remains strong.  It is their love for these vintage shooting experiences that really spurred them into creating this Route 66 Kickstarter project.  Sara says, “We hope that our Kickstarter project inspires others to take up film photography! We want to show people how accessible film cameras still are in today’s environment.”

To learn more about Sara and Eric’s Kickstarter project, visit:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goodstorysarah/route-66-polaroid-project

To learn how to create your own Kickstarter project, visit www.kickstarter.com

Chris Christensen, Founder of The Amateur Traveler

Chris Christensen has loved both traveling and photography since he was a child.  He recalls road trips with his parents, pulling a fourteen-foot trailer behind the family car, and exploring the national parks in the West.  Those early adventures have paved a path that has kept travel--and photography--an integral part of his life. 

Chris started his popular podcast, The Amateur Traveler, in the summer of 2005, and it has since grown into one of the most popular podcasts online.  Chris says, “The Amateur Traveler audio podcast is about travel destinations. It helps you decide where to go next. The show usually features an interview with a destination expert or with a traveler who has been to the destination recently.”  Chris, a self-proclaimed podcast junkie, really wanted to share his love of travel by helping others discover new destinations and evaluate which locations would be best for them based upon their family structure, schedules and interests. 

While the Amateur Traveler podcast has quite a following, Chris understands that sharing the many facets of exploration require imagery and photographs to showcase the depth and unique benefits each location has to offer. Chris’s site, http://amateurtraveler.com, contains a wealth of information about different destinations and photographs of the many places he has traveled.  The site covers various modes of travel including rail, bicycle, road trips, air travel and more.  Traveling on a budget, traveling to Disney, traveling for extreme adventure--it’s all here.

Chris keeps his trusty Canon EOS Rebel t1i on hand along with as many as three video cameras to document each trip.  When asked what advice he would give to travelers wanting to capture the beauty of a location, Chris offers, “When you get to your destination, check out the postcards.  You’ll be able to identify some popular areas and see how they were photographed.  This will help you examine the location and maybe come at it from a different perspective. Use it as guide to help you get started but spend some time in the location and photograph what speaks to you, what stands out as interesting or captivating.”

Chris employs a number of strategies to fit his passion for travel and photography around his full-time career.  Tight budgeting of his time and bringing his son in as an audio-editing expert for his podcasts are two successful strategies.  Sometimes, unfortunately, there just isn’t enough time to fit everything in and this means having to turn down trips.  “I turned down fee trips to Jamaica, Hong Kong and a two week Alaskan cruise last year. It was not that I didn’t want to go on these adventures, but just did not have the time.”   Still, Chris fits in an impressive number of trips in his schedule each year, often opting for longer weekend travels with his wife.  He also keeps himself to strict deadlines, which helps him make the most of his time.  He quips, “Oh, and did I mention it helps if you don’t need to sleep much?”

When asked about some of his favorite locations to photograph, Chris offers up several options.  “Antelope Canyon is a surreal environment where the force of water has carved a narrow (in some places just wide enough to squeeze through) slot canyon in the Navajo sandstone. The rock is left with the shape of rushing water. When the light catches the many different shades of the red rock it becomes a photographer's paradise.”

“For someone who loves history like I do, Egypt is a must see destination. I don't even think I grasped how old Egypt was until I learned that the first dynasty that built the pyramids fell to some unknown people who had a new technological innovation… the wheel. Yes, the pyramids pre-date the wheel.

Turkey has layer of civilization upon layer of civilization. Istanbul, in particular, is a colorful and delicious city with its monuments like Haigia Sophia, the walls of Theodosius and its Ottoman palaces.”

Chris also comments on the surprises one encounters when one’s expectations aren’t met.  Sometimes it can be a wonderful thing.  This was the case on a trip to Tanzania.  “I expected the treat of seeing the wildlife in Tanzania. Herds of zebras and wildebeests going off to the horizon is not something that a zoo prepares you for. But I did not expect the joys of meeting its people. I left with the belief that any three Tanzanians would sing a melody in four-part harmony.

Greece lured me with its ancient agoras and even more ancient Minoan ruins (the oldest European civilization). Then it wowed me with cities clinging to the lip of a volcano on Santorini and the beautiful seaside towns of Crete.”

You might expect that someone who travels so extensively to have his system down pat and be prepared for anything. He admits an equipment mishap can happen.  “I have had a time or two that I have shot for hours and then discovered my memory card was back in my computer. It’s only funny in retrospect.”  This confession makes the rest of us feel a bit better about our own photographic foibles.

Chris’s approach to improving one’s travel photography doesn’t include detailed technical descriptions, but instead, simply encourages taking more photographs.  “Take a lot of pictures.  You can only develop your own eye with practice and experimentation.” 

To learn more about Chris Christensen and the Amateur Traveler, visit http://amateurtraveler.com.

The Working Photographer:

Laura Wooten on the Importance of Presentation, Timing & Connection

by Laura Oles

Laura Wooten is an award-winning professional photographer whose career path started as teen when she joined her high school yearbook staff and her father placed a completely manual Nikon FM2n in her hands. Under his care and guidance, Laura’s talent flourished and she soon found herself completing a photography degree in college and working as a photojournalist for major Texas newspapers and as a freelancer for the Associated Press.

Today, Laura has leveraged her considerable skills and has established a successful portrait studio specializing in wedding, portraiture and on-location photography. We asked her what she wished she had known when she was in the early stages of launching her portrait studio.

Laura was generous with her advice, happy to help others dreaming of one day becoming members of the profession. “I wish I had realized early on how important presentation is when working with clients. I started off with a ‘sell online’ strategy, in part, because it was easy and it made sense with the advent of digital technology. What I didn’t understand is that putting portraits online meant that the customer now owned the image in her mind. She was free to share my work--disabling the right-click function doesn’t protect your images--and could show friends and family the final product. I had invested a substantial amount of time and energy and the customer hadn’t invested a dime.”

Digital photography’s convenience can be a double-edged sword, especially for professionals working hard to be properly compensated for their craft. For Laura, the solution evolved from a sincere desire to properly showcase her work while providing a heightened quality experience for each client.

Laura explains, “I now offer a special viewing experience for my clients through projection sales, and my in-person sales have tripled since adopting this approach. My clients now see a movie-like presentation of their images, which are supported by music and special effects.”

How do her clients respond to this method of presentation? “I’d say ninety-five percent of my clients tear up or cry during the presentation. I’m able to connect with them emotionally this way, and they are far more satisfied with the overall experience than they were simply by viewing the proofs online. It also allows me to help counsel them on the best choices for their albums, gifts and for enlargements for hanging in their homes.”

Laura’s desire to provide a stellar customer experience and to separate her offerings from the plethora of ‘shoot and burn’ photographers have catapulted her studio to a new level of success as well as a steady stream of client referrals.

Laura still provides digital images but her strategy is stronger now, in part, because of presentation and timing. “Once the client has finished ordering, I’ll write a blog entry about their session and include a few images as well as place the same information and images from their portrait session on my Facebook page. This allows the client to share the images while also helping to drive traffic to my website. It’s a solution that benefits everyone involved, and the feedback I receive from clients is incredible.”

To learn more about Laura Wooten and her work, visitwww.thesmilehouse.com.