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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2006-04-10
Students and business cards-the perfect match
By Jim McNay, Brooks Institute of Photography
Personal business cards can be a student photographer's best friend.
Business cards? Isn't that an extravagance, one not needed until one is employed somewhere, so one can have that cool company logo on there?
Nope. Students want them now.
This is assuming of course the student photographer wants to make themselves known as a professional (never too soon to start that process) and wants work (most likely at money-generating freelance assignments.)
Business cards, even for students, announce the student as a new working pro, someone to be taken seriously. They announce the student as someone who had a need for business cards. That is, the student knows there are people around the community who will want to get in touch with them for photographic work.
And frankly, business cards make it so easy with a flick of the wrist to let people know how to find you should they decide they need a photographer for their next corporate event, wedding, Christmas portrait, or youngster's soccer game. And these assignments all help pay the bills.
Now with students being about as stable at one address as migratory desert tribes, don't business cards get outdated in a matter of weeks? Not if you play your (business) cards right!
One of the best ways to design a card is with the photographer's name and e-mail address. E-mail addresses tend to be more permanent than a mailing address, and they lead to quick communication, providing students check their e-mail daily.
The next piece of information to consider is a cell phone number. Again, if one fights the urge to change services and sticks with a carrier, the cards should be good for months.
Of course another way to handle easy communications is to list the student's contact information on a website, assuming they have even the simplest of sites. Keep the website up and running and post new pictures periodically. Make it easy for editors and clients to find you as well as to check out your work.
How much one spends on business cards varies according to one's budget and perhaps one's time in service as a professional. Working pros want something that looks sharp, maybe something that is even professional designed by a graphic artist.
Students can probably rely on their own design skills (or that of their graphic design major roommate) during a trip to Kinko's. The key is to have something, to not be caught off-guard when the perfect opportunity to hand a card to someone comes along.
Some students figure this out on their own, such as those who were seen with photocopied business cards printed on 8x10 paper as they rode a greyhound bus to upstate New York for a major photojournalism workshop.
The scissors on the Swiss army knife they were using were not creating the most elegant of cards. But the student doing the cutting was clearly ready to be In The Game and drop a card on the table when they met that editor they had been hoping to see for months.
Bottom line: Make the effort, make the investment to be in circulation with your own business cards, even as a student.
Photographers, particularly those in school or seeking to break into the photojournalism, are welcome to send ideas for future columns to Jim McNay at jim.mcnay@brooks.edu.
Questions about getting started in photojournalism that might be answered in future columns are also welcome.
Related Links:
Jim McNay's Member Page
Brooks NPPA Student Chapter
Brooks Institute of Photography
Related Email Addresses:
Jim McNay: jim.mcnay@brooks.edu
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