I'm pretty sure that Lady Gaga is the new "Tom" for friends on iTunes new Ping.
7 days ago —Comments
The afternoon edition of Billy Sheahan Daily comes out every day at 4pm. Pulled from my Twitter feeds.. http://bit.ly/bOB1R2 7 days ago —Comments
"...We'd like it to be sort of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas,' but without the nightmare and without the Christmas."
7 days ago —Comments
The new definition of Optimistic: A 60 year old woman with a Forever 21 bag. http://moby.to/hn4jtrvia Twitter 10 days ago —Comments
Very productive and relaxing weekend. My new photobook Être a Paris (To be in Paris) nearing completion! http://twitpic.com/2jm42lvia Twitter 10 days ago —Comments
Whoa! Sears has a YouTube channel! That is so incredibly cool!!!... Wait... did I say cool?... I meant incredibly feeble... yeah feeble. via Twitter 12 days ago —Comments
Making Time to Daydream or How to Avoid Checking Your Email when your dinner companion uses the restroom. On the blog: http://bit.ly/bH0r0uvia Twitter 13 days ago —Comments
Where I've been... No time to write in public when there is art to be made! .... on the blog: http://billysheahan.com/blogvia Twitter 14 days ago —Comments
So rare I get a night off to have dinner with friends. Tremendous food, wonderful company at the West Loop's Nia.. http://bit.ly/aYUCblvia Twitter 14 days ago —Comments
It's one of those Wednesdays where paradoxically I can't believe it's only Wednesday AND I can't believe it's already Wednesday. via Twitter 15 days ago —Comments
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My Billy Sheahan Photography iPhone app, has been out for a little over a week now. It's done phenomenally well. Beyond my wildest expectations. A little over 1000 installs every day. Really tremendous.
And besides all the installs, I've been getting a lot of questions about why I felt I needed an iPhone app and many more about how I promoted it to get so many people interested in downloading it. All good questions.
First the why. There are a lot of photographers out there. And a lot of people who have cameras who fancy themselves photographers. It's a very competitive business. Over the years I've sent out monthly postcards with a new photograph to clients and fans to keep my name and images in front of them on a regular basis. When the postage and printing of hundreds of mailings a month became too expensive from a business standpoint, I pared the mailing list down to a few dozen clients I wanted to stay in contact with and offered everyone else and fans the choice of a free email postcard, or switch to a subscription of $25 a year for 12 postcards.
And that's worked great. The surprise benefit of switching to email is that it was easy to track who was looking and who wasn't as well as giving people the ability to click <em>reply</em> and send me instant feedback. Always nice to hear what people think.
But email is becoming something people really only have time to glance at. Our email boxes are filled with so many things that's it's so easy to get lost in the clutter. It's becoming difficult to communicate with email.
Then there were the social networking sites. Friendster (for those who remember that one), MySpace (becoming less and less useful), Facebook (everyone is on Facebook), Tumblr, and finally, my favorite of them all, Twitter because sometimes I don't have time to write an entire blog entry, but I want to keep my name on people's minds. Also Twitter is actually a great resource for information. Really.
SoloModels and ModelMayhem are two additional sites I'm on. And I even have a listing on TED.
But these are things any and most photographers can do. So how to come up with another new way to differentiate myself?
I began working with SoloModels this year on an iPhone app they offer. I had explored the idea of downloading the Apple iPhone Software Developers Kit and learning how to code an iPhone app on my own, but the SoloModels version offered what I was looking to do without all the heavy learning on my part. They had totally figured it out so I didn't have to.
And there were a couple of things I liked about the SoloModels iPhone app. They had done it already and it worked. And even better, updating my photography, video and other content was easy since the iPhone app uses my SoloModels account to feed the app. I make a change on my SoloModels account and boom, my iPhone app is updated as well. My app always stays live. Couldn't be easier.
So then, how to promote it? I've worked in advertising for about 20 years now. I've seen how successful campaigns have been created and I've also seen how bad ones don't succeed. I decided to use that knowledge on promoting my own app.
I've edited hundreds of television commercials over the years. And I know that it's not just about getting the message across. You have to make a spot something people want to watch. Your message is usually plunked down in the middle of something entertaining people are watching. The commercial is an interruption. Something people would rather skip, unless it's interesting or compelling in some way.
So I knew any commercial I created for it had to be fun. To the point.
And I decided to treat it like a movie campaign. Before the app was even finished, I had the developer at SoloModels record video of him running the app through it's paces on his computer desktop, since it didn't physically exist on an iPhone yet. Basically a video screen capture.
I took that video and imported it into Final Cut Studio, cut out the developer's desktop background so all you could see was the iPhone and flew it around on a white background, showcasing what it would do once it <em>was</em> available to download. The editing process took about 20 hours.
Then I created two versions, a "Coming This November" version to run while it when through the Apple iTunes Store approval process, which usually takes a few weeks. The second version was the "It's Here" version.
I posted the "Coming This November" version everywhere I could think of: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, MySpace, and Tumblr as well as my blog and Twitter. It ran for two weeks and generated a bit of buzz for the app. Just like a Coming Soon trailer for a movie, the idea was to get people aware of it before it was available.
When I got the email that the iPhone app had been approved and was on the Apple iTunes Store, I immediately took down all the "Coming This November" versions of the commercial and uploaded the "It's Here" version to the same places.
Over the course of the three weeks of the Coming this November and It's Here campaign, I monitored Google and found it had been picked up on a lot of iPhone app and photography websites. By putting it up in so many places and keywording the postings with "iPhone app" and "photography," it was easy for people who's job it is to find new iPhone apps to find it. It even got picked up by a Japanese language iPhone app site. In fact about 30% of the installs are from Japan, a market that I had been virtually unknown in previously.
But what does it cost? Photographers, the good ones anyway, spend thousands of dollars a year creating promotional pieces and marketing their work. Just like any other business, you have to surround yourself with good people and create a polished, well designed campaign for yourself. It's what separates the pro photographers from the GWCs (Guys with Cameras). The SoloModels iPhone app will run you about $1000 to get up and running. Is it worth it? Well, each photographer will have to make that assessment for themselves.
For me, it was a no-brainer because it's a new way to get my Billy Sheahan Photography Brand literally into the hands of thousands of people who I wouldn't have access to. Will it generate any future work for me? Too early to tell. But the feedback from my current clients so far has been very good. They show the app around to their network circles and more and more people learn about my photography.
I also decided to make my iPhone app a free download. I could have charged a buck or two for it, but the idea was not to make money from the app, but to get it into as many hands as possible. Rather than make a few dollars on the app, I'm hoping to make even more from actual photography work and build my client base.
We're already working on version 2.0 of Billy Sheahan Photography that will have more goodies.
I spend about 70% of my time on the business of photography and 30% of it actually photographing and retouching and what not. Behind every beautiful image is hours and hours of paperwork, research, marketing and meeting new clients before I even pick up my camera. It's a business.
Someday everyone and their mom will have an iPhone app, or a Droid app, or whatever the next thing is that we don't know about yet. But for now, my iPhone app seems to be ahead of the curve, generating nice buzz. It's just another piece of my photography marketing pie.
Escaping Ida
Posted 11/9/2009 12:27 PM PST
FADE IN: Billy sitting alone at a table at a cafe in New Orleans under a single light, that even though it's noon, illuminates only him. A cigarette dangles from his mouth, channeling William Shatner... or is it Stewie?
"She packed my bags... last night... pre-flight....
Zero hour... 5.... pm...
And I'm gonna be...
HIGH...
as a kite... by then...."
That is, unless Tropical Storm Ida has other plans for me.
It's been a great trip back to New Orleans again for the Octavia Art Gallery show last Saturday night. Although I've spent much more time working than playing this visit.
I brought a portable drive with work that seems to follow me around these days. But, if I have to be working, New Orleans is a lovely change of venue. Here's another photo from the opening, featuring the lovely Trixie Minx.
New Orleans and... Japan of all places
Posted 11/8/2009 3:25 PM PST
The opening at Octavia Art Gallery in New Orleans was tremendous and amazing. I really love it here. I met more incredible artists and people who came by to check out all the great photography at the Exotica Exhibition. The gallery manager Emily was so kind in the way she welcomed me and made me feel right at home in their lovely space. The gallery had been painted a rich deep red for the evening and it made all the artwork really stand out in a beautiful way.
Besides the art, the talented and lovely Trixie Minx performed two of her burlesque routines throughout the evening, adding another layer of fabulousness to the night.
I always enjoy my time here in The Big Easy and I always feel inspired while being here. The weather is warm, sunny and pleasant and there's nothing better than talking long walks through the Garden District. And I got my streetcar pass for those longer excursions when I'm traveling uptown or to the Quarter.
I made the mistake again of mentioning to one of the gallery patrons last night that my hotel was "east" of here, and was promptly reminded in that most friendly New Orleans way, that there is no north, south, east or west in New Orleans. It's all Uptown, Downtown, the Quarter, etc.. Ah, yes. Now I remember!
Turnout to the opening was really great. Octavia has a great following and there were all kinds of people coming by throughout the evening to view the artwork.
I had great long conversations with so many people about New Orleans, art and life in general. Always a great time to connect with some of the most warm and welcoming people on the planet.
In other news, I am completely astounded by the response to my new Billy Sheahan Photography iPhone app that came out late Thursday evening. As I write this, we're approaching 2000 installs worldwide. And it appears that I can now use the phrase, "I'm huge in Japan!" The Japanese are responsible for nearly half of the downloads. I guess they love the photography of this particular round-eye.
So it's been a great week. Incredibly busy. In fact I'm doing a lot of color correcting and retouching of photoshoots from the past couple of weeks while in New Orleans. But I can't complain. My office these days is a beautiful courtyard at my hotel under the warm sunny sky.
Life really couldn't be any more lovely at the moment. I'm feeling very fortunate and grateful.
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