I recently attended a lecture entitled something like The Art and Business of Landscape Photography presented by a photographer whose work I admire. I was hoping he might have some insight on how he has been able to create a business from his photography.
Oh and did I mention there was an entrance fee?
I sat down and excitedly waited for him to come discuss his business. At the appropriate time, he approached the front of the room and announced that he really didn't have anything prepared so he was just going to show us some images and talk about them.
Whah?!?!
That wasn't what I paid for. I thought I was paying for a lecture, not a slide show
But the truly sad thing is, his wasn't the first photo lecture I'd been to where this happened. And as I chatted with friends who also attended the presentation, I discovered that they expected this.
EXPECTED a slide show with no other information except that the photographer can create pretty pictures. I already knew that and so did they.
Even with the title the presentation, they EXPECTED to sit through a slide show of pretty pictures and be told not much at all. If I wanted to watch a slide show, I'd just call up my father for one. At least he would have let me sit through his vacation pictures for free. But alas, my dad is dead and I'm paying for the privilege of sitting through this, for lack of a better word, crap.
So with my communications background, I decided to help photographers understand how to give a presentation that works by pointing out the 5 best ways to lose your audience during a photo presentation.
#1. By all means let your audience know from the start that you care not one bit about them by telling them you have nothing prepared. Let them know that you want to waste their valuable time with your rambling and unorganized slide show.
#2. Title-Schmitle. There is no need to pay any attention to what you have entitled your presentation because you know that all the audience wants is to sit in rapt silence and admiration as you show them pretty pictures that you made.
#3. Because you are such a marvelous photographer and have a room filled with eager slide show viewers, make sure you tell them that you discovered this really cool technique like the Rule of Thirds or photographing during the Golden Hour. That will impress the heck out of them.
#4. As you ramble along make sure to tell your audience that if they want more information then they need to register for one of your workshops so you can teach them everything that you promised you'd teach them in the presentation.
#5. During the question and answer period, go off into unrelated tangents to the questions. Also focus on your computer looking for that one really cool image that exemplifies not the answer to the question, but your ramblings (generally an image you forgot to include in the slide show and you have no idea where you stored it).
We've all been there and did you really feel like you got your money's worth? Or that the speaker wanted to impart some knowledge?
Let's hold ourselves to a higher standard than what has gone before. Let's start giving presentations that are prepared, succinct, organized, and on point.
Oh and come back next week as I explain just how to counter these 5 steps to have an amazing presentation that will keep your peers coming back for more.
(The above image is from Point Reyes National Seashore - I just thought you might like e pretty picture to look at.)
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