February Newsletter

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the February Newsletter!

We hope everyone is having a terrific month and your semester is coming along great! Even though the groundhog saw his shadow, we're continuing to hope for an early spring, so we can get out on the road to see all of you as soon as possible.

For this month's newsletter, we're prepping for our shoots by answering some questions about how to make sure your school's photos stand out. As one of our readers put it, "How do I make sure our images don't look just like everyone
else's?"

It's a great question and one well worth considering. A photo shoot for admissions is a lot like a wedding (stay with me on this one) - every bride wants her wedding to be unique and original, and yet there are some things that are going to conform to tradition no matter what - the white dress, the cake, the first dance. And there are some things that are always going to be important to an admissions shoot - happy, smiling students, a few shots of Greek life, someone daydreaming on the quad, a gleaming computer lab. And while you can't move your college to Tahiti for a "destination photo shoot" (oh that we could!) you CAN take steps to have a very individualized photo shoot.

First and foremost in our opinion is PASSION. What are your students just wild about? We have shot at schools that have a great history of service and activism, and photographing students at these sort of events always creates photos that jump off the page. Imagine how a potential student who dreams of making a better world would react to pictures of current students working on a service project they had developed themselves, or intent on work with the community? Many schools are equally passionate about sports, but instead of the inevitable "big score" shot, consider images that show comraderie, the deep respect and affection that teammates show for each other. We recently photographed a school's female basketball team, and while the pictures we took of the practice were great, when we photographed the girls psyching themselves up for their game - a ritual that involved forming a circle, arms around each other's shoulders, and singing and encouraging one another - the pictures were incredibly moving. The girls hummed with positive energy, and it showed. I can't imagine being a female student, passionate about athletics, and NOT wanting to know more about the school that fostered that relationship between its players.

Do your students have such trust in each other that they all leave their bookbags in a pile outside when going into the caf? We've seen one, and the admissions staff there were wise enough to feature it. You can imagine the sense of safety and security that the students feel there - or you can just look at the photo we took and see it. Is your school so integrated with the local parks and environment that the students spend more time outside than in? Show it. Do they gather in a certain part of campus to play music and talk late into the night about what matters most to them? Show it. Every campus has a celebrated teacher who has been academically lauded. Not every campus has an African-American studies teacher who keeps his display of "minority market" toys on display outside his office, where students can see them, handle them, and spark discussion. Not every campus has a music teacher who studies Japanese music and keeps a collection of Asian instruments, which he brings to class to compare with western instruments. Show what- and who - makes your school special.

We've been very fortunate to shoot at a large number of schools, and we can honestly say we rarely run into students who say, "Oh, I had to go somewhere, and this was okay...." There is a reason they chose your school - "My sister loved it here. She felt so challenged"; "I love the outdoors, and the biology program here does great environmental projects"; "I came for a tour and saw everyone debating in the library, and couldn't wait to join in." Let your student's passion show the way, and your admissions photos will be just like your school - unique.

Thanks so much for reading! As many of you know, Phillip speaks at seminars and has published several articles on admissions photography, and we have used his experience to build "The Top Ten Tips for Admissions Shoot Success". Just send us an email and we will send you a PDF copy, a special (free!) bonus for our newsletter readers.

See you next month - if we're not on your campus before then!

Tracey

email us at: ps@phillipspears.com
visit us on the web: www.phillipspears.com
follow our adventures on twitter: @pspearsphoto

October Newsletter

Hello Everyone!


Welcome to Fall, and our October Newsletter! This month we are excited to sit down with Rick Robbins, of Simple Design Works, and talk about ways to incorporate photography into admissions campaign design.

With over 25 years experience in the design field and numerous Gold and Silver Awards from Admissions Marketing Awards, Rick knows the art of admissions inside and out. He's worked with hundreds of schools, from initial planning to focus groups, from press checks to final presentations. Name an aspect of educational marketing and Rick has hands-on experience. So we were very grateful that he could take some time from his latest projects to talk about integrating photography and design, and his idea of the perfect photo shoot.

PSP: How closely do you work with the photographer on any given admissions shoot?
Rick: When creating a shot list, I like to run it by the photographer as early as possible to get feedback. If there's something from the creative presentation that could be thematic, it's nice to talk through that as well.

PSP: Ideally, how early do you like to bring a photographer in on a project?
Rick: As early as possible.

PSP: What is the best thing the team for an admissions project can do to make your job easier?
Rick: Some of my wish-list items: Good feedback from the intial shoot list (both from the client and the photographer). A person on campus that can react quickly to any issues that pop up, and has the authority to make decisions on the fly.

PSP: Have you seen a lot of changes in the last year (in terms of time devoted to a project) as a result of the economy? Are schools more or less concerned with marketing to new students?
Rick: Budgets have been reduced, that's true, but there will always be a need for institutions to recruit students by way of marketing. And there's no better tool than great, authentic, real people and places images.

PSP: Are schools being more conservative in their marketing efforts, so as not to risk alienating potential students, or taking more risks to stand out from the crowd?
Rick: I think schools are being more aggressive in terms of new avenues to attract students: be it social media, enhanced web site experiences, and so forth.

PSP: What is your single favorite thing about an admissions shoot experience?
Rick: Let's see... well it is always rewarding to go with a pretty shoot list for x number of images and then to be blown away by additional shots - great photos at that. But the really rewarding thing is when the client is so appreciative of the dedication to getting the best visual stories during a campus shoot. That's priceless!

Thanks for the interview, Rick!

Thanks again for all of the suggestions and feedback that we are getting for the newsletter. If you have a suggestion, please send it along to: traceybrower@comcast.net

We'll see you next month, when we hope to take you "behind the scenes" on some of our latest shoots. In the meantime, check us out at www.phillipspears.com

And for you cutting-edge folks, you can now follow us on twitter: @pspearsphoto. And if you can't read the email version of the newsletter (or just want to see back issues) they are available at www.phillipspears.blogspot.com

Catch up with you soon,
Tracey

September Newsletter

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the monthly newsletter from Phillip Spears Photography! We are excited about the new fall semester, and have already gotten to see a few of you on campus. Everyone is a little overwhelmed with school starting up, so we are going to do a quick newsletter this month, on building a photo library.

As many of you have told us, there are more uses for photography in school communications and recruiting than ever before. Last month we even talked about some of the ways social media can use photography to help connect with students. Nothing connects a student to your campus like the visual image - it can translate your school's mission into an immediate, tangible form.

The problem, of course, is where are we going to get all these images? In a perfect world, Phillip would be able to visit every one of our campuses over and over again, every time you need new pictures. Sadly this not possible, but there ARE ways to both maximize your admissions shoots and supplement the pictures you get from it.

As always, our first suggestion is lots of students for your photos. The more the better! In this way we can switch people around, feature both a male and a female student, and make one setup serve multiple purposes. We also highly recommend
taking a large group outside, in great afternoon light, and shooting lots of happy faces and interaction. Phillip always sets up a shot like this and has found it provides enormous opportunities for the time invested. The pictures are always authentic, and the student's enjoyment of their environment always shines through.

(You can see some examples at www.phillipspears.com - click "education")

But what about the times you can't have a photographer handy? The obvious source is your local media, since newspapers often send photographers to cover sporting events and will usually give reprint permission upon request (sometimes for a small fee). But the most creative source we have seen lately is student-supplied images. Since many of the uses for your photo library - facebook and the web, small publication needs - do not need to be large data files or "professional" quality, why not encourage your students to share their informal photos with you? The photos are often surprising and fresh, and couldn't be any more authentic - after all, they are shooting what most interests them! We recently shot at a college that was even experimenting with a flickr.com photo stream, that students could submit pictures of Greek events, sport meets, and other activities to. (We would recommend some sort of a screening mechanism for a compilation such as this; you don't want the photos to be TO surprising).

While neither news photography or student images can take the place of your admissions photo shoot, it can help fill out your image library, and give you more to work with. We are always amazed at how many uses there are for campus photos, and with cross-cultural and overseas recruiting on the rise, we think it will only increase in the future. Nothing communicates like the visual image. We say it all the time, because we hear it again and again: "I saw the pictures of the campus and the students, and I knew it was where I belonged. I saw myself."

Which is really what we are all always trying to say.

Thanks again, and we will see you soon!

Tracey
traceybrower@comcast.net

PS Don't forget to visit us on the web: www.phillipspears.com - and keep an eye out for Phillip's article in Higher Education Marketing Report - the November Issue!

August Newsletter!

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to August, and our monthly newsletter! It's summer's last gasp - some schools go back to class as early as August 15th - so try to stay cool as you grab that last long weekend or trip to the beach!

We are already starting to plan our fall photography sessions, and we hope to see many of you on the road this semester. While talking to various clients about admissions shoots, we have noticed a new direction for image requests, and are making it the theme for this month's newsletter.

As many of you know, Phillip has been shooting on campus for nearly twenty years, and in the past few seasons we have seen an explosion in the need for imagery for non-traditional usage. Once upon a time we shot pictures for viewbooks, admissions fair graphics, and direct mail campaigns. Then people started to mention this crazy interwebs thing, and website imagery was added to our bag of tricks. Today the sky seems to be the limit! With the enormous influence of social media and direct message, our clients are looking for images that will catch a potential student's notice in even more places.

In our last few "semesters" we have watched the rise and fall of Myspace.com, and its successor, Facebook.com. For both of these social media outlets there are excellent onboard photo-linking programs, but did you know you can also link your Flickr.com or Snapfish.com accounts to it as well? This is great if you have a special event to cover and want to post multiple photos in a stream for viewing.

Then there is the new kid on the block, Twitter. We first began experimenting with Twitter about a year ago, but it's only in the last six months that we've seen the number of users jump to a point where it is really useful. Its short, telegram style messages are great for broadcasting events, campus days, and school news, and their url-compression software automatically makes long web addresses short enough to fit the famous 140-word limit. Heather Mansfield, of DIOSA Communications, put it succinctly on the CASE listserve this summer: "I think as soon as teens and twenty-somethings realize how perfect twitter is for mobile, they will jump on Twitter in droves." Twitter, like Facebook and Myspace, has several applications that allow readers to click on a link and view photos. Twitpic is the most popular, but there is also Yfrog.com, and the brilliant Flick.to.Twit, which allows you to post a photo to Flickr.com and automatically announces it to your Twitter readers. (We are seriously convinced that that app may not be coding, but is actually Harry Potter-style magic.)

So many uses for your "admissions" photos! We fully expect this to be the year that we are asked to provide content that is designed strictly to be sent to cell phones. We can't wait to see what comes next, and we look forward to providing imagery for all of it.

Enjoy your final weeks of summer! We will see you in the fall.

Don't forget to visit us on the web: www.phillipspears.com

If you received this as a forward, please drop us a line and we will add you to our mailing list: traceybrower@comcast.net

And don't forget to keep an eye out for Higher Education Marketing Report, which will have an article by Phillip on admissions photography (hopefully the September issue): www.hmrpublicationsgroup.com/Higher_Ed_Marketing_Report/index.html

Catch up with you soon,
Tracey