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!