Photography Office Overhaul | Finding Positivity in Lockdown

I think it’s true to say that the covid-19 pandemic has proved a terrible time for many business owners. Despite being told it’s safe to open from June 15th 2020 we are still in a period of uncertainty, not least because we cannot discount the increasingly real possibility of further waves of infections. Some of the photography businesses I know have decided not to set a date for reopening their doors, at least not yet. Some photographers have decided not to reopen at all, but to move into an entirely different occupation.

A long time ago I studied biology and biochemistry (two years of which contained a good measure of microbiology and immunology) at university. I found my degree fascinating but I didn’t feel fulfilled when I subsequently worked in the pharmaceutical industry. The corporate world really wasn’t for me. Because of my background my view of the pandemic is likely to be more analytical than most.

There are no reliable long-term models to guide us, we’ve been plunged into the unknown. When our infection rates mushroomed the thought we might lose friends or loved ones has been a constant source of torment. Losing our livelihoods brought another dimension to a period of intense misery, introspection and at times loneliness. As is common during a crisis, we might look back at our lives and fervently wish we had done more of some things, and less of others.

That often brings with it a vow to make the most of each day, whatever it brings. All around me my neighbours embarked upon clearing out their sheds, tidying their gardens, replacing fences, and cultivating vegetables. There has always been a direct correlation between being productive and good mental health. It’s hard to worry and dwell on things if our mind or body is occupied. The old saying that busy hands are happy hands has never rung more true.

One of the benefits of running a business is that we accrue a range of skills in order to be effective. Aside from the art of photography we need fairly good design skills, processing and retouching skills, website building and maintenance skills, a measure of marketing knowledge, basic bookkeeping and writing skills. Many experienced photographers have been able to use that experience to branch outwards, perhaps by writing features and offering online training. If you’ve built, branded, and designed all your own websites then you may be well-placed to do the same for others. These are all potential lateral income streams whilst our main occupation is on hold. Never underestimate what you have to offer.

Making Use of Lockdown, Rationalising a Portrait Photography Business

Those offering essential services (such as plumbing, car maintenance etc) will be in demand as always, but will face the difficulties of safe working. Those of us offering an elective luxury service will be less in demand for a time. But most of us will need to completely rethink how we do things when we reopen, and for some time going forward. Some studios have re-opened on the 15th June, others are preferring to wait (perhaps until next year). However when momentum is lost and bookings are cancelled we know it may not be possible to simply restart where we left off. In that respect the lockdown has been a crucial period of planning, restructuring, and reflection.

Lockdown has probably been one of the busiest and most stressful periods for business owners. Not because we can engage in our usual day-to-day work, but because we need to implement so many changes if we’re to continue at all.

Lockdown forced me to completely reassess my business and to re-examine virtually every system within it. All photography businesses are different and it’s important that we try not to focus too much on what others are doing. I’m a location portrait photographer so I don’t have the worries associated with customers coming back into what may be a small studio with one entrance. Or a busy studio relying on a number of customers each week or each day. For the most part I’ll be able to continue working outdoors on location, assuming those I work with (and anyone else in the area) will observe the necessary distancing and other safety measures. But once I’ve taken the pictures, the aspects of my job which were always face-to-face must now happen remotely. We have to think how we can present our products, and guide customers through the image selection process.

The in person indoor elements of our work such as consultations and viewing sessions will be off-limits for a while. It’s hard to consult, direct, and hand around products with safe distancing and sanitization in mind. Particularly where our studios or offices are within our homes using one entrance. Figuring out new ways around this isn’t always straightforward (particularly if the client isn’t technology focused) but it has to be done. I write this as our infection curve has fallen, but I still know of very recent new cases within my social circle. We’re not out of the woods, and we may be at one of the most dangerous stages as we ease our restrictions.

The loss of face to face impact when a client first sees images of their family, their pets, or themselves is something we will miss greatly. Seeing and feeling products first hand is another important element which will be lost for a while. Our profit margins are based on the (considerable) time and overhead invested in each customer, as well as the cost of the products our clients choose to buy (these overheads are often hundreds of pounds). We base our forecasts on our customers making purchases which exceed our fixed and variable overheads and hence generate our profit margin. That is a far higher spend than many photographers realise. We now have to balance a potential lower spend with more tightly managed business costs. For that reason it can now make better business sense to presell product collections. In doing this the client benefits from preferential pricing, easy decision-making, and a beautifully curated set of products. The photographer has a more predictable income. I do think collections will be more important now than ever before.

The Misery of the Business ‘To Do’ List

As things stand, most of us have been spending even more time in our offices than ever. Early into lockdown I realised I needed to make my workspace a little more comfortable and visually pleasing. I also realised how long my ‘to do’ list was becoming. It can be hard to catch up on things during a normal working week and so the list grows ever longer over time. When the list exceeds our psychological threshold, we start to distance ourselves from it. And this is why lockdown has been a crucial (and productive) time for many. I decided I wanted to come out of this with a fresh outlook, more streamlined systems, with a more time efficient workflow. This gave me a purpose, a structure to each working day. And above all I firmly believe that staying busy is the very best way of avoiding or mitigating feelings of loneliness or anxiety.

In order to even start on my list I had to pick the tasks which I would find least arduous and which would show results fairly quickly. My thinking was that this would ease me into it and then build momentum for the other things I had to do.

Looking at our to-do list can be a grim exercise. I think once we go beyond seven or eight points we can start to feel overwhelmed. My to-do list had close to 160 entries. Unless I created a condensed version my brain would go into gridlock at the mere sight of it. My pared back lockdown to-do list looked something like this:

Working with Others at Home over Lockdown

Working throughout lockdown can be really tough, particularly for those with children and/or a partner or housemate who might be trying to work from home as well. Unless we live alone we also have to cope with more distractions, more noise, and the fact it’s harder to find quiet time. This means developing mental and emotional resilience, coping mechanisms, and learning to be more tolerant or considerate of others.

As somebody with super sensitive hearing I’ve always found it difficult to concentrate when there’s background noise. I live on a fairly dense road and throughout lockdown the warmer weather has brought with it a greater level of activity and recreation in the surrounding homes and streets. To help deal with that I’ve been scheduling the more crucial tasks to the earliest part of the day and the less demanding tasks from mid-afternoon onwards. During the noisiest periods of the day I’ll do some housework or filing.

I am forever thankful for my heat pump/inverter which I installed a few years ago. This means I can close my windows to mitigate outside noise and enjoy cool filtered air in the summer, and warm air in the winter (very cheaply, too). Inverters have come down in price and I would recommend them to anyone (because of their excellent environmental credentials you can also claim back the tax).

Getting up early hasn’t been a problem – my garden blackbird (Hoppy) has perfectly mimicked my neighbour’s telephone ringtone. I now get a ‘phone call’ at 4.30am and every few minutes thereafter. The lack of ambient noise and traffic during the early part of lockdown seems to have changed how and when the birds sing.

I don’t have a family to manage and I have the utmost admiration for businesspeople who do, and who are able to juggle so much. I do however have a partner with a very demanding managerial job, and staying out of each other’s way is part of the deal. I pass him some lunch somewhere in the day, then we meet up for a short after-dinner walk. Strange as it sounds, we have to discipline ourselves to stay in touch. It’s all too easy to end up like ships passing in the night given that our workspaces are at opposite ends of the house. Home working is likely to remain in place for many, if not for the foreseeable future in some industries.

In a small or average sized dwelling it isn’t easy to find an extra ‘office area’ for a housemate who is now working from home. Usually it means carving out an area in a bedroom or living room and accepting the disruption which might come with it. After all, the reason for doing this is to help them stay safe. In my home this meant re-deploying the dining room - a place where I previously held client meetings and consultations. It was a quiet retreat, with better noise proofing than the rest of the house. I now spend all of my time in my small upstairs office and a measure of jealousy has crept in. Seeing the dining room peppered with laptops, files, and piles of paper every time I walk into the kitchen is something I’ve had to get used to. Lockdown means our homes may not be as tidy as they once were. This in itself is a good reason why our own little corner needs to be as refined as possible, and was the driving force for my office tidy up.

A tranquil retreat becomes an ‘active’ workspace, with permanent mess and a measure of jealousy from the person who has been ousted

Building Knowledge, Perspective and Interests

The new changes brought momentum to a desire for some new technology. After all, video calls are now all but essential - and I wanted to improve mine as they became more client facing. This tweaked my interest in movie making, something I’ve been wanting to learn for years. I spent several weeks sitting late into the night learning the basics of how to make a vlog or short tutorial. I still haven’t actually done one, but I no longer have any excuse for not even trying.

More importantly, lockdown has made many of us consider not just our futures, but where we are in the present. Self-examination often accompanies times of crisis or risk – and it can be a very good thing. In the midst of getting through each working day it’s easy to forget ourselves and how we feel about our lives. This can bring about radical change (such as a decision to leave our occupation entirely). Or it can bring about a long overdue shift in mindset.

In my long and belated researching of ‘video’ I delved more deeply into the wonders of YouTube and the fact that we can learn pretty much everything about anything there. I also learnt that many of the thoughts I’d built up in my mind over the years were simply wrong, and based on assumptions. What do I mean by that? Well, we often judge ourselves against our perception of others. And very often it is just that - a wonky perception. I can be prone to perfectionism (often the curse of children who had overly critical parents or siblings) and whilst that can drive us to excel it can also prevent us from moving forward productively and efficiently. We can become so preoccupied with every small detail of a project, that the project never actually gets off the ground.

It’s easy to look at YouTube videos and examine the workspaces of filmmakers, vloggers, and photographers. Psychology is such that we’ll often dwell on our perception of the glamorous 0.01%. As a result of this targeted scrutiny we might assume that we should have huge studios, lots of top end equipment, and glamorous lives. And some photographers and film makers do, though they’re in a very small minority. Most of the creatives I know and admire work from a fairly modest office, and they work long hours. Their office might be a corner of their studio, or a curtained area of their bedroom, or a zoned part of the living room. Where they tend to differ from most is the fact they’ve put themselves out there, without being held back too much with worries of how others might see them and judge them. Another important point is that a glamorous workspace, studio and presence doesn’t necessarily equate into profit, once the books are balanced at the end of the year.

On top of that we might feel nervous about trying something new. Some of the YouTubers I’ve been listening to have happily admitted that their first hundred attempts at videos were dire. But they published their work anyway, and their efforts were well received despite being rough around the edges. After all, it’s unrealistic to think we’ll be fantastic at something from day one! Others said it took them five years to even pluck up the courage to post a basic vlog (perfectionism again). Without exception, they realised that procrastination achieves nothing and simply reinforces self-doubt. From the moment we bite the bullet and “do it” life suddenly seems to become much easier. The YouTubers with the biggest audiences and best incomes tend to be those who offer well targeted content – not necessarily those with perfectly presented videos, expensive equipment, or large studios.

If we have experience in our field, and if we talk for as little as 5 or 10 minutes, then there’ll be someone who will find value in what we have said. Don’t be afraid to share your working experiences, or your feelings about running a business. Even the best-known or best decorated photographers and filmmakers will be open about the realities of life when asked. I spent a few years as a prolific blogger, educator and a brand ambassador for a very well-known camera manufacturer. An awful lot of people felt that my life was glamorous, even easy. That isn’t to say we don’t enjoy what we do, it’s just that the higher we climb the ladder the more pressure we’ll have to deal with. I felt too many people wanted a piece of me, and usually for free. After burning out I took a couple of years to go back to being a simple working photographer. I felt I’d lost sight of the things I wanted and valued.

My Photography Office Setup

Back to my office - my setup is simple and functional. I’m lucky in that I have a dedicated office. It’s very small, and here in the UK most homes have a ‘baby room’ which usually ends up being a study or storeroom. I think my office is approximately 9 ½ feet across and narrows to about 4 ½ feet due to the cavernous (and incredibly useful) built-in cupboard which sits over the stairs. Careful decisions about storage mean that there is now a place for everything. I like to keep paper copies of most things, within easy reach. The office is now tidy enough that I don’t feel glum when I walk into it each morning.

I’m a minimalist by nature, easily irritated by clutter or mess

My Photography Office Must Have Items (I’m not affiliated with any of these suppliers):

Storage boxes. I’m not a fan of piles of papers, open racks or ornaments on shelves. Things like that become dust magnets and I prefer that all of my bits and pieces have their own dedicated box. The boxes on my shelves are from The Holding Company
A wire mini drawer unit. I like to be able to find items quickly, such as client details, orders, bills and so forth. The wire drawer unit was bought from Amazon
Good quality speakers - I’m often watching videos, listening to podcasts, or simply playing my favourite music channels. I appreciate good sound and as far as office systems go I absolutely love the iconic Edifier ‘snails’. The sound from these things is legendary
Portable Bluetooth speakers -If I’m working somewhere else in the house, or travelling, a high-quality Bluetooth speaker is essential. Having worked my way through so many Bluetooth speakers over the years the only ones which I’ve really liked are my Bose Revolve and Bose Soundlink Micro speakers. They can be paired in stereo mode via the Bose app (unfortunately there’s no Windows version)
A good quality WebCam - I work from a desktop PC when I’m in my office, which means I need a separate WebCam for video calls. After a lot of research I chose the Logitech Streamcam which is great quality and offers 60fps. I’ve no interest in a 4K WebCam because a 4K workflow would be overkill
Lighting for video calls - Skype and Zoom is a necessity now and we may even find ourselves recording lessons and videos for our business and students. Key to quality is lighting. We can’t all work next to a large window and often these tasks take place in the evening. Getting some light onto our faces crucial, and it doesn’t have to be big or expensive. But it does need to fit our space and our tolerance levels. You might have spotted my Westcott Ice Light 2 in the pictures. The other light I find invaluable is my Falconeyes F7
Microphone - As with lighting, having good sound on a video call makes us appear much more professional. Some web cams have quite decent microphones built in, and my Logitech Streamcam is reasonably good in that regard. However a dedicated microphone is better. I use either my H1N or my Rode lavalier mic
Pictures - Having something soothing or stimulating on the walls is a given for any creative workspace. The problem with me is that I get bored of things fairly quickly. To get around this I’ve invested in a pin board so I can print out photographs and swap them around periodically. The pin board has a painted frame in a similar style to those I sell to my clients. My pin board is from The Framed Noticeboard Company

My IT choices are detailed in this post: Choosing Computers for my Photography Business