2021 was another roller-coaster ride for my photographic practice. After 18 months with virtually no corporate contracts of any kind, events and team shoots finally picked up in the autumn, only to come skidding to a halt again in December with the Omicron-induced cancellation of many end-of-year parties. At least I was able to keep the studio open for portrait work throughout the year, unlike in 2019.
Pre-Covid, corporate jobs accounted for around 55% of annual turnover. In 2020 that fell to just over 10%, but by the end of 2021 it was back up to 30%. In March 2020, I had adjusted my online marketing to focus exclusively on portraiture, and portrait work kept me busy throughout 2021 – 75% of it in the studio.
At the beginning of October, I raised my price for all on-location work to €150 per hour of shooting (post-production retouching included), but left the price for studio sessions at €100 per hour. Happily, this adjustment met no resistance from clients, who seemed to understand the rationale for the change.
Clients supported me in other ways, too. Many left positive reviews on my Google listing or on LinkedIn, and repeat business and word-of-mouth recommendations accounted for over a quarter of annual turnover. And 80% of my clients gave me permission to use the images I made for them to promote my services on my website and social media profiles. I understand the 20% who asked me treat their photos as confidential, and have of course respected their wishes. But since showing his work is really the only way a photographer can demonstrate his abilities, I am enormously grateful to the majority who allow me to do so.
My French-speaking clients increased again as a share of the total, and are now about 50/50 with the English-speakers.
Finally, I noticed a couple of trends that are probably due to changes in people’s working and childcare patterns brought about by the pandemic. First, I saw a significant increase in the proportion of clients who initially contacted me by telephone. Second, Wednesday has for several years been the day on which people contacted me most – over 25% of all enquiries. This proportion had already fallen in 2020, but in 2021 Wednesday became the least popular weekday for finding a photographer, with the largest number of enquiries coming in on Fridays.
