I’ve been working with a few local companies on an ongoing basis, where I come in each month and shoot whatever their marketing needs, and I pitch in on the marketing side too. This is how I’d plan it, built on that work.
Before the month
Start with what the photos are for. The site, social, the blog, the sales deck, a menu or a listing. Once you know where the photos land, you know what to photograph.
Then the cadence. Yours depends on what you post and what you need, so tell me what goes out in a normal month and I’ll say what makes sense.
Then who’s writing. I photograph, and I pitch in on the marketing side. For one client that includes the written content. If your team writes its own posts, the photos just need to land in time for them.
Last, the shot list for the month. Not every frame, just the things you can’t go a month without. The content day shot list builder helps you put it together.
What a month looked like
Here’s what I photographed for one of them, a foundation crew, so you can see what a list turns into.
- The excavator against the house, the bucket, the operator in the cab.
- The piers: stacked steel in raking light, then driven and bracketed under the footing.
- Hands and gloves in the dirt.
- The caution flag, the truck, the arrival.
- In Alexandria, the crew under the house and the steel piers.
I go where the crew goes, and photograph the work as it happens.
On the day
Tell me where the work is that week and when it starts. A job site moves, so the address and the start time matter more than a schedule written a month ago.
Have one person I can reach on the day, with their phone number.
Say what’s new. A new truck, a new hire, a job that will make a good before and after. Before and after only works if someone tells me before the before.
If your sales team or your social person needs something specific that week, put it on the shot list. Standard shots first, then the creative ones if there’s time.
After each visit
You get a private gallery at full resolution after each visit, usually in one to two weeks.
The photos are yours. I keep the right to show the work in my portfolio, and if you need a time limit or exclusivity on that, I’m happy to talk it through. Here’s usage rights explained. Your team can crop, retouch and pass them along. For the full picture of the service, see monthly content photography.
How many days a month?
Yours depends on what you post and what you need. Tell me what goes out in a normal month and I’ll say what makes sense.
Is it just photos?
I photograph, and I pitch in on the marketing side too. For one client that includes written content.
When do the photos come back?
After each visit, in a private gallery at full resolution, usually in one to two weeks.
What should I send first?
What you post, and what you wish you had pictures of. I’ll tell you what I’d photograph.
