CAPIC Portfolio Speed Review Review

The action was fast and furious at CAPIC's 3rd annual Portfolio Speed Review last Tuesday night. There were enough of us photographers to fill 3 shifts of 5 minutes each with the reviewers.  Designers and art directors from the likes of Hangar 18, Dare, and Red Rocket (to name a few) were kind enough to spend some time offering up their opinions on attending photographer's portfolios. 

There were also a few heavy hitters in the photographer crowd; Dale and Michele of Roth and Ramberg fame, Phillip Chin & Kevin Clark were a few of the tougher acts to follow.

A 5 minute speed review goes by incredibly fast! CAPIC might consider finding a way to stretch that time to maybe 8 or 10 minutes in the future. Mind you, I'm sure any amount of time in this sort of format would seem short. Regardless of the amount of time allotted, photographers are afforded invaluable face-time with their target clients, and that interaction is all too important in any photographer's marketing strategy.

My reviews went well. Most suggestions leaned toward my inclusion of more conceptual imagery in my book. I received kudos for my lighting skills and light-matching accomplishments on one comped image I'd included last-minute.

I had 2 different leave-behind pieces and offered the choice to each of my reviewers. 80% chose one in particular, one reviewer asked to keep both. It was an interesting experiment (one reviewer touched on that, "Is this your way of learning a bit about me?").

Various sponsors offered up door prizes via random draw. Apparently it's good to be the one to draw the winning ticket, 2 of the photographers asked to draw from the bag pulled their own name!! I was lucky enough to win a 20x30 canvas gallery wrap, graciously donated by Technicare. Others won digital retouching time supplied by Cake Imagery and studio rental time from Whitebox, among other prizes. 

Thanks to CAPIC for bolting this together, and to Rick Etkin and Steve Pinter for cracking a whip to keep it all rolling smoothly.

My membership application is in the mail.

Comm. Arts

Yes folks, it's that time again. Break out the best you got, wrap a few bucks around it and fire it off to the good people at Communication Arts.... IT'S PHOTO ANNUAL TIME!!


One little tidbit about contests such as this. Check out who is on the judges list and do a little due diligence on who they are. Knowledge is power, after all. Not saying one should gear one's submission to what these people want to see, but it will give you an idea of what they like.

Shoot what you love, the work will come.

CAPIC Portfolio Speed Review

Tuesday night is the 3rd annual Portfolio Speed Review put on by the crew at CAPIC. Thought I'd throw my hat into the ring, or circle, or whatever one would throw their hat into during such an event.

Events such as this are invaluable for photographers and illustrators. When one considers the time it would take to get their face in front of this many creative directors, art buyers, etc, how can a person afford to NOT be a part of it all?

Face it (no pun intended), networking and face-to-face interaction are the most important marketing tools in the arsenal. Tweeting, facebook 'friending' and the like will only get one so far. The art of the face-to-face is making a come-back, get with that program now.

Will post thoughts and such tomorrow after the big show. May even share a few new images! Can you imagine?

Teaser image!