Rangefinder Magazine
July 2005

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The McKay Story... So Far by John Iacovino

While it wasn’t exactly a “pillar of light on the Damascus road” encounter, it was close.

There was a specific moment in time when Charlene Mc-Kay’s life as a photographer was forever changed. In that same moment, she knew her photographer husband’s life would also change.

For the McKays, that moment couldn’t have come too soon. Were it not for a fortuitous decision to attend a conference in 2001, Charlene would be “acting happy” in a dead-end job she was growing to hate, while husband David would very likely be flying (airplanes or taxis depending on how events unfolded).

But that moment did happen. It set in motion a series of changes for the photography couple that has taken them from financially struggling and emotionally spent to a level of health, vitality and compensation they never would have dreamed of less than four years ago.

Thirteen Years—Love Turned to Labor
Their story as photographers began as teenagers in love. At 18 they both graduated from high school, married, rented a 200-square-foot commercial space in Sacramento, CA, for $198 a month and put out their shingle as wedding and portrait photographers.

“We had this ‘no fear’ attitude that 18-year-olds often have,” says David. They learned the basics of their trade the hard way—low-priced weddings and a lot of them. In their second year, the two 19-year-olds did 60 weddings with the low-end package on their menu starting at $395 including an album.

“Actually, our work was nice,” David remembers. “We were trying to give clients what they wanted, and I’m not displeased with what we were delivering.

“But we could see that our photographs were not in the same league with the top people in our industry,” he adds.

The two photographers basically repeated the process of high volume, low margin for 13 years. A child was added to the equation, and the couple continued to work together, sharing camera duties and splitting up other tasks at their studio.

David says he can see incremental improvement in their work, but mostly what he remembers from that period are the disappointments.

“When a camera went down, we were pressed for cash. The effort to catch up financially was exhausting. A couple of times we had to ask our parents to ‘help out,’” David says. He specifically remembers being afraid to risk raising his prices because, “as tough as it was, we were paying our bills and eating at a restaurant occasionally—I didn’t want to risk even our modest existence.”

Not surprisingly, the couple was running out of steam emotionally. David started taking flying lessons, thinking maybe he’d become a pilot. Charlene knew she would need to continue taking pictures because since she was 18, that was how she made money.

About four years ago, both McKays began experimenting with digital cameras. Digital cameras meant they could shoot more (maybe three times more per session) and pay less. Profits increased slightly. Their quality of work improved because they were using the freedom from film to try more on each assignment.

Then Charlene signed up for a workshop at the Golden Gate School with Eddie Tapp. For the first time in years she was surrounded by excited photographers. Bambi Cantrell looked at Charlene’s wedding photographs and said, “Darlin’, you’re charging way too little for your work.” Tom Meinhold was also in the class and said the same thing.

Charlene got a lot of input that week: She and her husband charged too little. Their work was good. Adobe Photoshop techniques might allow her to do what the really top photographers were doing. She didn’t have to be like all the other portrait studios in her area. If she could create better art, she could charge more. If she and David charged more, they could create better art.

That week at the Golden Gate School, Charlene started to develop a new vision for what was possible. It was summed up in the comments of fellow student Jeff Spicer of Reno, Nevada. He looked her in the eye and said, “There will come a day when your husband will love portrait photography again, and you’ll make more than you can ever imagine.” He said it matter-of-factly, and she made a conscious decision. “I’m going to believe that’s going happen,” Charlene remembers telling herself.

Back home after the seminar, husband David remembers two things clearly:

“All Charlene said was, ‘I’m so done being the photographer I was,’” David says. “That wasn’t hard for me to relate to because I was already ‘so done’ myself. It was just infectious to think about the possibility of changing everything.”

First to change were their wedding prices. Weddings were still 70 percent of the couples’ business. That very day the minimum wedding package became $2500 (previously the price of their highest package).

“We were ready to face the consequences if no one bought,” David remembers. But people did buy. For about three months the couple reports there was a noticeable dip in weddings to shoot. But ones they did shoot, they felt pretty good about.

Then new clients started calling for weddings, and “they didn’t even blink about the price,” Charlene says. Six months after the price hike, the couple was shooting all the weddings they wanted to shoot.
And they were making money.

“We used the money to support our efforts to get into fine art family portraiture,” David says. At about this time they attended another week-long class taught by the Waldens that focused on branding—establishing a brand that meant something to consumers.

The Waldens were preaching to the choir—less than a year after trying their first digital camera, about six months after the “everything-is-going-to-change-for-us” Golden Gate seminar, the couple had an idea of what they wanted their brand to be.

“People love art. People love their families. We wanted to marry those two ideas together in a very identifiable style. We wanted to be consistent. And we wanted to target our brand toward the segment of the market who could afford to collect art,” David says.

The McKays’ “brand” is shooting in sepia tone exclusively, using carefully controlled studio lighting in their composition (even if they are not in their studio), heavily retouching images in Photoshop, and trying to show a relationship between the subjects in the photograph.

The Waldens, who shoot only in black and white and print their images in squares, also influenced the McKays’ shooting style. David and Charlene credit the Waldens with coining the phrase (and some beautiful examples of) “relational portraiture.”

“We used our increased cash flow from the wedding business to help get our new brand off the ground,” says David. They kept raising their minimum wedding price for the next two years until they were getting $6000 per wedding. Then they quit doing weddings altogether.

“We still were getting them at $7000… We decided to give them up,” says Charlene. “It was flattering that someone would pay that much for wedding coverage, but I felt pressure wondering what they expected for that? I’m happier now that we don’t do them.”

As a direct result of their wedding revenue, the McKays’ marketing budget jumped to almost $70,000 annually. They were presenting their target audience with a consistent message about creating family portrait “art,” and it began to pay big dividends.

In 2003 their $70,000 in marketing brought them $250,000 in gross billings (up from $180,000 the year before). In 2004 they sold just over $400,000 in portrait photography—100 percent of it shooting portraits they loved in a relaxed, comfortable environment, with zero weddings.

Two years ago the couple had a second child, and the words of the prophetic photographer friend seemed to have come true: the McKays love portrait photography and are making more money than they ever dreamed possible.

A Closer Look: The Marketing
Specifically, the “story” the McKays tell their target market is that the client should expect to purchase a piece of art. If they just want a pretty photo, they have many options of where to shop. But if they are going to purchase from the McKays: They’re going to get a sepia photograph; it’s going to be emotional and attempt to reveal something about the subjects; it’s more than likely going to be a large, framed canvas print (or prints). And it’s going to be expensive.

Their marketing is ingenious. They rent space in three Sacramento-area malls at the base of escalators just outside of Nordstrom and Macy’s. The couple estimates perhaps 80 percent of their leads come from these displays. David says it took him over two years to get the placement they wanted in their first mall. The mall management finally gave them their high-visibility spot after seeing the type of work displayed.

“They concluded our work would actually be an upscale attraction for their upscale stores nearby,” he says. Eventually renting three mall kiosks in three malls was a way to gain some leverage in rent negotiations with mall management. The space—and the high-end printed pieces that prospects take from his kiosks—consume more than half of the McKays’ marketing budget.

They also run full-page ads in Sacramento magazine, an upscale, full-color publication tailor-made for their target audience.

“The monthly ads are expensive… It hurts to write the check, and further I can’t positively say the ad works every time,” says David. “But I know it’s brought us some clients. I know it’s brought us a lot of visibility in the area. And I suspect the ads help build our credibility to clients who find us by other ways—they see the full-page ad and say, ‘Yes these are the high-end photographers in our area.’”

David also thinks the ads help his past clients find occasions to refer new people when they see the ads in the magazine.

The other method of marketing the McKays employ is exhibiting their art at home decorating shows in the Sacramento area. Interior designers, as well the public in general, see the McKays’ displays showing how to size and frame portraits over fireplaces and in groupings. They start thinking of portrait art as a viable option to purchasing traditional canvas art.

A Closer Look: The Photography
The McKays still share camera duties—they both have thousands of hours behind the lens, but they’ve developed a division of labor that seems to be working. One or both of them have a pre-session planning discussion by telephone. The actual session takes place either in their studio or the client’s home. In studio, the McKays offer black clothing if needed. The McKays try to assess the dynamics of the family relationships and will ask questions like how the parents met, what moved them to seek out a portrait, and generally get the subjects thinking about how they feel about their mates, children or siblings. Many of their shots show people holding hands, looking askew, sometimes with eyes partially or entirely closed.

“During the shoot Charlene and I will explain to people that you can actually see emotions in photographs,” says David. “A lot of time, it just does sort of happen [finding the relationship moment]. I’ll ask them to actually think about how they feel about the other people, and you can almost always see a complete change of expression, and that’s when the real moment happens. That is the photograph we want to create for them.” He says this moment is easier for him to get from adults than children.

In photo sessions the couple works as a team, often tagging off with the camera when one sees an interesting camera angle. They say they actually feed off each other’s ideas, and they don’t claim individual ownership for any one of their images.

Post session, however, Charlene is the resident Photoshop artist, and she works her craft alone in the privacy of the couples’ home. Clients come back to the studio a week or so after the session to view their art on a 42-inch plasma monitor. Charlene says the high-tech screening not only presents their images well, but it also impresses the husbands—who almost always pick the “artier” image and who almost always agree to a very large canvas.

Clients pay a small fee ($150) before the session and are required to pay 50 percent of their purchase when they place their order at the viewing session. The balance is due when they pick up (or, for larger framed prints, have delivered) their finished prints. Typically a client will purchase one or more 30x40 canvas prints and often a couple of 24x30- or 20x24-inch prints. $4000 is an average sale amount.

“Our art is not for everyone,” admits Charlene, “but I’m regularly surprised how much people want our product. I’ve had middle-class parents tell me they scheduled the session because they were refinancing their home anyway (for other reasons) and decided to add in a couple extra thousand for our product.

“Clients purchasing our product is the ultimate compliment for me, and I am inspired to continue this for others because of the feedback we get literally every month,” Charlene says.

The McKays say they feel a debt to the professional photographic community and have been very liberal about sharing their recent success story with others. Both photographers acknowledge dozens of other professional photographers who have helped them see both their work and business in a much better light.

“We couldn’t have gotten to today without generous input from our peers in the industry,” says David. “That’s why I’ve gone out of my way to participate in regional and now national photographers’ events in the past year.”

The McKays now regularly speak at Professional Photographers of California events and represent several of the industry’s top suppliers including Blossom Publishing and Burrell Color.

John Iacovino is a journalist with 20 years of newspaper and magazine publishing history. Ten years ago he founded Blossom Publishing, a design & print firm producing high-end print marketing projects for portrait photographers. Blossom Publishing currently works with 600 photographers annually nationwide.