Hey, michelle. Now the thunderstorm is over, it's safe for me to come online. As I was saying, building a portfolio (aka 'book' to most photographers) isn't easy to advise on. It depends on several things. What your market is. What material you have. And your own personal taste. Remember, I'm looking at this from my own POV, fashion/music/advertising, so what I say ain't necessarily so. And it's almost guaranteed that your own experience of clients will contradict what I say. Anyway, here's what I think. Your market I have 3 books, 1 for fashion, 1 for music and 1 of personal stuff, ie. things I shot that I wasn't paid to do. I also tend to change them around a bit depending on who I'm going to see. But all this is dependant on how much material you have. I've been working for a while, so I've collected enough pictures to be able to dump entire years of shoots because they're too old or whatever. If you're starting out, your material will be more limited and you'll be forced to make do with what you have. So, it's important to make the best of it. It's a good idea to study the market. Easy enough if you're going to magazines. You can just look at what style they print. If you want to sell to photo archives, you can usually see online what they offer, but to get into these places, you either have to have incredibly high-quality stuff (like 5x4 and 10x8 slides) or have something that they don't have. Advertising is a different ball-game, and not only that, it's different from country to country and agency to agency. In italy, ad agencies are really interested in personal work, especially unusual shots. In the states, they're more campaign-oriented. (ie big money) 'What client was this for?' Oh, I remember that campaign', etc. Discouraging for newcomers, to say the least. In advertising, it's best to start out small. Go to friends or local companies and do small ads. It'll be cheap work, but if you have no experience, you can't ask for top rates. Your material I can't tell you what material to use, but I can tell you this. Clients are mostly very conservative at heart. They want to see a distinct style in your book. This is mainly because they're the ones spending the money, so they want some guarantee that 'what they see is what they'll get', if you know what I mean. They do this mostly by using photographers who have a repetitive style to their books. It all seems a bit timid to me. They never want to risk anything. But they're paying, so.... If you have say, 3 shoots outside, 3 shoots in the studio, men, women, nudes, sunsets, still-life and car crashes all in the one book, you'll probably have a tough time getting started. The trick is to get the book to 'flow', with similar material, but not be repetitive or boring. You can mix men and women if the styles are right, but fashion and still-life is never going to mix. Portraits and nudes would work on some levels, but maybe not portraits and landscapes. One good attention-grabbing trick is to throw in something from left-field. Like halfway through the book, you throw in a close-up of a camel's head or something equally weird. As long as it's instantly recognizable, it'll get a reaction. I use to have a head-shot of my cat next to a tight shot of model's eyes. It always made people laugh. The main thing is to start off strong. First page should be spectacular, and the following pages have to back it up. The book can be more relaxed in the middle, but the last shot needs to make a statement too. That's the one they'll remember. Personal taste When you get paid to photograph something, the client is paying YOU, as opposed to Joe Blow, because he likes your taste and vision. (Either that, or he's a cheapskate and you cost less than the other guy. LOL). Anyway, your book should say something about what you want to do and how you see it. It's not easy because, at the beginning anyway, most photographers' material is dictated by factors outside their control. We have to battle against things like lousy models, lack of equipment, money, etc. But... if you're dedicated and have some talent, it's possible to overcome these obstacles. I have lots of advice on how to 'train' yourself to shoot and think like a pro, but I'll pass on that for now. I'd just say that it's easier to get work if you're shooting subjects you really believe in or have an intense interest in. A long time ago, I tried to put together some commercial material. Cheesy smiling girls, cute products, that kind of stuff. Well, I had to give up because I just couldn't shoot it. It looked so bad to me, I was almost laughing. I guess it's not my thing. In fact, I have the very problem I described above. Since I get restless, I very rarely shoot the same thing over and over again. I get bored and always want to try something new. So my book tends to jump around a bit and clients get slightly confused. Sometimes, they're not sure what they would get if they gave me a job. I realised this when one guy looked at my book and said to me 'Yes.... you're very.... er.... versatile' Which, translated means, 'Why keep changing? Can't you just find one good thing and flog it till it's dead?' Oh well, he probably wasn't paying much anyway. LOL. I'll tell you one thing that always impresses clients. Details. Good, close-ups and unusual views of people or objects. If I'm hanging around waiting on make-up artists (which is almost always!), I go and shoot the shoes or close-ups of the clothes that are lying around. This can be applied to anything. You might live to shoot portraits, but a detail of the freckles on someone's neck or a close-up of a toe will always jump out from the rest. The other thing is professionalism. You may consider yourself the greatest living artist since Van Goch, but most clients don't give a hoot. In a commercial world, they're selling a product, and you are selling YOURSELF to them. You don't arrive on an appointment looking like a deranged Messiah and carrying dark, obscure pics of unidentifiable objects. They want to see you sane and sober, and know that if they ask you to shoot for them, you'll give them a result they can use (usually to make money). Creativity is fine, as long as it falls within certain bounds, and is combined with good technical ability. Hmmm... looking back, I see I haven't really given much concrete advice. Not having ever seen your pictures is a bit of a handicap, I suppose. I'm just rambling along in general terms. I'll let it stand as it is for the moment and add to it if anything world-shaking occurs to me. mac

Have to add my thanks to this one too mac.... Like I said before, I have no idea which direction I want to go in....at the moment just slowly making my way towards an art degree. I would like to start approaching galleries with my work, but I'm extremely intimidated by the whole rejection thing....even though I know it's to be expected. I'm also in the process of trying to figure out which local art associations to join that might give me more opportunities to show my work.... It's slow going. :~)

'It's slow going' Tell me about it. I'm an expert on that. As for rejection.... been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Rejection is such a normal part of an artist's life, that you get to the point where you just ignore it. I think on it this way. My work will never be right for every client, and the ones that say no just need something I don't do. It's not that my stuff sucks. It's just not right for them. Or you can just think 'Poor things. They don't know any better'. LOL. As Abe said 'You can fool some of the people some of the time.....' mac

hey, thanks mac! this is great reading! you make a dream sound within grasping- go for it 'chelle! sell, sell, sell! you can do it!