Event, Portrait, Commercial, and Headshot Photography
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Eight Portland Startups: One Demo Day

A couple weeks ago I photographed the first Demo Day event on behalf of the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE). Each of the eight startups that comprise PIE’s inaugural class took to the stage at Portland’s Bagdad Theater, explaining their company, product, and vision. With my full set of images having been delivered to the client over a week ago, I wanted to post a few of my favorites and offer a few additional selections.

Paresh Patel of VendScreen.  At the PIE Demo Day on 1/17/2012 in Portland's Bagdad Theater

Dr. Paresh Patel of VendScreen speaks about his company’s device (shown to the right) which aims to add smart capabilities to vending machines. VendScreen has been getting some press from little publications like USA Today.

But wait, there’s more!

Almost Pitch Time for PIE

Over the past few months, eight startups have been growing as part of the Portland Incubator Experiment in one corner of Weiden + Kennedy’s building in Portland’s Pearl District. Next week, founders will deliver demonstrations and pitch their companies as worthwhile investments for continued funding and growth. Here’s a photo of JR Storment delivering a practice version of his talk about Cloudability, a Portland startup focusing on helping businesses manage cloud-based services.
JR Storment talks Cloudability
I’ve enjoyed photographing the various founders and activities at PIE as the companies have evolved. I look forward to photographing the PIE Demo Day next week and continuing to follow these businesses into the future. If you’re interested in having me help capture the people, events, and products that make your business interesting, please contact me.

86% of Your Business’ Website Visitors Are Looking for This

When I talk with business owners and managers about photography, a few types of images often come up in the conversation:

  • product images
  • office photos
  • event photography

Headshots or business portraits can also be important for one’s personal brand, but they’re just as important to a company brand. I recently conducted a poll on Twitter, asking:

Do you routinely look at “About Me” or “About our Team” pages [on websites]? Here are the results:

Interest in About Pages

When nearly all of your website’s visitors are checking out the pages that describe your business and personnel, are they seeing a bland text description or are they going to see interesting photographs of your personnel or offices? Whether you’re a solopreneur or a business with a lot of employees, a well-crafted About page can help your web visitors form an impression and begin a relationship with you.

You’re interesting. Your clients (and potential clients) are going to be exploring your website to find out more about you. Show them the whole picture (pun intended).

One final thought: does your About page leave visitors with all of their questions answered, or does it leave them wanting to contact you to find out more?

Business Listings and Directories

You strike me as the type that’s probably a savvy local business owner. You have your local business listed in online directories, right? You likely have a business listing in Google Places and I bet you’ve added your physical business to Yelp, haven’t you?

Since you’re making the effort to put your name out where modern folks can find you, I hope you’re including photos with your listings… they’ll make your business listing a lot more eye-catching than one without any images.

And since you’re just that cool, surely you have some kick-ass photos on there and not just a few snapshots, right?

Oh. If that last sentence caused you to hesitate a bit, drop me an email or give me a call and let’s upgrade your business image on the web.

Capturing CubeSpace

Last week I had a great time doing a commercial shoot for CubeSpace, a Portland business that offers areas for coworking, meetings, and events. The owners were looking for some new photos of their space both highlighting the facility as well as photos of people doing business. We ended up with a great set of photos; here are a few of my favorites:

Collaboration
Collaboration

Cubes
Cubes

David and Eva
Eva and David (owners)

Having professional photos that accurately depict one’s space is essential for materials such as brochures, flyers, and the web. Interested in a commercial photoshoot for your business? contact me and we can work out a custom arrangement to meet your needs.