Hockley Photography

Outdoor / Indoor Event Photography in Portland: Comcast Cares Day 2012

Aaron — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:15:00 +0000

Last month I again had the opportunity to photograph Comcast Cares Day, an annual event where the communication company’s employees hit the community en masse to perform a variety of service projects. I’ve photographed this event for several years now in the Portland area and this year I covered a couple different sites. At Tryon Creek State Park, the group pulled a bunch of invasive English Ivy, while at a middle school, employees painted walls and performed a bunch of landscaping duties.

I’d be happy to tell the story of your organization’s event. Contact me and let’s get started.

Startup Business Portrait: VendScreen’s Paresh Patel

Aaron — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:00:32 +0000

During the inaugural class of Portland Incubator Experiment startups, I had the opportunity to create photographs of quite a few people that founded and build startup businesses around a variety of ideas, technologies, and in the case of VendScreen, high-tech devices that can revolutionize the vending machine industry.

Early in the PIE process, I created this portrait of VendScreen CEO Paresh Patel with a sample device. I was pleased to find out this week that VendScreen will be receiving several awards at an industry trade show this month (more first-place awards than ny other vendor). Well done, VendScreen!

Relay for Life Details

Aaron — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:00:46 +0000

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity once again to photograph the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life kickoff event in Portland. I approach nonprofit event photography in the same fashion as my corporate event photography: I capture images to tell the story of the event. This includes the venue, the people, and the program. One important part of delivering a great event photography package to my client is to capture the details. In this case, some of those details included a memorial luminaria and a couple water bottles with custom labels for the event.

Ignite Portland 10 Photos

Aaron — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:05:23 +0000

Last week I had the opportunity to again be the photography sponsor for Ignite Portland. This was the tenth incarnation of the event and the first in over a year. Attendees saw twenty presentations covering a wide range of topics; lots of socializing happened before the event and during the intermission. Here are a few of my favorite images; you can view the full set on Flickr.

View the full set on Flickr. Contact me if you’re interested in photography coverage for an event.

These images are released under the Creative Commons license; you may use them for noncommercial purposes as long as you credit Hockley Photography. For web use, please include a link back to hockleyphoto.com – thanks!

Don’t Water Down Your Business with Generic Stock Photos

Aaron — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:16 +0000

You’re a smart businessperson. You’re updating your website, brochures, and other marketing materials with current information about your products, services, and company. Perhaps you’re launching an entirely new venture, or perhaps you’re just refreshing things a bit for a fresh look. Fresh is good.

As you make this smart business move, don’t decrease the return on your marketing and messaging investment. Below you’ll find two solid reasons to avoid a common misstep. Don’t miss out on the ability to best represent your company by using generic stock photography.

Stock Photography Isn’t You

If I sit down at a restaurant and discover that the photos on the menu aren’t images of that eatery’s food, how confident will I be in the quality? What’s your impression of a company without any sort of custom logo, type, or identifying branding?

How would your clients feel if they’re browsing your website or flipping through your brochure and there aren’t any photos of you or your employees? If you’re using generic images related to your industry instead of pictures of your products, what message are you sending?

Potential clients are going to wonder why you’re not advertising you.

Readers Filter Stock Images and Ignore Them

Putting aside the issue of your client wondering why you’re not using your own imagery, there’s another great reason not to use stock photos in your marketing: they get ignored. Photos for the sake of photos aren’t helpful; photos which provide insight into your business, products, and services will garner attention.

As a photographer, of course I’d love to sell you some photos. As a businessperson, you should only pay for photos that make sense: photos for your business representing your ideas and your people. If you’re ready to do that, contact me and let’s make it happen. But please don’t spend money on photos that aren’t really you and won’t be effective.