If “a picture paints a thousand words”, just imagine the story that can be told with a quality portfolio. Or when a potential client walks into your office, sales center, or conference room and sees beautiful canvas wall art of your projects, or photographs matted and displayed in museum-quality frames. You might be surprised by the results!
An example: One of my clients is an incredible custom homebuilder whose quality is just superb - second to none. He called and asked to have some of his project photographed for his website. As I began the photography, I suggested that he consider a portfolio… ‘No, I don’t need one, I just need web images.’ He was actually quite insistent on this point. At the viewing, I brought him a few portfolio images so he could see them for himself. I watched as he passed them around to his office staff. They gazed at each one, commenting on various features of the home. He quickly realized that a potential client would use them the exact same way, passing them around and discussing them. He decided to invest in a small portfolio.
About a month later, he requested a few more. Some more time passed and he ordered additional prints, and so on. He currently has the largest portfolio of any of my clients. And now I know why……
I was photographing another of his beautiful homes, and was able to meet the owners. They had been living there for about a year, and were very kind and gracious. When I finished, the lady of the house asked me if I had seen all of the “beautiful paintings” that their builder had in his office. (Actually, they were not paintings, but the previously mentioned wall art on canvas.) I said yes, I had seen them. “And the beautiful portfolio of his work?” she exclaimed. As the man of the house handed me a glass of wine, he asked me if I took those pictures. Then he said with a smile, “That portfolio cost me $180,000 in extras”. His testimonial is now on my client's website.
