Tip: this panel and the top bar won't appear on the printed pages.
In The Frame · Better Thinking, Better Work
Three projects, ten businesses, and a specific reason to start a conversation.
This is not a list of leads to chase. It is a method for building a specific, verified reason to talk to a business — and then having the conversation.
The order matters. You cannot compare businesses to your work until you know what your work actually demonstrates. You cannot judge a fit until you can describe the service you can really deliver — including its limits.
Ten is a starting batch, not a quota of perfect clients. You might keep three. You might reject all ten and choose a different batch, or even another market.
Choose three portfolio projects that show work you can deliver. Find ten businesses, compare their websites with those projects, and ask an AI assistant for possible connections. Check each cited page yourself, reject weak matches, verify a contact route, and approach one promising business with a relevant project and a real question to begin a conversation.
Pick three examples of work you would like to be hired to do again — and that show something you can actually deliver. For each, write down what you made, its intended use, and what it demonstrates.
Make one up. There is nothing wrong with self-assigned work — just identify it as self-assigned and don't imply a client you didn't have.
The honest questions
Say each project out loud in two sentences: what it was, and what it proves you can do again. If you can't, it isn't ready to show a stranger.
Describe the service you want to offer, where and how you work, and any practical limits. This list is how you define what you do, so you can check it dovetails with what clients want.
A distant business may fit your photographs and still not fit your travel budget. Saying so now saves you a week of imagining a client you cannot serve well.
Start with a market that fits your work. Look through a local business directory, an industry association's member directory, or the businesses you already encounter in that market.
Look for three things: subject relevance, a workable location or production arrangement, and a connection to something your portfolio actually shows. A solid project with examples might be precisely what the business needs.
Ask an assistant to find ten websites that need the kind of work you do. Be specific. Ask it to interview you first to get a good picture of who you are, what you do, and what you want to do. Then do the keeping and rejecting yourself.
Give the assistant a bounded job: compare your three projects with those ten websites and explain its reasoning. You are not asking it to find you clients. You are asking it to show you its work.
The prompt
A business website can tell you something about its work and culture. It cannot tell you what they have budgeted for photography — unless they publish it. Treat funds as unknown.
Open every cited page yourself. Then ask the questions that actually decide it. Remember that “they value quality” isn't useful and doesn't establish a good fit.
Checked myself
Checked myself
It is genuinely difficult to know who's calling — what a prospect can spend, and what they expect for it. Write “unknown” where it is unknown, and don't assume the person whose address you found makes the buying decision.
A working file, not a client. Six lines, kept honest: observation, project, inference, unknown, decision, contact.
Choose the strongest fit you've checked. If you found none, revise the batch. For a real prospect: mention a specific detail, show a relevant project, and ask a genuine question that can lead to dialogue.
“I enjoyed seeing how your tables are made, and I love the attention you put into detail. Craftspeople at work is one of my specialties, and I thought this project might be interesting for you. BTW, do you ever use process photographs when introducing a collection?”
Use your own words. You're beginning a conversation — and a conversation is a big first win.
The week you were about to lose. Put the work in it, in this order.
Ten is a starting batch, not a quota of perfect clients. You might keep three. You might reject all ten and choose a different batch, or even another market. The win is a real conversation with a specific, verified reason behind it.