At the beginning of January, I wrote a post called: “Whats’s coming in 2010?” It was a overview of what changed in 2009 and some general ideas, on what I have planned for 2010. Since I started Jürgen’s Photography, I always had the question in my mind on how I can make the experience of  Jürgen’s Photography as convenient and transparent as possible for my clients.

Very soon, after I started the business, I learnt that my customers enjoyed having access to their images in an online gallery. After extensive research, I decided to host my images with a company called Photoshelter. Photoshelter allows me to give all my customers individual access to their images and can even make images available for download in different resolutions. Images can be sorted in lightboxes and shared with friends or myself. This tool has been very successful in making access and sharing easier.  In addition, I always offer the viewing of the pictures together with me on a calibrated monitor.

The focus of February, is communication and interaction. As a first step, I moved my invoicing system over to an online solution. Estimates and invoice are made available online (via secure server) and accessible from any computer with an Internet connection. During the course of the next weeks, I will also enable online payment via credit card.

I have the desire of making things transparent for my clients and answer questions as for example: Why does it take so long to view the images? What’s going to happen next? Where are my images?

The how to make it possible took a while to answer. I needed a solution, which was on the one hand flexible, but also efficient and effective. Now, I found a solution, which lives up to my requirement. As from the beginning of this month, I am able to communicate clearly with my customers on how far the progress with their images is. They can see, if I am adhering to my own timelines and view the next steps ahead. I am very excited the development and hope it will make things clearer for everyone involved.

I promised you some new videos. The first video is produced. This is the first one. Andre van Rooyen did the filming and the sound.