Photographer Cafe

If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to reduce your carbon footprint, well I have news for you.  It is now springtime, and it is time to revisit those resolutions and show your love for Earth Day as well.  Living a Green lifestyle is something that is near and dear to my heart.  I grew up in Oregon, birthplace of curbside recycling and the 5 cent bottle deposit.  Oregonians are divided into two camps, the tree-huggers and the loggers.  It is never a pretty sight to have the groups mingle.  I grew up jumping on a recycled reupholstered sofa and eating at a thrift store dining table.  I wore hand-me-down clothing and rode a yard sale bicycle.  In my 20s I wore clothing made of hemp and if a t shirt got a stain on it I turned it into a tie-dye masterpiece.  I grew bamboo instead of building a wooden fence.  I most likely hugged more than my fair share of trees and shed a tear at the prospect of deforestation if I cut down a christmas tree.  None of this was out of monetary necessity, it just made *sense* in Oregon, even 20 or 30 years ago.  Then suddenly, here I am, a photographer, dealing in huge amounts of paper and then even more paper, faced with the dilemma of disposing of my darkroom chemicals, driving all over town and between cities to pre-session consults, photo sessions, ordering appointments and deliveries.  It never sat well in my tree-hugging-granola-eating-hippie-soul.

Thankfully, being eco-friendly has become a huge part of mainstream consciousness and political fodder.  I have wondered for several years how I can Green Up my own business and have been on the hunt for some great options and alternatives and thus, have compiled a list of tips to share with you.

If you are one of the multitudes of photographers who are operating a strictly ‘digital file’ photography business, then you win extra special bonus Green points for reducing your use of paper.  I happen to adhere to the “Long Live the Wall Print” group of artists, but I think even the popular Digital File model will find some useful tips here to add on to your eco-friendly business practices.

Reduce

1. Marketing and Business materials.  Think about your price lists, brochures, forms and information packets, if it can be printed, it can be electronic instead!  All of the gorgeous templates and designs can easily be converted into a webpage or PDF file for your clients to access.  This results in saved money in printing and mailing costs and reduces the amount of paper clutter on your end as well as the client’s.  There are several options out there in the form of apps for electronic business cards also.  The beauty of using these is you don’t have to carry cards around, you never run out and the information can be quickly entered and stored in your contacts directory.

2. Receipts and Invoices.  Have you ever been to the Apple Store and been offered an ‘emailed receipt’, or opted out of paper bank statements or credit card bills?  We can use electronic receipts and invoices in our business as well.  At tax time, it really beats having a shoebox full of receipts to sort through as well.

3. Sell digital formats.  I did say that I belong to the “Long Live the Wall Print” camp, but I also see the benefits and ease of selling some photographs in digital formats.  Doing this also puts the eco-responsibility into the hands of other people.  I like to take control over the end product as much as possible both from a quality standpoint and an eco-friendly perspective.  So I have looked for some creative ways to offer a few items in digital format.  My “wallet” photographs are now digital and perfect for smartphone or social media galleries.  Both flipalbum.com and blurb.com make transitioning a photo album into an ebook as easy as key lime pie.  (It’s green, get it?)

4. Show and Sell online.  Most of us now show client galleries online but I used to print 5×7 proofs along with the gallery to take to an ordering session, it was good for the client to see and touch the prints and it helped the decision-making process to be able to physically cull and group photographs together.   At the end of the year, stacks and stacks of 5×7 prints were wasted.  Selling online saves time, money, paper and emissions. Read on.

5.  Emissions. Conducting pre-session consults via telephone and email can help cut down driving time as can consolidating business errands and shopping trips. I have seen a recent trend of photographers building more business at a grass-roots level and drawing from within their own communities as opposed to traveling worldwide.  Trains, planes and automobiles…not the only places we can reduce our emissions.   In the office:

Fat Cow is just one of many companies offering 100% wind-powered web hosting.

Opt for Non-VOC interior paints in your home, studio and office space.

Switch to energy-efficient light bulbs.

Invest in low-emission computers and monitors.

Drop ship client orders from the lab.  Reduces not only packaging, but also delivery time and results in less air pollution all around.

Reduce Screen Time.  Try a block schedule where all the Photoshop editing happens on one day of the week, all computer networking happens in a block of time, emails are checked only once or twice a day, and shut it off the rest of the time.   Working in time blocks  could also allow you to ship in bulk. All the orders are placed the same day, all delivered the same day.  Some labs, such as ColorInc offer staggered shipping, so if you have several orders to get in, you can arrange to have it delivered to you in less packaging.

Reuse

6.  Packaging.  Everybody loves a pretty package.  Personally, I love to rip through a pretty package as fast as I can to get to the good stuff inside!  The faster and easier, the better.  What I don’t like is to see pretty packaging crumpled up on the floor destined for the bin.  I have started to reuse the cardboard packaging that comes from the lab.  Take the tape off, turn the box inside out if needed and re-pack for protection.  I have pared down the “fluff and pretty” to one tasteful item such as recycled ribbon, Japanese paper tape or a sticker made from recycled paper to brand and dress up the package.  Reusable cotton or bamboo totes are also great to use for packaging client orders.

7.  Furniture.  After years and years of living with affordable (and sometimes disposable) IKEA furniture I vowed to invest in more ‘grown up’ furnishings for my office and home.  For me, that meant some nice quality key items, supplemented with lots of re-purposed furniture and office items from flea markets and antique stores.  Don’t forget, Craigslist is your friend.

8.  Recycled paper.  When doing a bit of research I was really pleased to see how many of our popular photography labs are now offering recycled paper products.  Miller’s and ProDpi stood out for me for their vast offerings from photographic prints and press products on cotton rag and bamboo papers to  canvases printed with eco-friendly printing technology on cotton canvas.  There are also some gorgeous options to be found for eco-friendly and organic photo albums such as Wild Magnolia.

Recycle

9. Everything.  Not a joke.  If you can buy it, you should be able to recycle it.  If you can’t recycle it, you shouldn’t buy it.  Cameras, computers, props, lamps, clothes, furniture, carpets, cars, mother-in-law.  Okay, that last one was joke.

10. The word.  Start a conversation on your blog.  Offer tips for your wedding and portrait clients on ways to have a green wedding, to honor the earth in their session, or even with small changes they can make in their own lives.  Start a group to get ideas, petition your vendors for more eco-friendly options, get involved.  Look into other ways to offset your carbon footprint.  Check into Carbonfund.org to see how you can support agencies and offset your carbon print.  Let your audience know what steps you are taking toward a greener business and why.  Tell them a tree-hugging-granola-eating-hippie-soul sent you…

I know this is a huge list and I am sure I have only touched the surface of ways to reduce our carbon footprint.  Even taking one step at a time is a good start to making great changes. We would love to hear your comments on what you plan to do, what you are already doing and tips you may have for our community.  With as much as we rely on, use her and abuse her, shouldn’t every day be Earth Day?