How many specialties is too many?

I'm thinking out loud but I'd like some input. When I posted my site for critique awhile ago I got comments I had too many "areas of specialties". The truth is you can only specialize in 1 thing, maybe 2. I know this. I narrowed my site.

I like to focus primarily on babies and children and pets. I also like sports and landscapes and macro when I'm not busy. Now the landscapes and macro lets forget about that for a minute... right now sports isnt on my site: just babies and children and pets

I'm considering making a separate site for pets.

I fully agree that it's easy to turn ppl off. They say people go to your site to disqualify you and you should put as less as possible. I do agree on that.

On the other hand... lets take pets as an example. I read some pet and family books, and I dont remember which one but the lady quoted that most of her clients did not even consider to include the pet in a session, but when they did they bought more prints and almost always got the ones that included the pet. In other words, people didnt know it was an option until it was presented, then they wanted it. So this makes a case for having something that shows "all" that you offer.

However if you have a mom looking for her baby, a pet could be a turnoff.

Rarely where I am do I see a photographer offering just 1 thing let alone 2. Most offer like this: babies, children, seniors, weddings, couples, family, some even sports all on the same site all together. In other words, nobody is doing "one" thing. There's 1 really good photographer around me and by the looks I gather she has 2 main areas of focus, seniors and families, but she just expanded to kids and babies as well.

that's a lot of things to offer, and I wonder at times if I should follow suit and add a lot more categories. But I also would like to try to be "really good" at one thing too or maybe 2.

My thought right now is this: maybe it's better to have a "catch all" site with everything. But also to make specific sites for each branch that you can use in specific advertising. Like for example I have a main site that shows all that I do, but then a pet site just for like if I advertise in a pet magazine, etc.

What do you think? What do you do?

(my question is not about "what should I specialize in" but around "what is the best way to advertise the few things I want to focus on")

A lot depends on where you live. If you are in a smaller market area, I think it is ok to offer more. It is all how you present it... Think about how a store like Target organizes itself... you don't look for pet toys in the childrens section but it's ok if they are near by. I think it is ok to have both pets and kids on the same site... just separate them and make it easy to navigate so your potential clients can look at what they want easily.
The sports & landscape sound more like personal hobby stuff (unless you are shooting kids doing sports, which you could include as a sub category under your kids section)...

Are there any people who consider pets as their kids? Are they part of their family? ...something to consider.

drvnbysound wrote in post #16110845
Are there any people who consider pets as their kids? Are they part of their family? ...something to consider.

Yup. I'd definitely include the pets with the rest of the family stuff, because essentially it's still a portrait, and many of the same skills apply (lighting, DOF management, etc).

Sports, Macro and landscapes are a different matter with very different skill sets, and should probably be listed separately.

Thanks for the replies.

The reason sports isnt on there is I do a lot of events. Last year I shot for some local companies and for myself at some HS sport events. Those I just put and sold via smugmug and the companies paid me for my pics on the others. I would like to do some nice little league sports portraits. No one around here from what I've seen is doing nice ones with cool lighting and stuff like you see here. A lot more like just the kid standing in front of some trees with a bat. With that said it's something I put on the backburner to work more with kids and pets and do my macro stuff this summer. I also got burned b/c I shot for a large martial arts event and all my pics got stolen. People dont hesitate to take a watermark out or whatever. I could pursue it but it's just honestly not worth my time. Sure I sold a few, but I just dont think large sporting events is a way to make $, esp given that I really prefer smaller sports like martial arts, etc. Seems like you are more setting yourself up to get stolen than anything. The portraits I'd like to do but I put it off till fall. Wrestling season picks back up then, less kids and babies and outdoor stuff going on so more time to do that. When football and stuff picks up in the fall I will talk to some of the parents at my gym and let them know I am available for little league portraits. A lot of the parents at the gym are coaches or involved with teams.

That is a really good idea to have a kids tab and put kids sports under there. I could do that. I have them separate now: a separate portfolio gallery for babies, one for kids, and one for pets. They are also separated under session information as well. Maybe instead of making sports separate I'll just include it with kids.

And yes I am in a small town.

I have a separate site for my macro and landscapes but It's also on the backburner. But this brings me to my next thing. Folks here said "dont share your landscapes on FB pages for babies and pets". Again I agree it could be a turnoff to not see what you expect. But when I post a sunset (one of my sunsets just won a contest) I get more comments and request for family and other pics off a landscape than other picture sessions I post. It's strange to me. I can post a pic of a kid and sure people like and comment. But I post a pic of a sunset and I get likes, comments and then responses for "can you do my family". I do not understand the association with it, as there are no people in my landscape pics. Anyone know? It's making me rethink putting them back on the regular site honestly. Women also respond a lot to my butterfly pics.

abbypanda wrote in post #16111060
Folks here said "dont share your landscapes on FB pages for babies and pets". Again I agree it could be a turnoff to not see what you expect. But when I post a sunset (one of my sunsets just won a contest) I get more comments and request for family and other pics off a landscape than other picture sessions I post.

Evidently the clients don't know the pros' rules. In your situation, I'd go with the clients' rules.

abbypanda wrote in post #16109857
What do you think? What do you do?

(my question is not about "what should I specialize in" but around "what is the best way to advertise the few things I want to focus on")

I'm coming from an entirely different direction than most I suspect, as I only promote one thing: food. That's not to say that I don't shoot other things on occasion as I get calls from agencies that I've worked with in the past and asked to do other things. i recently shot a small appliance catalog for instance with an art director that I last worked with 5 years ago when he was with a food company.

With that said, I'm a big believer in promoting the work that you do best, and consequently becoming the 'go to' person in that category. It may be different in the consumer market of weddings/portraiture i.e. 'social photography' as a term that I read here recently....but I think that websites that describe the specialty as being 12 different unrelated things dilutes the notion of being the best in a single category. At least that's been my experience, your's may differ.

My answer would be to simply promote 'people' as a specialty and showcase a variety of images that falls under that single category, whether it's weddings, portraits, events, etc.. And imo, once you start introducing 'pets' for instance in the same website, I think it takes away from the projection of where you want to be perceived in the marketplace.

Foodguy wrote in post #16111222
My answer would be to simply promote 'people' as a specialty and showcase a variety of images that falls under that single category, whether it's weddings, portraits, events, etc.. And imo, once you start introducing 'pets' for instance in the same website, I think it takes away from the projection of where you want to be perceived in the marketplace.

What if you promote it as "Family" instead of "People"?

Foodguy wrote in post #16111222
I'm coming from an entirely different direction than most I suspect, as I only promote one thing: food. That's not to say that I don't shoot other things on occasion as I get calls from agencies that I've worked with in the past and asked to do other things. i recently shot a small appliance catalog for instance with an art director that I last worked with 5 years ago when he was with a food company.

With that said, I'm a big believer in promoting the work that you do best, and consequently becoming the 'go to' person in that category. It may be different in the consumer market of weddings/portraiture i.e. 'social photography' as a term that I read here recently....but I think that websites that describe the specialty as being 12 different unrelated things dilutes the notion of being the best in a single category. At least that's been my experience, your's may differ.

My answer would be to simply promote 'people' as a specialty and showcase a variety of images that falls under that single category, whether it's weddings, portraits, events, etc.. And imo, once you start introducing 'pets' for instance in the same website, I think it takes away from the projection of where you want to be perceived in the marketplace.

This is a good point and I already considered combining "babies and children" Though now If I put sports later on maybe I'll leave babies and have a "kids and teens" type section.

I agree on the whole "go to thing". When you have a narrow category you can be the go to person. IMO it increased your authority and can allow a higher price and exclusivity... all of which is good.
This is why I am also considering the other option: have a catch all site, that promotes my best work across a few fields but then build a different site totally dedicated to pets, and each specific category. The catch all site can be coded for generic terms like "photographers in city, state" you get the idea, and be more specific on the pets one.

IMO there are a few kinds of people that I have encountered thus far:

1. people who know they want pics b/c they got the idea from someone or somewhere but dont know what they want.. they've never had a picture before and dont know what to look for and are looking for something generic (photographer in city, state)
2. people who know exactly what they want. These people have had a pic done before,they know what they want and have specific requests. They need directed advertising.

#1 might be turned off by a site too specific b/c they want to see some options and dont know what they want. #2 would be turned off by a 'catch all' advertising model.

I just started advertising my pets in a pet magazine. I think next time I will make a pets only site to promote in such targeted ads. So for example I will have my main site but say if I decide to run an ad in a kids only magazine, I will make a kids only site. Because the magazine is targeted to kids, there's no reason to run an ad for all sorts of photography, just kids.

Does anyone run multiple sites like this?

drvnbysound wrote in post #16111241
What if you promote it as "Family" instead of "People"?

I could do that, but honestly I am not too particularly interested in being a "family" photographer. I like to take pictures of kids being kids and portraits. But I dont want to brand it as family to where I end up doing families of 4 all the time or something. Though I do guess that goes hand and hand with kids

These are the thinks I am thinking through. Thanks everyone for the help and thoughts.

I also refrained (I believe) from using "specialities" and removed that word for a word or phrase such as "areas of focus" and "interests". I do agree that you can't have like 12 things and call it a "specialty"

Just to drop in another thought. I think many photographers get obsessed with trying to be all things to all people and trying to show examples of *everything* they've ever shot hoping to cover all of the bases.

IMO, it's better to specialize in 'remarkable photography' regardless what the subject happens to be.

I lost a sizable advertising job years ago because I didn't have a shish-kabob in my book. Spent the next 6 months like a dog chasing it's tail trying to taylor specific portfolio images that I thought potential clients 'wanted' to see which was a frustrating exercise. In the end, I came back to only showing my best work and letting the chips fall where they may. On occasion, I might send out a specific image or 2 to demonstrate the fact that I have some particular experience shooting something, but generally I prefer to put out beautiful work and let the client's imagination do the selling.

drvnbysound wrote in post #16111241
What if you promote it as "Family" instead of "People"?

Potential clients who wanted shots of just one person or a kids' sports team, a workplace group, and so forth might think it wasn't for them.

Both good points again.
I guess it's not what to "specialize" in so to speak but labels. I guess at some point you want to "label" yourself, but at risk of turning others away. The family vs people for example. Choosing the wrong word could turn someone away , or it could make all the difference.

Maybe I should just lump it al together under "portfolio" on a main site.

They say the more niche you are the better, though.
But I wonder about this b/c it's somewhat art and art evokes emotion. I guess it's not as cut and dry as saying "we sell mens shoes" so to speak.

We are all "in the know" we know that if someone posts a beautiful sunset they might not know the first thing about family photography or babies or sports, per say. But as my example has shown me unexpectedly, it's often the most beautiful sunset that sparks a customer to think "this makes me want to have you do my family pics"
It's a tough decision I guess.....

OhLook wrote in post #16111920
Potential clients who wanted shots of just one person or a kids' sports team, a workplace group, and so forth might think it wasn't for them.

Sorry, I guess I meant to just label that as the general "title" on the site. However, within that portfolio have whatever images that you want to sell that relate to a family... individual portraits, siblings together, parents + kids, parents + kids + animals, etc.

Or, if you're really indecisive "People | Family" ... or "People" and "Family" as separate categories

BTW: I would think people who would want pics of a sports team, would be looking for a "Sports" section, and a workplace group looking for either People, Headshots, or a Business category.