The Art and Business of Photography with Lesle Lane

Discover how resilience and creativity blend in the world of photography with Lesli Lane, an inspiring third-generation photographer from Studio 13 in Indianapolis. Lane shares her journey from a family legacy in portrait and wedding photography to her unique niche in corporate and commercial photography. Her background as a national ice skating competitor has honed her adaptability and competitive spirit, guiding her through the challenges of an industry that demands both creative vision and business savvy. Learn about her innovative strategies, from embracing new technologies to building a robust team, all while maintaining a strong client focus.

Join us as we unravel the complexities of balancing the artistic and entrepreneurial sides of photography. Lane offers her insights into the evolving commercial photography sector, where the affordability of high-quality equipment has intensified competition. She emphasizes the importance of nurturing personal relationships with clients, which has become even more crucial in the post-COVID business landscape. Networking platforms like Accelerant have been pivotal in her journey, offering B2B connections that differ from traditional groups like BNI. Discover how Lane is navigating the unpredictable market while ensuring her business's growth and sustainability.

In an intriguing exploration of expanding services, Lane discusses her strategic integration of drone technology into her offerings. By outsourcing this specialized skill, she enhances her portfolio with captivating aerial footage, especially for commercial real estate clients. The conversation extends to the impact of economic shifts on the industry and the role of AI, highlighting a g

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Transcript

Erin Manning: 0:02

Welcome to the Dead Pixel Society podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, Gary Pageau. The Dead Pixels Society podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, Advertek Printing, and Independent Photo Imagers.

Gary Pageau: 0:18

Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau, and today we're joined by Lesle Lane of Studio 13. She's coming to us from Indianapolis, Indiana. She has a great story to tell us about family business, third-generation business, building up a roster of assistants and contractors in the gig economy, and much, much more. Hi, Lesle, how are you?

Lesle Lane: 0:42

Hey, I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.

Gary Pageau: 0:52

Lesle, you are a third generation photographer. What kind of photography is that?

Lesle Lane: 0:53

Where did that start and how did you get here? So I'm a corporate photographer working in the marketing and advertising space here in Indianapolis. It is an incarnation of my mother and stepfather's business many years ago and then, of course, my grandparents. They did portrait weddings down in Columbus, georgia. So when my mom and I relocated up here, she married a commercial photographer.

Lesle Lane: 1:12

up here she is a fine art photographer in her own right and also ran the business, and now I have a similar business model to what they did, but I've given it my own twist.

Gary Pageau: 1:24

I thought I detected a Southern accent there. So what is it that brought you into the business? Because there are people who are in the family business and they usually do one of two things, right. They usually hey, I want nothing to do with it, I'm going to do my own thing, or I'm going to do the same sort of thing. Like you said, you're doing a little different. You're not doing fine art photography. What appealed, as a business, to photography for you?

Lesle Lane: 1:53

Well, my mother tells a story that I had a camera in my hand by the time I was six. And I actually did, and I have that very first roll of film. So I know she's telling the truth. But really I loved photography from a very, very young age. My parents drug me all over the place because, as mom being a fine art photographer, we were traveling to different places around Indiana and I wasn't real keen on that. And so by the time I became of age and I was in my late teens, early 20s, my father did not really believe that a woman could be a commercial photographer, because that's what boys did.

Lesle Lane: 2:25

And so he sent me to be trained in portrait wedding, which I did not care for, and so unfortunately, my stepfather. He became very ill and the choice was made Either I took over the business or it was going to close. And so, at 22 years old, I took over my parents' commercial photography business and worked through the trials of coming from film, going through the digital transition, recessions, bombings of Twin Towers, covid, and that's how I got here today.

Gary Pageau: 2:56

But you also had some experience as a competitive athlete. Talk a little bit about how that and what that brings to your business little bit about how that and what that brings to your business.

Lesle Lane: 3:07

Yes, I was not an Olympic bound athlete, but I was a national ice skating competitor for many, many years and as an individual where you're just pushing for excellence every day and dealing with sometimes things aren't fair, sometimes you should win when you shouldn't, and sometimes you win when you shouldn't I really every single day, I know that that mentality of stand back up, which is the code that they all stand to in ice skating get back up. I know for a fact that it has helped me through all the transitions that my career in photography has had in front of me.

Gary Pageau: 3:41

Plus, it's a lot of early mornings right. Yes it is.

Lesle Lane: 3:45

Ice skating and architecture about the same.

Gary Pageau: 3:49

So talk a little bit, if you could, about what you've had to do to keep your business competitive, because commercial photography, as I understand it, you know you're dealing with the possibility of your commercial clients bringing the work in-house, having photographer of their own so they're not outsourcing as much, or you have all this, you know, stock photography and other tools they can use. So what has made you stay competitive with your clients? And you've said earlier, you've got national clients and international clients who've been able to grow beyond Indianapolis.

Lesle Lane: 4:24

Well, I just think that, having a pioneer family so you know my grandparents changed from black and white film to color film and then, by the time I came into the business, digital was coming of age and we were the first no, we were the second company in Indiana to buy those big digital cameras that cost a fortune, trying to stay ahead of what the innovations mean and then separate myself by more than just good photography, because, in my opinion, somebody is going to look at your website, look at your portfolio, and you're either going to be their style or you're not going to be their style and it all starts on that opinion or you're not going to be their style and it all starts on that opinion.

Lesle Lane: 5:09

Then, if you give them other things and you work with them on yes, but I can quote you quickly and I can shoot the job, get you proofs or final images quickly oh, I'm not available. I have a team of people that can help you. That's really how I'm differentiating myself is by giving them all the pieces of the puzzle that it seems like some of that is really falling away. So you're right, commercial photography is highly competitive, but companies are getting increasingly frustrated that they're not able to find business professionals who are also photographers. That's becoming very difficult. I'm running into it a lot.

Gary Pageau: 5:44

Yeah, I can see that because we've seen it definitely in the portrait wedding side. Right, as the availability of DSLRs and mirrorless cameras have become far more affordable. Right, and even back in the day, you know those high-end digital cameras cost $20,000, $30,000, right, and nowadays it's, you can buy one at Best Buy and you can call yourself a professional photographer. Right, and we all know there's more to it than that. So you're seeing that on the commercial side, right, sort of the competition with the people who put out their jingle, which, again, there's nothing wrong with that in terms of, hey, that's how the world works, right, competition is a great thing, but it's something you have to accommodate in the marketplace.

Lesle Lane: 6:18

I do on a daily basis and just try to go for the clients that you know there is a place for everybody. Photography is one of the most wonderful professions, I can't say enough about it. But I'm looking for the clients that not only does their image of their business matter, but having somebody they can count on matters, because they've got much bigger fish to fry than dealing with four different photographers in a given year.

Gary Pageau: 6:46

Right, yeah, cause they have to reach, almost retrain them right on what their look, their expectations are. So that's part of your business model, right? It's sort of the personal relationship side.

Lesle Lane: 6:55

Absolutely, and that that is something that I didn't know. This as a young person at all getting into the industry. I mean, I was so busy just trying to figure out how to take pictures on an 8x10 camera because we did have clients that required it I didn't have time to really understand networking and building relationships with people and that that actually has been. It has become a greater part of my business the referral network. Then you're not going to get business just falling into your lap. It's just not going to happen.

Gary Pageau: 7:25

Right. Is it harder now Because so much more of it is online? You know, I mean, you've been through COVID, right, and that changed a lot of people's business models. It changed a lot of how people you know even network or get business. You know used to be you go to a chamber of commerce event or a trade show or a business expo or something like that, and you'd either have a booth or you'd work the room and you'd get, you know, talk to 10 people, maybe get the opportunity to bid right. Has that changed in the post-COVID world?

Lesle Lane: 7:55

Actually, it started changing for me about five or six years ago. I joined a business development platform called Accelerant. So they are a national, they have chapters all across the country and they're industry exclusive. And we meet together not only as a large group several hundred people come together every quarter for a breakfast but then on a monthly basis in different specialties to try to hand each other those referrals, those meaningful introductions. And so really coming on board with Accelerant changed my whole outlook prior to COVID.

Lesle Lane: 8:28

But then, when COVID hit, I had a group full of highly trained business leaders in the city that I could call and find out hey, what is this COVID thing going to do to us? How is this going to affect a business like mine? And I could have meetings with people in HR that are saying, hey, they're firing or they're laying off. No, our people are keeping. And it gave me that intelligent insight into the economy, because we all know photography is 100% dependent on what the economy is doing. So I feel like that joining that business development platform really gave me the direction I needed. Now I've heard of like groups like that. There's BNI, there's different groups like that. Joining that business development platform really gave me the direction I needed.

Gary Pageau: 9:03

Now I've heard of like groups like that there's BNI, there's different groups like that. What's the commitment for that particular group?

Lesle Lane: 9:10

I'm not allowed to share the financial commitment but the difference between an accelerant, a BNI, and the other one I've heard of is Goldstar is those BNI groups. Those Goldstar groups they're normally B2C, so they're normally passing business to consumers instead of trying to get in with the business. Where Accelerant is mainly B2B. There may be a couple of B2C, but not much, and they keep a database of every single company that's had some kind of connectivity, and so if I'm looking for a specific company, I can just email the administrator and say, hey, do we have anybody that can connect me with this company? And they'll tell me right away. So it's a much deeper dive.

Gary Pageau: 9:53

Okay, I've seen BNI around and I've been to a couple of things and things and, like you said, it's very and it's a smaller scale, it's more local, right.

Gary Pageau: 10:00

So, that's wrong with that, but it's a smaller scale, it's more local right. So nothing wrong with that, but it's just different. I was just curious what the difference between this group you're in and BNI and Goldstar and those are, because I know a lot of people have had success with BNI and those. You bet, yeah, so you've had to morph your business again in recent years because you got too busy, you had too much business, so how did you cope with that?

Lesle Lane: 10:27

Well, I just, I did not like losing anything.

Gary Pageau: 10:30

You know this is a business.

Gary Pageau: 10:32

This is a business Going back to the competitive nature of you, right?

Lesle Lane: 10:36

Yeah, so this is a business where you go from thinking I'm going to die before I get all my work done to wondering if you're ever going to shoot another job again in your life and so turning that business away, knowing that most of the time if I go out and shoot a job, I'm going to get repeat business from it. I don't really lose clients very often, unless there's a change in leadership or you know the business goes somewhere else. So I already was working with freelance assistants and I knew that they had some shooting skills in their own right, and so I just went ahead and started cultivating those and then, as that's, I've been doing that for about three years now, and then I started needing a lot of drone work and people are like you need to learn to shoot drone. I'm like why I'm so good at what I do? Why do I need to learn to shoot drone? And so I added that to my repertoire this year was to have an independent contractor who works for me and handles all of my drone work for me.

Gary Pageau: 11:36

You know, I keep seeing so much with drones these days and it is interesting because it is photography or imaging or whatever we want to do, especially like in real estate. I see in commercial real estate a lot and things like that, but it is a different skill set. So I kind of like your approach of you know, I'm going to offer the service, I'm not going to do it myself. What about things like, you know, liability and things like that? Who's covered in that case? You know, let's say, a drone crashes on a car, right, who's liable for that if you're providing the offering?

Lesle Lane: 12:10

Yeah, it's so interesting to me because I've learned a lot about it since I brought him on my team. He has to have his own liability because of the dangerousness of the drone getting into places. It shouldn't. I was also unaware that the FAA actually knows every single drone that starts up and if you didn't do a pre-flight check-in, they will shut your drone down.

Gary Pageau: 12:35

Really, I mean, there must be commercial drones, not just like the ones you buy from Best Buy.

Lesle Lane: 12:40

I'm sure there are commercial drones, but yeah, so the one that we are working with it will be shut down by the FAA. I also was shooting at a large university in northern Indiana a couple weeks ago and it gave security a notice that we were on site and they did not know we were going to be on site. And so here comes security wanting to know what we're doing, flying a drone over their campus. So it's been a very interesting learning curve. But because of the nature of the drone photography, we have to not only have my liability policy that covers it does cover some contractors, but because of the nature of what my drone guy does, he has to have his own so what other types of um?

Gary Pageau: 13:24

imaging, I guess, is the word we're going to use, because drone is probably you got, probably got some video in there, you probably got some stills in there you know your, your corp work seems to be more of a, you know, still still photography, still imaging, but have you had to add video and other things? And this is that the type of work you're contracting out?

Lesle Lane: 13:43

Yes, so my drone person is actually a videographer as well, and so what we try to do the drone work see, especially in the commercial real estate community, a lot of people own drones now, so a lot of engineers and architects and all those people that we work for, and so they don't need as much as they did, say, maybe, five years ago, but what they do love is a walkthrough. So what we've been doing since I landed my drone person on our team is we do the drone work and then mix it in with a walkthrough of the building and we give them maybe a 90 second or 120 second reel that they can then put on social media to show off their projects. We're not doing production videos. I have no desire to compete with the people that are so good at the production work. We just add it on as a service for the clients that we're already working with.

Gary Pageau: 14:35

I'm sure the word's getting around right. I mean, I'm sure you're getting referrals from that.

Lesle Lane: 14:40

It's picking up and again, thank goodness that my reputation is pretty good in the community. I haven't screwed up too much in my lifetime A couple of times. I'm not going to tell those stories because it does happen. I'm not human, I mean I'm not inhuman but people know that I'm going to take care of them. If they come to me for a job and they use drone and they use my person, that I'm going to deliver.

Gary Pageau: 15:03

So let's talk about the other piece, because you've got eight other people right on the team, right? So Do you feel like you have to keep them engaged and find another enough work for them, Because, even though they're not full time employees, they still have an obligation to you and you have an obligation to them, right? What's that like as a business owner?

Lesle Lane: 15:24

Well, it's much better than having somebody on a W-2, I can tell you that it's a little bit easier in that they all know that. You know, when I go out and I network and I work with people, I'm selling the company. But there's a couple of things that do make it a little bit easier. So, like I don't do drone work, I don't do video, so anything that comes my way my guy is going to get. I also don't shoot event photography. I don't enjoy it, it's not my gift, so every event that comes to me goes out to my team.

Lesle Lane: 15:54

Then the other thing is is that my goal is to grow this business to such an extent that my freelancers take up 40 percent of the general revenue of the company, because I'm a lovely middle aged woman we won't say how old that is and I'm looking to maybe not grow my part of the business as much, but I am looking to grow there. So they're grateful for that. Most photographers I'm not speaking for everybody, so nobody get mad at me Most photographers do not like the business aspect of it. They don't like the sales and the networking and the invoicing and the accounting. I love that part, so I even got my master's in doing it, so I actually have the joy of loving both sides of the camera.

Gary Pageau: 16:36

Well, you just touched on a great point, because I've seen that around the industry a lot. I mean not just for shooters, photographers, but also on the retail side or the photo lab side, where you know they got into business because they love photography and they love, you know, being a retailer or whatever, but then all this other stuff that comes up becomes a distraction and they almost neglect it or they don't want to deal with it, or they delegate it and you know whatever and they're not involved and then they, then things happen and they don't know what's going on. So I think that's a great point that you've got to know both of that, both of that you know. It is interesting when I see photographers, you know, get into photography and then they discover the whole. You know 70% of their business is doing non photography stuff. Right, it's yes right.

Gary Pageau: 17:20

A friend of mine is a photographer who said you know, nothing kills your love of photography faster than a photography business.

Lesle Lane: 17:26

No kidding, no, there's, that's the truth.

Gary Pageau: 17:30

So why do you think you have sort of that dual perspective on the business? Right, you enjoy the shooting, obviously you like to do it, you're good at it, but you also like the business side of it, which is not typical.

Lesle Lane: 17:45

Well, I'll tell you the story. It's funny to me. My dad, my stepdad, that owned this business when I was 12, he gave me a checking account to handle all of my ice skating bills because he got tired of paying them.

Lesle Lane: 17:57

And so at a very young age I had to ask him every month for a certain amount of money. I had to show him a monthly budget of what my expenses were going to be, and then, if I did not stay within that budget, he led me to believe that I was going to balance checks and I was going to be in very big trouble. And so from a very young age I had to learn all those things that go into running a business. And so when I came into the business, I actually did not graduate with a degree in photography or business. I went back to school for my master's to get that degree in business, and so I enjoyed it.

Lesle Lane: 18:31

They used to do it all by hand. Imagine that that they would have to sit down and they called it the breakdown. My dad did and you would have to put photography and here's how much money, film and here's how much money, and you had to do it all by pencil and everything had to match. And so doing accounting on the computer is so much easier and I find it enjoyable.

Gary Pageau: 18:50

So and there's all kinds of honestly for photographers. Now it's almost like the dream world, because you've got all these platforms out there that are, you know, basically run your business for you in some, in some extent.

Lesle Lane: 19:03

Yeah, and it's funny, there are so many tools. But if you don't, if you're not clear headed to know the way through, here's how I get the job. Here's how I bid the job. Here's how I bid the job. Here's how I shoot the job. Here's how I deliver the job. Here's how I build the job. If you don't have that A to D, e, f mentality like I do or other photographers who run successful businesses do. You just can't teach it because a lot of people just really hate that side of it.

Gary Pageau: 19:33

But it is far easier than it used to be. I mean, that's what I find fascinating is you have these amazing tools for invoicing and contact management and all these things which you know in the old days that was all by hand. It's amazing, and a lot of them are very specific to running a photo studio, which is kind of nice.

Lesle Lane: 19:52

They are. Yeah, there's really not much of an excuse anymore, because there are definite tools to help people that don't like it. Definitely, I agree.

Gary Pageau: 20:00

So you also like to help other people with their business. Tell me some of the ways that people have worked with you or approached you, and how do you diagnose how you can help them?

Lesle Lane: 20:12

Well, first and foremost, I'm never afraid to admit my failures. So much of what has happened to me in my life is because I did it wrong and I had to figure out a different way. The other thing I figured out, especially over the last five to seven years, is that every photographer is like a unique thumbprint. Yes, we may all be competing against each other, but we don't all shoot the same. We don't all shoot the same. We don't all have the same personalities, and so I'm never afraid to sit down and talk to a photographer about their business, because I had my parents, I had my grandparents, I had plenty of people behind me that I could be a sounding board for, and so some of my younger photographers. They sit down with me and they ask about pricing and they ask about how I do my processing. You know how do I get myself from point A to point F, and I don't hesitate to tell them I have. I have no reason not to be helpful.

Gary Pageau: 21:04

Because that is one of the things I think that I think, in the photography industry specifically, there's a lot of sharing and interaction goes on. There's a lot of sharing and interaction goes on. If you go to the big conferences, people will get up there and tell you exactly how they do it, just because they know. You know, again, the customer contact piece is really the glue that will keep you the business 100% Going forward. What do you see happening with commercial photography?

Gary Pageau: 21:28

Because, like, for example, you know, I keep hearing different things that are happening in the business world that when I think of someone like you within a commercial photography business, it might affect them. Like you know, people you know going either totally remote or they're starting to bring people back. And there's, you know, all this challenge happening with retail right, with retail businesses closing. So you know, retail commercial real estate is a problem or a challenge, if you will. Retail commercial real estate is a problem or a challenge, if you will. So what are you kind of seeing in the economy right now that you're keeping an eye on in that business?

Lesle Lane: 21:59

Yeah, so a lot of my work is architecture and so that can include commercial real estate, buildings and things like that. And if you follow the AIA, which is the architecture group, you'll see that architectural building has been down several cycles in a row and architecture is normally a two year piece where I won't shoot a job for two years after they actually get the job because they've got to design it and build it. So I'm anticipating that two years from now we're going to see a significant slowdown in the architecture space here in Indianapolis.

Lesle Lane: 22:29

We have had a real shift in the downtown dynamic of Indianapolis where people always wanted to be downtown and since COVID hit and people are coming back to the office, they're almost all skedaddling, you know, to the suburbs of Indianapolis rather than downtown. So we're going to have to have some kind of economic development to push some funds into the downtown Indianapolis area to continue to, you know, try to keep people down there. So those two things economically are certainly going to affect us. Now I'd be remiss if I did not mention AI. I think that in commercial photography we would be silly not to bring that topic up. But many people don't understand, if you're not in the industry, that Photoshop has had an AI component for a decade. They don't understand this.

Lesle Lane: 23:12

I've been circling stuff and erasing stuff for years, but what I am noticing on the retail side of when I'm shooting product is that retailers are giving manufacturers pushback on AI driven images. They are absolutely sending packaging back to the manufacturer and saying redo these packages with real photography. This isn't real. Well, that's good for me and I've run into that twice this year where that's been the pushback. I've also started to run into people who, if I over, retouch a headshot, because I think this year I'm over 780 headshots this year that I've shot this year. If I over retouch them in any way, they will send them back and say don't make me look, ai generated Now.

Lesle Lane: 23:58

Luckily, I've only had that happen two or three times this year, but I think that I think that AI is going to continue to be an amazing tool for our industry. I'm hoping it doesn't replace me till I retire and I don't want to be naive and to say that, but I think it's just going to continue to be the companies that are driven by authenticity, the companies that are driven by transparency. They're still going to need photography that reflects those corporate motives.

Gary Pageau: 24:25

Yeah, I think you're right, because I go to a lot of conferences where I talk about AI and it's definitely a tool that's been in use for a long time in the imaging industry right. We've been using it for enhancing images and doing this, you know, before it became trendy, people were, you know, have been using AI. So I think the authenticity piece actually is a point of differentiation, because people can spot AI stuff. Where I think it's going to make a big impact, I think is in stock photography or in catalog photography, right, where you can swap out AI models for a shirt and, you know, on a website very easily, you know. So I think that type of photography is going to be impacted, but, you know, taking pictures of real people in real places doing real things, I think is not going to change.

Lesle Lane: 25:09

I hope you're right. I'm ready for it.

Gary Pageau: 25:14

Lesle, where can people go to get more information about you and your business down there in Indianapolis?

Lesle Lane: 25:21

Absolutely so. You can reach me at Studio13Onlinecom. That is our website, studio13onlinecom, and you can hear all about my family story under the legacy button. If you want to learn about all three generations of us. You can also find us on Facebook, instagram, linkedin, and you can find me personally on LinkedIn as well. Lesle, without an I L E S L E L A N E.

Gary Pageau: 25:46

Lesle, without an I. It's been great talking to you and I look forward to meeting you in person sometime.

Lesle Lane: 25:52

I hope so, Gary. It's been a pleasure.

Erin Manning: 25:55

Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. Read more great stories and sign up for the newsletter at wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.