Merchandise!

Merchandise!!

To accompany the shop I thought that there could be merchandise to help spread popularity as well as being functional. Winners of compeitions being held could receive these gifts to reward great photography. I think this would add to the photographic theme and would nice. With a clear and recognisable brand, I think that this could work as a marketing tool. This could expand to t-shirts. However, merchandising should still be very low on priorities of the business model. These items should be the icing on the cake, and be accompanied with a great enjoyable experience at the shop or tour. The shop is not a retailer and it's main source of income should predominately be from tour sales, workshops, print sales. We want to promote the taking of photos and displaying them rather than being kept in computers; photo albums, large prints, canvas prints, photo scrapbooks etc. Below are some ideas for the bokehlicious brand:

Keychain viewfinder – A simple and cheap tool which can be carreid with your keys. It allows the user to frame a shot without the use of a camera. You can still practise your imagination even if you don't have your camera. It can be a reminder and encouragement to always take your camera with you.

“Use your creativity in the viewfinder and not in the sky” (Kai Wong)

Photo albums - A variety of sizes, these can be classed for professional, home or personal-use. Professional are for high quality and larger format printing, whereas home can be for special occassions, medium sized. Personal-use photobooks would be the cheapest option catered for keeping photos within a book as a journal. It should be cheaper and made as a scrapbook of ideas and exploration; like an artist's sketchbook. There should also be a separate series where books can be refillable, although more expensive, the photos can be taken out and rearranged. A noval idea additional would be a permenant marker to be accompanied with the books to allow users to write in the books. Autographs, personal messages and notation for the occasion, or event would really give the photos more meaning.

“Seeing is not enough, you have to feel what you photography” (Andre kertesz)

Photo Guide Books

I think to accompany these tours, a small book to help remind and spark creativity would be ideal. There may be times when the tourguide is too busy and cannot answer all the questions, or cover all the aspects in photography. Therefore, in these times of creative block, this book can be handy to remind the photographer different themes, subjects, styles and techniques to experiment with. I hope this book is small, cheap to buy for any amatuer photographer and be something everyone would carry within their bags.

A separate, more comprehensive series of books teaching people what to look out for in York and photo opportunities would be good too. However, this must be a location specific book and give advice with example photos and explanations that would benefit all photographers. I hope this series would be written with a lot more content about composition and taking great photos, as opposed to technical schematic on how your camera equipment works. The series is aimed at photographers who have just purchased their first DSLR. More technical aspects of photography will only be covered in more depth when trying to achieve certain photo styles and effects.

Possible Book titles:

Book of Bokehlicious recipes

Shooting York with a 50mm lens (standard lens)

Shooting York with a 24mm lens (wide angle lens)

Shooting York with a 105mm lens (telephoto lens)

Shooting with a camera phone

Processing Raw files in Lightroom

Bokeh effects

Shaped holes in card - Very fun and simple effect. Make bokeh shapes to personalise your photos! It is simple a piece of card covering the lens with a shape cut out. This makes out of focus shapes turn into whatever the hole is shaped. A heart shaped hole gives heart shapes in the out-of-focus parts of the photos. Experiment with shape sizes and materials. Great fun for kids and also adults.

X Mas tree without bokeh shape

X mas tree with name shaped bokeh

Experimental bokeh shape