Welcome to episode 74 of the Photography Marketing Masters podcast, brought to you by Zenologue Prime Focus - the place where serious professional photographers simplify their marketing to win in today's complex business landscape.

Thank you so much for being here and sharing some of your valuable time with me.

Today, I want to explore the commonly-held idea that a picture is worth a thousand words, together with the widespread notion that professional photography can somehow sell itself.

As photographers, it's so easy (and tempting) to imagine potential customers falling in love with your work at first sight. It's a romantic idea, born from our belief in the power of the photographic image to capture, convey, or elicit emotion to the extent that our photographs will easily move someone enough for them to hire us or buy our work.

But is that power real, or imagined?

Judging from the vast number of photography websites I see where words resemble an endangered species, it appears most photographers do buy into the idea to a large extent.

Personally, I believe the answer lies somewhere in the dark murky zone between real and imagined.

It's not the Twilight Zone, but it's close.

Grab a flashlight, and let's go see if we can find it.