How to Go Pro?

Andy

Got this by email. Let's show the emailer what we know, eh?

Anonymous Emailer wrote:

Before I start asking you questions, let me just tell you a little bit about my self. This may sound pretty forward since we only first comunicated a couple of days ago but I beleive if you understand my situation you might be able to advise me with more ease. I'm currently a university student studying XXXXX. I bought my first digital camera a year ago (just a sony point and shoot) and I got into photography quite seriously this summer while traveling around Europe. I ended up buying a D70 kit with all sorts of bits and pieces during the summer. Since then I've been devoting more and more of my spare time to photography. I'm also begining to lose interest and am getting bored with XXXXX. I'm starting to contemplate photography as a career path. I enjoy it as a hobby but I'm not sure if I want to take it to the next level. I've read some things about professional photography and about how it's more difficult than most people think and you're not always doing exactly what you want (as the case is with most things).

I'm wondering if you could give me some advice as to some things that might help me decide one way or another and I thought that you might be able to tell me what it's like to be a professional. I've thought about getting a part time job as a photographer but currently that option isn't available since I'm an international student in YYYYYYYY and I'm only eligeable to work on campus. I've been told by several people that my work is "good enough" but I know that those people are just being polite and I need to improve not only the work but my technique as well before I can even hope to make it.
Thanks very much for your time and your help this far,

Shay Stephens

Some thoughts
You have to be dedicated and fully committed to photography as a career if you want to see it work. It took me 3 years of full time (overtime) work to get to a profitable stage.

If you have enough money to float you, great, if not, be ready for some really hard times on the way to success. Many quit when the going gets brutally tough.

The other way is the slow but safer route of part time or assisting work. Working your way up over the course of many many years.

You also should be at a stage where you know your quality and consistency are good enough to handle what it is you intend to do. If you are not sure yet if you are good enough, then you are not. Go into the biz with real confidence (don't fool yourself). If not, you will fail.

Start learning how to deal with rejection if you have not done so already. You will face a lot of rejection for good and bad reasons. You need to be able to deal with all of them. Rejection can be crippling if you are not able to deal with it.

Equipment is important, but not all important. You need a base that will let you capture what you need, but you don't have to go crazy here at start up. Build your kit as your work demands. Many times you intend to go in one direction and find you are going in a direction you didn't think you would. So let your work dictate the equipment you get and use. Start with the basics.

Study your market hard, and keep doing so up until the day you die. This business is constantly changing. It's the ones that cement themselves into place that get left behind and lose business to the "upstarts".

Image quality is important, but what goes into the photo is even more important. Don't get too bogged down by the technicals at the expense of the content of the photos. People don't buy photos based on the lack of noise or DOF, they buy photos because of the content, what is shown, the emotional impact it gives them.

Deal honestly with your customers. In the long run you will wind up ahead even if you get a few punches along the way from the dishonest out there.

Become a visual person if you are not already that way. And remember, lighting is the key. The secret to great photos is composition, lighting, exposure, and color. Study these things relentlessly.

Become a sales person if you are not already that way. If you can't sell, get someone who can. If you can't sell, you won't stay in business. The sales aspect is just as important as being able to create a great photo. One without the other won't work, you need both to function. It's like having a car with no engine, or an engine without a car. Only when you have both working together can you go anywhere of consequence.

Don't worry about having a "style" in the beginning. Your style is basically your experience, and that will develop naturally over time as you discover what you like and what you don't. Keep doing the things that are successful for you and that bring you satisfaction. That is what will determine your true style. Don't adopt someone else's style as your own because you won't stay satisfied. Only by doing what you want and enjoy will you create your own unique visual identity that others will see as your style, that thing that only you can do. Once you have that, you have something worthwhile, something people will be will to pay you for.

gus

I was at a major sporting event here not so long back. I walked & shot around with all the pro's there for 12 hours & some guys that shoot anything for a living & freelance to anyone. What i found was a group of unhappy people that were disgruntled with photography. They complained bitterly about the travel away from family...the hotel rooms....the airports...the abuse (the newspaper guys) the bordom of following the same sport each year to the same venue. I looked at the stuff the pro's had done after that particular even & almost fell asleep at the computer....they have totally lost their passion to show emotion /fear or anything but what they were contracted to shoot on the day for the teams (yep yep yep i know...they shoot what they are told to & what will pay) I could feel a lot of animosity between them.

Photography is what i think about all day at work ...not what i have to produce to make money.

Im not bagging pro's in general simply telling you what i saw that day like it or lump it. This is just one event & my only contact with people that earn a living shooting/travelling so maybe i got them all on a bad day.

flyingpylon

I'm not a "pro" in that I don't make a living from photography. However, I wanted to mention that I have seen exactly the same behavior that Humungus describes, many many times. It kills me that people that couldn't care less about being at an event are the ones that get the prime shooting locations via their credentials and produce ho-hum photos while the rest of us with a real passion have to shoot over walls, through fences, etc. etc. But that's beside the point.

The real point is to make sure you love the business of photography, not just photography. Some people like both enough to become very successful. Others realize that it's an enjoyable hobby that would be ruined by the pressures related to making it pay enough to put food on the table and a roof over their head. Think seriously about this.

That said, if you're just starting out in life, you have a lot of time to try a lot of different things and even to completely screw up a few times before figuring out what's right for you. It's when you've already got a wife, kids, mortgage and car payments that the screw ups get significantly more costly.

Just my two cents. Good luck!

bham

Unforunately I have also found this to be the case sometimes. But what I have found is those photographers stop shooting for enjoyment also. I think the lack of variety, challenges, etc tends to breed boredom. It can with any job, profession, etc.

This is one of the things that keeps me from quiting my day job and going all out photographer.

Nikolai

Whilst Shay already pretty much said it all
I'd dare to add a few lines..:-)
I'm still very much in the position of many who try to crank up the business side of the photography. I agree that there is a huge difference in "photography as hobby" and "photography as business". Which lies primarily in second words, i.e. "hobby vs. business". Come think of it, one can substitute "photography" with XXX, and as long as one likes doing this XXX and this XXX can, in theory, produce something that can be sold (hand-sewn dress, fixed pipe, revived garden, racetrack record, software program, music piece, etc. - you name it), everything what Shay (and many before him) said will be applicable almost 100%.
The point is - it does not matter WHAT you like to do. But if you want to make money off it, or, even more, live off it, you need to think career.

I want to share a story I like a lot. It's not about photography, but about my current field of expertise, computer programming. My coworker was once approached by a teen, who wanted to "get into software business". That was the time when Id Software was on the peak of popularity, so quite naturally the teen wanted "to write computer games" (well, who in software industry didn't, at one point or another?:-). However, when my colleague asked him what computer language does he prefer, the teen's response was "What language? I told you - I want to write GAMES...".

Think of that, and of what Gus just mentioned... Business is what you do for a living. And that means that you have to think of it primarily and mostly from this - business - perspective. As a software engineer, I was lucky enough to have my fair share of exciting projects. However, 80% (if not 90%) of my time since I entered the S/W business was spent on the tasks I would rather avoid: bug fixing (not even MY bugs), project planning, supporting, implementing stupid "marketing" features, etc. Could I "ditch" them? I certainly could. Would I stay in business longer than a year? I seriously doubt it.

Bottom line: "photography as business" means "business", period. It's nice - and extremely important - to like what you do, as well as it is important to be the best in your trade (at least locally:-), and, at the same time, being capable to lose (or to get rejected, as Shay put it) without much remorse. However, most important is your ability to be a businessperson.
Otherwise you better keep it as a hobby:-)

HTH

bham

Nikolai wrote:

I'd dare to add a few lines..:-)
I'm still very much in the position of many who try to crank up the business side of the photography. I agree that there is a huge difference in "photography as hobby" and "photography as business". Which lies primarily in second words, i.e. "hobby vs. business". Come think of it, one can substitute "photography" with XXX, and as long as one likes doing this XXX and this XXX can, in theory, produce something that can be sold (hand-sewn dress, fixed pipe, revived garden, racetrack record, software program, music piece, etc. - you name it), everything what Shay (and many before him) said will be applicable almost 100%.
The point is - it does not matter WHAT you like to do. But if you want to make money off it, or, even more, live off it, you need to think career.

I want to share a story I like a lot. It's not about photography, but about my current field of expertise, computer programming. My coworker was once approached by a teen, who wanted to "get into software business". That was the time when Id Software was on the peak of popularity, so quite naturally the teen wanted "to write computer games" (well, who in software industry didn't, at one point or another?:-). However, when my colleague asked him what computer language does he prefer, the teen's response was "What language? I told you - I want to write GAMES...".

Think of that, and of what Gus just mentioned... Business is what you do for a living. And that means that you have to think of it primarily and mostly from this - business - perspective. As a software engineer, I was lucky enough to have my fair share of exciting projects. However, 80% (if not 90%) of my time since I entered the S/W business was spent on the tasks I would rather avoid: bug fixing (not even MY bugs), project planning, supporting, implementing stupid "marketing" features, etc. Could I "ditch" them? I certainly could. Would I stay in business longer than a year? I seriously doubt it.

Bottom line: "photography as business" means "business", period. It's nice - and extremely important - to like what you do, as well as it is important to be the best in your trade (at least locally:-), and, at the same time, being capable to lose (or to get rejected, as Shay put it) without much remorse. However, most important is your ability to be a businessperson.
Otherwise you better keep it as a hobby:-)

HTH

Well said.