Help with starting up a photo business

Lisa91

First let me say that I am sorry if this is the wrong place for these questions.

Second this is my first post, I have been lurking for about a year. I finally signed up in December, but I've always been worried about posting. You girls and guys are so very smart, I didn't wished to laughed off the board.

now the question, Have you heard of a web site called

http://www.photogbiz.com/ How to start a photography business?

I mostly take sports photos, some senior, few family and induvidual photos. I am finally signing up for a smug mug account. Before I would just print out a contact sheet, so they could pick what they wanted printed up. This is going to be so much easier.


I have a few customers that want me to photograph their pets, I have no idea how to go about that and no one in our area does this, so if you have any suggestions, I would really like to keep my customers happy, but I don't wish to do a crappy job.

I am open to any and all comments.

Thanks so much,

Lisa

Sam

Lisa,

You will never be laughed off this board. That said if your not tough enough to post your questions, and receive constructive criticism, you might want to rethink going into business for yourself.

I took a quick look at the "How to start a photography business" website, and personally would delete the link from my computer. He wouldn't get my $$ I don't believe there is any one here who is making $1000 a week with photography in their spare time. If you are PLEASE contact me immediately!!!! He might be making that selling some info, and tidbits to people like you.

There are a lot of good solid well respected books available to help you get a photography business going in the right direction. Check out Amazon.

You can also get a ton of good advice right here.

Why not let us know a little more about yourself. How much photographic experience you have, equipment, location, etc.

Sam

pmbpro

Hi Lisa,

I've been a member for quite a while too, but hadn't posted. Being so new to photography, I didn't feel I had anything to contribute compared to what I've seen here from these great folks already so I've been lurking.

I did find Dan Heller's site, which I thought had very useful information. http://www.danheller.com/bizfaq.html

This site seems quite detailed, considering he also sells a book version of the subject.

Has anyone here seen this site before?

pmb

PeterLyons

pmbpro wrote:

.

I did find Dan Heller's site, which I thought had very useful information. http://www.danheller.com/bizfaq.html

This site seems quite detailed, considering he also sells a book version of the subject.

Has anyone here seen this site before?

pmb

Yeah, Dan Heller's site is a good one.

Also check out the forums at photo.net.

And have a look at your library for ASMP's photography business practices book.

Angelo

...and Lisa, there's loads of great advice right here on DGRIN. Scan through this forum as well as others for posts that will be very helpful to you.

Holler if you need help


ps: Personally, I don't like the look of that website you linked. Seems awfully spammy IMHO!

RustingInPeace

Don't forget the PPA
www.ppa.com

They have good stuff for members

RustingInPeace

By the way
I forgot to mention that the photobiz site is crap! I have been in sales for a long time and there is always some bone head (no matter the industry) with "the magic bullet" that's going to make selling easy! And no matter how you slice it: this is a sales business.

Now having bashed the poor guy. You might pick up out of his whole package 1 or 2 ideas that really work for you. That might be worth $147. Just don't expect it to be the end-all-do-all that the guy is pitching.

Now to the pets:

I have done some dogs, some cats, and horses. It's not a big part of my business but I have learned a few painful lessons:

1. Never believe a dog owner when they tell you their dog does not bite!
2. Always have some animal toys handy to get the pets attention
3. Be prepared to shoot fast! Kinda like shooting a 2 year old.
4. Have the owner be fairly specific about what they want. I love it when they have examples.
5. Larger animals are mean more headaches
6. Horses are dumb!
7. Horse owners are crazy

Tampa-Photography

Point of Clarification

RustingInPeace wrote:

I forgot to mention that the photobiz site is crap! I have been in sales for a long time and there is always some bone head (no matter the industry) with "the magic bullet" that's going to make selling easy! And no matter how you slice it: this is a sales business.

Now having bashed the poor guy. You might pick up out of his whole package 1 or 2 ideas that really work for you. That might be worth $147. Just don't expect it to be the end-all-do-all that the guy is pitching.

Now to the pets:

I have done some dogs, some cats, and horses. It's not a big part of my business but I have learned a few painful lessons:

1. Never believe a dog owner when they tell you their dog does not bite!
2. Always have some animal toys handy to get the pets attention
3. Be prepared to shoot fast! Kinda like shooting a 2 year old.
4. Have the owner be fairly specific about what they want. I love it when they have examples.
5. Larger animals are mean more headaches
6. Horses are dumb!
7. Horse owners are crazy

Just a point of clarification - Photobiz is a legitimate company that offers web solutions for photogs (I'm a client). Photogbiz (with a "G") is crap!

xena0966

Hey - t/j here...horses are not dumb and not all horse people are crazy!!! Are you calling me crazy then?????? :ivar

Snowgirl

xena0966 wrote:

Hey - t/j here...horses are not dumb and not all horse people are crazy!!! Are you calling me crazy then?????? :ivar

x2rofl:ivar

That said, horses are challenging to photograph. I've gone onto a number of different stock sites and some of the shots I've seen are pretty awful. And, some horses are difficult to pose. But, done well they're amazing!

Dumb? Nah - they just train their people well, that's all.

SCP

Yeah, I gotta say.. Horse people aren't crazy and Horses only seem dumb because they are smarter then most people.

This is what my Mare Shai Shai thinks of your comment.




That being said I just went from MN to NM and We were put up by horse people who were wonderful, loving and great friends. Had I broken down in any state between MN and Home they would have came for me in a flash.

markjtrickey

Photographing Dogs
I've taken a few pictures of dogs. In fact it's become somewhat of an addiction and I'm starting to think about trying to maybe start a business as well. (I.E. I'm wishy washy and extremely interested in the topic). That being said what I have found with photographing dogs (BTW, I do most of my shooting when they are running around being crazy) is expect to take 100's of shots and pick out the best. This is probably a combination of the type of shoots I take and my relative inexperience. I imagine doing studio type shots would be a different ball game, but I have found that as with people my best shots tend to be the ones that are not posed.

markjtrickey

I love this shot
I had to reply because shots of animals sticking their tongues out make me roll madly on the ground. I have a few with dogs giving a great raspberry and I laugh my butt off every time.

Great Shot.

SCP wrote:

Yeah, I gotta say.. Horse people aren't crazy and Horses only seem dumb because they are smarter then most people.

This is what my Mare Shai Shai thinks of your comment.




That being said I just went from MN to NM and We were put up by horse people who were wonderful, loving and great friends. Had I broken down in any state between MN and Home they would have came for me in a flash.