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Advice on getting started in a photography career

post #1 of 7
7/7/10 at 12:22pm
Thread Starter 

Hello, fellow Head-Fiers; some advice, if you will.

 

So, what with graduation from high school fast approaching and my current line of work paying pocket change, I've begun thinking more seriously about how to get into professional photography. I'm really looking for advice on how to get started here, how to identify and contact potential employers, what sort of work to even be looking at. I'm also curious how to go about selling prints, either digitally or physically, and if that is a feasible source of income (as opposed to being employed by a company or companies). I know there are websites now that you can post your pictures on and you get a share for every time someone downloads one. Are those a good way to make money and get started, or a pointless time sink?

 

Any suggestions and pointers are welcome, although I would prefer those which do not focus on having a collage degree. Aside from the pictures which I have posted on Head-Fi over the years, I have a portfolio of about 8,000 (give or take) pictures on my computer, some obviously more usable than others. My primary source of training is theatre photography, both photo shoots and live performance coverage.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

(if I left any relevant information out of the first post and later realize it, addendums will go here)

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post #2 of 7
7/7/10 at 2:02pm

 

Hehe, don't do it.

 

Listen to Mr. Rockwell, he is right.  (Link)

 

Photography is a hobby, not a profession.  There are too many people out there who make great photos using their $500 digital SLR for fun, such that making it as a fresh professional photographer is difficult. Of course there are areas where professionals excel: high risk must-get-the-shot situations (e.g., weddings, sports), high-end fashion and marketing, photojournalism (emphasis on the journalism), etc.

 

Or take an entrepreneur's advice, and calculate conservatively from the bottom up.  Say you can shoot one wedding, one theatre show, and one other job during the weekdays.  No studio, all location work.  Modest gear, no employees, self-proprietorship.  As an unknown photographer, you won't command big premiums at first.  So you're probably looking at a couple hundred dollars max for the gigs, and probably a little more for the wedding, depending on the scope and how efficient you can make workflow.  That's a week's worth of work, with weekend days and evenings committed.  How much is your time worth?  If you pulled the same shifts working at Starbucks, you'd probably make more.  And the job at Starbucks doesn't require booking gigs or risking being out of work.  Or have equipment/software to buy.  I'm not suggesting you should give up on the photography and go work as a barista...just that professional photography is hard, and those who succeed commercially are likely to be lucky and/or talented at self-promotion rather than artistic expression.

 

Selling stock photos used to be a viable money-making strategy, but no longer. iStockPhoto and similar businesses have crowd-sourced the industry, and now stock photos sell for a fraction of what they did years before.  As a hobbyist photographer, if someone offers me $30 for a photo I own, I might go for it.  No way you can do that to sustain a lifestyle unless you identify a niche where you can manufacture LOTS of stock photos.  If you make money selling photos online, it will probably be to someone who was somehow involved in the events that you photographed.

 

You can set up a website for cheap, so why not?  (Say, $10 for a domain name, $5-10/month for hosting).  Make a good photoblog, ask around, and see if people are interested in paying you for photo work.  It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing...you can do photography as a side job.

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post #3 of 7
7/7/10 at 2:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Exediron View Post

Hello, fellow Head-Fiers; some advice, if you will.

 

So, what with graduation from high school fast approaching and my current line of work paying pocket change, I've begun thinking more seriously about how to get into professional photography. I'm really looking for advice on how to get started here, how to identify and contact potential employers, what sort of work to even be looking at. I'm also curious how to go about selling prints, either digitally or physically, and if that is a feasible source of income (as opposed to being employed by a company or companies). I know there are websites now that you can post your pictures on and you get a share for every time someone downloads one. Are those a good way to make money and get started, or a pointless time sink?

 

Any suggestions and pointers are welcome, although I would prefer those which do not focus on having a collage degree. Aside from the pictures which I have posted on Head-Fi over the years, I have a portfolio of about 8,000 (give or take) pictures on my computer, some obviously more usable than others. My primary source of training is theatre photography, both photo shoots and live performance coverage.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

(if I left any relevant information out of the first post and later realize it, addendums will go here)


The first thing you need to realize is that photography is 90% business, 10% photography.  You may be the next Ansel Adams, but without any marketing, you're just another photographer.  Even if you can only take a few classes, many photographers hold some type of degree in a business field, or a MBA. 

 

Selling "stock" photography, those general shots of plants, trees, the sun, whatever will get you nothing.  It takes too much time, and all you get in return is pennies.  Avoid going this route, unless you sell your own photography on your own stock photography site.

 

Your portfolio should make any person say "HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHY," anything less and you won't be noticed.  I've spoken to an EIC of a newspaper and many times they have seen average work being shown as their best.  You also need to customize your portfolio based on where you're applying.  If you're applying for a newspaper position, you should probably have a lot of photographs based on photojournalism, etc.  More refined work, such as studio work is important to include, but the majority should not be macro photography if you're applying for a newspaper! 

 

Another thing to remember is to price your work at how much you think it's worth.  Don't sell an 8x10 for $4 and then try to raise your price to $18 when your realize that that is what it's worth, it won't happen.

 

This book is one of the BEST photography related books ever written.  I highly suggest you buy a copy.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Business-Practices-Photographers-Harrington/dp/1598633155

 

Just my opinion, good luck.

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post #4 of 7
7/7/10 at 9:55pm

With the advent of digital, photography is widely available to the masses, so the market is fairly saturated, not so much with pros, but with really talented amateurs who can more or less get results that professionals have been churning out the last fifteen to twenty years. Need the exact lighting setup to get that Monty Zukerman portrait-look? It's all there on the Internet as well. Margins are thin, and the advice above is still the most relevant - it's 90% business, and if you're not making any money then it's best to find another vocation.

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post #5 of 7
7/8/10 at 1:51am

I agree with Omega. Don't do it.

 

I worked for 15 years as a photographer in the mass media. It was stressful, highly competitive and involved kissing a lot of butt, all for fairly ordinary money. I freelanced for 5 of those years and found myself competing with photographers whose work was not their main source of income- ie they had trust funds or the like. If you are anything like me, you'll lose interest anyway. Seriously, keep it as a hobby and find a profession that will at least pay you well and you'll be able to maintain a modicum of interest in. 

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post #6 of 7
7/9/10 at 12:25pm
Thread Starter 

Hmm. Well, thanks for the responses, even if they are slightly discouraging in tone. Luckily, or unluckily as the case may be, I don't get discouraged easily.

 

I'm not looking to jump instantly into full-time photography. For the time being, I'm more interested in small, no-risk sort of things to get a feel for how the industry works and see how much marketability the sort of pictures I take possess. I thought of the microstock sites because, as I understand it, there is no risk whatsoever (aside from the time commitment of keeping up to date, which is entirely voluntary).

 

Selling pictures freelance to newspapers is another thing I've thought about (it's a fairly stereotypical thing for a freelance photographer to do, after all), but I really have no idea how that works. There are also some places around here (not galleries per se, cafes and the like) that will exhibit photos for sale in return for some manner of fee. I don't know how well such places sell the pictures, however, or what the exact terms are (e.g. how much you get paid).

 

As of now, I don't have a pressing need for a well-paying job, so it's not urgent that whatever I decide to try out is able to provide a so-called 'living' income immediately. I'd be fully willing to settle for a few extra thousand a year for the time being, although that would change at such time as I need it for a primary living. At such time, if photography doesn't seem to be working out, I suppose I'd get a more normal job.

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post #7 of 7
7/10/10 at 12:29pm

Hate to say it, but don't be one of those "follow your dream" types.  Being from Los Angeles, I've seen a lot of people come here and completely waste their lives trying to break into the movie biz.  It's not worth it.  Most of them end up taking menial jobs in bars and restaurants while spending every dime on workshops, seminars and lessons.  Then they spend every bit of free time going to auditions, etc.

 

It's cute for someone 18-21 doing this, but then you eventually turn 30 or 40, have nothing saved, and eventually realize that you're not going anywhere.

 

So don't waste your life.  Get into school, join the military, go overseas to teach English, start a business (and I'm not talking about the artsy stuff - buying a truck to haul stuff is a lot more realistic), going to trade school to become a mechanic, plumber or electrician, and so on are what an 18 year old should be doing.

 

I love photography, too, and get compliments on a lot of photos I take.  But it's not going anywhere.  Maybe I could make a few hundred a year off stock photography, and I might do it some day.  If I got a few hundred a year that paid for a new lens or something, that would be awesome.  But I went to undergrad at 18, picked up a couple more degrees, know a couple of trades well enough to work in them, and help run a family business.  If I had run off to act, play music or shoot photos, I'd have nothing today.

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