How to Become a Photographer

Foundational Tip No. 1 - Avoid Undermining Yourself

There are a bunch of different articles on the net on how to become a photographer. However, I will give you the number one tip on how to become a photographer, how to start making money now with your digital camera. Out of all the tips, tutorials, answers, secrets, lessons, etc., here's the number one tip: If you want to become a working, paid photographer, then act like a  paid, working photographer!

Obvious. Not so, as one could get rich making a dollar for every time an enthusiastic would be photographer sabotages his or her opportunity to be viewed as a professional commercial photographer, who warrants being paid like a commercial professional.

People undermine their opportunity to start being paid like a commercial photographer by the following behavior:

• Giving away their work for free
• Not having a professional looking business card and/or rate card or brochure
• Not carrying themselves like someone doing professional work

Working for Free

The most common scenario I see, especially in music photography and wedding photography, is a photographer that has already dug a hole for their career by having already positioned themselves in people's mind as someone that shoots photographs for free. They go around volunteering to shoot this or that event or this or that person for free, and then they wonder why they can't make money doing photography.

Is that you? If you've been doing it, stop it and start telling people what your rates are. Don't know your rates. We'll talk about that later but start asking around and finding out what other photogs charge for various assignments in your town.

When you do start advising people of your rates expect some backlash, if you already made your current likely prospects, likely market, come to expect that you are suppose to shoot for free cause you've been such a "nice person" doing it for others. You may need to call your current "marketing / social circle" a loss and have to start anew in targeting and getting your message out to new prospects,

For those that feel they don't have a portfolio yet, the common protest is how can I can I develop a portfolio and gain experience. Well, you're right. It's hard to do, especially with wedding and concert photography, but opportunities do exist to photograph without needing to obligate yourself or seek permission and there are alternative "compensation" arrangements one can propose instead of accepting getting nothing. [Editor: look for follow up articles or ebook on this and more]

Photographer Business Card or Photography Rate Card Pricing Photography

Another common undermining scenario is a non-income producing photographer being asked for a business card or for their rates  and the conversation ending with the photographer saying he or she doesn't have a card and will have to either get back to the person or the person with them.

First, this often results in a lost opportunity. Either the prospective client loses the phone number or email, or whatever they've scribbled down, or otherwise never follows up with you or you lose the information or delay in following up and when you do, the opportunity is gone.

Second, you have missed a chance to establish yourself as a commercial professional in the eyes of the prospective client. Go around and ask photographers for their business card and see how few of them have business cards. Just by having a business card you will stand out from all the other photographers.

Because what type of people have business cards . . . business people. A business card means you do business. And if you have a rate card, bonus points to you in further conveying your seriousness and increasing your chances of short circuiting a negotiation as the customer may view having a pre-printed rate card as a sign that you are serious that the rates are the rates.

Regardless, just by getting a business card, the person on the receiving end will likely perceive you and lump you in as other commercial photographers ... even without seeing any of your work!

Professional Photographer Behavior-Presentation

This lumping in with other professionals is basic human behavior. If you look the part and act the part, people think you are the part, in this case, the part is being a professional photographer who successfully earns a living doing photography. You might be surprised how many times people will inquire of your services or of purchasing photos simply because you look and act like a professional commercial photographer at an event.

I will quite often have someone at a concert or other event come up and ask me for a card and how much I charge, presuming I am a professional because I am looking and acting like someone there doing professional work and not just part of the crowd or a fan. Usually, the person breaks the ice  by asking what paper I'm I shooting for or otherwise who I am shooting for and then asking how to contact me.

This dynamic is not rare. Weddings, sporting events, parades and other community events are opportunities for a photographer to be approached by prospective clients asking  where they can see the photographer's photos from the event and how to contact the photographer. Even if you actually are at the event as a parent, relative or friend, people will think you are there shooting some engagement for someone, if you come across as a media professional and not just part of the casual crowd.

Summary

In short, many people by their behavior and lack of presentation and preparedness sabotage their opportunity to make money as an income earning, full time professional photographer. If you want to get a head start over the many photographers who are sabotaging themselves, don't work for free and act and look like a professional, being ready to immediately present a business card and/or rate card. By doing these things, you will have people thinking of you as someone who does pay worthy work even before they see a single photo ... though you better be ready with an online or hard copy portfolio when they do seek to verify your work.

Look for follow up articles on this as well as articles going into more details on how to get your start without having to work for free and how to present and market yourself and promote and defend your price.

BECOMING ACTIVE AGAIN

Your comments,  clicks, and emails are convincing me to keep this blog active in its mission to be the best set to give and collect tips and stories about how to make money, revenue or a career with photography. Keep the comments, email and clicks coming.

UPDATE JAN. 18: Still getting ready to become active.

Adrian Monk's Epiphany on the Value of Photography

In the episode "Monk vs. The Cobra," lead character and show namesake Adrian Monk has an epiphany on the value of photography. In the episode, Adrian Monk 's life is placed in peril, whereby he encounters and has a long talk with his wife. Towards the end of that encounter, Monk, so enraptured by being in the presence of his  wife, blurts  out: 

"You're so beautiful, I should have taken more pictures."

Don't Sell Photography, Sell What Photography Does

Photographer, business consultant and owner of Stock Asylum, LLC, Ron Rovtar, posted a blog urging photographers to sell what photography does. In other words, don't sell that you can take a picture, sell the benefits that your pictures provide that other photographs can't or can't do dependably.

Some key quotes from the article:

• A picture isn't worth much. But what. . . the right picture does -- can easily be worth thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars to the company that uses it.
  
  
• The picture is almost always the first element of an ad, brochure, magazine cover or Web page that registers with a consumer. It is the handshake, the first impression. It is what cuts through the visual clutter and captures a consumer's attention . . . . [It] is the difference between reaching a target audience or failing to reach it.
  
  
• For [art designers and directors], the effective use of pictures equals success.

Ron writes the post from the view of art directors, designers and commercial users being the target audience [Ron owns a stock photo agency]. However, the principle and even his quotes are right on for whatever the audience it.

For weddings, engagement or couple photos, the right picture is priceless if it can serve as a constant reminder of the beauty and glory of that day, the vows and relationship, so much that a couple will want to hand it down to their children to have or display. Such picture may very well be one of the first things that strike a person when entering the living room, office or wherever it is displayed, making a positive first impression, communicating fidelity and relationship. And indeed, the wedding photo book may very well be what others use to determine the success of the wedding and post-celebration [the events, not the relationship]

Likewise, in concert and band photography, all Ron's points about capturing the attention of others and making a first impression are valid. As a music listener, I have definitely be drawn to check out the music and description of a band or album because I was so intrigued by the album cover picture or art. When I do band promo work, I tell bands that the cost is recovered by my photos helping bring their press kit to the top of the pile.

Leave your comments and ideas on how to apply these principles to your situation.

VALUE OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Quote from Time Magazine

Came across this great quote on the power and value of photography from Richard Lacayo in Time Magazine (issue, date, etc. to be determined:

We hear it sometimes that photographs are losing their power. In a world where every other cell phone has a built in camera and and all the people you know just posted their summer vacations, their snow angels, and their tonsillectomies online, there are just too many pictures out there. Plus, those picures are so easily manipulated and photoshopped, how do you know when to trust them anymore? And anyway, we've seen it all before. You can almost believe all that, right up until that moment you come across one picture that speaks to you, the one that takes your imperfectly formed feelings and judgements and snaps everything, if you'll excuse the expression, into focus.

It's the ability to get that "one picture" that distinguishes and substantiates the value of a professionally skilled photographer. Capturing or taking a mediocre capture and brining out the outstanding from it, that is the "art" of the professional.

Article on Justifying Cost of Photography to Customers

What price to charge for photography and prints is a common question for people trying to establish themselves as professional photographers and get paid. On the customer side, customers think you should be glad to have twenty bucks since their "talented" cousin who loves to photograph is happy to get that for his/her snap shots (never mind their mediocre quality). Professional Child Photographer Marianne Drenthe has a post on her site explaining why great custom photography costs more.

In explaining why professional photographers charge $40 or more for an 8x10 when Wal Mart charges less than $5 to print one, Marianne seeks to educate customers on 4 points:

• The amount of time put in by the photographer
• The costs involved in shooting professional photography
• Apples to oranges [in the quality and service being offered]
  
• The worth of the photographer's reputation and expertise

The context for the explanations is the portrait market for child photography; however, her points can be extrapolated to other markets.

Foundational Tip No. 2 - Don't Mystify It; It's Not Rocket Science

Continuing the approach of tip no. 1, tip no. 2 again seems obvious, don't mystify the process, making money as a professional photographer is not rocket science, no more than any other profession.
Now this may seem more attitudinal than practical, but it is well known that attitude, having the right attitude, is foundational for any success.

Like with tip no. 1, despite seeming to be obvious, I see plenty of people coming to forums asking for advice on how to make money like it is some mystical, hidden process guarded by some secret club of "in" photographers for whom money and assignments flow by and they jealousy want to keep others away from their easy, free flowing streams. Or they come, sounding like deer in the headlights, as if marketing photography is somehow more complex and full of esoteric buzzwords to grasp more than any other profession.

And you can just sense the neediness and the feeling the seeker is overwhelmed imagining that making a living as a photographer is more magical and taxing than methodical and disciplined.

Well it's not.

Presuming you already are a skilled photographer, marketing yourself, making a living, is no different than anyone in any other field, a contractor, a lawyer, a tax preparer, a wedding planner, etc. Like any other field, you can't get any business unless people know you exist.

And the steps to doing that are the same as any other field, such as:

• Store front/office front with a sign that people can see from the street
• Advertising, whether phone book, newspaper, direct mail, etc.
• Networking, whether talking to and passing out cards among friends and associates to attending meetings or conferences, such as wedding shows, if you are a wedding photographer.
• Direct solicitation/cold calling or mailing, such as calling up schools and asking for opportunity to pitch to shoot yearbook photos, sports events, etc.
• Word of Mouth

In fact, it's somewhat easier than other fields, especially if your photography is above the norm, as unlike other fields, your work can truly "speak for itself," practically selling the client before they ever talk to you.

In fact, it's a perfect field if you are a non-people person, hating direct solicitation and networking as you can still build an effective business simply by getting your work seen and allowing that work to have an already pre-sold client contact you.

That does not mean there are not a myriad other "academic" parts to building a successful business as a photographer, such as knowing contracts, handling customer questions and objections and knowing competition prices and advantages and setting yours.

But again, most people asking about how to become a photographer, how to make a living, are those mystified as to how they can get people to want to pay them. Thus, my first two tips have been on building that foundation in attitude and conduct that will bring in demand; handling that demand is another thing. Look for further articles on that as well as more on generating that demand.

Again, tip. no. 2 presumes you are a great photographer. If you are a mediocre photographer, then you need to become great at a particularly niche or either look for a field you can be great in or you will have to compete mainly on price, which is the least sustainable and least enjoyable position to be in.

I will further follow up with figuring out what one's "angle" is as though it is not necessary to figure that out before you start marketing yourself [and my previous tip already gave you immediate tactics that in effect result in marketing yourself]; figuring out what one's "angle" / competitive advantage is is essential for long term sustainability and for maximizing your success. I will also be posting resources for improving one's photography. Keep coming back.

 

Things Even Experienced Photographers Forget

Recently read an article on 7 Bad Habits of Photographers and left a comment. A number of people criticized the points of the article for being simplistic and obvious. One even suggested the article should have been named "7 Bad Habits of Amateur Photographers." However, even experienced photographers still forget or take for granted basic things as well as all of mankind for that matter. So in that light and inspired particularly by point 1 of that article - forgetting to put things back in gear bag, I've decided to list the things even experienced photographers forget before heading out to photog.

1. Batteries: You come home from shooting an event for several hours. You take out the battery or batteries and start charging at home while putting your bag elsewhere. Next day or two, you are in a hurry, grab your bag and head out to discover you forgot to go into the other room and grab the batteries.
2. Battery Charger: You remember to put the batteries back in the bag or camera but lazily leave the battery charger out or you are shooting an all day event and keep the charger plugged in so you can come back to re-charge batteries and at the end of the day, get caught up in talking to people that you just walk out with them and forget to get the charger. This happens to me as I will otherwise have my gear bags with me while having my battery charger plugged in a back room.
3. Computer / Laptop Power Adapter: Many professional photographers, including me, take a computer with them on site to immediately off load and process shots or review shots on a big screen instead of a tiny LCD. I grab my laptop to take with me to a shoot, detach the power cable which falls to the floor along with the mess of wires by my computer desk, and then after putting my computer into the laptop bag (hey, it's still a bag), get distracted and forget to go back and pull out and wrap up the power adapter. This happened so often that I brought a second power adapter that I keep in my laptop bag. One of the best investments I made.
   
4. Compact Flash: You take them out. You put them in your card reader attached to your computer and you leave them in the reader or if you do stacks at a time, like I do, then you end up leaving on the desk or table by your computer. Because I have over a half dozen cards, I usually can get by forgetting a card here and there. However, one time I grab my bag and went out for a three hour shoot at three different sites and realized I had only one of my eight cards with me.
5. Business cards: If you've read my number one tip on how to become a photographer, working and paid, then you know how important it is to always have these in your bag, even if you are out shooting for fun for yourself.
6. Pen / Marker and Notebook: Often comes in handy at a shoot to write down notes and get names and numbers. Often, I will be at a shoot and I will be the only one with a pen, marker, note paper handy. At concert gigs, be very careful of loaning out as you often won't get back.
7. Ear Plugs: Not an issue for non-concert photographers, but for me, this is the number one thing I forget as well as often lose because I end up stuffing in my pockets or taking off and setting down instead of immediately putting back into my gear bag.

Fortunately, I've never missed out on a gig because of these things, but have had to make drives to get what I left behind or had to work under extra stress and change my normal shooting style as I had to do the time I only had 1 of my eight cards with me.

Welcome Message

Welcome to my blog, I will be featuring a post of my number one tip if you want to start making money as a photographer and I am serious about it. Just by paying attention to my number one tip, along with the other foundational tips, and you will start attracting work and establishing the most important foundation for all other efforts to promote yourself, negotiate, get paying assignments and perform and behave like a professional.

My goal is to post regularly and post quality content. Many sites have an article about how to become a photographer, this site will have many posts on becoming a professional photographer as well as keeping track and commenting on related articles and posts on the Internet.