Going for it, starting your own photography business

You have a camera and now you should have the needs to fund your new obsession, if it's not an obsession i hope it quickly becomes one.


First you should decide how you want to make money, what i mean to say is what do you want to shoot to bring in revenue. You could go commercial and shoot for a company or shoot products such as jewelery or clothing or even buildings. Another is through the art of it, you can take beautiful pictures and sell them at shows or online. You can shoot portraits that range from models to babys and pets and anything in between.  My favorite though is wedding photography. One wedding can land you anywhere from $1000 to $5000 and the workload isn't as bad as you think it is.

So you should figure out your pricing before someone actually proposes buying your art. Don't ever feel guilty about  your price. If someone is willing to pay $200 for an hour shoot then go for it, if someone isn't willing to pay that then politely apologize and walk away from the situation. It's one thing to negotiate but don't just drop your price because they can't afford you. If someone says i really want you to take my picture but i don't think i need a full hour, then you can drop the price a wee bit. As far as selling your prints, don't negotiate; this is your art and you shouldn't compromise.

See my post about shooting weddings, it's worth the trouble if you can call it that. One wedding can buy you a 70-200 lens and a MacBook Pro, think about that.

So starting a business one of the basic things that you want to do is go to City Hall or your Town Hall and apply for a business license which will cost you anywhere from $15 to $50 max.  With this business license in hand you can go down to a local bank and open an account in your businesses name. This is essential so that you can track your finances better with your business.

So now you need some swag for your business, your letterheads, business cards, shirts and invoices and contracts. You can either brand yourself or not brand yourself when it comes to this. Basically do you want to stick with one theme or not care at all, that's for you to decide, i'll be posting more about that later on in another post.

So i know there's a million other little things that go along with having your own business,  i'm not going to get into those million little things. The point of this post was to get you excited and to get you to take those first step.  Some of what i said may apply to you and some may not, but take those first steps and figure it out for yourself; there lies a life of possibilities. 

So you bought a camea from Best Buy with the lenses n stuff.

Going to keep this one short and sweet. Yesterday at Start On The Street in Worcester MA i saw alot of people with DSLR's. I wanted to go and correct every one of them in some manner or other.

So here's some basic things you should know. Don't change your lens with your body facing out into the air, treat it like an open wound while inbetween lenses.  Change your lenses as quickly as possible to minimize dust and debris floating in. Dust on your sensor will show up in every single picture you take.

Don't put the camera around your neck, loop it under your arm. Having it under your arm and at your side allows you to protect it a bit better.  No longer will your camera swing into random things everytime you turn your body. Black Rapid makes an excellent camera strap called the R Strap and it allows you to leave your camera hanging down at your side at all times.

Pop up flash, don't do it! Shooting someone with flash straight on ruins the picture, think about a deer in headlights; no ones happy. Pop up flash is okay for crime scene photos or documenting a grizzly murder but when it comes to your photos you don't want anything to do with it. Consider hopping on amazon or ebay and finding a flash gun for your dslr. Basically a flash that slides into your hot shot on your camera and allows you to bounce the flash off a ceiling or wall or other to create something far more pleasing. There are also many adapters for your flash gun such as reflectors or Gary Fond light sphere or a mini softbox. You can also use a cord or pocket wizard to bring the flash away from the camera long enough to get the right shot.

Take off the lens cap. You can scrap the front element all you want and it won't effect your pictures, just don't mess with the rear element. If you make one little scratch in your real element, kiss good pictures goodbye. Lens caps should only be used for storage. Don't be lame.

Giant kid gets feedback.

One of the major perks of being a photographer is that you get better because of feedback from friends, family, clients and your facebook fans or elsewhere. In some way you're like a giant little kid asking how do you like my photo how do you like my photo. That's one of the perks of being a photographer, getting that attention regularly and getting to work with beautiful people.

The one bad thing about having friends and family check out your photos are positive feedback, they're not going to give it to you straight. Don't believe me, put an average picture up and see what responses you get.

As a photographer when i post an okay picture i usually get a few likes or maybe a single comment. When i post an amazing picture it gets shared and gets dozens of likes and an average of 6 to 8 comments.  When i want real commentary i will ask other photographers to give me real feedback and then when they do i ask them to give me real feedback and usually i get it.

That's how you're going to get better, but getting real feedback and adjusting your style, composition and technique. Again, stop being so terrible and get better.

Take thousands of photos and get better.

Okay a simple lesson that many people don't get, if you want to become better you have to practice. The same thing is involved when you're a photographer or trying to become one. The difference between amateur and pro is about 100,000 pictures.

I was about 60,000 pictures in before i realized that i wanted to even be a photographer, i traveled alot and hiked alot and documented everything. Looking back i saw that every once and awhile i took the time to frame correctly and use the light the correct way and had amazing little victories. Once i realized that i was stupid for not seeing that i was on my way to being a photographer i started to practice. I went hiking and in my head I convinced myself i was shooting for a big magazine or trying to get the perfect picture to frame. I tried alot of different angles and compositions and every time i would end up with something a bit more refined. 

Now i can take pictures and regularly have enough to put a small book of pictures together or at the least something to add to my portfolio. So basic point of this post is that you may suck and your photos may be terrible but they can only get better.

In addition to just taking photos i suggest reading photo magazines from the UK (they outnumber our prints in quality and substance) and check out photo art books. Kill a few hours at Barnes & Noble and figure out why these people have books and you don't. 

Stop being so terrible and get better at photography.

Doing photo triage like a pro.

Ever look at someones photos and they're plain terrible because it's blurry, out of focus or someones arm is cut off? There reason some people don't notice this is because they're in it and it holds a memory and gosh darn it... i like it. That doesn't fly well for me and other photographers.  I'm going to explain how we look at a picture to determine if it's trash or worthy of being archived forever digitally or in print.

The first thing i look at when i'm looking through pictures is if it's sharp and the right things are in focus. The next thing i look at is feet, hands or arms & legs being chopped off in odd places.  I look for people facial expressions as well as posture and exposure and basic content.

If i delete a photo i'm in basic terms nullifying it from any existence, as far as i'm concerned it never existed. I've never looked back and said i sure wish i had that blurry pic of Moses with his feet cut off and the focus was on the background and he was looking away. Think of it as cleaning house.

So no ones hands should ever be cut off or anything, if you're framing the picture for someones face then you can cut it off at the shoulders or around the neck. You can include their top half but make sure you include hands or something of a pose. If taking a picture of someone from head to toe, make sure it's head to toe.

So lets say the photo came out blurry but you love it, unless you have a dozen people saying that it's an amazing picture and they're not zombie liking a picture on facebook... get rid of it. I've taken a handful of pictures that classify as something classic, endearing or special in some way that have been blurry, out of focus or somewhat off but work. A photo doesn't have to always meet criteria to win approval or be a great picture, it's just often that it does. Thinks fries and ketchup, eggs and bacon, you can also do fries and gravy or caramel or eggs and jelly or eggs and ketchup; it may be a little off but still blows you away.

So get in the basic practice of importing your photos however you would like (I personally use Lightroom for my photo management) and start rooting through them. By doing this on a regular basis you will become a better photographer. By seeing the pictures that suck it will become obvious what doesn't suck and what areas you may need work on.

Your photography will improve as a result of giving bad photos the death sentence, you'll also save hard drive space by not keeping crap on your computer.

Get rid of the garbage !

Okay you have a milion pictures (you're idea of a million of course being 500-1000 pictures). You need to start weeding out the bad stuff. Let me use an quick comparison to help put things into perspective. Imagine you're out at a five star restaurant and you've ordered a fillet mignon cooked medium rare with a horseradish butter and a side of fingerling potatoes coated and pummeled rosemary and butter with a  side candied baby carrots. The meal arrives at the table and you have this perfect dish and also you have some meatloaf and a double cheeseburger with a can of chef boyardee and a handful of andy capp hot fries and a candy bar and assorted other side dishes and small meals. The idea here is that while you have all these great little things by themselves they spoil the original meal that you had.  How great would that experience of the fillet mignon be if you also had candy corn and fried chicken next to it, it wouldn't make it seem as special right?

If i've totally lost you here i'll break it down again. When you pair a really good set of pictures with mediocrity it lessens the value of that picture. As a photographer if i handed someone two really great pictures accompanied by fifteen bad pictures it softens the impact i wanted to make with those two great photos. You want to show that you can shoot great pictures and do that regularly and when you present a set of photos and only two are really good out of seventeen it doesn't reflect that well on you, you might as well say it was an accident that those two came out so well.

When looking back on your memories, your photos that you've taken try to keep the beef and get rid of the fat. I've had to do this with my own photos. I've taken a look back at pictures from disney world with my family and seen some great family photos and mixed in there are bad photos of park benches or a ride that will be there for the next 30 years that i don't care about it. I don't need a picture of a bird that was sitting on cement eating crumbs if it's framed horribly and there was no purpose behind it.  You'll be much happier looking back on these photos if you see a pattern in them, family & friends or scenic location.


So stop clinging to mediocrity and start improving your archives.

Weddings, don't be scared !

Okay, you're a photographer and you love photography for the art of it but it's not really paying the bills is it?  I will always advocate shooting weddings, it's the ultimate pressure test for creativity. You have a few hours and you're going to get some amazing shots and the bride and groom are going to love them, but can you push yourself and become better as a photographer?

So it can seem a bit intimidating, shooting that first wedding and figuring out the whole schedule or things and the flow of the day. There are a million different ways to price your wedding photography and what you'll include in your packages and how long you'll stay. I personally keep my packages ultra simple, the bride has enough to worry about and the less details the better. I'm not there to squeeze every last penny out of a bride and groom, my only goal is to capture the day and do such a good job that they brag about me to their friends and family and that's how i keep getting business.  My basic package is a photobook and a dvd of pictures and the rest is up to them.

Okay so back to the flow of the day, where everything starts and goes from. I usually like to meet the bride while shes getting her hair and make-up down and follow her back to where she gets ready. I take posed journalistic shots of her getting ready with her bridesmaids and then i head to wherever the groom and groomsmen are and start getting pictures of them getting ready. The groom usually only takes 30 minutes to capture pictures of, they get ready quick and usually aren't too into getting pictures taken.

The best way to get ready to take all these pictures is to check out wedding photography books and wedding magazines and pictures online of brides and grooms. I usually drill these images into my head and either try to recreate, put a spin on it or do something completely different that what i've seen.

So the next phase of the day is when the bride and groom are actually getting dressed for the wedding. This could be done at one location but more often then not it's at two separate locations so you'll have to divide and conquer. This is your chance to shoot the artsy stuff that you've seen in magazines, books and online. This is your time to shine and you should take advantage of an hour or two of prep that they have to do to get ready.

I suggest typical shots such as groom getting shoes on, checking watch, hanging with groomsmen + a dozen other great ones. For the bride it can be as simple as her talking to a flower girl at the fg's height. The bride helping her dad put on a tie, the bridesmaids helping a bride into her dress. This is one of my favorite times to shoot, it's relaxed and everyone is typically in a good mood.

Now here's the most stressful time if you can call it that. You will shoot the ceremony which will last most likely all of 20 minutes. Shoot as much as you can, cover all the angles and for god sakes make sure you're shooting in RAW! Once you're done shooting now you have to shoot group shots and just the bride and groom.

The biggest thing about the next part is having a loud voice and being able to organize people. Basically figure out what groups are important to the bride and groom (beforehand) and now is your time to shine. Get people lined up, check their clothing make sure no oddities ruin it, make sure shoes are pointed in and a dozen other details which you're going to have to research for yourself.  When it comes to shooting the bride and groom you have to know some basic poses and be very clear about what you want and know what they want. One of the main things you want to focus on is getting to know the bride and groom and making sure they're comfortable with you. By then end of most of my weddings i'm good friends with my bride and groom and it makes things alot more relaxed when dealing with them professionally.


So now that you've done the hard part you are about to head into easy street, the reception. You're basically going to be hanging around taking dance pictures and the typical things such as first dance, mother son, father daughter dance and cake cutting and bouquet toss. After all this you can call it a night.

The next thing you're going to do is process those photos and get them back asap.

The idea of this post is to get people less scared about shooting a wedding, i'm breaking it down to show you that its not all pitchforks and fire and brimstone.