New Photographer in The Scene - How to Find Business/People

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  cuteseal on 16/09/2018 - 22:55

  +1

  Suggest you start as you have done, as something on the side, until it becomes a viable business that can stand on its own. Don't quit your jobs until you have leads, processes and a revenue stream in place that will sustain you.

  Best place to start is friends, who will be forgiving and willing to give you honest feedback. If they are happy they will naturally refer their friends. Build your brand through word of mouth. Ask on facebook in return for allowing you to use their photos for promotion through social media.

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  noobie123 on 16/09/2018 - 23:20

  Airtasker. With a smaller portfolio you will need to bid at lower amounts initially.

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    [Deactivated] on 17/09/2018 - 12:59

    You are right. I might do first 3 intitial shoots for free

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  p1 ama on 16/09/2018 - 23:52

  +21

  I'm an ex-professional photographer. I think you need to think about why you want to do this.

  From what you've said so far, you've basically found this new hobby, want to learn a bit about it and think you can make a bit of spare money on the side. As someone who's actually done this, I don't think you quite appreciate how difficult this really is and the difference between taking photos for fun and actually doing it for money.

  If you actually want to do this professionally, I'd start off by thinking about whether you want to spend your weekends shooting. Perhaps it's all well and good when you do your first few gigs and you feel great about them, but what about when you have gigs every week? Would you be happy going out and shooting in the morning, and then again in the afternoon, then perhaps spend your evenings editing? It's great when you're just shooting vacation pics and then dump them on a drive when you get back, perhaps editing a good one here or there to hang on the wall. When you're being paid for something, it's work and it needs to get done.

  There is a difference between a job you enjoy and a hobby. With a job, your responsibility and professionalism comes first, enjoyment is just a bonus. With a hobby, your enjoyment comes first, how good you are and whether you can deliver results aren't really important as long as you enjoy yourself.

  I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just giving you the perspective of someone who has done what you want to do - weekday job and weekend photographer. Being a photographer is not cheap, you're going to want to buy a lot of things. Cameras, lenses, then backup camera bodies, then light modifiers (e.g. reflectors), then flashes and studio lights, softboxes, umbrellas, lightstands. You then need to print business cards, pay to get a website hosted…etc.

  It's an investment to become a professional and you need to think about whether this is something you want to do. If not, just keep shooting for friends, travel, take great pictures, learn, enjoy making great images and you'll be much happier :)

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  Cheaplikethebird on 17/09/2018 - 09:31

  +5

  Don't let the fact that modern cameras basically take photos for you trick you into thinking that you're a photographer.

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  John on 17/09/2018 - 10:06

  +8

  Hey, part time wedding photographer/videographer here. Based on the name of your instagram I imagine you are aiming for the wedding market? Anyway, I just saw your gallery on instagram and would offer some feedback :)

  1. Understand the Market
  With the style of editing and shots you are taking, you won't get much money out of the business. At most $1000-$1500 for a full day wedding (not reflective of your current portfolio more based on your current style), which means you gonna need to bust your back off working every weekend to make a living out of it. Look for portfolio of photographers in your area who are making good money, learn what kind of pictures they take. How they pose the couple, shoot it and edit it. And try to "imitate" them at start - eventually you put in your own touch to it. I think beginners need to start as a good imitator of professional leaders and there's obviously a good reason for that

  2. Learn from Real Professionals
  On the same note as above.. I recommend you guys go and tag along professional photographers. Even as flash holders, gear carrier etc. Most likely it means you either work for free or get paid really cheap. But on return, you get to see how they run the day and get to understand what is the real deal

  3. Invest on the right gear
  When I first started I buy a lot of 'third party' stuff to save money. Only for it to eventually fail or give substandard result and me spending more money to buy a better one. The good things with good quality camera gear, are they generally retain good value even after years of use (as long as you maintain it). Also buy in gears that will really give you good results.. ditch those consumer level body and kit lenses.. invest in some good prime lenses for controlled shots.. and a few zoom lenses for fast live events. They are expensive but they will give better results by far.. "buy once and buy it right"

  4. Brand Yourself
  If you're not aiming for wedding market only, then avoid the "perfectcouples" in your brand as that means you're excluding yourself from commercial market. Even for wedding market, unfortunately your brand sounds "budget" too. Your name Zain & Hira is actually a really cool name and I recommend building a brand from that name - but consider, if one day you would rather hire contractor to shoot for you (so you're not actually there).. if so, its probably better not to put your name there as otherwise the client will always expect you to show up and not anybody else

  5. Go to Workshops
  This is something lots of newbies skip on. I know they sound expensive but a workshop offer a wealth of knowledge that you would otherwise never learn just by tagging along or searching the net. Start from a cheap ones or even ones for sale in the net to kick off your photography skills. Then once you have experiences, invest in the more 'pro' workshops - basically dont go into pro workshops as amateur, you'll just waste money

  6. Offer Cheap or Free
  Unfortunately at start you are not going to be able to charge a lot or any at all. Because you are learning and you don't want a client to pay you lots of money only for you to dissapoint them. But limit the amount of cheap clients you take.. say take the first 10 for free. After that start building your cost from there

  7. Protect Yourself
  Finally, come into agreement with client as professional particularly on things like wedding day or live events, where they can't re-do it again. Don't just deal with over phone or verbal. Setup a written contract, put your clauses in there, get them to sign/agree to it in written (even if its a free offer). Make sure you are not responsible for any shots missed, equipment damage etc etc - make clear of the expectation and the damage if things do go pearshape. Because sometimes things can still go south.. even for professionals

  Also as p1 ama says.. think of the consequence of being a professional. Initially I really enjoyed it.. honestly these days I rather be a wedding guest! But I still do it only selectively for good paying clients. My advise is to make your goal to have clients that pay you good money because then your work is worth it, you dont have to work every single weekend, and you actually have times to enjoy your hard earned money, family & life. And also, bigger budget client tend to have better quality wedding, which also improves your portfolio.

  Good luck. Hope these helps.. :)

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    [Deactivated] on 17/09/2018 - 12:57

    First of all, thank you very much for your time and efforts to provide such an amazing feedback and information. I'll share it with my wife for a discussion tonight :)

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  spackbace on 17/09/2018 - 10:29

  Certainly wedding photography is not something to jump at for a few years, and can't be done just on the weekends. You need to be good and you need to be fast, and ideally you need to have more than 1 photographer to capture the right moments.

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    [Deactivated] on 17/09/2018 - 12:56

    I do agree. We don't want to jump into weddings or events as of now. Unless its a very small event and client wants to pay less. We just to learn and prove that we can do it right that why wenhave bought some new gear to support our effort.

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  picklewizard on 17/09/2018 - 12:42

  With all the respect in the world to you…

  You say you're learning - this is not a time to start a business. You're tasked with recording people's memories - you only get once chance at this. This is something you need to master before you offer it as a service to others.

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    [Deactivated] on 17/09/2018 - 12:53

    We are not thinking about starting a business (anytime soon). We are just building up a portfolio with random work opportunities from here and paid or unpaid doesn't matter at the moment.