How Would You Go About Making Photography as a Career?

[jake454]

Hey,

I know this is a rather needy question and I am sure many people will not want to respond but I looked all over and did not find anything worth reading. So I would love
to hear the opinions of people who know how to make businesses and know how to get clients and see how you would go about creating a photography career.

What I have done so far:
Gone out lots and taken photos of people and emailed it to them
Started tumblr/pinterest
posted ads on Kijiji etc

Other Ideas:
Contact businesses that I have worked for and see if they need product photography
go out more and personalize emails and have a solid website
Tell people that I am a professional?

I dont know, lets hear what you have

 

[wordism]

you're going about it the right way... add more networks and hustle...hustle real hard.. It's a tough sport now days

 

[alternatesword]

One of my friend wants to become a professional photographer, he always attend all the cultural events and display events. Also, he made some contacts with the persons who are working in the film industry, now working in several films as assistant for the art directors. So, If you got some bunch amount of contacts, you will surely survive.

 

[arnoldblack]

Let's not forget the need for talent and creativity thx to the net the technical skills are very easy to learn so comp levels are sky high.

 

[VinceC]

I saw in my local area with a small shop just by taking photo and then do some special ticks and effects for clients. A laptop, DSLR, printer and they are set to go.

 

[travanx]

Make a website and business cards. Pass them around. People I have known started out working for free doing weddings.

 

[Tyler9]

Take black and white nude photos of women and men, and sell them to art galleries on consignment. You can find nude models at art schools.

 

[igniteimages]

What is your experience as a photographer?

What equipment do you have?

What do you actually like taking photos of.

I made the move 2 years ago and it's tough, although enjoyable.

Phil

 

[Lalalaenhund]

Take black and white nude photos of women and men, and sell them to art galleries on consignment. You can find nude models at art schools.

Try nude beaches too!

 

[_Gray]

My father owns a respected photo studio for few decades now, I can tell that he often looks for young talented people. His side is getting cheap motivated employees who will stay with him for long. Their side is learning from his huge experience and knowing that he always got work for them... You really should contact some photographers in your area.

 

[dubious]

One of the best ways to make it in a career in photography is to engage your clients in a hands on approach. Post blog posts about them, tag them in photos in FB etc. Because a lot of work in the photography niche is via word of mouth, so having a happy referral base is key.

Once you have gotten more professional, as in it is a living form of income for you, you need to make sure that your website is professional and pricing is clear. A lot of work photographers I know get it business via weddings and baby photos and as you can imagine these customer life cycles get quite long (people who get married generally have children and use the same photographer).

However if you are doing a different service such as event photography or modelling you would need to market yourself appropriately.

Sit down and make a plan for your business. Be aware that there are dry business months and how you will price yourself during the busy months to accommodate for slow business cycles. Join any professional networks you know of (in Australia we have the AIPP, which makes you an Accredited Professional Photographer). Local SEO is your friend, so if you have a business address be sure to market that.

You can try guerrilla marketing tactics such as combing eventbrite for events and sending the event coordinator your pricing packages to see if they are keen, but make sure you've built a nice reference point for your business beforehand else you might have trouble closing sales.

 

[Jobless]

Build an appropriate portfolio and contact real estate agents offering to do flattering demo photos for their properties they're listing. They're all online and most just have shitty pics taken by a toaster, I'm sure most would at least be interested in seeing what you can do.

Again with an appropriate portfolio, offer to do awesome menu item photos for mom and pop restaurants/fast food joints.

Portraits, just list on CL, and build a basic WP site and SEO it. Target keywords like baby photos, wedding photographer, family portraits, etc.

Offer those lose end shitty car lots photos of their stock for their websites, and up sell hosting/website because most of those shitty lots don't have one, then you have an on going thing, every new car they call you up and you get paid to take the photos and upload them to their site.

Etc, etc, etc. Just quit looking at this like an "IM" thing and look at it like a business offering a solution to people that need it.

 

[Josh Jocky]

Hey,

I know this is a rather needy question and I am sure many people will not want to respond but I looked all over and did not find anything worth reading. So I would love
to hear the opinions of people who know how to make businesses and know how to get clients and see how you would go about creating a photography career.

What I have done so far:
Gone out lots and taken photos of people and emailed it to them
Started tumblr/pinterest
posted ads on Kijiji etc

Other Ideas:
Contact businesses that I have worked for and see if they need product photography
go out more and personalize emails and have a solid website
Tell people that I am a professional?

I dont know, lets hear what you have

"Thousand words can be expressed in a single image", the way you moving is awesome really you are going in a correct path. Try to be in touch with media people, this will give a good response for the creative work that you have in your hand. Because media is a place where can make any matter to be in the top as well as hide down under the earth. Make sure that you selected a specific category in the Photography.

Have a clicking future, cheers!!!

 

[travanx]

Thinking about the car idea, you could try to approach online stores that don't have good pictures of their products. Buy something, take better pictures, and sell that idea.

 

[jake454]

Wow guys, this is more than I could have hoped for, Great ideas! thanks will definitely be given.

I wrote down a list of all that has been said, I am already working on the website, portfolio is almost solid we have a lot of previous experiance.

My girlfriend will be helping out too, we own a Nikon D90 with some good lenses and flashes tripods etc.

I have a solid eye for photography and I attribute it to years of loving just looking through photos. I am really pushing to keep networking as hard as possible. Keep it coming if there are any more ideas or advice, I am sure there are lots of people benefiting from this.