If you’re reading this right now,
you either clicked on it out of mild boredom and are about to exit out, or you’re wanting to take your interest in photography to new heights. If it’s the latter… I hate to tell you, but I’m not much of a sugar-coater.
I know you’ve seen the hundreds of ads on Facebook and Instagram. “I’m a photography business coach; get my course today for only $37 and you’ll be making 6 figures in 1 month!” Or, “Not getting clients? Just take my $800 course and you’ll be turning people away by this time next year!” "Quit your day job and start making money you love!" "Stay-at-home-mom? It's easy to make 6 figures a year from your couch as a photographer!"
Oh, wouldn’t it be such a luxury if business was like that?
Yup, you just read that. Those courses might have some great tips, but most of it is fancy fluff and public knowledge rephrased into buzz words and motivational speeches.
I don’t have the recipe for success (does anyone?), but what I DO have is a reality check with some good wisdom thrown in there. Sometimes, reality hitting us dead in the face is what truly gets our wheels turning.
Over the next handful of weeks, I’m going to cover the 5 most important things a new photographer should know before getting into business (or accepting money for your services).
1) Master your craft before you sell it.
Ooooh, this is such a big one. This might be the most important piece in here (and maybe the most abrasive). We never want to hear the dreaded words “You’re not good enough”. What a freakin’ confidence killer. But, that phrase will either motivate the hell out of you, or make you drop it all and quit.
Here’s the bluntness coming in: If you drop it all and quit, you weren’t meant to be a business owner. Business is incredibly hard; you need tough skin and an unquenchable thirst for success.
So what does “mastering your craft” even look like? It’s not about knowing what time of the day to shoot at, or finding a preset to use on Etsy that looks nice.
Let me paint an example... I like old cars and big trucks. I love the idea of building my own. I know how to change a tire, change the oil, replace a transmission fluid pan 6 times in 2 months (a story for another day), and maybe make suggestions to figuring out a problem. And that’s about it. Oh yeah, and hold a flashlight.
Nevertheless, I start advertising to people on Facebook that I’m a mechanic. I have someone bring their car to me. I prop the hood, and… I have no idea what to do. I change the oil, because that’s all I know how to do, charge them $50, and send them on their way. With an oil change, but the problem is still present. Well, at least I did something good, right? And I enjoyed making money from something I liked doing, right?
My husband, an actual mechanic, would be shaking his head right now if he read this. And I think you’d be shaking your head, too. It’s absolutely ridiculous for me to claim I’m a mechanic and take people’s money for something I have no idea how to even do!
Well, that’s also what it’s like if you have an “interest” in photography, pick up a camera, and start taking pictures of people in exchange for money. You know a few bare minimums… But you don’t know your chosen profession.
I’m often asked “How do you become a photographer? I kind of like it and want to quit my day job.”
Man, if it was that easy, I would be a world-renowned photographer at this point.
I discovered a love for photography on a little Kodak point-and-shoot in 2010. The Macro setting was glorious, showing every little detail on a flower stem or the iris of one of my sibling’s eyes. Then I found the Sports setting, freezing our trampoline jumps in a single shot. Being a photographer wasn’t even a speck of a thought in my mind; I simply fell in love with being able to take photos of things that would otherwise become a faded memory. I tucked that thing in my pocket on every road trip, every vacation, and every weekend journey to the cabin in the summer.
In 9th grade, I learned that photography was an offered extracurricular course. I took the first course, then the second, then the third… I started learning Photoshop and loved having another creative outlet. I then started learning how to use the Manual setting on an old entry-level DSLR camera my mom happened to have. From there, it was only up. Upgrades, learning, shooting, learning, shooting, upgrade, learning, learning, learning. I always knew that I wasn’t good enough yet. I told myself I wasn’t good enough yet. Hell, I STILL feel like I’m not good enough yet. It’s that drive to succeed.
The biggest change in my learning happened when I wanted to charge, and truly put my nose to the grindstone to start mastering my craft. Learning everything I could read or watch about my cameras, the settings, the exposure triangle, posing, business contracts, editing, color theory, EVERYTHING. I was almost obsessed with learning. I would endlessly edit a picture, attempting to perfect it. It was insane the growth I went through in just a couple years.
