So you want to do what I did over 20years ago and start your own photography business at home? More power to you, I'mgoing to walk you through all the steps that you need so stay tuned.
A little more than 20 years ago, I
In fact, one of my friends her name is Carrie Bischoff,she became of this amazing talented pho
I have loved pho
That looks really cool.
I'm going to try it.
So I did it.
I didit 20 years ago.
I started my pho
I startedgetting clients.
I
So I want to walk you through the step-by-step process.
This is for you
First things first, you've got to bea good photographer which means you need
If that means youhave to break out the manual for your equipment, great! If you want to look upyour equipment on YouTube and watch tu
But the best way, hands down to get the most out of thisexperience with getting familiar with her equipment is to go out there andstart shooting with it.
Start creating images.
Start taking images and thenchanging the setting and then taking the exact same image.
So you can see what itlooks like all the way through.
Start messing with composure.
Start messingwith exposure.
Start messing with your f-s
Startexperimenting and creating on purpose.
Once you kind of find this rhythm andthis look that you're going for, then it'll become routine.
But just
These may be the worst images of your life, they may bethe most valuable images at the end of your career.
Just
The second part of this really kind of goes into first.
Shooteverything that you can photograph.
Everything that you can.
Yes because youwant to get used to your camera but you also want to know what you enjoy takingpictures of.
When I first started in photography, I took pictures of newborns,I did pets, I did weddings, I did interiors, exteriors,landscape, architecture, art, nouveau, graphic design, documentary style, everything.
Ishot it all because I wasn't quite sure what my niche was yet.
I wasn't quitesure what I enjoyed.
So I took pictures of everything and that is going
So that you know what you love to photograph.
Sowhen you're just starting out, go out and shoot everything.
By the way, it's okay
I know as a pho
But guys, if you've got 50 of the same image or similar onyour hard drive and you really really love itmaybe just keep one but if you're doing a pho
Get thisspace.
Maybe you can just reduce the size of the photo if you want and then saveit.
But guys give yourself a break it's okay
Butyou got
So go out and shoot everything you possibly can.
When you're
There's just no way to get around it.
You have a pho
Instagram wasmade for pho
Doesn't work.
Doesn't matter what your niche is,doesn't matter what your favorite thing
As media consumers, we gofor images first which really works in your favor.
But you've got
Check out some of my other videos on Instagram.
Look at thoseand watch
But you've got to have an Instagram account and if you're doing inphotography business from home.
One way to get started in photography is to getpro bono clients and pro bono is just another word for free clients orreduced-priced clients.
You know and that's something difficult that a lot ofother photographers don't like to hear.
I don't like
The waythat's done is if you have great talent and younot charging anything for it.
You're shooting yourself and all of the otherpho
Like no pun intended right? So if you're doing probono work, let it be experimental, let it be fun butas soon as you start getting really confident, please
Scratch eachother's backs sort of a thing.
On the back of doing pro bono clients, you want
Now these shoots are designed andput together sometimes by photographers.
Sometimes they're put together by themodels, sometimes they're put together by a dress shop or a makeup artist.
Itdoesn't really matter who instigates the collaboration shoot.
But thecollaboration shoot is composed of several different photographers, severaldifferent models, several different you know decorators or stylists, depending onwhat the theme of the shoot is.
If you have a wedding theme, you're going
You're going to have a wedding invitation person inthere.
You're going to have a bridal gown shop in there.
If it's a high-fashionshoot, you're going to have different hair and makeup artists in there.
Differentmembers for every different shoot but the beauty of collaboration shoot isthat you can get a lot of different photographers in there, with a lot ofdifferent angles, a lot of different models and you can all come home withsomething beautiful and something different for every single one.
And it'sa great portfolio booster and it's a great networking
So for example, ifyou have a client that came in because they saw one of your amazingcollaboration shoots and they say, "Oh, I love that person's makeup in that shoot.
"You can say well, I can give you the information the person that did it andyou're just sharing the love because you did that collab shoot.
So it's going tobuild your portfolio and it's going to give you great networking experience.
Sodo collab shoots and do them often.
Both as you're starting out and when yourbusiness starts growing you're going
When your businessstarts growing and start hopping, it can easily slip into killing your passionbecause you're shooting for everybody else and not yourself.
So as often as you need, whether it's once a month or once a year, get togetherwith a creative collaborative shoot and shoot for you.
Shoot based on yourinspiration and your passion.
When you start doing your photography businessand you start setting up your packages, I have two things to keep in mind.
Thefirst is keep it simple.
I used to build these super complex packages with printsizes different and in hours and different and all of these thingsdifferent and it wasn't simple enough for my clients and actually drove peopleaway the more detail they got.
So the more simple you can get in building yourprice point your packaging, the better I promise you.
The second thing
Look at what their talent and theirskill set is.
Look at their niche market.
If yours is similar to that, then youwant a price similarly.
Yeah, you can run sales and you can run 20% offspecials and whatever you want to do with that.
But make sure your regularprice in your foundational price is in the same ballpark as your competition.
Okay that's going
Anyone that holds a camera, can call themselves a professional photographer,but not everyone's work deserves the title, okay? If your work deserves thetitle, you should be charging for it.
Don't cheapen the industry.
The lastthing to keep in mind as you're becoming a professional pho
Get on Facebook connectwith other photographers.
If there's this really weird thing that happens whenyou're online and you're starting a business especially as a creative likephotographers are, we tend to get scarcity minded.
We don't want towork with or talk with or collab with other photographers because somehow wethink it's going
I got to tell you right now that scarcity mindset thinking.
Get tha
The more you can collab, the more you can connect.
Themore you can bounce ideas and and bring new inspiration together with otherphotographers the better.
In fact, I'm going
It's when I've been a memberof for several years.
The ladies and gentlemen that group have saved my hidemore than once when I needed a battery and what I needed
That creative, collaborative group is going to be a huge asset foryou in your photography business and everyonewelcome from brand-new in the market, amateur, business owner, fullunprofessional, this is a great community for people to get connected.
If you'renot part of that group, get a part of some group.
Whether it's a camera groupor a modelling group or whatever it is.
Collab and talk to other people who arein the industry.
Great photographers, the truly great pho
I hope thatinformation was super valuable
Let me know any questions that you haveright here in the comments.
Hit that subscribe button.
Be sure to ring thebell that's going
I'll see youtomorrow.
Source: Youtube
