So how do you get noticed as a photographer?
To answer this question, I still have no idea! I have been doing landscape photography for a few short years as a hobby now, and managed to sell a few prints on various sites. However, not enough to count for anything. Maybe I don’t charge enough? How much should you charge? Where is the best place to sell? The best format?
I have learned that I have my more questions about sales and turning photography into a business than what I probably should for considering myself a photographer. I guess you live and learn, then you change it all because it was wrong. I have a read many another blog on the subject and many have suggestions of buying inventory, selling that inventory to art galleries or even at crafts fairs. I have looked into those options and due to equipment costs, my full time job, lack of funds, and the costs to buy the inventory and the booth, that’s not something I can do.
Many people say that most photographers will not make money at it, I can definitely understand. Spending so much money to try something that I am scared I will fail so miserably at is definitely hard. There’s a few decisions I have made personally that I will share with you, these may help you, and may not. Keep in mind that my business is growing slowly (very slowly) and that I have spent more on equipment and costs than what I have made. These decisions have set me up to grow in my career and have many or most, of my upcoming gigs be completely profit, only my time will be a cost.
What I have decided
1. I first decided photography was my hobby. I have a full time job and am not willing to quit and take a shot with no existing clientele, or real work in the field.
2. Given that Photography was my hobby I slowly, over about 3 years, purchased equipment and what I wanted for my hobby.
3. If I was going to get a paid gig that I would buy what I needed for that gig then as a way to help grow my equipment.
4. I would create a site and sell my photography online in some way. This decision proved harder than I initially thought. So many people have sites and sell there work but for one that has never professionally printed I didn’t know where to start with the sales side. I found a safe site called FineArtAmerica and signed up. I was able to link to that from my site, change the look and feel to match, and they did all the money, printing, and shipping. Given my full time job (as management in IT I put in many many hours) I would not have time to print and ship myself, this was a great decision.
5. I would go to classes, conferences, and workshops that sounded interesting to learn, not improve my business.
6. I would never take a gig that I didn’t really want to do, or feel that I was capable of doing well.
These six points above have gotten me to where I am today. I have an amazing 27 inch monitor for my mac, that was a hobby purchase. I now have a d800 to go with my d7000, the 800 was part hobby part for the portrait gigs I’m getting. By purchasing lenses slowly I was able to take my time and buy used Nikon lenses from Ebay so I have fantastic lenses that I got used at half price and in perfect shape. I was able to get the 12-24 for $600, and the 105 for $500! These are amazing deals that I would not have been able to wait for if I had not had the luxury of looking at this craft as a hobby to start with.
I am sure many others have grown their businesses and financial intakes much faster than I but these were the decisions that I was comfortable making and I have been pleased with the outcome. I am now doing engagement and wedding shoots, as well as other site portraits, and even babies.
Per an upcoming wedding shoot I purchased several more memory cards for the D800 than what I had initially but it was for a reason and now I have all I need to continue shooting weddings as not additional cost.
If you are a photographer what do you do? If you were, what do you think you would do? What do you think of my plan?