“Eric, I love photography and I think I’m pretty good. How hard was it for you to get into professional photography? Your Going Pro series makes it sound easy!”
I’m not gonna lie. It’s tough. Before you can even think about a steady income, you have to build a solid book. Your portfolio is your primary selling tool, and it has to be awesome. It can take up to two years to develop a really solid portfolio. I did a lot of free work between my paid gigs just to keep the ball rolling. Initially, you’ll be doing mostly unpaid or low pay work, and as your portfolio and business savvy progresses, your schedule will start to fill out more and more with paid gigs.
There is a lot of competition. Photography is a very popular hobby, and there are a lot of people who would love to do the job for free. Forget about trying to compete by being the most affordable — you have to differentiate yourself in different ways. You have to be better at business, smarter, faster, harder working, and more talented.
You have to cater to your client’s needs. I’m fond of saying that you should always shoot what you love, and I stand by that advice. What I mean by cater to your client’s needs is that you have to understand the value of your service from their perspective.
Your clients know whether or not they like a photo when they see it, but by and large, they don’t know anything about photography, and they don’t know what you can do for them that other photographers can’t — your first and most important job as a professional photographer is to discover your unique value proposition, and learn how to communicate it clearly to your customers. That’s not as easy as it sounds.
Here’s a reality check:
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the median annual wage of a professional photographer in America is only $26,170. If you have a really keen business sense and you can beat out 90% of the photographers competing for the best wages, you can expect to earn about $56,640. Only a tiny percent of photographers command six-figure salaries.
PDN reports higher earnings for photographers, but Photo District News is slanted more towards professional photographers who are working full time in the industry, whereas the statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics includes a lot of people who are trying to become pros, and working part time or full time jobs on the side to support themselves.
Being a good photographer is like having a good business idea. Have you ever tried to sell a business idea to somebody? Nobody wants to buy them, and I’ll tell you why — good ideas, like good photographers, are a dime a dozen. The idea is the easy part. Being a good photographer is the easy part. The hard part is turning your talent into a viable business model, executing, building a brand, and earning repeat business, consistently. The hard part is making sure you offer the right solution, at the right time, at the right price.
That means getting your book in front of decision makers when they’re ready to make a decision. You might be a stellar photographer, but what do you know about market research and direct marketing to niche target clients? Realistically, the latter matters more when it comes to earning a living.
So what’s the best way to get started?
First, practice with your camera until you know it inside and out. The effects of Apertures, shutter speeds, ISO settings, flashes, filters, histograms, RAW mode, basic photo processing, you name it. Get a handle on all of it. In the mean time, offer to assist a working pro. Tell him or her you’re interested in learning about the business end of things. Let them know you’re serious about photography, and then go out of your way to be helpful and make sure that you’re offering them something valuable in exchange for the knowledge they’re about to dump on you.
Most of all, be patient. Be patient with yourself, and be patient with the realities of the market. It’s a hard road, to be sure, but it’s the best career move I’ve ever made. If you really love photography, it’s well worth the effort!
I’ll add, if I may, that it depends a lot on what type/s of photography is to be pursued.
Photojournalism is a bit different than commercial work, as the jobs seem to be more frequent, but not as well paying.
Weddings are a completely different animal than everything. Marketing is direct-to-consumer and more expensive. Generally speaking, there are only 52 booking days per year too.
As to the income, I can attest that it’s not that great. I’ve been in the freelance game for a couple years now, and with the economy/industry down and fuel prices up, have seen a major decline in workload.
That having been said, keep in mind that take-home income tends, for many reasons, to be less for self-employed people (in the photo field, more than half are self-employed) across the board.
That, and although there is a trend in the industry to ‘over-equip’ (buying unnecessarily, or instead of renting/doing without), a light professional kit will run $15,000, with a common, middle-of-the-road-kit in the mid $20k’s.
Good points, Will. Thanks for your comment! =)
Good read here also
http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/2008/05/switching-to-pro/
Photographers are a dime a dozen, as stated. Being good is pretty much the easy part once you figure it out. After that is comes down to does the client 1. know you, 2. met and like you, say as an assistant 3. like your work. After a while it almost has nothing to do with what your work looks like. It becomes a popularity game once you’ve been vetted as a competent photographer. So the big thing to do is get yourself into situations where you get known by people who use photographs, like ART DIRECTORS. The best way to do this is by assisting pro shooters with big clients.