Eric Hamilton – Celebrity / DJ / Nightlife Photographer

Posts Tagged ‘going pro’

To achieve longevity, you must reconcile the conflict between what you shoot for money and what you love to shoot. Ideally, you get paid to shoot exactly what you love to shoot, every day. Reaching this nirvana requires making tough choices, a careful business strategy and attention to basic business practices.

I’ve been saying this stuff for a while, but just in case it hasn’t sunk in yet, take it from somebody with a little more experience. Read the article by Doug Menuez.

“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!

Today I sent an email to a client who backed out of a booking at the last minute. I had to explain to him why I needed to shoot a competing party on the night of his event, so my overhead costs wouldn’t get wasted. I like to be open with my clients about the financial realities of my business. I hope they understand, because they’re all commercial clients, and they all have similar issues in their own business. I told him a little bit about how my business works financially, and why it was imperative that my shooting day didn’t get wasted.

It all has to do with my cost of doing business. Every shoot night, I have $560 in fixed overhead costs to cover. It must be covered or bills go unpaid. A lot of people question that figure and wonder why it costs so much. Here is a small sample of my cost of doing business:

Last week I had to replace a $400 camera lens. In the next month or so I need to buy a new camera body before my shutter wears out on the current body. The shutter is guaranteed for 100,000 clicks. I crossed the mark a while back. The new camera body will cost about $1800.

I’m quickly running out of storage for photos. A new Terastation for the 2007 photo archive will cost about $550. I need it within a week or two.

The computer workstation I built last summer to process photos is on its last legs. Repairing it will cost about $1,000. I really should have done it last week. If it fails now it will really hurt my business.

I should also have a backup workstation to process photos on temporarily if something goes wrong with the primary. Cost? About $2600 for a tricked out Mac Book Pro I can use on location at photo gigs. I would have bought one last year if I could fit it into my finances. It seems like a much higher priority now that my primary is acting up…

Here are a few other little things that add up:

Standard business insurance / liability riders, industry dues and magazine subscriptions,
software licenses and website subscriptions, transportation, printing, client entertainment, contingencies, taxes, and so on. I also have two interns and a personal assistant who are essential to my work flow. They all need to get paid, too.

All told, my monthly expenses add up to $5567.89 — not including my food and mortgage! Keep in mind that I can’t shoot every day. A lot of my time gets spent processing and uploading photos, estimating and invoicing, and trying to connect with new clients.

Want to be a professional photographer? The first thing you need to do in terms of planning is to calculate your cost of doing business. Once you’ve done that you have to come up with a business plan and pricing strategy that takes your full expenses into account.

While you’re working on that business plan, keep in mind my favorite advice: Don’t shoot what you think other people want to buy. shoot what you love, and figure out how to make it pay! For me, that means nightlife, electronic music events, fashion, beauty, glamour, and so on. Maybe your thing is flowers. Whatever it is, it costs you money. Knowing how much it costs you to shoot and how much you need to earn is vital to your business.