Advice for starting business?

[susanhmorgan]

I'm stumped. I contacted a local photographer to see if he was interested in a 2nd shooter. He looked at my photo link and said he was sorry, I didn't have enough experience for him.. He told me to continue to do free shoots and when I had a better portfolio contact him.. I have several free shoots lined up now.. I have 2 $50 gigs lined up.. but my confidence is way down and I just want to become better.. Now I'm fearful of charging $50 although it is my time and wear on camera and I will soon need an external hard drive to compensate for all the photos I'm taking.. Anyone have any advice? And, by the way, if you would, please look at my albums at Soulssscapes photography - Photographer - Chapel Hill, NC | Facebook . Thank you.

[BuddhaPi]

I'm not a professional phtograper by any means, and I won't comment on your albums, but you might want to get suited up in your body armor, this can be a tough crowd, and they will be honest with, some thick skin might be in order..

[Niresangwa]

What exactly are you stumped about?

One thing for starters is that you ought to be more discerning on what you post online. For example, posting those band shots, (which you obviously recognize as lacking, due to the fact you apologize for them) is a bad decision. If you love them, fine, post them on your personal FB page, but if you're serious about running a business, you absolutely cannot publicly display substandard work.

Secondly, using FB as your 'website' is not a good idea. Photographers love FB, and rightly so, but it should be a supplement to your main showcase, not the 'go to'. Your business FB page needs to be limited to business, not a conversation hang-out with your RL friends who have 'liked' your page because it's yours, not because of the work.

The arguments for and against 'free work' and 'paid work', even charging a little for your time, has been hashed out on these forums an ungodly amount of times... just put your feet up for an hour and start reading through them, and you'll get an idea.

If you want suggestions, I would say that you're getting way too far ahead of yourself, and you need a lot of work technically, as well as on how to operate a business before you end up damaging your reputation and hindering any chance you may have in the future.

There is little to nothing in the work you have posted that suggests it would be worth paying hard earned money for those images; someone with a half decent eye could take a Rebel, stick it on auto and come up with shots of a comparable quality. Composition, lighting, processing and consistency, and generally there seems to be little in the way of thought or creativity.

I'm not saying you're not thinking, but do you honestly feel you're delivering a product worthy of charging real money for? That's rhetorical, and one of many hard questions I think you should be asking yourself.

You're to be applauded for trying to find a mentor, and just because you got shelved by one, doesn't mean you should give up on it, but if I'm being honest, had I been in his place, I would have given the same response.

You can't afford to take this personally. If you're serious, you'll see why being honest is important. You can't allow ego to get in the way at this stage.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

What exactly are you stumped about?

One thing for starters is that you ought to be more discerning on what you post online. For example, posting those band shots, (which you obviously recognize as lacking, due to the fact you apologize for them) is a bad decision. If you love them, fine, post them on your personal FB page, but if you're serious about running a business, you absolutely cannot publicly display substandard work.

Secondly, using FB as your 'website' is not a good idea. Photographers love FB, and rightly so, but it should be a supplement to your main showcase, not the 'go to'. Your business FB page needs to be limited to business, not a conversation hang-out with your RL friends who have 'liked' your page because it's yours, not because of the work.

The arguments for and against 'free work' and 'paid work', even charging a little for your time, has been hashed out on these forums an ungodly amount of times... just put your feet up for an hour and start reading through them, and you'll get an idea.

If you want suggestions, I would say that you're getting way too far ahead of yourself, and you need a lot of work technically, as well as on how to operate a business before you end up damaging your reputation and hindering any chance you may have in the future.

There is little to nothing in the work you have posted that suggests it would be worth paying hard earned money for those images; someone with a half decent eye could take a Rebel, stick it on auto and come up with shots of a comparable quality. Composition, lighting, processing and consistency, and generally there seems to be little in the way of thought or creativity.

I'm not saying you're not thinking, but do you honestly feel you're delivering a product worthy of charging real money for? That's rhetorical, and one of many hard questions I think you should be asking yourself.

You're to be applauded for trying to find a mentor, and just because you got shelved by one, doesn't mean you should give up on it, but if I'm being honest, had I been in his place, I would have given the same response.

You can't afford to take this personally. If you're serious, you'll see why being honest is important. You can't allow ego to get in the way at this stage.

I had read the OP earlier, and was trying to think of a good response without trying to sound overly harsh. Steve, I was so pleased to come back and see this. You are a brilliant wordsmith as well as a wonderful photographer, and I have to applaud you for this response. Well said. So, here's my little tribute to you, lol:



That being said, to Susan: I also applaud you for looking for a mentor. At this stage in the game though, you're best off looking for a mentor to guide you in mastering your technical skills, before you start charging. I had a quick look through your portrait photos and you do struggle with all of the major issues of photography: exposure, focus, lighting, white balance, composition and post-processing skills. I'm so sorry if that sounds harsh, but I'm telling you this because I want to see you succeed, NOT fail - and you will only succeed once you've got these skills down pat, and then begin to learn the business aspects.

It's so easy to get excited over having decent equipment and hearing from friends and family "Wow, you're really good! You should start a business!". I thought I was ready to charge when I was producing absolute crap, lol. My own husband tried to convince me while I was still shooting on auto and using the popup flash, haha! Hence the reason to get objective guidance from professionals.

Yeah, the wear and tear kinda sucks, but it's something we ALL have to deal with. My poor little Rebel has been through hell and back with portfolio building, and it's actually the same camera I'm using as a professional until I can afford to upgrade. So poop on you, Steve, for dissing the Rebel, lol!

Susan, take what we have to say to heart and please don't be discouraged. You WILL get there someday. Shoot, read, shoot some more, read some more. Post for critique. And do more of that. Best of luck to you, I hope you stick around and suck up the knowledge here.

[GreggObst]

I'll echo what the previous two posters have said and add that I think attending a workshop might be a good idea for you to get real insight into the problems you might be having and what you need to do to correct them.

If the cost is prohibitive, I would recommend some online workshops like those found at creativelive.com. The Zack Arias course they have called "Foundations of a working photographer" is outstanding and will give you not only a good grounding in exposure and composition but also some very sobering advice on the business aspect of running a photography business.

Whatever you do, don't give up. If you really do have talent it will shine through with time, training and experience. But don't put yourself out there as a business until you feel as though you can truly deliver exceed your client's expectations and deliver a product and service that they will be happy with. You might also try taking on a 365 project where you create a new image every day. That tends to push you out the door and motivates you to think creatively and in ways your hadn't thought about before and that sort of creativity will come in handy when you are truly ready to take on clients.

If you are already in a hole about your skill set, than unfortunately I have little to add here.

I'll quietly move along

[karen_s]

Pretty much what everyone else said.

I'll just add these snippets ...

1. Rather than being a second shooter, maybe you could ask to be an assistant that helps with lighting or office work, just take anything that gets you in a position to be around the studio and office to learn about lighting and the business side. You can always shoot on your own.

2. Don't be disheartened by rejection or harsh critiques. I have been in the graphic arts for 25+ years and critique is a daily event. You learn early not to take a harsh critique personally, even if someone says YOU stink and not just your work. The ability to glean what is useful in a critique and apply it will help you improve greatly. Try posting in the Critique section here on DPS (if you haven't already).

3. Learn to be harsh with yourself. Try critiquing others work (even if just in your head) to learn how to critique your own work.

4. Learn to delete. My tendency was to keep EVERYTHING when I first started taking photos. I now delete probably 1/4 of my shots right off the bat. I'm also learning to be more thoughtful with my shooting which results in fewer shots, but better ones. And, I'm going back through my library and deleting shots which I thought at the time were great. Trust me, they weren't. (One other thing I am doing currently is shooting film. It really makes me think about each shot because I don't want to waste once single frame. The process puts me in a much more thoughtful mode of shooting.)

Now, go suit up in that body armor and post a shot in the Critique section.

[Jim Bryant]

Susan, I took a look see at your FB postings and I have to agree with the pro and most of the comments said here. One thing I noticed is that your framing and cropping of the photos kill you. And they are well.......bland. Keep practicing!

[candidrachel]

I agree with the other comments and a couple of things that I noticed on your FB was that you tend to post numerous photos that are all very similar and in particular shots of fingers and limbs missing. If I was you I'd choose the best of the set and just post a couple of best ones not all of them!

[Skoropada]

I came across this yesterday

http://tiffinbox.org/an-open-letter-...-photographer/

It's worth reading it completely before comming to conclusions.