I really love photography but something stops me from going further :/

Aakajx · Nov 28, 2014

I really love photography but I get so wrapped up with what people think or how they will react or working with them to try to get the right photo that it turns me off photography..

Like I'm a mother I have 4 kids but I hate how parents are when the kids get photos how they are over the top..

I suck with new borns...
But I love new born photography

And the cost of it all is crazy :/ I don't know of if ever make the money back on it.

People in my area expect everything for nothing :/ and at the moment everyone with a camera is a photographer.

Saying that I'm really just starting myself.

tecboy · Nov 28, 2014

Take an easy on yourself. Just keep learning, keep shooting, and having fun. You may want to hang around the photography community, this way you will learn better.

Overread · Nov 29, 2014

A few thoughts:

1) Don't focus on earning money yet - put that out of your mind and focus on enjoying the hobby and learning process itself. You're not losing money, you're simply investing it into enjoyment.

2) You might find that it helps to do mini-projects for yourself. Set yourself a task or project and then work toward it; blogging/forum posting/writing down each stage as you go through it and being self critical about your results. You'll find you can learn quite a lot like this and the smaller nature of learning little bits in focused sections will give you a better focus and understanding than trying to learn it all at once.

3) The whole "People in my area want it all for free" is a common problem people find when they try to "work" for friends and family and let the friends set the price. I did say don't worry about the money and I still stand by that whilst you're learning - but as a thought for the future if you want to make any money then you've got to sit down and work out your cost of doing business per hour and your living costs per hour - that tells you how much your time is worth per hour. From there you can set your price - and yeah chances are friends and family might not pay that much - so you have to market to a target audience.

Try to work in the cheap sector and you'll find its impossible.

Aakajx · Nov 29, 2014

Thank you

that's what I thought, I'll start doing projects

I just get frustrated and get over it.

I take a lot of motorcycle sports photography.
Mans I get people harassing me for photos. It's good but it takes time to get them uploaded and I edit them to. They just aren't thankfull. I do put them onto a disc cheap for them if they want to purchase a disc.

It's just getting past the nerves with people and dealing with them that I have to work on to.

imagemaker46 · Nov 29, 2014

Just enjoy the hobby, once it becomes business it becomes a stress filled job. Dealing with people face to face is one of the biggest issues you will have to deal with. It just sounds like you aren't even close to being ready.

pgriz · Nov 29, 2014

Very good advice above. When you're dealing with photography as a hobby, you're dealing with the image: technical, compositional, etc. When you're dealing with photography as a business, then you add to that: customer expectation management, production issues and deadlines, tax and regulatory issues, liability issues, reputation management, receivables, copyright and rights management issues...

Monetizing a hobby is really a quick way to lose the fun.

runnah · Nov 29, 2014

Lol, just because you have a camera and know how to use it doesn't mean you have to start a business!

Businesses are horrible. Starting one is just a headache and kills any joy you have.

JustJazzie · Nov 29, 2014

I've been stuck in your thought process many times before. I try to think of it this way. My husband is a car guy. I don't even like to think about how much we spend/have spent on cars because they are his thing, and he likes to have nice cars. However, that doesnt mean he needs to quit his day job and become a professional racecar driver to "make his money back" on the cars he has. In fact, if he DID become a rich race car driver, I am pretty sure we would just end up with MORE cars, and more expensive cars negating any perceived "profits" Its just the price we pay for having a hobby. His is cars, mine is pictures. Really, what hobby ISNT expensive once you invest in quality materials, and factor in what your time is worth?
Enjoy your hobby, no reason to put pressure on yourself it only ruins the fun!

Rick50 · Nov 29, 2014

This reminds me of my last trip to see my Doctor. I told the Nurse that I'm no longer healthy enough to chase girls as I can't catch them. She says "That's easy, just fatten up your wallet and you won't have to."

Same with photography, just have fun and get good at it and you won't have to look for clients, they will find you.

Designer · Nov 29, 2014

Aakajx said:
I really love photography but I get so wrapped up with what people think or how they will react or working with them to try to get the right photo that it turns me off photography..

Like I'm a mother I have 4 kids but I hate how parents are when the kids get photos how they are over the top..

I suck with new borns...
But I love new born photography

And the cost of it all is crazy :/ I don't know of if ever make the money back on it.

People in my area expect everything for nothing :/ and at the moment everyone with a camera is a photographer.

Saying that I'm really just starting myself.

If you want to make some money in photography and the motorcycle riders want fast photos, concentrate on posting (low-res) photos to your website, with the option of purchasing PRINTS. Do NOT give them electronic files any longer. Make them purchase prints ONLY. They will wait for prints, and think nothing of it.

Of course you can do the same with child photography. If your photographs are obviously better than mom's cell-phone pics, she will purchase prints from your website, and be happy to pay for them. Stop giving your high-res files away for free.

sashbar · Nov 29, 2014

Lack of confidence in interacting with clients usually stems from lack of confidence in your own work/skill. That applies to any profession, not just photography. Master your skill and you will master your interaction. Know your worth and you will know how to talk to clients. Simples.

pgriz · Nov 29, 2014

Another thought: If you spent some money renovating your kitchen (the cost of which ranges from $10,000 to over $100,000, depending on how extensive you make it), do you feel the need to "get your money back" by starting a catering business, or opening your home as a restaurant? Of course not. You do it because it improves your quality of life. Hobbies like photography do the same.

Another thought from the business side: a good business looks at where it has the highest profit margins and the best market positioning, and drops activities that don't contribute the growing the bottom line. If you want to look at your photography as a "profit center", you have to ask the question whether your investment of time, effort and money is giving you the type of return that justifies doing it as a business. Also remember that if it is a business, the photography part is probably only 20% of the time you will need to run the business.

vintagesnaps · Nov 29, 2014

I think Overread's #1 point is something I see on here over and over and over again, and Scott's right, you're probably not there yet. You'd need to know how to boil water before you could become a chef - you need to get good at using your camera first and get comfortable with it and love doing that before you move on to doing work as a photographer. I think it helps to know exactly what you're doing to be able to build confidence at anything.

It sounds like you need to figure out what to say to people who ask for photos. I think once you started giving away freebies, word might have gotten around and people figured out you're the one who does photography - for free. Stop - it's okay to tell people you're still learning, this is just for fun and practice, that you don't have the time to process photos for others, that you're not selling your photos (yet) etc. Think of what you could say to people when you're approached, and stick to it.

Aakajx · Nov 30, 2014

Thank you all

Yes a big part of me isn't ready.
In no professional. I do take nice photos. I don't expect to be paid much but if they want the photos $20 isn't much?

Thank you

TheStunch · Dec 1, 2014

Photography is a strange thing. If you look at it like a strictly financial exercise, it's a difficult sell because there is so much money tied up in going pro, and it can be tough going after you "get there". This is not so much the case if you open a jiffy lube. since most people that get into that business do not get into it because they love changing oil as a means of artistic expression...

What I mean is, photography is generally considered an art, and most of the time people do it because they love the art, and making money either happens or doesn't, but that mostly relies on the business sense of the person behind the lens. It rarely happens the other way around, where someone says "I need to make money, I'll become a photographer" though in my case, it was more the latter than the former. If you love what you do, take away the pressure and just let the photos happen, and learn business while you refine your art, and sooner or later, like others have suggested, you evaluate your life again, set some prices and get business serious.

I started making $ doing photography very quickly, but pulled away because it's a lot of stress and time, and took me away from MY photography passions, because I took the wrong clients, and when you start taking a paycheck from your work, if you don't handle your emotions/expectations/time properly, you can become the camera slave, and you burn out and don't want to pick up a camera anymore (though I never burnt out, just wanted to), or you can become hyper critical (to the point of detriment) of your own work, or just photo-cynical, and considering these things, it's VERY easy to see where you're coming from.

best advice from me: Camera is yours now, and it may take a while to pay for itself, don't call it a loss, call it cost of education, and consider it job training. Don't be late to class, get every dime's worth of education from that camera, and this community, and really perfect your style, and hone your skills. then, go take some business courses, and after all that, really ask your self if you want to change the dynamic that most "amateur photographers" enjoy, which is: the pure, unbridled freedom to create whatever they want, whenever they want, with no photography related financial concerns beyond the incidentals of life (food, gas, etc.). By that time in your journey, you'll have a good handle on where you want to be and you'll make a more educated, and less stressful choice, whatever it may be.