Ok pros, tell us your story...

hippyatheart

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How did you get to where you are today? How did you make the jump from hobbiest to professional? Tell us all the niggy gritty on how you got to where you are today!
 
i like the thread idea
 
This job is not glamorous or exciting, and the pay isn't always that great. There are so many photographers around these days that I would highly recommend choosing a different career. Getting started is easy, anyone can slap a fancy logo on their pictures and call themselves a pro, which is why most people don't know the difference between a decent picture and and a professional one. If you still want to be a photographer, then go to school (college or university), and get a job with a studio or experienced photographer to learn the business and find out if this is really for you. Only then will you be able to judge your ability to run a photography business.
 
Wow, what a downer! I did not start this thread to get technical advice on starting a buisness ( Iam nt int that stage of life at the moment). I just wanted to hear what your journey has been like!
 
I just got my business license last week, although I've been shooting for 7 years.

My beginning was having a daughter born with thick dark curly hair. She was beautiful. I bought an $90.00 35mm camera, and just started taking pictures of that beautiful hair, beautiful chubby cheeks . . .

I developed those rolls of film and cried. They were blurry, dark, yellowish . . . I thought what a jip, I just bought this nice new camera (hahaha) and this is what I got.

I started paying attention to what I was doing and where I was when I was taking pictures. I started noticing obvious thing, like how much better the pictures turned out in the daylight, and how you really can't get as close as you might think to your subject.

Then I started studying why each of these things were happening.

THEN I bought a mid-level $400.00 Pentax ZX-30 35mm camera. The pictures were obviously better, but not just because I bought a new camera, but because I concentrated on why my bad photos were bad. The problem was, I still would get some dark photos, and I didn't quite know what all the lingo and jargon was Av Tv ISO . . . so, I started reading about all these things, and GASP read my manual.

Then people started noticing my pictures. They were just pictures of my family, scrapbooked or framed. No official photo shoots or any thing. Just my beautiful family.

One day a neighbor asked me to do her daughter's wedding. After I stopped laughing, I actually told her no. She said well, that's okay, my Uncle Joe just bought a new $100 dollar camera, I'll just have him do it. They weren't planning on hiring a professional photographer. That's when I thought well, I can defineately do better then Uncle Joe, so I took the job and charged only what I spent in film and developing.

The shoots were fun, and the pics turned out great!

Believe it or not, that same neighbor had another daughter get engaged 2 weeks after the wedding of the first daughter. And this time I had a Pentax istDL in my aresenal, and again, continued learning and researching. So, I took the job, charged developing, traveling, and $100.00 to do her next daughters wedding. Again, I had a blast, and the pictures were great!

So, 30 weddings later, over 200 other misc portrait sessions later, not a dime spent on advertising (every shoot I've done has been from word of mouth or from someone I've already known). I increase my wedding portrait sessions by $25 for every two weddings I book (I figure as I get more experience, I am worth alot more each time), I'll level off when I feel I'm priced at a level with my competitors. I now own my own business, where I book around 2 shoots a day.

I never went to school, but I do attend conventions, and read all the same course materials that are offered in some of the local colleges. I spend hours on the internet finding the lastet in posing and developing options. I get on forums and learn different technics to make my pictures stand out from others.

I know of two other photographers in my town with a degree, and I feel my photography is equal to if not exceeding theirs.

To me photography IS fun and exciting. I love being in this field, I love being part of peoples greatest memories. I love having a client return time and time again. I shot one girl's senior portraits, then her engagements, bridals, wedding, then her baby son's newborn portraits, then her son's 6 month portraits, and have already booked his one year portraits.

That's my story!!
 
Always wanted to be a photographer. Never considered it a hobby. I studied photography at SVA in NYC. I was an assistant the whole time I was there. That is another story, but suffice to say it was a learning experience. By my 4th year I was heavy into shooting home fashions for large studios. Stayed in that field for 5 years. Then I visited my brother in Jackson, WY one Christmas. Literally changed my life. I packed my bags and moved to Jackson. I was feeling pretty burned out in NYC plus Jackson is like no other place on earth. After about a year in Jackson I landed a full time job at the local paper. Started off in the pressroom and moved my way into shooting advertising and editorial work for them. I was able to get a lot of freelance clients with out even trying. That lasted 10+ years.

I recently moved to Southern California. Again. That is a whole other story. In the few months that I have been here I have shot 3 TFP fashion deals, I will be shooting 2 graduations this week and I am working on a bid for a catalog. I am psyched to be in the SoCal market.

Love & Bass
 
I started as an art student turned technical writer, turned civil engineering tech/designer, turned programmer, turned systems manager, turned website designer that ended up being a combination of all the previous, that now does mainly photography.

An odd set of circumstances that got me to where I wanted to go originally. I didn't have a plan because over the last 35 years most of the stuff I've done hadn't been invented.

Life is strange and shows no indication of changing.
 
This job is not glamorous or exciting, and the pay isn't always that great. There are so many photographers around these days that I would highly recommend choosing a different career. Getting started is easy, anyone can slap a fancy logo on their pictures and call themselves a pro, which is why most people don't know the difference between a decent picture and and a professional one. If you still want to be a photographer, then go to school (college or university), and get a job with a studio or experienced photographer to learn the business and find out if this is really for you. Only then will you be able to judge your ability to run a photography business.

Hate to disagree with what this guy is saying, but these days it doesn't take much "talent" to be a "pro." I will agree that there are a lot of them out there, and I'll go as far to say that they shouldn't be getting paid for their work.

But the sad fact is I see a lot of photographers that ARE getting paid, and getting paid well for their shoddy work. Perhaps more people need to come shoot in the south. :)
 
I grew up in a B&W darkroom, don't ever remember not having camera, parents were photographers, started shooting weddings in HS. Had a dual major in college, photography and bio physics. Ran out of college money, went and got a job as a trainer for a national retail "portait" studio. Did that for 10 years while shooting my own stuff on the side. Worked as a shadow for a very talented photographer for 2 years. Had a child, got burnt out on photography other than as a hobby) and did not shoot for almost 8 years and got into marketing and sales for that time. About a year ago stared a photo studio with another photographer and have been BUSY BUSY BUSY shooting ever since. All my marketing and sales exp has served me well with this new company.
 
Hmm...

At 7 my aunty and grandma gave me a Kodak instamatic 126 camera. Later I joined a government funded camera group as I studied computing in college. I did a few odd jobs none of which paid much if anything although I did manage to sell some newsworthy photos because I was in the right place at the right time.

I kinda meandered along, fixing computers and teaching English as a Foreign language. Photography kinda died for about 10 years as I concentrated on travelling. Then I was writing some software and needed images so I bought a cheap digital compact secondhand. That re-ignited my interest in photography and I sold it then bought another, sold that when the parallax error (batteries were too low to use the LCD) caused me to cut the top off the Arc de Triumph. Then I bought a Nikon 995 and later a Nikon 3100 (still have those).

I met a girl online and we enjoyed chatting. She decided to fly over from the US to see me so I asked her to bring a Canon S1 IS. She did and gave it to me as a gift. Eventually I went over to the US and we got married. I had my parents give me a Canon XT as a wedding present.

Then I started a photography business after a year or two of working off and on for my wife and her family (my wife has her own business). I've not advertised much and only today found my meta tags weren't up to much and found I have a 100 character limit on them too! Thus far I've had a few casual enquiries but no serious bookings. I had a free booking but that was thrown back in my face. I'm currently working on improving my website, prices, products and services. My prices look much clearer and I'm working on my contracts next.
 
I grew up in a B&W darkroom, don't ever remember not having camera, parents were photographers, started shooting weddings in HS. Had a dual major in college, photography and bio physics. Ran out of college money, went and got a job as a trainer for a national retail "portait" studio. Did that for 10 years while shooting my own stuff on the side. Worked as a shadow for a very talented photographer for 2 years. Had a child, got burnt out on photography other than as a hobby) and did not shoot for almost 8 years and got into marketing and sales for that time. About a year ago stared a photo studio with another photographer and have been BUSY BUSY BUSY shooting ever since. All my marketing and sales exp has served me well with this new company.

I would like to hear more about your marketing and advertising stratagies in a seperate thread when you have time. I and I'm sure others will find it very helpfull if you don't mind.
 

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