Working towards becoming a professional photographer

Seems like everyone wants to be a professional photographer now on these days. Just keep learning, keep shooting, and have fun.

I don't. In fact I've been going out of my way to avoid it at all costs.

I keep getting asked to do weddings because I have a big camera (obviously they've never seen my work, or they... wouldn't be asking). I agree-I have no desire to do that. Or portraits of people, families, and pets. I have been roped into taking product shots for a couple clients thanks to my stepmom and my father in law... Hey, it's money, and I haven't disappointed them yet.

Unfortunately for me I got roped into doing senior pictures for one girl and now I'm going to be stuck doing two more shoots for friends of hers. I tried to beg off but couldn't get out of it, well at least not without maybe making things a little uncomfortable at work.

Worse yet a friend of mine sells real estate and his company was having problems with the photographer they hired. He bailed on a scheduled shoot for one of their houses so the guy called me up and begged me to come out and shoot it for them.

Now he wants to replace their old photographer and even wants me to reshoot several houses and some city scapes for his website.

I really didn't want to do it but the guy is an old friend so I agreed to fill in temporarily until they could find a replacement.

I really like being am amateur and just taking pictures of what I want when I want. Not really wanting a part time job but for now at least I'm kind of stuck.

So I think from now on if anybody asks me how to open their own photography business my advice will be just start telling everyone you know that you don't want their money and you don't want to be a pro. Seems to be the best way to get people to want to pay you to take pictures.

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That list sucks..... lol. After 33 years I'm still stuck at a firefighter that only came in at #167, really?? Only 5 spots above a photographer??

go to school, suck up as much education and life experience as you can. Have fun taking some pictures because what you want to do in life will most likely change at least 5 or 6 more times. And who knows? Maybe you will land as a pro photographer. But be careful what you ask for, you might get it and it might not be what you truly wanted.
 
I don't. In fact I've been going out of my way to avoid it at all costs.

I keep getting asked to do weddings because I have a big camera (obviously they've never seen my work, or they... wouldn't be asking). I agree-I have no desire to do that. Or portraits of people, families, and pets. I have been roped into taking product shots for a couple clients thanks to my stepmom and my father in law... Hey, it's money, and I haven't disappointed them yet.

Unfortunately for me I got roped into doing senior pictures for one girl and now I'm going to be stuck doing two more shoots for friends of hers. I tried to beg off but couldn't get out of it, well at least not without maybe making things a little uncomfortable at work.

Worse yet a friend of mine sells real estate and his company was having problems with the photographer they hired. He bailed on a scheduled shoot for one of their houses so the guy called me up and begged me to come out and shoot it for them.

Now he wants to replace their old photographer and even wants me to reshoot several houses and some city scapes for his website.

I really didn't want to do it but the guy is an old friend so I agreed to fill in temporarily until they could find a replacement.

I really like being am amateur and just taking pictures of what I want when I want. Not really wanting a part time job but for now at least I'm kind of stuck.

So I think from now on if anybody asks me how to open their own photography business my advice will be just start telling everyone you know that you don't want their money and you don't want to be a pro. Seems to be the best way to get people to want to pay you to take pictures.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

That's kinda what happened here. My stepmom co-owns a small business, so her business is one client. My father in law decided to tell a bunch of his contacts that I do product shots, and bam, I've got a couple of people throwing money at me for little pieces of my soul. Too bad I'm not a ginger, or this would be easier. :lol:
 
That's kinda what happened here. My stepmom co-owns a small business, so her business is one client. My father in law decided to tell a bunch of his contacts that I do product shots, and bam, I've got a couple of people throwing money at me for little pieces of my soul. Too bad I'm not a ginger, or this would be easier. :lol:

Lol.. I'm sure there would be some advantages to being souless. You know on that first senior pictures thing I wasn't all that confident, I don't shoot a lot of portraits and it was definitely outside my comfort zone. Funny thing I discovered though is that the vast majority of people out there are not nearly as critical of photographs as I am, they don't really seem to notice things that I do that detract from the photograph. The photograph they picked out as being their absolute favorite was one that I wasn't even sure I'd put in the keeper column. It was borderline for me, but they loved it.

So not nearly as stressed about the other two senior picture sessions - but man I really don't want this to turn into an ongoing thing. I've already got a full time job and I don't really need a part time gig on top of that, I'd rather spend that time out at the zoo or when the weather gets nicer out hiking and taking pictures of stuff I like taking pictures of, rather than dealing with clients and running all over taking pictures of stuff that doesn't really float my boat.

So hopefully soon I'll be able to return to my full amateur status, I don't mind doing this for a short period of time but I definitely do not want this to become an ongoing concern.
 
Yeah I agree with you guys. I honestly don't see me being a professional photographer for a long time. But that's ok, right now I'm enjoying doing it for fun :)
There is a big, big difference of doing things for fun and for money. Which venue are you planning to take ? Fashion ? Photojournalism ? Weddings ? School yearbooks ? Paparazzi ? Babies in Walmart ?
Huge Projects are usually few and far between, not enough to pin the life to it. What's your business plan ?
 
That's kinda what happened here. My stepmom co-owns a small business, so her business is one client. My father in law decided to tell a bunch of his contacts that I do product shots, and bam, I've got a couple of people throwing money at me for little pieces of my soul. Too bad I'm not a ginger, or this would be easier. :lol:

Lol.. I'm sure there would be some advantages to being souless. You know on that first senior pictures thing I wasn't all that confident, I don't shoot a lot of portraits and it was definitely outside my comfort zone. Funny thing I discovered though is that the vast majority of people out there are not nearly as critical of photographs as I am, they don't really seem to notice things that I do that detract from the photograph. The photograph they picked out as being their absolute favorite was one that I wasn't even sure I'd put in the keeper column. It was borderline for me, but they loved it.

So not nearly as stressed about the other two senior picture sessions - but man I really don't want this to turn into an ongoing thing. I've already got a full time job and I don't really need a part time gig on top of that, I'd rather spend that time out at the zoo or when the weather gets nicer out hiking and taking pictures of stuff I like taking pictures of, rather than dealing with clients and running all over taking pictures of stuff that doesn't really float my boat.

So hopefully soon I'll be able to return to my full amateur status, I don't mind doing this for a short period of time but I definitely do not want this to become an ongoing concern.

totally hear you on this. i can see it coming for me to with people asking me to shoot things i don't like
 
|this is like the most impresive case. From 0 to profesional. As they said, gets years od learning and shooting until you get there. but work on it. Followed this trhead for a wile and looked for some people usefull coments and others not. Finaly decided to sing up in the forum to open a new thread. Lets see if it goes better.

and good luck with your dreams man!
 

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