Looking for guidance..

[Vince.1551]

You are welcome [emoji3]


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[12sndsgood]

Do you know what you want to do photography wise? If your planning on starting a business your going to want to build your portfolio around what your paying clients will want. Models do not make good paying clients.

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Welcome aboard...

 

[IceCanAm]

Welcome to the site.

 

[TheStunch]

Check out the full time photography podcast with Josh Rossi, of compositeplanet.com.
He interviews people who made the jump to pro and asks them how they did it, and inspired me to do the same.

Also I can't emphasize enough how important it is to learn business as your next photography skill, if you haven't already. Taking a great picture is only 50% of the equation or less, and learning business is easily as important if not more so. Learning how to manage finances, prices, and clients is a dark art that differs from person to person, so gather all the input you can, and go check out that podcast, and also check out the Improve Photography podcast with Jim Harmer of improvephotography.com, which in addition to tips and gear, also shares bits of wisdom on how he uses photography in his business model, which is more geared toward blogging, but is still photography centric.

I have been shooting professionally for a few months now, and it's a different world than I imagined, but i wouldn't trade it. I'm salaried and do more like catalog type photography which isn't terribly creative, as photography goes, but it still keeps me in the game, and keeps me hitting the shutter button. I do my creative work on the weekends and in my spare time, and honestly, I give it away, since my work time photography pays the bills, and I don't have time to manage more clients, which is likely a terrible example of how to do this, but it's one story of many, so maybe that helps.

If you want to get at it part time, one thing I've done is stay involved in the local art scene, if that's your market, or orbit whatever interest your photography circles, and constantly keep shooting.

only put out your best work, and know that your work has value. if you take some low paying/free gigs in the beginning, so be it, it's controversial, but many if not most pro photographers have done this at one point or another, regardless of how much they didn't like it, lol Once you have a solid portfolio, put it out there, keep it current, and only show the work you WANT to shoot. If you hate shooting dogs, don't include your best dog photos, or you will end up shooting more of them.

Keep your clients happy, because perception is reality in this regard, and happy clients come back, but on the other hand don't let them take you to the cleaners either, be smart about how you handle them and make sure you enforce, with kindness, you limits. you're not available in 10 minutes for a 20$ wedding shoot in Idaho, you're not a photo robot.

That's all i have for now, and I'm sure others on this forum can add greatly to that brief assessment. I hope you nail it, 10 years is a long time behind the lens, and it seems natural to take it to the next level.