New Buisness

[dtlasky]

Granted Im only 15 years old, myself and a fellow photographer friend were looking into, what I would call making "a business". What we basically want to do is offer our services for almost any type of event at an extremely reasonable rates (or nothing at all). This is for the purpose of getting experience using the camera for purposes other than pleasure, and also to build a portfolio for college and/or future employers.

I would have to say that the two of us are fairly good behind the camera, with the time frame and budget taken into consideration; and knowing that we DO NOT have the equipment to take pictures like we would want to, we feel that the very low costs we would charge would suffice for our services.

I am in the process of creating a mock up of a website, and possibly looking into designing some business cards. So what Im basically asking, you guys is; what would you do in our situation? The reason I am willing to invest some time and money into being professional (i.e. website buisness cards) is because it is very hard to have people take you seriously when you are only 15 years old, (even though we both work at least part time all year round already) so anything and everything that could get us some work would be fantastic. One idea in particular in had in mind was to meet up with someone from our church and basically give them a flyer or something like that, which would offer free photography (NOT PRINTING AND PROCESSING) to couples being married, baptisms, and other things like that because that is one possible career path we would like to explore.

Any and all comments/feedback will be appreciated.

Your Friend,
DTlasky

 

[Sideburns]

If you did offer your services to your church for free...make sure you're not the only photog there. Guaranteed you won't capture a wedding the way a pro will...and there will be some "unhappy campers".

But other than that...make sure that the people who are paying you KNOW that you are new, and not to expect pro work.

Charge maybe 5 dollars an hour to take as many pics as you can.

This way, they have a free photographer, but if you mess up, it's only 5 bucks. Make sure it's not a "life or death" situation though...like if grandma only visits once every 5 years...make sure somebody else is also taknig pictures.

I'd HIGHLY recommend a course on photography before you start. You may think you know enough...but unless you can work in full manual (reliably), or can use program/auto modes (not full auto) properly (metering, white balance, etc)...you should probably get some direction from a teacher first.

More importantly.... HAVE FUN!

Oh, and we're always here to answer all your questions. I'm sure you'll do fine though, because you seem like a smart enough kid.

 

[ahphotography]

Hey dtlasky,

I can't say I haven’t got much experience as an actual professional photographer behind me. I've reached the one year (in business) mark and understand where you are coming from. I actually started photography when I was 14. I started taking photos of my friends and then showing them to everyone! I was liking the feedback I was getting and later decided to put some work behind the talent I had. I was noticed by my Pastor and he like my work so he started having me take photos at my church of like special events, baptisms and then family shots and building shots the whole nine yards. I walked away from all of it with a bag full of great shots to fill up my portfolio. One of the greatest things I walked with were the people skills I learned during that time. I would strongly suggest to you and your friend to go to your Pastor and ask him/her if there is any thing you do for him/her or the church as far a photography work. Be sure to archive your work that way you’ll have it later when you need it.

Get you some business cards – a good online company that I really like is vistaprint.com – they have a lot of deals and are pretty cheap and the quality is really good. You can also get flyers and postcards made there too.

Take care of your equipment – it’s something that will take you a long way if you take it just as far. I was pretty rough on some of my cameras back in – I was always scraping and saving to try and buy better lens and whatnot.

The website is a good idea – The more people hear about you – the more people see your work and the more opportunities you will have to get great photos. ‘

Brides and their families can be kind of rough – be sure to take tons of photos and let them know that you are a not very experienced in weddings – if ya know what I mean.

One last thing – invest time in learning Photoshop – Photoshop can be your best friend. It will take you place!

Good luck!

 

[elsaspet]

I think you have a wonderful idea, and you have the right reasons behind it.
I know of several VERY sucessful photogs in the 17 year old range.
Go for it!

 

[dtlasky]

Well we when I was talking about the limitations this buisness would have I only mentioned that our equipment wasn't VERY good, but i wouldn't say its bad. We do know how to use the camera in full manual and understand most of the concepts involved with taking good pictures.

 

[craig]

I would try and enjoy and learn photography at this point. You can build a strong body of work with out offering your services. If you question your ability then do not jump in. I trust that work for prints or some other discount works for some. Generally it can go south fast and leave a bad taste in your mouth. Photography is a tough racket. Under cutting other phtogs under the guise of being new to the field may come back to bite you. Also keep in mind that there are no second chances in the commercial world.

Let us see some work and we can help further.

Love & Bass

 

[JIP]

I think something like this is a great idea. One piece of advice though I would stay away from once in a lifetime events especially weddings until you have alot more experience. No matter how much you charge for a wedding someone is going to have an expectation of better results than you can acheive. And the last thing you want to do is have some kind of technincal issue and not be insured because a nice lawsuit for not producing photographs because you camera quit in the middle of a wedding would surely put a dent in any profits you can make.