Photography Career

[blasteryui]

Hi guys, I'm 19, I love taking pictures. I want to make a career of taking pictures of woman and people...

Dude, women ARE people. Don't feel bad, I was almost 30 before I figured that out. As for convincing random people to model for you, I find a ski mask and a Colt .45 work well, except for the crying, it ruins their mascara. :meh:

Lol, my bad, when I mean people I meant kids and men too I guess.

Can ONE not get accepted by a photography school? I was just wondering.

Well a few schools down here and some of the higher ones in New York etc require a portfolio, interview etc actually.

I gotta tell ya you sounded a little creepy w/ your..... I want to take pictures of random hot women in Brazil! Then again you are a 19 yr. old ......lol Reel in those hormones a little and learn the basics first!! Then worry about your hot chickies for the calendars!!

Hahaha, yes, I'm 19, taking pictures of beautiful woman all day and getting paid, if that's possible sounds great to me. I have great people skills also.

Your areas of things to consider needs to be expanded by quite a lot if you want to pursue this as a career and work for yourself (which is what it sounds like you want):

-Do you have a firm understanding of marketing and sales?
-Do you have a firm understanding of business law, especially as it relates to contracts, liability, insurance?
-Do you have a firm understanding of the tax requirements for working for yourself/owning your own business?
-Do you have a firm understanding of basic financial and account principles for managing your business assets (income and debt)?

Or:

-Do you only know how to take pretty pictures?

No I don't have an understanding of business, I do know one thing though, I can learn. So how realistically possible is it to make a career, and should I really skip out school and put the money towards traveling and gear? I would like to go to school and experience that, not to mention I don't get as much money back if I don't put it for school. Also should I take a business course or would I learn what I need to learn through her and through the course. The course is called Digital Photography, 2 years.

 

[TheBiles]

Most people don't start careers by just taking a hobby they have, throwing all of their money into it, and disregarding the rest of their life. That's the kind of thing you do at 40 when you're going through a midlife crisis--not at 19 when you've got your whole life ahead of you and your decisions now can greatly impact your future.

 

[Raian-san]

Most people don't start careers by just taking a hobby they have, throwing all of their money into it, and disregarding the rest of their life. That's the kind of thing you do at 40 when you're going through a midlife crisis--not at 19 when you've got your whole life ahead of you and your decisions now can greatly impact your future.

^^ Yeah. I don't think most professional photographer starts by thinking "I'm gonna be a professional photographer" I think most just do it as a hobby until they feel like their work is up there, or see their progress and time in life where they want to be a professional photographer. Photography is a tough business, you definitely should do it as a hobby and have a main plan for your future like education and do photography on the side. If money starts coming in, and you're getting a lot of referrals and built a client base, network, then I would focus on it and quit my daytime job.

 

[thompssc]

First off, read what I posted on this thread (I'll copy and past here):http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-photo-gallery/251704-school.html#post2303427

...

There are few jobs available for photographers, but a photographer that has some good business savy can make a living being self-employed.

Good luck!

Honestly I think you would be better off going into business. Maybe study entrepreneurship or finance or marketing. But I think going to college for photography is a waste of several thousand dollars. Although photography is a skill that requires lots and lots of practice and often lots of reading (about lighting/posing/equipment//software/etc), that can all be done by yourself. You don't need to pay thousands of dollars for someone to teach you how to properly expose a photo, or how to use Photoshop, or how to effectively use lighting to enhance a photo. Most of this information is available on the web and is easy enough to understand on your own.

Now before the pro's come in and flame me, let me go ahead and say that just because that information is widely available doesn't mean that it's easy to get really good at photography. It simply means that it's fairly easy to learn the technical side of it. The rest of it is much more difficult to learn. However, it still isn't really something that can be "taught". How to frame photos, an eye for composition, creativity- these are the the things that can only be learned and perfected through lots and lots of practice and observation. I think going to college for photography is generally a bad idea because 1) learning the technical aspects can easily be done on your own and 2) the non-technical aspects really aren't something that can be taught in college.

Also, I'm not a pro, but from all the boards I've participated on and all the reading I've done and talking to pro's that I personally know, I think the majority will say that being a good photographer is just half the battle, if that. The other half is running the business. Many aspiring pro photographers envision a life of taking pictures of clients, editing them, and then collecting a paycheck. Sounds awesome right? That's the life! Get paid to take pictures! There's a lot more to it than that though. You've got to have a website, you've got to have a blog (well, you don't HAVE to, but I find that the more successful ones do...), you've got to UPDATE your website regularly, you've got to file taxes, you've got to market your business, you've got to network, you've got to keep up with what you're competition is doing, you have to go out and take photos...often. And editing the photos is not like what you're used to. It's not all fun and creative. You don't really have the luxury to spend hours on one photo and make it just right. You've likely got hundreds of photos from each shoot to filter through and process, and then publish to the web, and send proofs to the client, etc. And if you're doing multiple shoots a week and a few hundred photos per shoot, that leaves you with thousands of photos to go through each week. In addition to doing the marketing and other nonsense.

I'm not necessarily trying to scare you away from doing photography as a job, but I do want to point out that a large part of being successful with it is running a business. And that's something that college usually is good for. Plus, if photography doesn't work out, it leaves you a lot more marketable. Learning to manage a business and think like a business person would be much more valuable than taking a whole bunch of art history classes.

Also, I understand there are semi-pro's who don't have to do as much of the business aspect of it. I'm assuming that if someone is going to college for something, they don't want to just do it on the side, they want to do it full time. And certainly there are exceptions to everything.

My .02

Also, quoting Raian-San above me...

I don't think most professional photographer starts by thinking "I'm gonna be a professional photographer" I think most just do it as a hobby until they feel like their work is up there, or see their progress and time in life where they want to be a professional photographer. Photography is a tough business, you definitely should do it as a hobby and have a main plan for your future like education and do photography on the side. If money starts coming in, and you're getting a lot of referrals and built a client base, network, then I would focus on it and quit my daytime job.

I would say many pro photographers initially went into some other field where they had steady income and there was a much better job market. They then used some of that steady, reliable income to purchase equipment as they needed it and slowly began taking pictures for clients, built a basic website, crafted some business cards, etc. Then as more and more people started picking up their services they put more and more effort into the photography business until they felt comfortable dropping their day job to pursue the photography business full time. That's usually a safer way to go as opposed to throwing all your eggs into the photography basket. Plus, like I mentioned above. If you have a degree in marketing or accounting and photography doesn't work out, at least you have a pretty good back up plan.




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