From Hobby to Profession

Photography as a business brings on all kinds of different avenues. I so admire my friend Mary Miller. She's doing a great job of marketing. She shoots all different kinds of images, from the scenic to high school portraits to weddings and events. And she is so excited to do this.

We are building our business slowly. It's fun but it's challenging. I know my limits. To shoot sports photography or wildlife photography, you really need large glass. You need a 500 mm fast lense in order to really capture the moments. And I don't want to haul that kind of glass around.

You need to get up before sunrise to capture the best shots of the day. I can get much better scenes by doing a sunrise, when the air is still and the day barely born. In summer, that often means rising at 2 AM to get to our destination.

How to market your new business? Well, first get a copy of the Photographer's Market. This invaluable guide shares the ins and outs of selling your art. But it's not enough. You can submit, submit, submit. Not knowing the person who receives your email submittal, you risk losing the opportunity because the art director has a strong junk filter. Now that sucks, doesn't it.

I recommend using a variety of means to promote yourself. Social networking online is but one part of this. In our high tech / high touch world, there is still nothing like networking. Personal networking is what I mean. Most of our business has come from word of OUR mouths. People whom we meet pretty quickly learn that we are photographers. When they think of needing photography for their web sites, they remember our team. They come to us. And it was not necessarily within a month of our first meeting. We gave them a business card and sometimes 2 years later, they need our help.

Placing ads can work, but you really need to know your lighting to do serious indoor work. So be careful what you advertise. Build a catalog of images. Show everyone your work, but make some prints, cards, or calendars, and take them to stores. A friend suggested creating a calendar and selling an entire rack to stores. Let them buy the full rack and then resell. Sell prints. Sell Cards.
Sell Calendars. Sell varied sizes or styles. Talk to local restaurateurs and see about a show in their store.

We have friends who like to work the art fair circuit. We don't, but that is a time constraint we do not have right now. Some day, we may enjoy working every weekend away from home, but right now it sounds like too much work.

Whatever you do, the one thing we always have to remember is we got into this for fun, creative outlets and we are not going to win unless we retain the fun.