career options?

BigDaddyCan

Hey guys,
just looking for a bit of advice, at a bit of a crossroads career wise at the moment and would love to get into photography full time, any advice on how to go about this? I can understand that studios might not be overly keen on employing people in the current economic climate but any advice is welcomed

pete4130

To be blunt, you'll need the kit, the experience and the knowhow to go it alone. This can take years and a fair bit of investment. Usually after being an assistant to someone for a while.

Some people market themselves as being pro and go it alone from day one and get work and do quite well but their client base isn't that broad in my opinion and limited to the general public who don't really know a good image from bad.

Usually the first direction people head towards are weddings, parties, christenings etc...it's an easy market of friends and relatives who are willing to let someone they know and trust to take images of their event and will generally be happy with them and the price they paid.

If you opt for press work its a hard sector to get into and isn't the easiest to make a living from as a few posters will testify to on here, regarding its high workload, high pressure and commitment.

If you opt for the music industry you are competing against 100 people per gig with semi decent DSLR's taking 1000's of photos the bands would be happy to take for free before they pay for your images.


If you go for weddings, its a full on game. Full days, high expectations and good wedding photogs charge high prices because they deliver good results. A lot of people are offering a cheap wedding service and thats what they get. A cheap end product. Poor images, poor printing, poor equipment and not a good documentation of the day.

I don't know your experience or your equipment but if your'e relatively new to photography and don't have any sort of pro equipment and expect to earn money your'e kidding yourself really. I'm not being harsh, I'm being honest.

I'm sure users such as PCPhoto, DotOrg and Borderfox to name a few, would agree with pretty much everything I've said on here.

what were you working at before you considered photography and what is your experience with working in photography?

BigDaddyCan

pete4130 wrote: »

To be blunt, you'll need the kit, the experience and the knowhow to go it alone. This can take years and a fair bit of investment. Usually after being an assistant to someone for a while.

Some people market themselves as being pro and go it alone from day one and get work and do quite well but their client base isn't that broad in my opinion and limited to the general public who don't really know a good image from bad.

Usually the first direction people head towards are weddings, parties, christenings etc...it's an easy market of friends and relatives who are willing to let someone they know and trust to take images of their event and will generally be happy with them and the price they paid.

If you opt for press work its a hard sector to get into and isn't the easiest to make a living from as a few posters will testify to on here, regarding its high workload, high pressure and commitment.

If you opt for the music industry you are competing against 100 people per gig with semi decent DSLR's taking 1000's of photos the bands would be happy to take for free before they pay for your images.


If you go for weddings, its a full on game. Full days, high expectations and good wedding photogs charge high prices because they deliver good results. A lot of people are offering a cheap wedding service and thats what they get. A cheap end product. Poor images, poor printing, poor equipment and not a good documentation of the day.

I don't know your experience or your equipment but if your'e relatively new to photography and don't have any sort of pro equipment and expect to earn money your'e kidding yourself really. I'm not being harsh, I'm being honest.

I'm sure users such as PCPhoto, DotOrg and Borderfox to name a few, would agree with pretty much everything I've said on here.

what were you working at before you considered photography and what is your experience with working in photography?

thats the exact kind of answer I was looking for to be honest

I am aware its a lot about experience, I work as a DJ as well and that game is all about how long you've been at it and how able you are to perform when you need to!

My experience is pretty limited to be honest, I have a cannon 500d and am well aware that I am ages away from any tangible income from it but Its something that I am willing to work at!

I'm not expecting to wake up tomorrow morning and start making a great income from it

just looking for some avenues that I might explore to someday maybe make some money from the whole thing!

any advice/stories of how people got into it would be great!

Borderfox

Start off doing some courses and see how you get on with it. Can be a long road getting established, very enjoyable though and no other job I have had compares.

Check out http://www.instituteofphotography.ie/ I did a Wedding course with them in 2006 and found it excellent, try do as many as you can handle to get a good grasp of the basics and see how it goes from there.

Ask away on any other questions you have

pearljamfan

would a business course be good to do as well??

Borderfox

Definitely