It’s been forty years now since I first held a camera in my hands and about thirty five years since I first considered a career as a photographer. I wont bore you with the years since then just read my bio. Earlier this year I attended my first exposition/conference for Professional Photographers of California. It was really the beginning of my understanding about being in the business of photography.
I ran across an article by Nevada Wier through the blog Conscientious that I think is very important. What most don’t know when they sign up for college is they don’t teach you about the business aspect of being a photographer. When you get a BA in fine arts or what ever one chooses to pursue to become a professional photographer there is no mention of marketing, etc. I don’t even think it is part of a MFA studies. Thus the relevancy of the article. I am not trying to persuade those who aspire to become a professional, the intent is that you acquire the skills in addition to photography.
Last month I taught two workshops, Creativity and Travel Photography, for the Santa Fe Workshops. I love teaching (and working as a Mentor also), although I don’t have time to teach more than two or three a year. I had two remarkable groups and they inspired me as much as, I hope, I inspired them. You can see their final shows here and here (week 2).
At the end of the first week one of the members of the class handed me a piece of paper with two questions and asked if I would answer them. They were brilliant, although I remember fumbling through the answers. However yesterday, just hours before I was leaving for a flight to Sri Lanka, I found the paper on my desk. Since the luggage was loaded in my car; I decided to think about my answers a bit more coherently. I got most of the way through them, then it was off to the airport. Now I’m on the 15 hour flight from LA to Bangkok, (then to Colombo) and am finishing the post.
What are 10 Things you wish you had known when you decided to become a professional travel photographer? Again, in no particular order, but notice that most have to do with business:
- That photography is 80% about business, not photography. I really should have hung out with MBA students and not river guides and rock climbers (for potential boyfriends).
- Just about everything that had to do with photography since I am self-taught—which means that the teacher knew very little.
- It took me awhile to figure out that it was useless to try and photograph what I saw, since slide film can only render about four stops of contrast range, while my eyes could see about 16 stops. Really, I was just using reality to express my perception of it.
- That there is a difference between marketing and business and you have to be great at both.
- That many clients do not understand that photographers need to make a decent living also (especially non-profit organizations) and are always asking for free images. And, that it was never a good idea to give into these requests without some kind of compensation.
- That one should buy a house young to build up credit and equity. Invest in yourself but also in other ways.
- Those credit cards are essential, but evil.
- That I should never have carried such heavy cameras bags or pack packs.
- That computers would eventually rule my life (well, maybe it good that I didn’t know that actually)
- That no matter how recognized I would become in photography, the phone would never ring on its own. I would have to hustle and reinvent myself all the time.
Please read the article in it’s entirety via Nevada Wier
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