I started to treat photography seriously in the winter of last year after attending Peggy's studio meetups on Wednesdays. It's actually funny, because it started with Megan (my first featured photographer), who, after I commented on another common friend's photo, mentioned she goes to these meetups on Wednesdays and it's this cool photography club in Naples and that I should attend too. Megan has a way with convincing people...
So, long story short, I did attend and loved it instantly. I remember I was so happy to get beautifully lit subjects and that all my photos were in...wait for it, wait for it...IN FOCUS! Wow, I said, this is cool!! So, I kept going and learning about studio lights, posing, processing, all while meeting awesomely supportive and creative people that love what I do. I felt warm and fuzzy inside! I've been inspired to get going and keep pushing myself to learn more and attend classes whenever possible and meet new people in the photography business and I've come a long way since then. But it all started with Peggy...
Peggy is a fireball, an Energizer bunny, a Speedy Gonzalez, a high-energy-always-on-the-go-lady... Her enthusiasm is simply contagious! She is very passionate about the business side of photography and is an avid believer in being a business person first before a photographer, in order to be successful in the industry. She is a busy beach portrait photographer that also takes time to lead the photography club. I am super grateful to Peggy for lighting this spark in me last year and for always being there for "the new kids on the block".
So, I'll let her talk for herself. Read through for some great tips and advice for all starting out or even experienced photographers.
Introduce yourself. Peggy Farren. I've been a professional photographer for 13 years. I worked for another photographer for three years before starting my own company, Avant-Garde Images, Inc. About a year and 1/2 ago, we started offering photography classes through our subsidiary, Photography Naples.
(Not Peggy)
What are three things we should know about you?
1. I love beer.
2. My son is the singer in Fake Problems, the best rock band in the world.
3. The technical side of photography came very slowly to me. It seemed like I had to study and practice more than anyone else to "get it".
Define your style in 5 words. Fun, eclectic, classic, trendy and sometimes weird. Is that too many words?
What is your specialty? We specialize in family portraiture and weddings through Avant-Garde Images.
Photography Naples offers hands-on classes from nature and HDR to portraiture and architectural photography.
Who do you look up to and admire in the industry? I've studied extensively with Bambi Cantrell. I love everything about her. She's very trained in classic posing and lighting, yet really mixes it up with trendy, unique and sometimes strange images! I LOVE THAT! She's a brilliant business person too. Buy her books and DVDs! You'll love them! She's been around long enough to see the trends in photography so she's got staying power!
What is one of your biggest dreams for your business? My dream is to continue to grow our wedding and portrait business and to grow our school. Helen Catlin (my associate) and I believe that the best teachers are working photographers so we can stay in touch with the real issues that photographers face. We also bring our students with us on jobs occasionally to help them experience real world situations. Plus, we love photography and don't want to give it up for teaching. We want to do both.
We're taking the summer (our slow season) to build our new website for the school. We have videos and online training coming up. We now have four instructors giving private lessons at a reasonable price. People love private one-on-one training!
This summer, we are offering a week-long camp for kids, bootcamp for adults and maybe a teen camp too. We have so much going on! It's very exciting!
What do you love most about being a photographer? I love people so I am a people photographer. I love being involved in happy events. I love all the accolades that come with doing a good job (my mother calls me a praise junkie). I love the challenge of creating beautiful and unique art for each of my clients.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? We plan to grow our photography training center - more classes, more online presence, more products to sell. With our school, we've been training some incredible photographers and some of them are working part-time for us now. In five years, our plan is to have some of them as full-time photographers working with Avant-Garde Images.
What do you think is the perfect percentage balance between being a business person and a photographer in the photography industry? As one of the few full-time photographers with a full-time paid employee and a mortgage on my studio, business and marketing is 80-90%.
It's estimated that 90% of professional photographers work part-time and make a part-time income. It's an extremely competitive business and I did not understand how important marketing was when I started out. I spent about 50% of my time marketing and ended up working temp jobs for my first year and 1/2 in business so I could pay my bills. When I started realizing that marketing is the most important part of a photography business, things picked up.
I still struggle with it because I want to be a photographer, not a marketing person. But the reality is that you are competing with thousands of photographers who work part-time and charge part-time prices. If you want to charge full-time prices, you have to have LOTS of potential clients calling you.
Yes, it's very important to take good pictures! But some of the part-timers take good pictures too! How can you charge a reasonable rate when they are charging 20% of what they should be charging (or even less)!
What advice do you have for the new photographers just starting out? I know I am going to sound like I'm lecturing in this part of your questionnaire. My answer is really long AND I cut it short! hahaha
1. First, really learn your craft. For portrait and wedding photographers, try to assist some experienced photographers so you can see real world situations. Managing people with a smile is SO important and part of the skill set you will need to learn.
2. Have a business plan! If you don't, you are kidding yourself that you are a business person. Most businesses lose money the first five years. Go to the Small Business Development Center at FGCU and get free help with your start up info. Join the Professional Photographers of America for specific business help. You need to justify every equipment purchase, every marketing expense (including donations of your time) and every other expense (there are lots including education!). With a business plan, you'll see that selling an 8x10 for $50 will make you lose money. You'll quickly see that donating too much of your time to get experience will burn you out and brand you as a free photographer.
For those who've bought their equipment with money from your other job (or husband or parents), you still need to put that expense in your business plan. You'll need to replace it and you'll need new equipment. This will also help stop you from buying a lot of unnecessary equipment. Buying too much stuff is a problem that most photographers have! Just look at the designer camera straps and other frivolous things you can buy! Be very careful to only purchase equipment that you can earn money from.
3. Don't give everything away just for experience. For practice, give a free session with one free image, but that's it. If they like the pictures, they can purchase them. Or even better, give free sessions to poor people who will never be your clients anyway. If you have super cheap prices to your potential clients now - how will you get those same people to pay a professional rate when you raise your prices? I see mom-photographers doing this all the time - offering free or cheap getting started prices to their well-off friends. They are branding themselves as a cheap photographer and losing the respect of their peers.
4. Don't be dishonest about your experience. You don't have to say "I'm new!" on your site or blog but don't pretend that your free shoots are real clients. There is nothing wrong with using models for your portfolios, but when you exaggerate by calling them "clients", you are deceiving potential customers. It's becoming a huge problem in the industry and we are all suffering from it. The real clients are becoming jaded and skeptical since they are getting burned so often with inexperienced photographers. Managing the people is a big part of our job and managing a free "client" is not the same managing a real world situation.
5. I could go on and on and on about this subject! If you are a wedding photographer, sign up for our wedding workshop July 31. We teach a lot about marketing and the business aspect of wedding photography. http://www.photographynaples.com/events/17396564/
What is one thing that a new photographer needs to learn quickly in the photography business? To charge a reasonable rate. Beginners - charge a small session fee if you must discount but please charge for your prints! If they don't like the pictures, they don't need to purchase any! You are going to retouch it; right? You need to cover your business expenses and labor and you can't do that by charging $50 for an 8x10. Giving the disc with a cheap session is pretty unbelievable. Those people would have had to pay $250 or more just for the session with someone else. Don't give them the disc too!
Losing money on purpose is crazy for a business person. I've seen the prices of professional photography drop like an anvil off a cliff in the past five years due to all the new part-timers giving so much away. If you hope to make a living at this, don't contribute to this continuing problem. You are paying money and giving your time to learn a craft - get paid for it! :)
Ask EXPERIENCED photographers for business advice. I think the reason so many new photographers are giving away free things is because they are asking other newbies for advice!
STEPPING OFF MY SOAPBOX NOW.............................
Thanks for the opportunity to share!!
Peggy's websites are www.naplesportraits.com and www.photographynaples.com.
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, Peggy!
Happy Easter week-end everyone!
So, long story short, I did attend and loved it instantly. I remember I was so happy to get beautifully lit subjects and that all my photos were in...wait for it, wait for it...IN FOCUS! Wow, I said, this is cool!! So, I kept going and learning about studio lights, posing, processing, all while meeting awesomely supportive and creative people that love what I do. I felt warm and fuzzy inside! I've been inspired to get going and keep pushing myself to learn more and attend classes whenever possible and meet new people in the photography business and I've come a long way since then. But it all started with Peggy...
Peggy is a fireball, an Energizer bunny, a Speedy Gonzalez, a high-energy-always-on-the-go-lady... Her enthusiasm is simply contagious! She is very passionate about the business side of photography and is an avid believer in being a business person first before a photographer, in order to be successful in the industry. She is a busy beach portrait photographer that also takes time to lead the photography club. I am super grateful to Peggy for lighting this spark in me last year and for always being there for "the new kids on the block".
So, I'll let her talk for herself. Read through for some great tips and advice for all starting out or even experienced photographers.
Introduce yourself. Peggy Farren. I've been a professional photographer for 13 years. I worked for another photographer for three years before starting my own company, Avant-Garde Images, Inc. About a year and 1/2 ago, we started offering photography classes through our subsidiary, Photography Naples.
(Not Peggy)
What are three things we should know about you?
1. I love beer.
2. My son is the singer in Fake Problems, the best rock band in the world.
3. The technical side of photography came very slowly to me. It seemed like I had to study and practice more than anyone else to "get it".
Define your style in 5 words. Fun, eclectic, classic, trendy and sometimes weird. Is that too many words?
What is your specialty? We specialize in family portraiture and weddings through Avant-Garde Images.
Photography Naples offers hands-on classes from nature and HDR to portraiture and architectural photography.
Who do you look up to and admire in the industry? I've studied extensively with Bambi Cantrell. I love everything about her. She's very trained in classic posing and lighting, yet really mixes it up with trendy, unique and sometimes strange images! I LOVE THAT! She's a brilliant business person too. Buy her books and DVDs! You'll love them! She's been around long enough to see the trends in photography so she's got staying power!
What is one of your biggest dreams for your business? My dream is to continue to grow our wedding and portrait business and to grow our school. Helen Catlin (my associate) and I believe that the best teachers are working photographers so we can stay in touch with the real issues that photographers face. We also bring our students with us on jobs occasionally to help them experience real world situations. Plus, we love photography and don't want to give it up for teaching. We want to do both.
We're taking the summer (our slow season) to build our new website for the school. We have videos and online training coming up. We now have four instructors giving private lessons at a reasonable price. People love private one-on-one training!
This summer, we are offering a week-long camp for kids, bootcamp for adults and maybe a teen camp too. We have so much going on! It's very exciting!
What do you love most about being a photographer? I love people so I am a people photographer. I love being involved in happy events. I love all the accolades that come with doing a good job (my mother calls me a praise junkie). I love the challenge of creating beautiful and unique art for each of my clients.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years? We plan to grow our photography training center - more classes, more online presence, more products to sell. With our school, we've been training some incredible photographers and some of them are working part-time for us now. In five years, our plan is to have some of them as full-time photographers working with Avant-Garde Images.
What do you think is the perfect percentage balance between being a business person and a photographer in the photography industry? As one of the few full-time photographers with a full-time paid employee and a mortgage on my studio, business and marketing is 80-90%.
It's estimated that 90% of professional photographers work part-time and make a part-time income. It's an extremely competitive business and I did not understand how important marketing was when I started out. I spent about 50% of my time marketing and ended up working temp jobs for my first year and 1/2 in business so I could pay my bills. When I started realizing that marketing is the most important part of a photography business, things picked up.
I still struggle with it because I want to be a photographer, not a marketing person. But the reality is that you are competing with thousands of photographers who work part-time and charge part-time prices. If you want to charge full-time prices, you have to have LOTS of potential clients calling you.
Yes, it's very important to take good pictures! But some of the part-timers take good pictures too! How can you charge a reasonable rate when they are charging 20% of what they should be charging (or even less)!
What advice do you have for the new photographers just starting out? I know I am going to sound like I'm lecturing in this part of your questionnaire. My answer is really long AND I cut it short! hahaha
1. First, really learn your craft. For portrait and wedding photographers, try to assist some experienced photographers so you can see real world situations. Managing people with a smile is SO important and part of the skill set you will need to learn.
2. Have a business plan! If you don't, you are kidding yourself that you are a business person. Most businesses lose money the first five years. Go to the Small Business Development Center at FGCU and get free help with your start up info. Join the Professional Photographers of America for specific business help. You need to justify every equipment purchase, every marketing expense (including donations of your time) and every other expense (there are lots including education!). With a business plan, you'll see that selling an 8x10 for $50 will make you lose money. You'll quickly see that donating too much of your time to get experience will burn you out and brand you as a free photographer.
For those who've bought their equipment with money from your other job (or husband or parents), you still need to put that expense in your business plan. You'll need to replace it and you'll need new equipment. This will also help stop you from buying a lot of unnecessary equipment. Buying too much stuff is a problem that most photographers have! Just look at the designer camera straps and other frivolous things you can buy! Be very careful to only purchase equipment that you can earn money from.
3. Don't give everything away just for experience. For practice, give a free session with one free image, but that's it. If they like the pictures, they can purchase them. Or even better, give free sessions to poor people who will never be your clients anyway. If you have super cheap prices to your potential clients now - how will you get those same people to pay a professional rate when you raise your prices? I see mom-photographers doing this all the time - offering free or cheap getting started prices to their well-off friends. They are branding themselves as a cheap photographer and losing the respect of their peers.
4. Don't be dishonest about your experience. You don't have to say "I'm new!" on your site or blog but don't pretend that your free shoots are real clients. There is nothing wrong with using models for your portfolios, but when you exaggerate by calling them "clients", you are deceiving potential customers. It's becoming a huge problem in the industry and we are all suffering from it. The real clients are becoming jaded and skeptical since they are getting burned so often with inexperienced photographers. Managing the people is a big part of our job and managing a free "client" is not the same managing a real world situation.
5. I could go on and on and on about this subject! If you are a wedding photographer, sign up for our wedding workshop July 31. We teach a lot about marketing and the business aspect of wedding photography. http://www.photographynaples.com/events/17396564/
What is one thing that a new photographer needs to learn quickly in the photography business? To charge a reasonable rate. Beginners - charge a small session fee if you must discount but please charge for your prints! If they don't like the pictures, they don't need to purchase any! You are going to retouch it; right? You need to cover your business expenses and labor and you can't do that by charging $50 for an 8x10. Giving the disc with a cheap session is pretty unbelievable. Those people would have had to pay $250 or more just for the session with someone else. Don't give them the disc too!
Losing money on purpose is crazy for a business person. I've seen the prices of professional photography drop like an anvil off a cliff in the past five years due to all the new part-timers giving so much away. If you hope to make a living at this, don't contribute to this continuing problem. You are paying money and giving your time to learn a craft - get paid for it! :)
Ask EXPERIENCED photographers for business advice. I think the reason so many new photographers are giving away free things is because they are asking other newbies for advice!
STEPPING OFF MY SOAPBOX NOW.............................
Thanks for the opportunity to share!!
Peggy's websites are www.naplesportraits.com and www.photographynaples.com.
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, Peggy!
Happy Easter week-end everyone!
3 comments:
Love the use of fill in flash on the beach portraits. Really good work. Grant
Thanks Grant! And thanks Melinda! I hope I wasn't too preachy! :)
Peggy, Great portrait work!
Marilyn
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