Dabbled in this and that, been in the studio a good many times, photographed a wedding or five, a children's party, hens weekend, a gay parade X2, family portraits and enough 'picture a day' projects to make paint peel, it's time to go pro. Or try, cos you know this industry isn't all cupcakes and rainbows (ponders colourful tasty photoshoot idea - anyone keen to be covered in rainbow coloured cupcakes?)
Getting into it involves a good camera, learning how to take good pictures, surrounding yourself with photography friends, youtube videos, blogs etc. You then need to know how to edit those images so fork out and master photoshop/;ightroom. Set up a decent filing system and make sure you back it up. Figure out where you want to publicly show your hard work - facebook, flickr, google plus or picaso...ensure your rights are right!
So now you're a hobby photographer. How to become someone that gets paid for pointing and shooting? I have no idea, but this is my plan.
Step 1: Build a website to display your work
Step 2: Build a strong portfolio to display on your website
Step 3: Figure out prices for what service you're giving
Step 4: Market yourself and then market yourself some more - twitter, facebook, flyers, word of mouth and
Step 5: Business cards
Setting up a domain name is the easiest bit - actually building a website, well I am no web dev! But i have awesome people around me who are willing to help, so take a blog and a domain name and hey - we have this: www.kiriphotography.com
A portfolio seems the simple part right? I mean I have done all this photography and have all these pictures (on a broken hard drive in the current possession of one of that awesome people) But it isn't so straight forward, there is no point in putting a pretty picture of a squirrel on your portfolio if you are aiming to do wedding photography. So you need to ensure your best work is displayed in a eye catching way that related appropriately to what you are marketing to offer.
Pricing is a tricky one too, but the best way I have figured it out is to check what others are charging, check how much your equipment is (or if you are hiring anything) and how much time it takes you from beginning to end. And go from there.
Marketing plans include; word of mouth from one wedding to another. Posting projects and random photographs on facebook, google plus and twitter. Spreading the word as much as possible. I plan to go to a wedding fair or two and hand out business cards and an attempt to opening up a stall at a market, which i'll write more on later, will help market me too.
Business cards is the fun part and I am waiting on my delivery for them. I used littlemoo.com. Laying out your design is pretty easy with them and you get to upload all your own pictures, which is important for me. I came up with the below.
So with all my planning in action, let the fun begin!
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