If you’re here and you’re thinking about pursuing photography or taking your photography business full time, I’d love to talk to you, why? Because I’ve been there where you were…
Today I’m sharing you things I wish I knew when I was starting back in 2012. Hopefully it will help you if you find yourself in the beginning of your photography journey.
- Expect the Worse.
It might sound terribly pessimistic, but expect the worse. If you can imagine just how bad things could be and you’re okay with the outcome then you know exactly what you’re risking. Knowing the worst, but hoping for the best fired my emotions when I first started. The worst case scenario (for me) was: failing at photography, going back to my day job and being stuck again in a four cornered wall and everyone laughing at me was one of ugly things I was afraid of. The truth is, that failing is not failing – it´s learning. Failure mostly happens when you step out into unknown territory and experiment with things (and that´s a really good thing, right!) what you learn from this is valuable. The sooner you fail, the sooner you can not fail.
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- Good Mistakes.
Although you don’t want to make mistakes, they’ll happen. It’s part of the growing process, but it’s important to know not all mistakes are bad. A misstep that allows you to learn, correct, or grow is actually beneficial and the more you make in the beginning, the less you’ll make later. Instead of trying to avoid mistakes, embrace each challenge optimistically and know you’re learning along the way.
- It’s ok to ask for help.
Sometimes we shy away from asking people all because we are intimidated, but what I’ve learned was its absolutely ok not to know everything, I mean who does? If you found someone whom you admired and really inspired you to do photography feel free to ask for any advice, you will be surprised how accommodating professional photographers are.
- Shoot RAW
I love, love, love to shoot in RAW format! The control it gives me when I edit is wonderful – almost magical. When I first started photography I did not understand what RAW files was nor did I know how to set my camera to shoot in RAW format. But when I finally took time to learn it, I fell in love with it
- Work for it.
Being a photographer is easy, but being a great photographer is not, if you think you will learn cool stuff in few weeks or month, think again. It’s not being in a candy shop you will feel exhausted, experience creative block and sometimes being stuck. These things happened to everyone who’s creative. You need to learn so many things as you go but taking baby steps and working really hard for your passion is the key to becoming what you want. Work it!
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- Connect with other Photographers
Some people asked me if there’s one investment I could have on this industry what would it be? I simply answered “gather all the photographers in my area and have a coffee” why? This way I can connect and get into the field much easier, know the ins and out and get more feedback from other creative, also this would be a great network, if there would be a time one photographer would be fully booked I can be that photographer he can think of to help him out.