I wanna be a pro….

The most asked question is without a doubt :
“I wanna become a pro… how to do it?”

Well one could say of course, go to school, get a diploma, get some work experience and start working for yourself. However with art (and photography is art) this is a bit more difficult. In the Netherlands photography has been a free profession for some time, meaning everyone can call themselves a photographer, and if you earn a certain percentage of your income from photography… well you’re a pro. Now let’s see what to do to become that pro shall we?

Passion
Let me start by saying that photography for me is not a profession. Yeah ok I earn my money with it, but it’s so much more. Photography for me is almost an addiction, I can drive people totally mad with my talks about old lenses, film cameras, scanning, developing, shooting models, styling, light… (Oh sorry here I go already). When I can’t shoot for a day or 2 I go restless I just have to hear that shutter. I can’t imaging that my accountant goes restless when he can’t use his calculator for a few days…..

Now when people ask me how to become a pro I always tell them that it has to be in your blood, you have to breath photography. So the next remark is often “Yeah but I’ve tried so hard already and it just doesn’t happen” so I ask “well how long have you been trying?” the answer is in 90% of the cases “Well at least for 1-2 years”…. “hummm ok, add at least 2-3 more”…. “what weeks, months, years :-)”….. “yeah years”…. “oops… I don’t have that time”

Well and there we have the problem.
We all want to be shooting for Vogue of course, who doesn’t?
Trust me that won’t happen in a year, or two, or even three or four.
Now I hear some of you say “Well I know of someone who did it all in 2 years”
Yep I know some of those people too, actually I know one of them really well, but…. often they did not become a professional shooter overnight, with a lot of them there was a huge history, it can be in graphic design, 3D modelling, video etc. meaning they are just switching to photography to get their vision to the viewer, plus they probably already have the network because in the end the network is where it all boils down to. If you know the right people your career will flourish, if you don’t…. well you have to work even harder.

Frank did you really say “EVEN harder”?
Yeah, “making” it in the photography business is incredibly difficult, and would almost say impossible, but I feel incredibly blessed that in some form I did “make it”, I’m not shooting for Vogue (yet, it’s on my agenda as a goal….. someday…..well maybe), but I’m shooting, and working together with some pretty interesting and awesome people and because teaching is my main passion I’m without any doubt more than happy with my career at the moment. But don’t get me wrong, it’s incredibly hard work. If you think it’s a day job from 9:00-17:00 (that’s 5:00 PM for our US readers) you couldn’t be more wrong, I always tell my interns that this will probably be their hardest internship ever time wise, sometimes there is a quiet week with normal working days, but most of the times it can happen we have a show that is in another time zone, meaning we have to work late at night or very early, it can also happen we have to go on location for a full day with a complete team, this often means up at 5:00AM, arriving on location around 8:00AM and finishing at 10:00PM, going home, selecting images and doing the retouching… and sleep in the next day (if you are lucky).

But I wouldn’t want to trade it for anything else.
We only are around on this globe for a few years, in fact seeing it in the big picture we are only here for a heartbeat, in my opinion it’s a chance we’re given… and for me I want to take the most out of that and I want to leave something behind that people will remember me for, being it my photography or my teachings, that drives me to work long hours, hectic weeks and sometimes missing weekends for months…. that’s passion.

When I started photography I never asked to be a pro, I just wanted to shoot. When I got the chance to earn my money with it I actually didn’t do it right away, we had a good running computer company which got bread on the table, but at one point you just know you can make the switch, and that took me at least 6 years. So I’ve been shooting since I was a little boy, I got the bug from my grandparents and parents, I did have a break for 10 years in which I loved doing video, but I returned to photography because I still think that the “frozen moment in time” is better than the “moving one”, I only turned Pro when I knew my business would not collapse when I would be without other income. This also made sure that I still enjoyed photography, because trust me when you HAVE to get income from something…. it will very soon become work and a frustration.

Business vs bankrupt
Or living in a house instead of in a box under the bridge
Don’t get me wrong, I always think you should go where your heart is, but…. when you have a family always realize what kind of risk you take, write down for yourself what you need (money wise) and what you think you can earn. If you are now shooting models on TFP basis I think it could very well be VERY VERY busy, just for fun try to ask per session 10.00 dollars/euros, let’s call it “investment pay” or whatever, now look how many of the models still come for their shoot…. I think a lot less, now imaging not charging 10.00 but 199.00 for a session, how many will you shoot per month to earn your living? Maybe it’s best to keep your job and keep shooting as a hobby and grow from there, DON’T rush it, if it’s meant to be it will be.

Passion vs work
When I talk to starting business owning photographers I often hear the following.
“I love shooting weddings, I don’t want to do anything else”
Well cool, but how many weddings are there in a year?
Well probably not enough to make a living off (at least not over here).
When you start out as a pro you will sometimes have to do things you don’t necessary like.
In May 2013 we opened our new educational centre/Studio in Emmeloord, the main purpose of the building is education and fashion shoots, but because we are now focussing on photography for the full 100% we also do a lot more, for example we also do families, weddings, some product photography and businesses.

Of course my main passion is with models/artists/sporters etc. but when you want to build your business there will sometimes be things that you don’t necessary like but that you do because it makes it possible to “life the dream”, and in the end it’s all photography of course and I all enjoy it, shooting a family is a different thing than shooting a model but both have their…. well challenges.

So you wanna be a pro?
Of course you want, but be reasonable follow these simple rules and it will probably help you out, and if not… well at least keep shooting and most of all enjoying it.

1. Realize it won’t happen overnight
Work your *ss off, be prepared to go above and beyond.
And realize that a period of 10-15 year is a very normal period to learn the trade and become a photographer that can earn his/her own money, IF it happens faster be glad.

2. NETWORK
Learn to know the right people, be nice, build your network.

3. Find an assistants job
I can’t stress this enough, be prepared to work as an assistant for a few years, expect low pay, expect to be pushed around and be tired all the time, but also realize this is the way to learn, absorb everything you can and build your network. BUT always remember who gave you the chance. Believe it or not the photography business (the real business) is not that big and most photographers know each other in a certain area, if you steal a client from the guys teaching you…. let’s say you will probably do it once and your career is over, if a client approaches you which you met during an assistants job always discuss it with the photographer that gave you the opportunity, the fact the client approaches you already means he wants to work with you, but the fact you’re discussing it with your “mentor” will also show to him/her that your loyal, it will probably give you credit and maybe even more jobs or a cooperation.

4. DARE to say NO
Too often photographers are afraid to say “No sorry I can’t do that”.
I’ve said it many times in the past and it never cost me a client, it actually got me more clients for the simple reason that the photographer I recommended did the same thing for me when he needed to shoot a fashion set which he did not felt comfortable with. In the photography business reputation is everything, if you say NO it’s not saying you’re a lousy shot, it’s showing that you want to deliver the absolute best quality and this is more often regarded as a cool thing than as a bad thing.

5. It’s about you…..
The market is saturated with photographers, they are coming out of the bushes from everywhere, you would almost think that there is one photographer for every 10 people, although now I’m slightly exaggerating (or am I). You can of course start going for price, you can be the cheapest photographer around, but you will very soon find out that there will ALWAYS be someone that is even cheaper, so build your brand, make sure that people come for YOUR images and not YOUR price. This way you can build a stable brand with the right pricing. And I don’t say you have to be expensive, but doing a photoshoot for a family for 15.00 including prints… well that’s impossible, and yet you see a lot of these going around on facebook and internet.

6. It’s about passion
I can’t make it more clear….
Photography has to be passion.
And I don’t mean that you really like to take images, and you love to work with models…. yeah we all do that. No, what I mean is that you have to be willing to really work on your career, you have to have the intention to go above and beyond and if it takes 10 years that should not be a reason to quit, every single minute you have you should dedicate to your passion, read books, learn techniques, visit workshops, browse the web etc. and as mentioned before if it doesn’t happen, well at least you still have a great hobby. Maybe it’s best to compare it to a musician. I know a lot of musicians that wanted to become rockstars and when it didn’t happen they just quit… now listen to all the stories from “real” rockstars, you will hardly ever hear a story of “Well I bought me a guitar, started to strum along a bit and before you knew it… well here I was playing arenas, the most funny story”. Most successful musicians are working very hard, have had problems, burn outs (or worse), bands that broke up, deals that went bad, money burning contracts etc. etc. but the ones that bite through…. well some made it. Also realize that getting on top is hard work… but staying on top is probably MUCH MUCH harder.

Good luck.
Oh and don’t see this blog post as a negative advise to pursue your passion but as a blogpost filled with tips to push through and maybe a reality check from me to you that it REALLY isn’t that easy, but it can be done, and sometimes you will get lucky, although I also strongly believe that you can sometimes force luck.