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Young Photographer looking for work
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Hi Hows things
I finished a Level 5 fetac course in Photography last year and was privileged to get the opportunity to work with Sportsfile soon after qualifying from college,
However due to the lack of work they were doing I became redundant last week.My parent are worried because I dont have an Qualification in any other subject and are suggesting to go back to college to study another subject
I have been talking to a few students who are currently doing the photography course in DIT, and some have said it was no relevance to ‘working in the Photography industry’ as such, and to be honest im not into the Arty photography they teach.
I would love to get into Commercial photography mainly photographing cars, but am also interested in Photojournalism and Sports photography
So I’m asking for any ideas or help, where do I go from here? were would I start looking into these areas of work or should I start frest and go back to college to do another Subject?
Im 19 years old by the way
Any help will be much appreciated
Joseph
hi joseph, many successful photographers are selftaught.
Somehow it is not about the image quality. The smartest photographers are successful – means business sense. it is very helpfull to produce good images as well ( ;If you have the passion for it you can do it. how much do you know about it? Photoshop fit? Different equipment to get experience? Camera clubs to learn from experience others? photoforums to annoy others with important questions? many hours in front of the computer?
I am not a hunderd % sure if you need a certification. I am a studied grafic designer with a bit of photography in it. When i left university – i was blank like a white paper. had no idea how to start, where to go, what kind of creatures are clients etc….
So usually you don’t lern the mostimportant thing there – how does business work?
I guess you don’t have a website or portfolio? Get started with a portfolio. Go to car and sport events and shot for yourself. Grab the best images and present them in your portfolio. Clients want to see your “style and quality”. There are many website platforms out there for photographers like zenfolio.com or smugbug or whatever…
Another oportunity is to go to a successful /semisuccessful photographer and be his assistant – of course you will need a basic knowledge, otherwise he/she wouldnt take you on board. i learned everything about photoshop with a practica in the best agencie in germany – 2 month. of course for free – i don’t recommand that but it is a question of the value of the opportunity. i did a practica at schlolz & friends – one of the biggest advertising agencies in germany and learned how to deal with clients. after 1 month they employed me because i was not crap ( ;
….you know this are just individual examples. I don’t know anything yabout you, your skills, your passion. But i highly recommand to learn from the profs – surround yourself with them because you will learn there stuff in 1-2month which you would learn in 2 years on your own.
Well some thoughts of me. hope it helped a bit.
cheers
Madeleine1. http://www.swpp.co.uk/ they have a big event in london beginning next year. many teachings, profs talking…. not for free but for sure great opportunity to learn.
2. Webpresentation of images major important – saw some of your posts. Here a tutorial how to sharpen them
http://calaido.blogspot.com/2009/06/photography-tutorial-sharpening-of-web.html
Dan Heller has great tutorials. I am sure it will answer some of your questions
http://www.danheller.com/photo-inc.html
joeyvw wrote:
Hi Hows things
I finished a Level 5 fetac course in Photography last year and was privileged to get the opportunity to work with Sportsfile soon after qualifying from college,
However due to the lack of work they were doing I became redundant last week.My parent are worried because I dont have an Qualification in any other subject and are suggesting to go back to college to study another subject
I have been talking to a few students who are currently doing the photography course in DIT, and some have said it was no relevance to ‘working in the Photography industry’ as such, and to be honest im not into the Arty photography they teach.
I would love to get into Commercial photography mainly photographing cars, but am also interested in Photojournalism and Sports photography
So I’m asking for any ideas or help, where do I go from here? were would I start looking into these areas of work or should I start frest and go back to college to do another Subject?
Im 19 years old by the way
Any help will be much appreciated
Joseph
Hi Joseph A bit surprised that Sportfile layed you off- not offered work as a freelancer by them ? Maybe thats a sign that things are not great in sport photography as many would have already known I would imagine that alot of us that regard ourselves as sport photographers wouldnt be able to pay the bills if our income was only from sports photography.
I would agree with your friends about photography courses My feeling on them is that theya re a complete waste of time, No sport agency will ever ask to see your degree in photography, And i dare say no paper will either all they will ask to see is your work, You and your images are what you will be judged on always !
You ask for advise and heres what I would do if I were you” hindsight and all that …. ” Stay in school or go back get a degree at something other than photography dont waste 3 /4 years at a photography degree you will regret it Now in this decline is the time to get educated so that when things pick up you are well equipped for the next boom :roll: Keep shooting photography get a great portfolio together in which ever area you like best becasue when things are better the images you create will be your degree that you will show those that will be employing you not a piece of paper from some photography school.
Also remember most if not all sporting events are shot at weekends or nights so there is no reason why sports photography cant work together with a real job that pays the bills
damiend wrote:
the images you create will be your degree that you will show those that will be employing you not a piece of paper from some photography school.
:idea: fully agree with that
I also recommand that you dance on many weddings. i don’t get my single income of photography – try to specialize in 2 different things which can benefit each other but also work on its own. or like damiend suggested: have “another” job as well
….i should do an english course :roll:
Good advice from both above – most commercial photographers are very quiet at the moment – advertising agencies and designers have been hit badly by this recession – I’m also forming the opinion the advances in technology may mean that the job of photographers in the future maybe limited. Having a back up career is an excellent idea – if the photography takes off then great.
On the courses aspect of your question – I’d be more inclined study digital media rather than photography. Having a grounding in the basics of photography is important but it won’t get you a job – infact I very rarely see jobs for photographers.
As for starting out alone – give yourself assignments – treat them as paying jobs and build your portfolio that way. Best of luck…
Here’s a link to my work on my facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=1557&id=100000208930516
Here’s another for my Sports portfolio
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=1555&id=100000208930516
Joseph
Hey Joseph, the sports portfolio is great. In sports photography you compete with profs who are able to deliver an image to the magazines etc 1 min after it happened. so for your field you need to be the king of all new fancy stuff out there. It is still a long road in front of you. i would suggest to contact local newspapers and find an agreement with them to shoot local games. NEVER EVER do it for FREE although you will be tempted to. Try always to get your photo credit otherwise the image doesn’t work for YOU and new client contacts.
However – to think, that you can make big earning in this section of photography is a big dream bubble. Try to find another passion as well and make it work for you. At the same time – see photography as your “hobby” and try to get contacts, publications…. so you can slowly learn how it works and you can build up your portfolio and hopefully a client list. Some sport photographer always have another guy by side in case they missed something.
To be successful with photography you need to create a great image about yourself and a lot of proof of your qualities. that doesn’t happen over night. so be patient and take it as it comes but drive on two roads to be able to survive.
cheers
M*That’s crappy that you got laid off. It’s a new opportunity. You can do new things you wouldn’t have otherwise.
The industry is changing a lot recently, and clearly sports coverage is getting hit. Newspapers are virtually dead already—there’s no future in relying on getting a job as a staff photographer there.
What do you want photography to provide? Are you doing it because you love it, or are you just good and figure you can make an easy 40k a year? Decide where you want to get to, and then figure out how to get there.
It sounds like a photography degree won’t suit you. As you’ve said, they are usually geared towards the fine art side, and sports coverage doesn’t fall in too many of those briefs. HND courses might be more practical. For the work you describe, finding a working pro to mentor you, offering critique on your work and helping you navigate the business side might benefit you more, if you find the right person who is willing to help for little return..
I’ve been shooting for almost 3 years. I’ve had some paid gigs, headshots, a few weddings, promo, press, sports. Have a look at my stuff on flickr. I know it isn’t good enough to provide a stable income. Plus, I enjoy it so much, I’m not sure that I even want to do it 60 hrs a week. I’ve gone back to college this year to study vis comm. Already my thinking has changed, and my photos are better for it, even though I’m not learning about photography. It’s the ideas process that is being developed. In the commercial creative world you are being paid for your ideas. Any monkey can set up some lights and push the shutter..
Anyway, there is lots of background reading you can be doing on and offline. Here are a few gems that have been really useful to me
Chase Jarvis covers a lot of industry issues on his excellent blog. Also check out his portfolio for inspiring sports images. He has targeted the commercial advertising market and has carved out a niche. That is the way the market has gone… You need to find YOUR niche and be the best by providing shots that no one else in the country takes.
Chase recommends a book called Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington. It is a staple text for working photographers. John also has his own blog where he also writes about business in the photography industry.
Ashley Morrison, who posts on this forum, is a good example of a photographer who has specialised and targeted the top end of the market in Ireland. He also has good pricing info on his site here.
Seth Godin is a marketing expert who drops golden snippits on his blog daily. Worth a read when you need inspired to keep going, a kick up the ass. Just let that stuff drop in and shape how you think about business and marketing. What worked 5 years ago, probably won’t work now.
If you’re thinking of going out on your own check out http://freelanceswitch.com/
Lots of resources on there, from book-keeping to dealing with clients, to time management. All useful stuff.Hope there’s some useful stuff in there. Good luck!
Hi Joseph. IMAGE IS EVERYTHING. I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase before, and it’s true. Photography is visual, and as mentioned already, you will be judged on what people see. Your own image as well as that of your work. Knowledge of your chosen field is also essential and the more experience you can build up, the better. If I was in your situation, I would be looking at doing a business studies course, to understand the workings and pitfalls etc in running your own business.
This would also give you time to build up an impressive portfolio of your images for presentation to prospective clients. You are still young and have plenty time to gain the experience you need to be sucessful. You will need to make choices though on exactly what type of work you want to do and stick with it.
When you gain some experience, you will become more confident in yourself, and when a client sees this confidence along with good examples ofyour work, you will get contracts. Business is tough going at the best of times and you will need to be dedicated to it. You will have to make sacrifices, such as when the lads are going out on the town, and you’re at home studying etc, but it is worth it if you achieve your goal.
My advice, in short, take your time and don’t rush into something un-prepared. If you ever looked at “Dragons den”, you will see how being confident in your product can make a huge difference. Market research is also essential. Ask people that you don’t know, as well as friends to be critical of your work and how it could be improved upon. Be your own worst critic. Well that’s enough rambling from me. Best of luck with your decision.I’m not going to repeat everything that’s been said already, as most has been covered in the good answers above. However in relation to photographing cars, I’ll add my 2 cents! Biggest problem you face if you want to go forward in car photography, is you’re in the wrong country! You really need to be based in the UK to make it photographing cars, whether its motorsport or shooting for mags like Car or whatever. One time you’d be able to get a job as a junior, and eventually work up, but these days people are obviously staying in the jobs they have, so it’s so much harder to get into that industry…it was hard enough back in 2002!! You could of course do some work over here and try to get a portfolio together, but as said you’ll have to have something else to make sure the bills are being paid. Oh, and age isn’t everything…my mate was working alongside me as a full-time F1 photographer when he was 20!
First I would say get yourself a website together, sites like clikpic.com provide easily to produce professional looking sites for a small outlay, £35 per year… Alternatively a cheaper option is to start a blog with somewhere like WordPress. As some of the lads here have already said its all about marketing yourself, think of yourself as a product… As a photographer/journalist, your name is everything to you.
I would reconsider using Facebook, its just not that kind of site. If you want to have the craic with your mates its great, alternatively if you want to use it as a 100% professional networking tool its also useful, it cant be both.. You cant talk about getting langered at the weekend and then also be using it to show your business products. Its unprofessional.
At the very least, open up a flickr.com account and put your portfolio shots up there.
Depending on where you are based and whether you have a mode of transport, I would contact all local papers in the area offering services and don’t just limit yourself to sports. News, parties, etc, all need to be covered and it may not be what you want to be doing, it will give good experience and open alot more doors.
Thank you all very much for your replies, as they have helped me considerably
Although I do not want to go back to college a Business or Creative media course may give me a different perspective on where I want to go with my Career, I guess the reason Why I dont want to go back is because I am more of a hands on person, but a course might help me.
I have been looking at setting up a webite with Clickpic very soon hopefully and getting a few business cards made up, and leaving them in to business around my town/ houses etc.
PeteMcD, Im not looking to make an easy 40k a year, what im looking for is a career which I am passionate about but can also provide a steady income aswell to make a living out of.
Thank you for your comments though and links as they have been helpful.I will have to think more about this and look at my options
Once again thanks for the comments
Joseph
https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=34541
Just wondered if this thread/job might be any good for you.
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