Becoming A Professional Photographer

Being a professional photographer takes practice, diligence and time. If you're looking to make this in to a career, you're going to need to hone your skills and get ready to practice, practice, and practice! From portraits to stock photography, you'll become a specialist in your field by studying photos, reading books on photography, taking classes a libraries or local colleges and taking advice from photographers whom you admire. Many photography blogs and websites are readily available online for your reading pleasure. Make sure to keep reading them after you're set as a professional photographer to keep up with industry standards and keep competition at bay!

It's the Subject that Matters

Friends and family alike won't mind if you use them to practice shooting. You truly need to shoot everything you can-from the autumn tree, to the newborn baby and everything in between! You'll want to have a wide variety of shots to be able to showcase for interviews or to show future clients. From outdoor events, to indoor casual holiday photos, your portfolio needs to be packed with picture perfect examples of your best work.

A Picture Perfect Brand
By marketing yourself, you're more likely to land the job or gain more clients. You'll need to have business cards printed, start a website. You could trade your photography services for a great website to showcase your work, and gain more clients. You can offer word-of-mouth specials and monthly marketing campaigns like winning a free sitting or free 8x10 for referrals. Make sure you are networking, as it is a detrimental part of marketing. You may want to offer your services for free at a local event and post them to the website to get your name out in the community. Network, network, and network-you'll do this just as much as you take photos!

That Was Easy!

So now you have all of the key components for becoming a professional photographer. By guiding yourself, and continuously schooling yourself, you'll continue to grow as a photographer with a beautiful portfolio of diverse clients.