Photography School

Photography school - photography tips they don't teach in photography school (4-6)

4. You’re probably not as good a photographer as you think you are…

I remember when I first left photography school. I was sure that’s I was hot ship on a silver platter and later realized that I was nothing but a cold turd on paper plate.  No matter how good you think you are now, you’ll most likely be much better in a few years and even better still in a few years after that. 

Experience does matter.  It makes you better and it makes faster.  It makes you faster because you’ll have come across various problems (learn to call them “challenges”, it’s more positive sounding :-) before and therefore won’t have to reinvent the wheel.  After you solve a problem once, it’s easier and faster solve it again the next time you run up against a similar challenge.  These experiences can’t help but make you better.  BTW – I try to approach problems / challenges, taking experience into consideration, while still trying to keep an open mind about new approaches.  That way, I keep growing. 

Too many photographers I know keep doing the same things over and over the same way.  If you do this, you never get any better and you’ll end up in the proverbial rut.  Your most recent attempt to solve a challenge will include all your recent experiences, whereas your old solution would only dependent on the experience before you first solved the problem.  It’s really important to keep growing in this profession.  Technology keeps changing, styles keep changing, and you should keep changing too.  And speaking of changing…

5. You’ll have to reinvent yourself several times before your career is over

Trends change in photography and don’t think for a minute that once you leave photography school, that things will remain the same.  Things will change around you and you’ll need to keep changing too.  As you’re leaving photography school, you might have your heart set on a particular aspect of photography that may not even exist in just a few years. As a matter of fact, the changes that I’ve experienced will probably be mild compared to the ones that you will experience.  You’ll need to change and you’ll probably want to change too.

Changes caused by technology will not only continue, but the rate of that change will  probably increase as well. 

Consumer quality photography equipment will get better and better over the years and that will mean that more secretaries will take away some of the event type work that many photographers, right out of photography school, now rely on.  Of course memory will become smaller and cheaper, making cameras smaller and cheaper too.  All this will, in one way or another, affect all our careers as professional photographers.  Just trying to guess what the technology changes might be in the near future, is mind boggling to me.  But rest assured, these changes will affect what you do and how you do it.

Styles change in photography and you’ll need to keep abreast of these changes.  Let’s say that you’re a food photographer.  Every few years there are subtle changes in what’s popular in the world of food photography. 

It might be a focus thing or it might be a high-key vs. low-key thing.  Whatever it is, you’ll need to at least be aware of how things are changing and make a conscious or unconscious decision about how these changes will affect your photography.

Your interests and abilities will change too.  When I left photography school, I had no idea that I’d end up a food photographer.  I hadn’t even thought about it.  I think that when I first left photography school, I was hoping to be the Victory Secret swim suit photographer, but that might be attributed to my hormone level at the time… :+)  And the same thing will probably happen to you to, so keep an open mind and see what your individual skill set draws you toward.  Early in my career as a commercial photographer, I realized that I was really good with tedious lighting situations but I hated the bang-em out world of catalog photography.  After experiencing several types of photography as a generalist commercial photographer, I discovered that I really liked food photography.  Clients expect that food photography will take longer than product photography, so my likes and dislikes matched up really well with food photography.  That’s why I do what I do and it would be a good idea for you to try to make that same “match” of likes and dislikes.

Over the years, your market will change and you’ll need to change too.  When I first left photography school and went on my own as a freelance commercial photographer, I realized that I couldn’t compete with the local big-boys and I needed to charge much less to get enough clients to keep my belly full and my toy collection well populated.  As my skills improved, so did my prices and therefore my clients.  As my prices increased, I lost the clients that were more concerned with cost than quality and had to find new ones willing to pay the higher prices.  My market changed and I needed to change with it.

When you stop being willing to change is when you know you’re too old to continue as a professional photographer.  And if you don’t realize that you’ve ceased changing, the market will remind you by decreasing your income…

6. Don’t burn bridges

I don’t care what happened to you, it’s not a good idea to burn bridges if you don’t have to.  You can live in a small city or in New York city, the reality is that the advertising community in any city is a relatively small one and a reputation travels around much faster than you think it might.   A reputation doesn’t need to be true, to be believed, and even if your account of an incident is the truth and your adversary’s version is a blatant lie, the reality is that many people will end believing the lie.  You’re much better off to avoid making unnecessary enemies, either clients or fellow photographers.  No matter how right you may feel you are, the lie might be believed by some and if nothing else, people might perceive you to be difficult to work with.  Your reputation is very important, so do everything you can to guard it.

One thing you may not realize is that clients may return after even a long stay away.  You might think that your client / photographer relationship is over and you might be tempted to tell people what an ass that client was to work with, but in doing so, you may might ruin any chance of ever working with that client again.  I have several clients that I once worked with, that have left to try other photographers, and then have returned to give me years and years of substantial income.

And besides… life’s just too damn too short to hold a grudge.  Let God sort it out…  Those suns-a-bitches will get what they deserve…  :+)

What They Don't Teach In Photography School - Professional Photography 101 - Photography School - Photography Career Guide