Elizabeth Halford Photography {the blog} » pho•to•gra•phy {in real.plain.english}

Missy MWAC is making a name for herself making fun of folks who “get a camera and go pro”, making professional photography look as easy as 1-2-3. While I don’t condone making fun of people just because they aren’t where you are {and sometimes, the people making fun don’t seem to be proficient themselves}, I do think it’s interesting to see how many people have jumped on that bandwagon.

Seems to me that the biggest underlying debate/source of tension, whether it’s said outright or not, is the definition of a ‘professional’. And it’s not too hard to find the solution: just look it up in the dictionary. Job done. Except that the American and English dictionaries can’t agree. On what a professional actually is, Merriam Webster says that a professional is someone “who takes on the characteristics of a profession”. Look up ‘profession’ and it states that it’s a “calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation.”

HOWEVER {drum roll please} the Oxford Dictionary says that a profession is when you’re “engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as an amateur”. No talk of requiring an education. Which fits the Elizabeth Halford Dictionary’s definition perfectly: “you’re a professional when you do something as your profession.”

So there you have it. In America, you can call yourself a professional when you have a highly specialized education in photography. But if you live in England, feel free to buy a camera and become a ‘professional’ all in one day!

Now, all joking aside, I think that people place far too high an emphasis on whatever right they think they have to call themselves a professional. Some people rot in school for 4 years with a professor who is only teaching because he can’t be doing and then graduate with the divine right to call themselves a ‘professional’ and look down on everyone else. And then you have the self-taught photographer who spends every waking minute of years and years studying to learn everything they possibly can about becoming great at photography. Of course on the flip-side, you also have the student who actually learns something and the self-taught aficionado who doesn’t know what exposure is. But what I’m saying is that everyone’s got their pedantic panties in a twist over a very inconsistent, unclear picture of what exactly constitutes a ‘professional’.

Who gets to define when someone is a professional photographer, anyway? Is it when you start making money? Only make a certain amount of money? Have completed your first job? Or your tenth? Been published? Get a degree? When someone else deems you worthy of the title? Get accepted into some association? Clearly, there are professions where you can’t possibly practice until you’ve completed, as Merriam Webster puts it, “long academic preparation”. Such as being a doctor. Or a lawyer. Although in some societies, you need only call yourself a doctor and you are one. It’s buyer beware and the clients have to know what they’re looking for. So could it be that the market saturation of photographers toting a business card and a self-bestowed title is actually not the fault of the people calling themselves professionals, but rather, the people paying them for it? If people didn’t go to Walmart for portraits, then maybe we wouldn’t have this problem?

It was only 7 years ago that I, myself, was taking my own kids to Walmart. I didn’t have a clue. But if there hadn’t been someone there willing to fulfill the roll of the five-and-dime photographer, my children’s infancy would have never been captured because I didn’t have any concept of why I should be paying more. We’re awfully hard on people sometimes. Both the people who simply want cheap photography and the person willing to provide it. Most people don’t look at photography the way we do. The don’t know what they’re looking at – they just see their kids smiling.

So you want to be a photographer? Pick up a camera and start taking pictures. Want to be a professional photographer? Start charging. I mean, honestly…the guy at Walmart has been taking horrible pictures his whole life, right?

{Further Reading}

Building your photography business {the chicken and the egg}

Are you ready to charge? 8 things you need to have in place.

Going Pro

Q. Hi Elizabeth! Here’s a question for you – how do you know when you have a large enough clientele to begin an actual small photography business?

‘small photography business’

I think we get off on the wrong foot when we approach our photography business as if it’s something completely different from any other business. It isn’t likely that any business, done right, remains small. I’ve found that starting a photography business the right way entails a LOT of hours and hard work, whether the business is going to be big or small. So you realize that if you’re going to do all that work and spend all that money, you’d darn sure better be making some money. And so suddenly you realize, the little side business has become a normal-sized business. For example, if any amount of money is going to change hands, you have to be a legitimate business by law. Which means you’ll be keeping accounts and filing taxes. And this might involve an accountant. Which costs money. And then of course, you need business banking to keep everything in one place. That’s time and effort. And you NEED insurance {don’t for one second think you can get by without it} and this will cost. You need to own the equipment necessary to actually do the job successfully. Which means…more money…quite a lot of it. Some things can be rented when needed, like lenses, but that means you need to be charging enough to cover that expense and still make a good profit. And then if you’re going to take on enough sessions per month to pay for your simple overhead + a little profit {because this business was meant to be little, remember?} then you’ll soon find out that your standard computer/laptop probably can’t keep up with the workload. And -darnit- now you’re spending another $1,000. And of course there are costs like your website, graphic design, printed materials. And these are just the things off the top of my head.
So you see…if you want to do it right, it’s hard to stay small. So keep these things in mind when deciding if you’re going to take the dive into business. A list of the 8 things you need before you start charging can be found here.

‘enough clientele’

So the other thing I want to cover is your clientele. It will always be changing. And who you start with won’t be who you end up with once you really get going. You’ll likely start with people who are out for a bargain. And hopefully you’ll end up with clients who truly value quality custom photography and the price tag that goes along with it. But even then, your clientele will change – people will come and go – and if you’re in it for the long haul, you will need to keep hustlin’, keep hustlin’, keep hustlin’.

the chicken or the egg

There’s that proverbial question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. And it seems some photographers have this mixed up in their own mind: which comes first, the hobby or the profession? And if the two can ever grow up together. Seems lots of advice out there makes being a ‘professional’ easy. Get a camera and be a professional – it’s that simple. Good thing doctors don’t see it that way: get a scalpel, go pro!
There’s probably a lot of debate out there about what exactly constitutes a professional photographer. To me, it’s pretty simple. You’re a professional photographer when photography is your profession. You can be really bad at photography and sell sessions pretty easily – just aim low in terms of clientele and you can probably keep on truckin’ that way for many years to come. On the other hand, you can be really brilliant at photography and build a lasting career as well. So staying in business isn’t as much about the photographer themselves as it is about the people willing to pay them the money to keep them going. If you can find people to pay you for what you do -whether you’re good or bad- then, by definition, you’re a ‘professional’. So I don’t get too hung up on the word.
Personally, I think you need three things before you begin thinking about building a business out of your hobby {and I’m talking about a good business providing quality custom imagery, not one like I described above}:

1. Passion – I’m not talking about in interest in learning more. I’m talking PASSION. To me, passion is proven by standing the test of time. If you had an interest a few years ago and are still eating, sleeping, breathing photography…I’d say that’s closer to the kind of passion I’m talking about. Because in this business, people will rip out your heart and stomp on it. And if you don’t have passion, you’ll give up the first time it happens.
2. Consistency – I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again: you cannot charge people money until you can consistently produce the same caliber of work over and over and over again. No luck involved. No spraying-and-praying. You owe it to the people giving you their money. And this doesn’t make me the most popular girl around, but you have to actually be good at photography to sell it for a price that will keep you in the black. Sure, you can be average, but your clients won’t be paying you enough to keep you alive. To make a full time income doing sub par work, you’ll have to work more hours than a full time job. But if you actually put all those hours into learning the art of photography, you can spend your life working part-time hours for full time money once you get your business off the ground.
3. Know who you are – I wanted to put this as #1 but I also wanted to end on it so you will remember. If you’re going to build a lasting, solid photography business, you need to -HAVE TO- know who.you.are. as a photographer. I’ve discovered this as I’ve gone along and it’s taken me years. And it will never end – I will always be redefining myself, reinventing myself. So I’m not saying this is make or break when you’re trying to decide when to open up shop. But you at least need to be aware that who you are today won’t be the same in a year or two. Your style, your photographic approach, your vision will continually become more and more focused and this will likely continually change the face of your business. Be flexible and be willing to change shape through this process or it will break you.

Photography can be an extremely rewarding career. But make no mistake about it – building a business, big or small, takes a lot -A LOT- of hard work. It’s not just a case of taking pictures for money.

Brooke's classes have helped me evaluate and grow on this journey, both professionally and personally

...I started practicing new idea on my kids...

One year ago, I wrote this post: How Trashing my Best Work Made my Business Stronger. And, boy was it a cathartic thing to do! In that post, I discussed how I found myself in the same trap many of you are in {judging by the many emails I receive}. I found myself shooting sessions I didn’t like, didn’t want to do and didn’t want my business built on. But I was doing them anyway. Why? Money. You know…the thing that’s in your hand one minute, gone the next. But you know what doesn’t disappear as quickly as money? Self-disappointment.

So yes…a year ago, I threw my dollies out of the pram and proclaimed that

I will no longer take pictures I don’t wanna take!

That included families, maternity, events, boudoir…none’a that. I stripped it all away from my Facebook page and from my website and declared that I was through -finished!- with families and anything else I didn’t want to do. I would forever be a children’s portrait photographer and everyone else could beat it. And you know what? It was the best thing I ever did for my business.

I guess I was feeling backed into a corner. I felt like I had to do it all. Be all things to all clients. Say yes to every job. Never turn money down. Charge less than everyone else and still give clients more. But from the moment I put my foot down and decided that I was going to do it my way, my business started taking a turn I never ever saw coming. And this is why I say that we never stop growing. As soon as we’re convinced that we’ve made it -that we’re proper professionals- life and business can take a turn that we didn’t see coming.

So where am I today? Many of you have been on my journey with me as long-time readers. Others are new to my madness {hello!} and whatever category you fall into, some of you are wondering why you read my manifesto in that fateful blog post yet when you view my website, you still see that same work I had declared that I trashed. It all comes down to one very simple concept…

{discovery}

...I discovered Beloved and started integrating it into family sessions...

After trashing anything from public view that didn’t represent the new me, I went on a journey of discovering what I really wanted to photograph. At that point, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to be a children’s portrait photographer. So I dedicated myself to getting better at it. I invited many beautiful children I knew for sessions where I could experiment with new ideas, new poses, new locations. I took lots of ridiculous photos. I made many new friends. And ever so slowly, I silently experimented with the things I said I hated. Like families. And maternity. And couples. And newborns.

I discovered that I didn’t hate photographing families. I hated the feeling I had that I had no choice. That if I wanted to be a ‘real professional’, I had to be able to produce any kind of photography on demand. I hated feeling backed into a corner with no choice in the matter. And I hated compromising for the almighty dollar. Those are the things I hated. I have discovered that I don’t hate photographing families at all. Now that I actually know more about how to do it, of course.

I discovered Beloved. And it has changed my life. I discovered the power that photography has to mend a relationship. To create an experience. To bring a mother and teenage son into a moment which is rare. Who could argue with this? Who could look at this and say there’s nothing good to be found? Beloved has saved my business from itself and I am passionate about bringing it into every interaction I will have with a client from now on.

And so with all of these discoveries, I have slowly integrated the genres I have found that I actually enjoy back into my business and onto my website. And there are still things I look at and say “Meh. I’m not that into newborns. Maybe I’ll take those off the website” because I’m still discovering who I am as a photographer. But you will never NEVER know what kind of photographer you are until you give things a try. Be willing to try. Be willing to fail. Be willing to laugh at yourself. Being a photographer really isn’t rocket science.

If you want to be a photographer, start taking pictures.

Some other changes I made since writing that post:

I changed the stupid name. Glacier Cake was an anagram of my three children’s names. I thought it would be quirky and memorable. Instead, it was confusing and…more confusing. I got emails about photographing cakes and I screamed at the computer “DO YOU SEE ANY CAKES ON MY WEBSITE?!?!?” I couldn’t go back to Elizabeth Halford Photography because that’s the name of my business supporting photographers here on the blog and through my other resources. So I changed the name of my business to Gracie May Photography, named after my precious little girl Gracie May. I did away with the sharp, bright branding. I introduced simple, warm branding that represents the real me. Not the me I thought would sell.

I started charging more and working less.

I stopped sending the previews online and started pushing in home viewing and sales sessions.

I closed my studio. I spent the better part of a year renting a great little studio space in a barn but I found that I was using it as a glorified storage unit and dressing room and I was doing all my best work outside on the farm. So I said goodbye to the studio dream and embraced the great outdoors. And I have never felt so at home in my photography as I do when I’m tromping through a muddy forest in my wellies with a chattering child at my side who is loving the experience of being photographed.

So in short, I have stuck with my decision to only do the genres that move me but over the past year, it has changed shape from what it was when I first made the decision. Once in a while, I’ll take a commercial job or something that I decide is a good move because it puts food on the table and sometimes, I really do love getting all my equipment out for a studio session. But the point is that I do it because I want to. Not because I’m trying to be something I apparently wasn’t.

And that is a

very.

good.

feeling.