Going Pro by Scott Bourne and Skip Cohen - Excerpt

8/4/2019 Going Pro by Scott Bourne and Skip Cohen - Excerpt

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http://www.randomhouse.com/crownhttp://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9780817435790http://books.google.com/ebooks?as_brr=5&q=9780817435790http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780817435790http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Going-Pro/Scott-Bourne/e/9780817435790?isbsrc=Y&cm_mmc=Random%20House-_-RandomHouse.com%20Outbound%20Link-_-RandomHouse.com%20Outbound%20Link-_-RandomHouse.com%20Outbound%20Link,%20AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-VD9*lkiWNd8-_-10:1http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817435794?ie=UTF8&tag=randohouseinc2-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0817435794


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CHAPTER

SOMEWHERE ALONG LIFES path, somebody put a camera in

your hand and you discovered that you love taking pictures.

You may have been a child playing with an inexpensive

point-and-shoot. Maybe you got caught up in the excitement

of digital photography just a few years ago, capturing

great moments on vacations. Whenever you got hooked, if

youre reading this book, youre thinking about developing

a business around selling your photographs. If you can sell

someone a photo, you have communicated with that person.

You have created a story that is compelling enough to cause

others to feel, think, or reactyouve established a dialogue.

You have communicated so successfully that someone is

willing to give up money for your image. In short, you have

broken into the world of professional photography.

1

Define Your

Niche

PHOTOS BY (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP CENTER): TAMARA LACKEY; BAMBI CANTRELL;

SCOTT BOURNE; CHASE JARVIS; VINCENT LAFORET; TAMARA LACKEY


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GOING PRO

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Find Your Passion

Professional photography is divided into

different specialties. For the purposes of

this book, they are: commercial, wedding,

portraiture, nature/wildlife, photojournalism,

fine art, and everything else. The everything

else category includes scientific, medical,

architectural, and forensic imagery, just to

name a few.

Each category is further defined with a

series of subgroups. For example, within the

portrait category the subjects include babies,

children, family, high school seniors, boudoir,

business, and pets. Every subject has its own

marketing vehicles, unique demographics,

and in many cases might require different

equipmenta variation of focal lengths in

lenses, for example (a portrait of a baby wil l

require a different focal length lens than

a scenic landscape will). You will require

different gear for on-location portraiture than

you will for studio work.

Wheres the best place to start? Lets first figure out your niche. If youre

going to sell photographs and do something beyond leasing a booth once

a year at the local craft fair, youve got to define the various specialties

and where your passion for creating images and starting a new business

best fits. Simply put, you have to define your niche.

Sometimes the most powerful

images are those that comprise

elements that our eyes take

for granted.

LEFT: PHOTO BY EDDIE TAPP

RIGHT: PHOTO BY CHASE JARVIS


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Your Personality Skill Set and Your Niche

Wedding photographers, for example,

need to be sensitive, be understanding

of the human spirit, and have excellent

communication skills. They seem to rally

with the stress of helping their clients

meet the challenges of the wedding day.

Remember, they have these qualities in

addition to their unmatched knowledge of

photography.

On the other hand, a photographer

specializing in nature/wildlife photography

is comfortable being alone and often will

be described as having incredible patience,

willing to sit in the duck blind for hours to

capture that one unique image.

Whatever the niche youre about to

choose, consider your personality. Think

about what you enjoy photographingthe most. If you like peace, solitude, and

control then youre more likely to do well

in commercial or nature/wildlife than you

will as a wedding or portrait photographer.

If you like the freedom to simply create

and work by yourself, then fine art might

be a stronger choice. If youre going to

work to become one of the worlds leading

photojournalists, then you have to be

comfortable being on call, just like a

doctor. You have to love spontaneity to

the point of being ready to drop whatever

youre doing at any time and picking up

your camera.

Deciding on the niche that best suits

your personality, passion, and skill set is

the first step. From there it s a short jump

to marketing, building your brand, and

blogging and using other social media tools

to create awareness for the purposes of

building your business.

The old expression to thine own self be true could not be more important

than when youre working to define your niche. The big question arises:

Does your personality match the niche in which you want to specialize?


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GOING PRO

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GOING PRO

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Portraiture

As the name implies, studio portraiture

requires a studio, backdrops, studio lights,

often some props, and an understanding of

lighting and posing techniques. This is typically

a more formal style of portraiture. Location

portraitureallows you tophotograph your

subjects in their environment. You have less

control over various aspects of the image, but

by incorporating the environment, you can

add more personality to the image and tell

a story. This style is especially popular

for photographing children, who reveal more

of their personalities as they interact with

their toys, pets, and siblings. Its no different

with adults.

Portraiture, along with fine art, is probably the broadest of all the categories,

and encompasses two broad subcategories: studio work and location shooting.

Depth of field plays a strong role in portraiture.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CORSENTINO


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GOING PRO

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Portraiture Specialties

CHILDRENS PHOTOGRAPHY includes babies.

UNDERCLASS PHOTOGRAPHY refers to your basic class photos of kids in school who

are not seniors. This requires high-volume shooting, literally one portrait after another,

usually under contract with a school system.

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHY may well be the fastest-growing specialty within professional

portraiture and often the most fun. Senior shoots are often photography events that

resemble fashion shoots, with props and several clothing changes.

FAMILY PORTRAITURE today tends to be casual, revealing more personality.

BRIDAL PORTRAITURE is not usually considered to be a separate specialty in the United

States (as it is overseas), but virtually every wedding will require at least one traditional

portrait of the bride by herself and one of the bride and groom together.

BUSINESS PORTRAITURE still often implies a traditional headshot, but theres been a

long-standing trend to bring the vocation of the subject into the image.

ENVIRONMENTAL BUSINESS PORTRAITURE involves photographing subjects with a

wider-angle lens and bringing their place of work or a vocation-related component into

the background.

PET PHOTOGRAPHY is popular and lucrative. People love their pets and consider them

to be members of the family, but there arent many photographers who specialize in

pet portraiture.

Within the category of portraiture are many subspecialties, from children

to business executives to family pets. With such a wide range of subject

matter, its little wonder that portraiture is one of the most lucrative niches

of photography. In fact, capturing images of brides, babies, and pets are the

three most popular reasons people hire a professional photographer. Lets

take a quick look at the many subcategories.

On-location childrens photography has become bigbusiness, but theres still nothing like a high-key portraitsuch as the one at bottom left.


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Commercial

You can also reap considerable financial

rewards, since commercial clients usually have

big photography budgets. A few good jobs can

make your year. The rewards of commercial

photography dont necessarily come easily.

This work is usually assigned by largeadvertising agencies, and to get it you have

to have a spectacular portfolio, as well as a

distinct style and usually a specialty. Emerging

commercial shooters need to focus on getting

their books seen. Competing in national

contests, showing up on the appropriate

forums, and doing lots of networking among

marketing and communication professionals

helps (well show you more ideas in chapter 4 ).

Pricing and bidding are probably more

important in commercial photography than in

just about any other photographic discipline.

Youll need to be able to explain to clients whythe job costs what it does, and what youre

going to do with their money to justify their

investment in you. Success in commercial

photography will probably come slower than it

might in wedding photography, but if its your

passion, you can get there.

Look at the images in Graphis, Adweek, and Communication Arts. If this is

the kind of work you want to do and think you can do, commercial photo-

graphy may be for you. With success in commercial photography, youll have

the satisfaction of seeing your work on national television and in major

magazine ads.

Nick Vedros, often taking

his inspiration from the

cartoonist Gary Larson,

brings humor into many

of his images.

PHOTO BY NICK VEDROS


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GOING PRO

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GOING PRO

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Nature / Wildlife

Many amateurs like to dabble in nature

photography, and this makes it even harder to

succeed. Nature photography is also probably

the lowest paying of all the photographic

specialties, because there is so much compe-

tition. If someone has a picture of Old Faithfuland is willing to license it for less than you

are, youll have a hard time convincing the

buyer that your shot is better than his, or than

the million other photos of Old Faithful out

there. Dont be discouraged, however. Nature

and wildlife photography will always be in

demand. If you want to get paid in sunshine

and are willing to specialize and market

yourself, you can be happy in this category.

To stand out in this crowded field

you need to devote most of your time to

marketing, not to making photographs. Sales

outlets include publishers of books, calendars,

and postcards, producers of fine art nature/

wildlife prints, and stock and advertisingagencies.

Concentrating on a niche is one way to

make money in these markets, and innovators

who find new ways to productize their

work will find the most success. Scott Bourne

created a successful stock agency selling his

photographs of birds. For buyers who needed

only bird images, this single source was much

easier to use than stock agencies offering

photographs of thousands of subjects.

Nature photography also provides rare

opportunities to speak for the animals.

Wildlife photographers enter the world of

photojournalism as they document the plight

of so many incredible animals whose natural

habitats are being destroyed daily.

Just think: Who wouldnt want to get paid to go to national parks and lovely

stretches of wilderness to take photographs? While the call of the wild is

strong, the prospect of making a living as a nature and wildlife photographer is

not. This is a highly competitive category, and for every nature photographer

who succeeds, a thousand others do not.

I see wildlife photography as aresponsibility and every image as an

opportunity to speak for the animals.

PHOTOS BY SCOTT BOURNE


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http://www.randomhouse.com/crownhttp://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9780817435790http://books.google.com/ebooks?as_brr=5&q=9780817435790http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780817435790http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Going-Pro/Scott-Bourne/e/9780817435790?isbsrc=Y&cm_mmc=Random%20House-_-RandomHouse.com%20Outbound%20Link-_-RandomHouse.com%20Outbound%20Link-_-RandomHouse.com%20Outbound%20Link,%20AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-VD9*lkiWNd8-_-10:1http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817435794?ie=UTF8&tag=randohouseinc2-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0817435794

Going Pro by Scott Bourne and Skip Cohen - Excerpt

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