Coming into May I am excited to release the 5th sneak peek into my coming book Glass Eyes A Photographer Journey.
This months sneak peek covers the Building and Growth chapter where I discuss events I learned from, building a business, and other events that helped build me into a photographer.
One of my first business logos created by myself.
“Building a business especially a photography business comes with more than just a learning curve. Photography is a skill that anyone who has the determination and drive can learn to do well; so to stand out from a crowd and become a photographer with a business takes more than just determination.
I am not going to say I am an expert at developing a photography business or that my model was perfect. Honestly, when I was operating under TB Photography it was in the early days of apps and cloud based services so those were not things I used nor did any of the photographers I knew.
My model was word of mouth because I was a full time college student and worked on campus as well so I had limited time for shooting. In a lot of ways I thought of myself as a fine art photographer and dreamed of having galleries and entering competitions. Not serving clients for weddings, portraits, and the like which is where the majority of photographers earn an income.
My early journey reflects that thought process and my willingness to jump headfirst into different opportunities that would make me an artist who specialized in photography. I entered photography competitions and often thought of my less than stellar action shots as artsy rather than blurry.
I had some early success with competitions, a few months after my return from abroad I received an email that a photograph I had entered in a competition prior to my departure abroad had won and was asked to select a camera from two models as my prize. At that time I choose the Canon Rebel T3i which would become my main shooting camera and help me gain new photographic skills shooting rodeo.
Building a photography business requires a decent amount of equipment and it tends to be a yearly thing. Not necessarily buying new cameras but a lens for a specific kind of photography, replacement batteries, and as you grow lighting, studio equipment, and computers, and software. It sometimes feels never ending, however that experience of winning your second camera is incomparable.
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