That said, Corey and Jim were so excited to welcome their little baby girl. And they are both adjusting to parenting, and their new roles, and are so cute, and loving and happy. Corey looks amazing, but we knew she would after we saw how insane she looked during her pregnancy. Baby Nicoletta is so sweet.  Her skin is perfect (even her peely feet, which might be my FAV thing about little babies!).  She is sweet and wide-eyed, and never once fussed (except when she was hungry, and c’mon, I know I still fuss when I am hungry!).  I loved having them at my studio.  And I am so excited for a lifetime of blond hair in my future, and photographs in theirs!

So here are my favorites, not all my favorites because that would be the entire session, but enough so that you understand that this too will be a session that will make me incredibly happy, and undoubtedly end up somewhere on my sample wall, along side Caroline!

Yesterday, I did something that is not typical of my normal behavior.  I vented, publicly, on Facebook.  If you know me, you know that I have my little trust tree, and that a close group of girls climb up into it bring me a cocktail, a snack, and they let me air out.  And when I’m done, we are laughing, I feel better, and we all climb on down to the ground (I swear we can still watch our kids from up there!).  I don’t see the internet as a place to vent about clients, vendors, or other photographers.  And yesterday I let that slip.  After deleting my posts, I thought long and hard about the takeaway.  How could I use it to push me to be better?  Had I been the offender?  What could I both learn and teach from it?

I am going to omit the specifics of my situation, because rather than point a finger, I am going to try to swipe broadly and hope that there are positive takeaways from this.  As always, there will be people who will vehemently disagree with me.  All I can do is repeat what I have in the past: if it bothers you, please make sure that you ask yourself “WHY?” before you reply.  Because typically when I find myself either taken aback, or feeling insulted, or completely opposed, I realize it’s because the person has struck something at my core, that either I’ve been trying to resolve… or trying to hide.  And so whether or not I planned it, this type of feedback, criticism, or enlightenment ends up being a growing experience for me.

The issue at hand is originality, authenticity, and downright plagiarism.

Please understand, this is not a new issue, nor is it one that has happened on a recurring basis to me as it has to some of my truly amazing and talented colleagues.  That said, one of the most publicized portrait photography copy-cat instances — the Groupon Photographer — copied my “About Me” section from my old blog.  Overall, I feel like a lot of my work is fairly straightforward and classic, and so is it easy to copy and did I perhaps copy from others?  You bet… I can’t really claim that I invented “OK, everyone look at the camera and smile.”

There are so many aspects to this, and it is a source of endless, and exhausting discussions, so let’s tackle the easiest piece first: plagiarism.  In the Groupon case, she copied and pasted my About Me wording, and used it on her site (along with most of Jodie Otte’s images). If I recall, there were about 10 words added in, and about 10 words taken out, so had I entered it exactly (with quotations) into my browser, or copyscape, an identical match would not have appeared.  However, my statement was something to the effect that I was locked in my office, drinking coffee and them finding me was like finding a set of lost keys.  I wrote that because at the time, I was working at IBM, I literally NEVER left my office, and when I emerged, my friends were so excited — like they never expected to see me again, and what I surprise, there I was just like lost keys!  Her About Me statement had the elements “Locked in my office, coffee and lost keys.”  Now every other photographer seems to mention coffee (or wine) in their About Me section, so does it make it unique (no) or generic (yes)?  But coupled with the other elements, even while not an exact word match, made it too similar to mine.  And when you continued to read, you could see where she’d left out a word, or perhaps spelled out “it is” from my “it’s.”

The point is, I wrote that statement because it was so AUTHENTIC to who I was at that moment — when I remember it now, it immediately takes me back to that exact time in my life.  There is just no way that a photographer with a seemingly thriving business, and a studio who wanted to bring in a ton of business via Groupon, could have felt that same exact way.  And people knew instantly that it didn’t ring true, and that it wasn’t authentic.

Creating a blog or a website can be daunting — so much text you have to come up with.  How do you sound witty, smart, like the chic girl next door who will never make you say cheese and wants to capture the in between moments and “tell your story?”  You can buy the content.  It’s easy.  There is a TON of content out there for purchase.  I won’t knock that, I think I bought some when I was starting out.  And when you BUY it, you are PAYING for the right to use content that someone else came up with.  FAIR & SQUARE.  But when you COPY it from someone else, whether they live in the next town over, or across the country, it’s ILLEGAL.  And it’s wrong.  It’s essentially looking at a fellow photographer and saying “I don’t value you or the industry at all, I have no respect for the time and work that you put into developing this, and I am just going to take it.”  Whoever says “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” can go to hell.  Exact imitation shows not only a total lack of respect, but it also puts a spotlight on what you have failed to learn to do yourself.

The photography world, particularly lifestyle newborn, children and family photographers, seems to be incredibly inbred.  There are about 5 sets of parents (parent = major user forum), and many photographers are birthed from there (I was!).  People read blogs and follow websites, and catch on to trends and generally all strive for the next best thing.  And so this plagiarism line gets very blurry.  If you Google  “natural light lifestyle photographer” for your city, chances are that within the first page or two, you will find at least 5 photographers who have an About Me section that states that they picked up a camera after the birth of their first child, they’ll never make you say cheese, and then they will proceed to list things they like.  Did they all copy each other?  Probably not.  It’s a trend.  If two people have an almost identical like list and and there are enough words/sentences that are uncannily similar, then I’d bet one “inspired” the other.  And one of those people is not being authentic, and the other is probably steaming mad.  So should you not follow the trend because you are worried about plagiarizing? No, you can do whatever feels right to you… but come up with it YOURSELF.  And if it feels like it’s similar to something you’ve read before, it probably is.  Sit on it, mull it over.  And at some point during the week or so, you’ll have an ah-ha moment and think “THIS is what I want them to know about me… and it’s SO ME” (not who I want to be, but ME as I am).

Originality and authenticity are tough nuts to crack.  No doubt it feels like almost everything has been done before.  And when you are just starting out in business, you have superstars, or maybe even just the girl next door, that you blogstalk (or now FB stalk).  And so it’s natural that you begin to believe that you want to build a portfolio similar to theirs.  You start to almost think you are friends, because you have read them every day, commented, and maybe even received a response back.  And when that happens, you begin to think it’s possible.  And so you covet their style, you find out what actions they use to process, what lenses they like to shoot with, you might even purchase the same template as them or print at their labs.  But you are missing one MAJOR element.  YOU AREN’T IN THEIR HEAD, YOU HAVEN’T WALKED A MILE IN THEIR SHOES, AND YOU DON’T SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THEIR EYES.  And that’s OK, you see it through yours, and you bring your own experiences to the plate.  So rather than try to take on their style, think about how you make it unique.  What’s the first thing you see when YOU get to a session location?  Is it the same fence post you’ve seen photographed there time and again?  Or is it a hydrant?  Because yeah, you can shoot the shit out of someone leaning in a particular pose against a split rail, just as you’ve seen, or you can think “that hydrant has awesome fresh paint, I bet I could do a headshot with them sitting there and no one would ever know it was a hydrant!”  The point is, you can’t take someone else’s scenario and slot in your subjects.  It’s not your vision, it’s theirs.  Does that mean you can’t shoot in a public place because someone else shoots their?  Hell no!  In fact, last year I told Sarah Freel to shoot at the Coolidge Estate for a session (a private location where I had permission to shoot) and she came out with some shots and I thought “Holy cow, I am not sure in my 50+ shoots here that I have EVER captured a kid like that!”

Newborn photography makes it even that much more difficult.  There are endless props and endless workshops and in many cases, there just isn’t a whole lot of immediate differentiation between “curl up and sleep on a beanbag.”  But there are people that get it right like Amber Scruggs – Little Moon Photography (and many other fabulous photographers who are gracious enough to share in workshops – some only to have it taken advantage of).  Amber shoots something crazy like 12-24 newborns a month.  And she doesn’t even copy herself.  If you know her, she is meticulous about selection her hats, her props, her backdrops, and while she might repeat poses, almost never does she copy her own setups exactly.  She challenges herself by assessing what is in HER MIND that day, that she is seeing with HER EYES, and using HER EXPERIENCE of what works and what doesn’t, and then adjusting and adapting that to the UNIQUE NEWBORN that is in her studio.  If she can do that for all of her sessions, shouldn’t you (or I) be able to do that for ours, whether we shoot 1 or 15 newborns a month?  So is it being unoriginal if you put a baby in a bucket (safely!)?  Yes and no.  But it is copying if you ask Amber for a list of her fabric and prop vendors and then you buy the same blanket and hat, and put it in the same bucket, and position the baby the same way.  And after all that, since it’s not your setup, and it didn’t come from your heart, soul and experience, will the image really be that good?

To this day, I stick with the mode of operation that if I feel like I’ve seen it before, I verify that and do due diligence to make sure that I am not stepping on toes.  And if I am, I quickly back off, and spend some time thinking about how I can present my idea in a way that is uniquely me, without ever devaluing the original source.  Case in point:  I’ve had an idea brewing for a while about people and things I wanted to focus on as a blog side project.  I networked with some women, and I got about 50% through baking my idea.  And while the term “Mamapreneur” is hardly unique, and many people interview Small Business Owners on their blogs, my idea felt close (not an exact copy, but CLOSE) to what I’d seen on the ever-talented, and amazing stylish and artistic Stephanie Piscatelli from Bellini Portraits.  Not feeling right, even though I know the origins of my idea, I emailed Stephanie.  Is she one town over?  No, but sort of same market, maybe cross over blog readership or FB likes.  She described to me the origins and history of her Mamapreneur series and also described how it had been copied before.  And while my idea was only close, after working through a few stages (irritation, ah-ha, embarrassment, relief), I realized it would probably be disrespectful of me to move forward how I planned.  I back-burnered it.  It simmered.  I thought about where I was in my life, and how I needed to bring these experiences to light, and I embarked on a project that is now so different, and unique to me, without ever detracting or devaluing anything Stephanie has worked so hard to build.  Did it suck for a minute?  Yes.  Did I feel a bit defensive working through the process (seriously, I am NOT copying your idea, this idea was MINE)?  You bet.  Am I beyond happy that I gave it time, and now have something that I own all on my own?  Absolutely.  Do I still drool over almost everything Stephanie produces.  God, yes.  Is her style mine?  No.

There is such an incredible difference between imitation and inspiration.  Imitation is replication.  Inspiration is being awed, and then putting your own spin on it.  There is inspiration EVERYWHERE.  It’s YOUR JOB as a photographer, and an artist, and a business person, to figure out how to OWN IT in your own way.  Learning this, on your own, is the only way you can build a brand that is AUTHENTIC to you.  I can’t repeat it enough, as it was handed down to me by I think Audrey Woulard during a mentoring session, “If your brand isn’t AUTHENTICALLY YOU, it will fall flat and FAIL.”  You have to start somewhere, you have to begin learning, and imitation may be part of that process, but until you have figured out how to make what you do authentically yours, you need to take a step back and evaluate where you are in the development of your business and brand.  It is SO HARD to survive in this industry.  I consider myself successful, however not a month goes by when I don’t want to say “what have I done and can I really sustain this?”  It’s that hard and I’ve done all the work.  I can’t imagine declaring myself in business and not having tackled this challenge.

Nothing is more true than the cream rising to the top with photographers.  So do yourself a favor and don’t take milk from someone else’s cow, but go get your own and figure out how to cream it yourself.

[If you like this article, and want to read more, check out my Learning Resources posts on this blog or on Facebook].

I love sneaking out on Sunday mornings.  I love it when it’s in the high 70s in March.  I love Charlestown.  I love repeat clients.  I love clicking with parents so that it’s just really easy to shoot.  And I love super cute kiddos.

Meet Corey & Jim.  I photographed their beautiful wedding on Halloween weekend.  You know, the one during the snowstorm?  It is sort of ironic that I shot their maternity session the only other day this winter when there was snow on the ground.  And it was about 20 degrees out.  Cold cold cold.  So we shot indoors, but that’s fine, we were able to accomplish some beautiful studio shots, not all of which I can share.  Suffice to say, the are dramatic, and gorgeous, because, well, so is Corey.

In addition to the studio shots, we played around with Clementine… she was awesome.  My studio is dog friendly, and I am more apt to stock dog treats than I am lollipops!  And at the end, we thought it was important to capture Jim, just the way he is… just a simple guy from KC who likes his BBQ and bourbon!  I laugh when I think of how many husband/client discussions are had around meat smokers, rubs, marinades and where the best butcher might be.

I should add that Corey is the one responsible for my awesome hair color, as she works at the FABULOUS Giraud Studio (for North Shore folks, they are beyond exceptional).  But I almost hate saying that, for their sake.  For those of you who see me on a daily basis, well, you know it’s not often pretty (dare I admit I’ve been standing in dried sweat workout clothes for a few hours now… and I haven’t actually “done” my hair in 4 days… and by “done” I really mean “brushed”).  But when I do wash, dry and “do” my hair, usually I get some form of a compliment and I sort of lob that right back over to Corey (and  Joanna… and Omar… and, well, Heidi!).

So here are the images.  I am dying to get the text that Corey is in labor.   I can’t wait for her newborn session! Actually, that’s a lie.  I am completely conflicted because my hair is ripening as we speak, but I need probably another two weeks before it’s ready… and that’s Corey’s due date.  There is a teeny tiny little part of me that is whispering “how dare she.”

Lately I have been involved with a number of discussions with other photographers about pricing and the cost of doing business. And while there certainly are a varying range of opinions about how people should and do operate their business, a recurring theme of general misunderstanding of basic business costs has come up time and time again. And while I don’t LIKE to say “$300 for a shoot and burn session isn’t good business,” in most circumstances I believe that’s a correct statement. And as you know, my motto is “Cheap is not a business strategy.” Or at least it’s not one that will withstand the test of time, unless you are catering to the thousands, and your last name is Walton. And you are OK working for free.

That said, I know a lot of photographers who are just starting out, or who are in markets where there is a lower CoL (cost of living) and/or less wealth, will disagree with me, or just not understand what I mean.

In order to illustrate my point of view, I pulled out the numbers I used to calculate my business costs, and my pricing, the year I started out in business.  I was working full time at IBM and didn’t have the pressure of needing the extra income and I had the luxury of re-investing my revenue.  These are my COSTS, but not my PRICES (I started fully in business priced appropriately for profit and for my market and for my brand).

To clarify so that we are all using the same terms:

Cost of Goods (COGs) are things that are DIRECTLY related to your sales. So no order, no COGs. They are prints, albums, canvases, DVDs (products) + some people associate shipping with COGs too (inbound to you, outbound to your client).

Average COGS in portrait photography is about 20-25%. Selling digital brings it down, however there still is a COG associated for anything other than just uploading files (screened DVDs, cases, reference prints). Prints, albums, canvases, mounts, mini accordions, etc. have a higher COGs. Let’s not forget when you place an entire order and forget an item and you are now subject to a minimum order for something that costs $2.  Or something is drastically wrong with your color and you have to reprint an entire order. Let’s not even go there with Press Card disasters. All of this speaks to pricing your products and packages appropriately to cover your costs and the time associate with producing them.

Fixed Expenses are costs that you incur if you are operating a business (or even just starting one up) that you will incur indirect from a sale — you need these things regardless if you sell anything, you need them to be in business. The degree to which you need each varies on your business model and your volume and your overall setup. It makes sense to start each year with a budget for each category, then mid-year match up to where you are and figure out if you overspent or underspent and why (and sometimes there are very good reasons).

Tax & Legal Assistance, Memberships (Clickin Moms, PPA, etc.), Gear (lenses, bodies, flashes, CF cards, etc.), Hardware (harddrive storage, laptops, etc.), Software (Photoshop, actions, templates, etc.), Hosting, Web Site & Blog upgrades, Mentoring & Workshops, Logo/Branding, Advertising (booths, prints, ads), Print Materials (inserts, brochures, price lists, thank you notes), Packaging (boxes, clearbags, ribbon, bags), Studio Sample, Props, Studio Rent, Studio Operating Expenses, Cell Phone, Internet

Salary for your time, however there are various ways to calculate that depending on how your business is structured, so I am only going to address “paying yourself” on a broad scale — but it’s important to consider as you will see.

Gross Profit is the amount of revenue you collect, before taxes and expenses

Net Revenue Before Taxes = Gross Profit – COGs – Fixed Expenses – Paid Salary –> This is the number that is the basis for figuring out income taxes. However, that also varies based on how you structure your business, pay yourself, and your general tax rate.

Now let’s put this in real terms. You are going to shoot a full session (est. 1-1.5 hours, family and/or children or newborn) give the clients a DVD in basic packaging with 30 reference prints.

Price: $300  = COGs: $25  Shipping: $5  Total Costs: $30    Net profit: $270

BUDGET

The first thing you should do, as you plan your year, is to estimate a budget with the Fixed Expenses and determine which is a monthly, quarterly or annual expense, and determine which is a MUST have and which is a NICE TO HAVE. Based on my business four years ago (home based, nominal expenses), my FIXED EXPENSES were $15,782, or $1,135/month BEFORE I EVEN SHOT A SESSION. Even with a more conservative budget, removing some “nice to have items,” the fixed budget is still about $10K or about $761/month. In this figure, I do not include an allocation for gas, cell phone, etc. and other things that I was writing off for my IBM job (or as a final tax prep step). Obviously the more you grow, the more fixed expenses you incur, but generally you increase them in line with your growth.

Based on the $300 price point, in order to meet FIXED EXPENSE needs, you need to shoot between 3-5 sessions a month, and you have NOT PAID YOURSELF OR MADE A DIME OF PROFIT.

YOUR TIME

Now let’s consider your time. When I started out, I averaged about TEN hours per client (that’s a lie, once it took me 22 hours to proof down to a 30 image gallery). I still average that, but how it’s allocated is different (more design and consultation, less editing). Luckily, when you shoot better, you edit less.  Hours per client are determined by: pre-booking/book consult time (emails, phone calls, getting payment/forms), travel to/from shoot, shoot, download/backup/organization of files, editing, blogging/FB, gallery presentation, post-session communication, order management, order preparation/edit/placement/receipt, shipping/pickup, payment, close out of client.

Let’s assume that for these $300 sessions, your time is FIVE hours per client (but I doubt it when you are starting out), maybe TEN hours on the high end.

Additionally, every business has “admin” time — time that is allocated to the business that is not directly associated with a client (posting for CC, creating FB posts, blogs, promo cards, pricing, portfolio slideshows, washing newborn blankets, driving to the post office). Let’s allocate 5-10 hours a week for that.

You are now working between 35-90 hours a month, or 9-23 hours a week, and you have NOT PAID YOURSELF OR MADE A DIME OF PROFIT.

PAYING YOURSELF

Now let’s consider that you’ve been doing this for a while and you think YOUR WORK IS GOOD. AND IT HAS VALUE. AND YOU PROVIDE SOMETHING TO OTHERS THAT IS WORTH SOMETHING. (That’s why they are hiring you, right?). And you decide, “Gosh darnit, I want to make a profit and be PAID for my time.” Or “It really would help in these tough economic times to have some extra cash on hand to pay the bills… I could consider this a job and PAY MYSELF.” You decide that you want to pay yourself $15/hour for each hour you work.  I recommend paying yourself much, much more, but again sometimes this is dictated by how your corporation or taxes are set up, your CoL, etc. so let’s use this as a hypothetical figure.

Now you have two choices. You can WORK MORE so that you earn over and above your expenses (what you earn is more $/hour and profit, but typically also increased expenses), or you can INCREASE YOUR PRICES SO THAT YOU MAKE A PROFIT.

You can choose to keep your time per client short, and your admin time brief, and tack on $135-$175 (the more you shoot, the less you mathematically have to increase it) or you can spend more time on both and tack on $270 – $350. But either way, you are now PAYING YOURSELF FOR YOUR WORK. How much you increase your price is dependent on how much work you want to do (this is the “volume” versus the “boutique” model comparison), how much you pay yourself, and where and how you want to market your services and to which segment of the population.

Check out the comparisons. You can see how changing the variables of PRICE, TIME, AND VOLUME changes not only your net profit, but also your hourly rate. It ranges from $.70/hour (yikes) to $16.40/hour.

So now that all this fun and games is complete, keep in mind a few other MINOR (wink) details:

• The Numbers Do Not Lie.  If spend money, you need to understand that what you earn as revenue, counts against that.  It’s basic P&L (profit and loss).  What you choose to do with your P&L is your own business, but if you ignore it, you are doing yourself a big disservice.

• I am NOT saying that you have to be “expensive” to be in business.  I have just described a “break even” analysis to tell you how you determine the costs you need to cover to not LOSE money.  This is so helpful because you can apply it to a number of different pricing scenarios.  For instance, I know how profitable my mini-sessions are in comparison to my other sessions + packages.   My mini-session is the LEAST expensive thing I do, and it’s very profitable, however, I do need to shoot quite a few of them to equate to what my normal average sale is — so I make a choice as to how many I offer, but I do include them as an offering because I then allow clients to work with me who have tight budgets.

• None of the above addresses how you should determine your final pricing.  Your pricing should be a combination of your expense allocation, your COGs, your time [as in time to put together specific products and services], your own value or  your work, the market you live in, and your target client base.  Many people commented to me “I wish my clients understood this.”  And to that, I say “perhaps you need to find different clients.”  I seek out clients who above all, value ME AND MY WORK and do not nickel and dime me, or expect me to be priced just like my competition.  And because of that, I will make my pricing work for people that are respectful of this.

• If you are a client reading this, one of mine, I am sure you already understand why you would not want to work with someone who DIDN’T VALUE HERSELF or HER WORK enough to pay herself. And while a bargain is a bargain, typically you get what you pay for. But this isn’t really a targeted piece to clients, and doesn’t specifically address my clients, my pricing, or my services, my brand, my work.

• Everybody starts somewhere. And $300 for “everything” while you are building your portfolio may or may not be the right thing to do.  I am not advocating that someone who is just starting out set the same prices as me, or anyone else… that is AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CONVERSATION.  Additionally, when you first start it can take you 22 hours to proof a gallery that once you were really established and awesome, might take you 2 hours.  So maybe paying yourself by hour when you are just starting out is a little bit skewed!

• You can certainly charge $300 for your services, but offer what makes sense for that (less time and different service) so that you are not operating in the negative – make it fee based, and add on a la carte as your client wants more product and services… no harm in that (like above example of mini sessions).

• Your NET PROFIT IS SUBJECT TO A TAX RATE OF 20-40% depending on how you file your taxes and your household tax bracket (whether you file as a corporation or pass it through your personal income statement) — so if monthly net income of $1,385 felt good to you, keep in mind that it’s really closer to $970. Because that’s how Uncle Sam Rolls. And as someone who has a disaster to clean up with sales tax right now, I can tell you that my INCOME TAX PAYMENT is BEYOND PERFECT down to the dime. And not allocating correctly for it can really try a good thing (like your husband and accountant’s patience, your business credibility, etc.).

• YOU MIGHT HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR HOUSEHOLD. Imagine now being responsible for $1,000 worth of bills each month (or $3K in my case). It basically feels like even if you net $1K (or $3K) that you are still working for nothing. Not free, because your clients are paying you, but you still have no profit in your LIFE.

• You might be GOOD. You might be VERY VERY VERY GOOD. And it might be OK with you to NOT MAKE A DIME. But there are other photographer’s out there who value their time and their service FAR MORE than $15/hour, who have trained for years, and who have given their blood sweat and tears to build their business (and who have families to support). And because you decide that for your first few years you can “capture the market” and advocate that $300 is fair market value, their pricing of $750 or $1500 or $1800 seems GROSSLY out of whack. And so the market begins to re-set itself towards your pricing. And then, wait, a year passes and you realize YOU WANT TO GET PAID and you try to raise your prices… and WHOA, no one likes that… and you look around and WOW there is someone doing it for less than you, how dare they! So you can thank yourself for that, because undercutting the market and working for free… well, that’s all you baby!

So there is SO MUCH MORE to this. And I am writing this and risk angering people (primarily my peers who will scold me for spending 2+ hours writing this and then giving it away FOR FREE). And that last point is to be TONGUE IN CHEEK and POKING FUN and NOT DIRECTED AT ANYONE BUT RATHER TO THE ENTIRE MARKET. I just wanted to get it down “on paper” because it comes up over and over and over again and honestly I think some people defend it because they grab numbers out of the air, and some people just don’t know better… and of course, because for some people, this model actually works for them. So if it makes you pause, and perhaps bristle, please do yourself a favor and take a moment to think WHY.

For the others who actually found it valuable, awesome.

So these guys did not disappoint.  Everyone who has peaked over my shoulder has agreed… they are a gorgeous family.  Thank you so much… I am so truly grateful that you are my clients…and now friends.

Today I stumbled across a website of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend who just decided to go “into business” as a photographer.  It’s no use trying to figure out who it is, I think there are about 2,385 sites that my friends of friends could collectively find and pool together in this category.  And that’s a lowball number.

Without getting into specifics about the drastic issues with this portfolio, I thought I’d point out just how helpful  — no, IMPERATIVE — it is to GET FEEDBACK from industry peers (fellow photographers) before you “go into business.”  And I am only providing this advice because lately I’ve had a number of requests from people to tell me some initial steps they should take to go into business.  And this is only MY opinion, others might not share it.

But get advice…

• Not from your MOM.
• Not from your BFF whose daughter’s 6 month photos you took.
• Not from your Facebook friends.

Get advice from other photographers who are in business as established professionals.  Why?  If my clients are happy, who cares what other photographers think?

Because other photographers can give you an honest assessment of your strengths and your weaknesses in an unbiased, non-mommy-google, fashion.  They can point out compositional issues, focus issues, exposure issues, and post processing issues.  They can help you identify what is a definitive style (which may include breaking some rules) and what is a skill issue.

They can help you grow.  They can suggest some checkpoints to use as “readiness” before jumping into business.  They can help you learn about the myriad of challenges you will face and help you tackle common issues of going into business so that you are prepared to meet them when they arise.

Join an industry forum.  There are plenty of them. Some are big, some are small, some are focused on niche markets, some are positive places to be, some are not.  Explore them, find one that is right for you.

Once you do that, post your work for critique. Ask for HHCC (hard hat constructive criticism).

Understand that even your worst critic will provide a perspective that you did not previously think of. Learn from feedback. If your feelings are hurt, walk away for a little bit, digest it, but don’t ever discount it. Ideally find a forum where you can submit a portfolio review, especially if you think you are ready to be in business.

If enough people say “you aren’t ready,” you probably are not.  It’s easy to say “but my clients love my work” or “everyone tells me I am awesome.”  It is not easy to listen, realize, take a step back and re-assess.  It is painful, but it is worth it.  Getting feedback from professionals who have been in your shoes is invaluable. THANK any one that offers to help you even if you respectfully decline to follow their ideas or listen to their feedback.  Then thank them again because they took time out of their day to help you.

Once you have found a forum of peers, rely on them for checking of your work. Very few photographers ever reach a point where they require zero input from peers or mentors. It may not mean a review of every session on a broad forum, but it is immensely helpful to develop a network of peers and supporters that can listen to your ideas and eyeball your work before you take it mainstream.  Even the most brilliant photographers occasionally have an image in their portfolio that just doesn’t fit or just isn’t them.

And if once this is done, if you aren’t ready, don’t be afraid to temporarily pull down your website.  Take some time, then fill it up with strong and beautiful images that are definitive of your style.  We have all been there, we all have early work that makes us cringe, we’ve all jumped the gun a little too soon.  Six months or so might feel like an eternity, but it’s shorter than the time it would take you to get a degree or certificate in school or to complete an apprenticeship… so certainly that’s not too long to learn and start over.

And if you are ready, go forth and conquer.  Continue to grow.  Network with local peers.  Give back to the community and help new photographers find their way — it doesn’t mean sharing your list of vendors or your secrets, but it means providing positive direction and education where and when you can (and you won’t always have the bandwidth to do so).  By doing this, you will help better the industry by stressing the importance of knowledge and skill.

If you took the time to read this, thank you.  If you have questions, please feel free to message me or leave a comment.

And to put it into perspective: an image from when I THOUGHT I was ready compared to where I am today.  Five years later.