Freelance Photography: How to Begin Your Career
Freelance Photography: How to Begin Your Career by Colin
Hartness http://www.asaphotography.com
Photography is a vast world. There are many different types of
photography and many different kinds of people that enjoy it.
It’s a hobby that be relatively inexpensive or one that you can
invest a lot of money on. Photos are so special because they
give us memories of times and places and events in our lives. We
can hold onto these memories forever with a photograph.
As much as people love photos, many people love taking them even
more. Whether it’s a mother who takes photos at every of her
children’s moments in life (first smile, first step, first
spaghetti meal) or maybe it’s the father who never forgets his
camera for a football or basketball game, or maybe it’s the
young girl who loves nature hikes with her camera; these people
are not exceptions. They all have an eye for those special
moments and they all appreciate the camera’s ability to capture
that moment and freeze it in time forever.
What is Freelance Photography?
What if you love photography so much you wish you could do it
for a living? I mean, you actually get paid for your
photographs! But you work solely for yourself, selling each
photo or series of photos individually. You don’t have a boss.
You work sometimes on assignment and you may sell to magazines.
That is freelance photography.
Freelance photography may be your entire career or it may start
out as something you do in your spare time but begin making
money from it. It’s just like freelance writing in this sense
that many people turn it into a career and enjoy the freedom of
working essentially for themselves on their own time and making
money doing something they love doing anyway.
How to Build a Portfolio
To start getting jobs as a freelance photographer, you need a
portfolio. A portfolio will show samples of your work. Even if
you have never had photographs published or publicly displayed,
you can start a portfolio of your best work and then add onto it
if you win photography contests or start receiving paid work.
How to Get Jobs
As we mentioned, building a portfolio is the first step in
submitting your work for pay but when it comes right down to it,
it’s the quality of the photo that will determine if you get
paid for it. Some people have more of a natural talent for
taking great pictures than others but it is a skill that anyone
can learn. There are schools dedicated to the art of photography
and you can even get a degree in it. If you are just getting
started, you can look into classes provided by your local
community center or community college. Some cities have
photography groups that meet to share photos and tips. There are
also many groups online dedicated to photography and freelance
photography.
You need to view as many famous photographs as possible. Take a
look at what is getting published and compare it to your own
photos. This allows you to compare and learn from other’s work.
It takes more than just point and shoot to get a great photo.
You need to learn about focus, lighting, colors and backgrounds
and much more.
Once you start learning about photography and creating a
portfolio, you can start submitting your photos to contests and
magazines. Get a list of photography markets and start
submitting to ones that accept your type of photos. Don’t expect
to make it to the big times right away. Few people actually
achieve this but you can start small and eventually make your
way into a nice living from freelance photography.
About the author:
Looking for information about Photography? Go to:
http://www.asaphotography.com ‘ASA Photography’ is published by
Colin Hartness - An excellent resource for Photography! Check
out more Photography articles at:
http://www.asaphotography.com/archive