Headshots

[blakemcguire]

Hey guys

Being a working student, I often find I need to make just a little more money. I've been thinking of what I could do to get something out of my photography, but I'm not really sure how to get the kind of casual work that I need.

My ideas so far have been shooting for local sports teams and doing headshots for people's facebook or other online profiles. I have a decent bit of experience in both, but I don't know how to actually build some kind of a business around it.

What do you wonderful people think?

[William W]

. . . I often find I need to make just a little more money. I've been thinking of what I could do to get something out of my photography, but I'm not really sure how to get the kind of casual work that I need. My ideas so far have been shooting for local sports teams and doing headshots for people's facebook or other online profiles. I have a decent bit of experience in both, but I don't know how to actually build some kind of a business around it.

What do you wonderful people think?

I think lots of things about this general topic but as a start, I will limit my commentary to what I consider integral and key points for your consideration:

You could start by getting out there and shooting a few sporting gigs pro bono.

It will assist of you know the team manager / Coach. You could make an offer to supply a few shots gratis for the Club’s Website in return for advertising on that website.

You need to ensure that there is not already a contracted photographer for the venue and/or the sporting organization. And if there is - you need to find out what exactly, their contract states.

Also be advised to investigate any insurance responsibilities/liabilities that you attract, once you begin shooting sporting events on site, professionally.

You also need to know what Insurance and other Liabilities that you attract just shooting 'anything anywhere', professionally.

I think that the idea of shooting sporting teams for remuneration has many more legs than the idea of shooting ‘Headshots’ for people’s Facebook or other on line Profiles, that is unless it is "company headshots" - in which case you will be generally be using a sophisticated 'On site portable Flash Lighting Rig' and you will be good and quick at using it – you mention that you are experienced but you do not quantify the experience, so that’s an example as only one indication of the experience (and gear) necessary to make any money at that particular type of ‘headshot’ work.

One good way to get into that work is to market directly to the HumRes and/or Advertising Manager, whomever makes the decision to suggest the revamp the Company Profile. You need to get then attend that initial meeting with samples. An in person meeting in a neutral area (not their office), with a coffee or a beer is usually best.

You need to have contracts that are suitable to your needs and address any problems that you might encounter.

You need to be in a position to supply all the necessary paper work to the client and this includes documents that a client might require to claim you fees as a tax deduction.

Bote carefully: that the request for paperwork might come after the shoot and after the Client has paid you.

*

If, as a student, making more money is the overwhelming and primary criterion, then, you'd better spending the same amount of time and effort being a casual brickie's labourer or driving a truck, etc for wages.

WW

[jcuknz]

"you'd [be] better spending the same amount of time and effort being a casual brickie's labourer or driving a truck, etc for wages. "

The reality of the business today with probably ten times as many photographers trying to scratch some income than are really needed .... fortunately I joined a State company fifty years ago when it was thought only three times as many photographers as needed ... subsequently clever photographers with the gift of transfering their knowledge have been training gullible youngsters to swell the already swollen photo clan.

Another likely source of income will be stacking supermarket shelves .....

[rpcrowe]

Here's a though! IMO, it was easier to break into professional photography in the days of film photography when there was a deep divide between equipment suitable for pro photography and the Instamatic or Box Brownie that the general run of the mill person used.

Now everyone and his brother can own a camera (they think) that is suitable for pro photography and you will be competing against Uncle Charlie and Aunt Bertha with their entry level DSLR cameras...

[blakemcguire]

To clarify: I have a job with some career possibilities already, this idea is for some secondary income.

[Marie Hass]

Start pro bono to get your name out there. Volunteer to shoot for Relay for Life. Or your local animal shelter. Do some local events and give the images to the Chamber of Commerce. Offer to take some head shots. Tell them you are a student and practicing your skills. Post to facebook - as long as you have a signed release. Lots of options, but no one will hand you anything.

Good luck. The competition is fierce.

'Rie

[Manfred M]

Blake - a lot of small business people have problems with this.

Yes, I'm sure you can get working for free, but that means that you are giving away time and materials (most head shots end up as physical prints), travel time to / from the shooting location, travel costs, wear and tear on your equipment, the time you spend in post after shooting, insurance (if you charge any money for the work you do, any home insurance policy you have your equipment covered under is likely void). In additional to any equipment insurance you will need liability insurance (what happens if someone trips over a cord or light stand while you are shooting, errors and ommissions insurance (to cover off when your client did not get what they were expecting), etc. If you don't have the last two insurance policies and you are not a properly registered business, people will be able to go after your personal assets.

Once you have all those costs figured out; you will know what it takes to break even. Once you know that you have broken even, you can figure out what your time and effort is work and add some kind of a reasonable markup onto those costs (100% markup is certainly not unusual). Once you understand your cost structure and understand what the market will bear in terms of cost, then you can look at making some money out of it.

Unfortunately, a quite a number of photographers who are just starting up don't get this part and end up subsidizing their clients. That is not something someone can afford to do for very long. Time for prints is a pretty common way that photographers who get into the business do to get a portfolio; just remember to get out of that part of the startup curve as quickly as possible.

[William W]

Being a working student, I often find I need to make just a little more money. I've been thinking of what I could do to get something out of my photography, but I'm not really sure how to get the kind of casual work that I need.

Plus -

To clarify: I have a job with some career possibilities already, this idea is for some secondary income.

Then you need to plan carefully to ensure:

1. development / type of Photography Business will not compromise your Career development
- and –
2. Career development / opportunity will not compromise the ability to follow through on a Photography commitment

WW

[Adrian]

Interestingly I have just hired a young Australian photographer as a paid intern (full time job likely to be offered soon) in our marketing department. He had studied videography and photography at university and done quite a bit of unpaid or barely paid work being an assistant at weddings and suchlike. Plus he had some marketing skills and ideas. When we advertised this job we were inundated with applicants.

In your shoes, if I were determined to get into this very competitive field, I would write to every local business giving them your generic thoughts on how you can help them revamp the imagery in their website, brochures etc. You can target the boss and head of marketing (in any business below say 100 staff there will usually be no head of marketing). You could offer a one hour (or half day, whatever) consultation and some test shots for free, and the first half day's work at a reduced rate. I would be surprised if you did not get some bites if you can write a good letter and give some samples. A link to a good web portfolio is essential - you must have a showcase for your work and skills.

I would also contact all the local web design firms and offer your freelance services for delivering imagery for their clients. Offer to help them with their pitches as an added value service.

The insurance is easily sorted. Don't leave home without it.

Good luck

Adrian

[William W]

. . . . if I were determined to get into this very competitive field, I would write to every local business giving them your generic thoughts on how you can help them revamp the imagery in their website, brochures etc. You can target the boss and head of marketing (in any business below say 100 staff there will usually be no head of marketing). You could offer a one hour (or half day, whatever) consultation and some test shots for free, and the first half day's work at a reduced rate. I would be surprised if you did not get some bites if you can write a good letter and give some samples. A link to a good web portfolio is essential - you must have a showcase for your work and skills. . .

Sage.

A specific and detailed idea which is worth several hundred in consultation fees: maybe you could fit that into your “career” goals.

WW

[Manfred M]

Adrian - while I can't disagree about what you have written, you discount a couple of very significant elements:

1. Your company was in the position to need these skills and was either intentionally or unintentionally ready to fill this role; and

2. Timing - If someone else came along today, he / she would have been too late as the position had already been filled. Possibly, if the person had come by a few months ago, the company might not have been ready to hire.

The company I work(ed) for would not have been in the position to do this. We do have a graphics group and have a photographer / videographer on staff. But frankly, most of our work is contracted out and the staff person does very little videography or photography but a lot of contract management. The only time he actually does real hands on photography is for "emergency work".

[Adrian]

Manfred. I am simply being positive. It is in my nature - I try to encourage young people to seek and grasp opportunities. I am just a businessman and I try to have an open mind (and make money ;-) The challenge of any young person seeking career variety or a new opportunity, is to find a way of opening minds.

We are in a technology age. This means, with all of the web access we enjoy, that we are very much in a visual age. I often hear that the access to cheap cameras, iPhone selfies and so on reduces opportunities for photographers. Really it doesn't. It gives the smart ones a massive opportunity to differentiate themselves.

I am willing to bet that I am not the only business person running a fast growing company who thinks like this. Who realises that imagery that inspires clients and staff is a huge motivational and sales tool. People relate to pictures. They always have and they always will. And now pictures are everywhere on the internet. The key is bespoke, creative imagery. Sell that and some businesses around you will buy it. Really, they will. Forget weddings. Web images is where it will be when people wake up to the need for continuous image led advertising for business. Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, Instagram, corporate web sites, corporate intranets, instant brochures for on-line marketing and on and on...the market has hardly been explored yet!

Adrian

[Manfred M]

Adrian - I too am an optimist, but also a realist.

I know a number of professional photographers that were doing quite well a decade ago and all are struggling today. While photography is still their primary means of income, they are teaching, working in real estate, etc. in order to make ends meet. The universal truth they have shared is that less than 20% of their work is actually taking pictures. If you include the all of the photographic work; post-processing, archiving, making prints, maintaining a website, etc, then that goes up a bit, but still no more than 30% in total (some of them farm some of this work out to other photographic specialists like printers and web designers). Everything else is business related, from managing their clients, maintaining their books and trying to build their business, which makes up the bulk of their day, just like any other small business.

I took a studio lighting course 3 or 4 years ago; at the local comminity college. We had a class of around 25; this was a part-time program; not the full-time photography program that the college offered. There were only two of us in the class that had no interest in persuing a photographic career. The bulk of the class was made up of "soccer mums", retirees and people looking for a career change. Just about anyone that picks up an entry level DSLR seems to think they can make money at it.

Now, I'm not saying no one will do well as a professional photographer; some undoubtedly will. Passion for hard work and great business skills are needed, not just a love of photography. Just as I would not direct someone to study archaeology, psychology, philosophy or becoming a teacher (all of these (and many more) fields are overcrowded); I would caution anyone who wants to get into the field with a good dose of reality; if they still want to try, that's up to them but at least they have been warned.

I have been approached by people who want to use my work (video as well as images). They have always wanted to use my work for free (yes, they were going to publish my name and put me in the me credits). The answer has always been the same;' "NO". I don't need the credit and frankly and I don't think lowering the price barrier helps anyone other than the end user who is laughing all the way to the bank.

[Adrian]

All that you say is undoubtedly true Manfred. For me the problem is that many of these pro photographers have not noticed that the world has changed around them. They are pursuing an outdated and unworkable business model. In many cases they are trying to sell to a retail market when really the opportunities are in the corporate world. The corporate world wants SKILLS - and this will exclude the soccer mum types generally.

There is no point being "just" a photographer. It is necessary to be have really good skills in still images, lighting, videography, post processing for stills and video, basic sound recording and digital processing, graphic design tools (such as InDesign). To get work photographers need to be less precious about copyright ownership (corporates want to control the images they use) and they need two other key things: people skills (to make a convincing pitch and then work as part of a team, with great listening skills so that the business gets what it wants) and lots of creative and challenging but relevant ideas.

Too many photographers are a one trick pony, moaning about how their wedding market has been eaten away by recession and competition from amateurs with a kit camera. There are always opportunities, and they are usually exploited by the most nimble thinkers.

Perhaps we must agree to differ.

Kind regards

Adrian

[dabhand]

All that you say is undoubtedly true Manfred. For me the problem is that many of these pro photographers have not noticed that the world has changed around them. ...........big snip
Adrian

Adrian,

I agree with you inasmuch as the world has changed but I think photography it is still subject to supply / demand and this is where I believe many are missing the point - you can only sell at premium prices to a market which wants/expects to pay them.

The availability and capability of many of today's cameras is acting as a disruptive force in the commercial market place much as digital music in it's many forms has been disrupting the marketplace for years, or how online shopping has affected real shops, or how email has impacted snail mail etc etc

Various sectors of photography are being driven more to the commodity end of the marketplace but there will always be a premium market for the very best of the best in photography and this is the challenge for all professionals - does their work really justify their prices - or are they journeymen bemoaning the loss of a lucrative market and not willing/able to rise to the challenge.?

Quality work will always win out, just it's marketplace may diminish whilst competition within it gets tougher.

steve

[Peeshan]

Hi Blake,

You could also offer your services to the local shopkeepers, sometime they are looking for product photography for different use and don't know where to start, and professional photographer would ask giant amounts of money and easily go overkill (a lot of small shop owners only need nice pictures of their products for a webpage or a local advertisement.) Restaurant owners can also be interested when updating their menu...
What's more it could feat well with what I understand you have in mind, as a secondary source of income.
Whatever you do it would be wise to check the administrative stuff like status
and taxes...

[JR1]

Hey guys

Being a working student, I often find I need to make just a little more money. I've been thinking of what I could do to get something out of my photography, but I'm not really sure how to get the kind of casual work that I need.

My ideas so far have been shooting for local sports teams and doing headshots for people's facebook or other online profiles. I have a decent bit of experience in both, but I don't know how to actually build some kind of a business around it.

What do you wonderful people think?

IF you are going to do it financially and offer a service I hope you take into account public liability and public indemnity insurance too, no one "working" as a photographer would go out without

Also Remember as soon as you earn there is HMRC taxes to inform, you may not think about it but whoever pays you WILL note it in their yearly accounts and sooner or later HMRC WILL tie their expenditure to someone.

IF you place a sign on the side of a car, Vistaprint (yuk), you are IMMEDIATELY into informing your car insurance company that it is used for business, so if you are involved in an accident even innocently, but are travelling to earn, or returning, you are driving illegally if not covered for business use.

There is more to being a "photographer in business, even pin money" than owning a camera.

Local newspapers "may" pay you, mainly free unless you are a member of the NUJ as I am. That will also mean you will eventually need a press pass to cover events from anything but the side lines, which is where going behind the scenes makes PLI and PI insurance a must.

Just some comments, to think about.

Oh and if you are being "paid", you will of course have the spare camera body, batteries, lenses etc for the occasion one packs up. Oh and don't forget camera/gear insurance too.

Now, we all started like you, I certainly did. So GOOD luck

[Manfred M]

IF you are going to do it financially and offer a service I hope you take into account public liability and public indemnity insurance too, no one "working" as a photographer would go out without

Also Remember as soon as you earn there is HMRC taxes to inform, you may not think about it but whoever pays you WILL note it in their yearly accounts and sooner or later HMRC WILL tie their expenditure to someone.

IF you place a sign on the side of a car, Vistaprint (yuk), you are IMMEDIATELY into informing your car insurance company that it is used for business, so if you are involved in an accident even innocently, but are travelling to earn, or returning, you are driving illegally if not covered for business use.

There is more to being a "photographer in business, even pin money" than owning a camera.

Local newspapers "may" pay you, mainly free unless you are a member of the NUJ as I am. That will also mean you will eventually need a press pass to cover events from anything but the side lines, which is where going behind the scenes makes PLI and PI insurance a must.

Just some comments, to think about.

Oh and if you are being "paid", you will of course have the spare camera body, batteries, lenses etc for the occasion one packs up. Oh and don't forget camera/gear insurance too.

Now, we all started like you, I certainly did. So GOOD luck

Sage advice, especially for those living in the UK. That being said, we have the equivilents here in Canada, where Blake and I live. Similar issues, similar rules...

[nimitzbenedicto]

Interestingly I have just hired a young Australian photographer as a paid intern (full time job likely to be offered soon) in our marketing department. He had studied videography and photography at university and done quite a bit of unpaid or barely paid work being an assistant at weddings and suchlike. Plus he had some marketing skills and ideas. When we advertised this job we were inundated with applicants.

In your shoes, if I were determined to get into this very competitive field, I would write to every local business giving them your generic thoughts on how you can help them revamp the imagery in their website, brochures etc. You can target the boss and head of marketing (in any business below say 100 staff there will usually be no head of marketing). You could offer a one hour (or half day, whatever) consultation and some test shots for free, and the first half day's work at a reduced rate. I would be surprised if you did not get some bites if you can write a good letter and give some samples. A link to a good web portfolio is essential - you must have a showcase for your work and skills.

I would also contact all the local web design firms and offer your freelance services for delivering imagery for their clients. Offer to help them with their pitches as an added value service.

The insurance is easily sorted. Don't leave home without it.

Good luck

Adrian

Spot on advice

Headshots?! Well, This is the real thing.

The fotogs I know are doing the same thing.

Networking, always on the go. They're the ones who get the contracts.