{The Ugly Beauty of Business}

Well, now that you know where I started and that I’m still learning I thought it would be nice to talk about the unseen beauty of business. Why am I calling this the “ugly beauty” because honestly it’s not that beautiful, the parts that you don’t know about if your starting your photography business OR the part of what you don’t see your photographer doing. Now, am I posting this to say we have the hardest jobs? Or that we shouldn’t do it at all? No way possible! I just want you to see what we put into our business so that you know we are doing the best we can to bring the best to you! Please note that all the following statements are simply in my own opinion and from my own experience so far! J

What do you think the first thing you should do is when starting your photography business? Buy a camera? In my opinion….. NO! Know that you love it! Know that you want to spend your time bringing beautiful images to beautiful and amazing people. Know that it’s more than just your hobby. Being a hobbyist is different than being a professional. Why? Because as a professional you’re going to want every single person that steps in front of your camera to get the best image {s} possible! And you’re going to make sure you do all that you can do give them just that.  

Don’t just want to be a photographer to make “profit” want it because you love everything involved with it. The fun of being on a shoot or in the studio, capturing every single possible image of that newborn baby who still has flaky skin and you find it beautiful, seeing the look between to love birds and having the chance to photograph it, the chance to be a part of a young woman or man on their own journey of always being in front of the camera. Because if you can’t love these all the time you’ll want to give up when it comes to view of what it takes to get all those images. Spending all day in the studio with a newborn baby simply to get only 100 good images, then another 3+ hours editing them to perfection for your clients, being outside in the cold with a family who loves to take pictures in the snow and freezing are a few examples of what I mean.

The money it takes to be a professional..to really be professional..your camera, the camera extras, the software, the gas (for on location photographers), the studio equipment for studio based photographers, times of slow- almost no business, tons of advertising, and tons of clients who want free to extremely low fees for your work. Again these are just some of the things I’ve dealt with or talked about with other photographers.

The hardest part? Trying to explain why you don’t do photos for free or why your prices are not unfair. I meet so many photographers {new and pro} that talk about clients wanting free or low, low, low cost investments. Notice I say ‘investment’ because that’s what the client is doing, investing. For example, if you’re looking to get a new car and you invest $0 in that car such as not paying for new tires, oil changes, brakes, power steering, engine, etc what’s going to happen? You’re going to get just what you paid for….nothing!!! It’s the same way with a professional photographer. If you always want super low prices from a photographer you most likely going to get low quality photos. If you’re ok with that then go for it! When a photographer quotes you prices know that they are quoting you on more than pushing a camera button and giving you images. 

They are quoting you on time away from their family, their time, sometimes travel, post processing your images {editing}, the quality they are going to delivery to you, their experience, all they have put into their work and much more! It’s important to understand that there will be times {early in your photography journey} or from time to time that you will find a photographer willing to do your family photos for free or that you’ll find yourself doing them for free. And if truly feel that’s best then maybe it is. However, I feel that until you’re ready to put a price on your work and until you’re ready to put a decent price into your images {for clients} don’t go looking or don’t try to work as a professional. That last statement is not meant to be mean, it’s meant to help you and keep you from cutting yourself short on both ends of the spectrum!

The ugly beauty is that you’re going to put A LOT of work into your business and it’s probably going to take a long time before you see any real profit! And the other ugly beauty is that you’re probably going to put a good size investment into your photographer..but rest assured you’re going to get great images in return! They will both pay off in the end no doubt about it! Just keep working until you’re ready and keep looking until your satisfied! But don’t cut yourself short!

Remember there is beauty even in the ugly!

And that’s why even the unseen ugly beauty of photographer{s} (on both sides) is beautiful…because the beauty is you will get where you need to be & what you deserve and you will the quality images you’re investing in J all without cutting yourself short!