y
g
CHAPTER
1
Define Your Niche SOMEWHERE ALONG LIFE ’S
path, somebody put a camera in
your hand and you discovered that you love taking pictures. You may have been a child playing with an inexpensive point-and-shoot. Maybe you got caught up in the excitement of digital photography just a few years ago, capturing great moments on vacations. Whenever you got hooked, if you’re reading this book, you’re thinking about developing a business around selling your photographs. If you can sell someone a photo, you have communicated with that person. You have created a story that is compelling enough to cause others to feel, think, or react—you’ve established a dialogue. You have communicated so successfully that someone is willing to give up money for your image. In short, you have broken into the world of professional photography.
PHOTOS BY (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP CENTER): TAMARA LACKEY; BAMBI CANTRELL; SCOTT BOURNE; CHASE JARVIS; VINCENT LAFORET; TAMARA LACKEY
Find Your Passion Where’s the best place to start? Let’s first figure out your niche. If you’re going to sell photographs and do something beyond leasing a booth once a year at the local craft fair, you’ve got to define the various specialties and where your passion for creating images and starting a new business best fits. Simply put, you have to define your niche.
Professional photography is divided into
children, family, high school seniors, boudoir,
different specialties. For the purposes of
business, and pets. Every subject has its own
this book, they are: commercial, wedding,
marketing vehicles, unique demographics,
portraiture, nature/wildlife, photojournalism,
and in many cases might require different
fine art, and everything else. The “everything
equipment—a variation of focal lengths in
else” category includes scientific, medical,
lenses, for example (a portrait of a baby will
architectural, and forensic imagery, just to
require a different focal length lens than
name a few.
a scenic landscape will). You will require
Each category is further defined with a series of subgroups. For example, within the
different gear for on-location portraiture than you will for studio work.
portrait category the subjects include babies,
Sometimes the most powerful images are those that comprise elements that our eyes take for granted. LEFT: PHOTO BY EDDIE TAPP RIGHT: PHOTO BY CHASE JARVIS
14 G O I N G PRO
Your Personality Skill Set and Your Niche The old expression “to thine own self be true” could not be more important than when you’re working to define your niche. The big question arises: Does your personality match the niche in which you want to specialize?
Wedding photographers, for example, need to be sensitive, be understanding of the human spirit, and have excellent
you’re doing at any time and picking up your camera. Deciding on the niche that best suits
communication skills. They seem to rally
your personality, passion, and skill set is
with the stress of helping their clients
the first step. From there it’s a short jump
meet the challenges of the wedding day.
to marketing, building your brand, and
Remember, they have these qualities in
blogging and using other social media tools
addition to their unmatched knowledge of
to create awareness for the purposes of
photography.
building your business.
On the other hand, a photographer specializing in nature/wildlife photography is comfortable being alone and often will be described as having incredible patience, willing to sit in the duck blind for hours to capture that one unique image. Whatever the niche you’re about to choose, consider your personality. Think about what you enjoy photographing the most. If you like peace, solitude, and control then you’re more likely to do well in commercial or nature/wildlife than you will as a wedding or portrait photographer. If you like the freedom to simply create and work by yourself, then fine art might be a stronger choice. If you’re going to work to become one of the world’s leading photojournalists, then you have to be comfortable being “on call,” just like a doctor. You have to love spontaneity to the point of being ready to drop whatever
Portraiture Portraiture, along with fine art, is probably the broadest of all the categories, and encompasses two broad subcategories: studio work and location shooting.
As the name implies, studio portraiture
by incorporating the environment, you can
requires a studio, backdrops, studio lights,
add more “personality” to the image and tell
often some props, and an understanding of
a story. This style is especially popular
lighting and posing techniques. This is typically
for photographing children, who reveal more
a more formal style of portraiture. Location
of their personalities as they interact with
portraiture allows you to photograph your
their toys, pets, and siblings. It’s no different
subjects in their environment. You have less
with adults.
control over various aspects of the image, but
Depth of field plays a strong role in portraiture. PHOTO BY MICHAEL CORSENTINO
20 G O I N G PRO
Portraiture Specialties Within the category of portraiture are many subspecialties, from children to business executives to family pets. With such a wide range of subject matter, it’s little wonder that portraiture is one of the most lucrative niches of photography. In fact, capturing images of brides, babies, and pets are the three most popular reasons people hire a professional photographer. Let’s take a quick look at the many subcategories.
¤ CH I LDREN’S PHOTOGRAPHY includes babies. ¤ U N DERCLASS PHOTOGRAPHY refers to your basic class photos of kids in school who are not seniors. This requires high-volume shooting, literally one portrait after another, usually under contract with a school system. ¤ S E NI OR PHOTOGRAPHY may well be the fastest-growing specialty within professional portraiture and often the most fun. Senior shoots are often photography events that resemble fashion shoots, with props and several clothing changes. ¤ FAMILY PORTRAITURE today tends to be casual, revealing more personality. ¤ B R I DAL PORT RAI T U RE is not usually considered to be a separate specialty in the United States (as it is overseas), but virtually every wedding will require at least one traditional portrait of the bride by herself and one of the bride and groom together. ¤ B U S I NESS PORT RAI T U RE still often implies a traditional headshot, but there’s been a long-standing trend to bring the vocation of the subject into the image. ¤ E N VI RONM ENTAL BU SI NESS PORT RAI T U RE involves photographing subjects with a wider-angle lens and bringing their place of work or a vocation-related component into the background. ¤ PE T PHOTOGRAPHY is popular and lucrative. People love their pets and consider them to be members of the family, but there aren’t many photographers who specialize in pet portraiture.
On-location children’s photography has become big business, but there’s still nothing like a high-key portrait such as the one at bottom left. 24 G O I N G PRO
Commercial Look at the images in Graphis, Adweek, and Communication Arts. If this is the kind of work you want to do and think you can do, commercial photography may be for you. With success in commercial photography, you’ll have the satisfaction of seeing your work on national television and in major magazine ads.
You can also reap considerable financial
Nick Vedros, often taking his inspiration from the cartoonist Gary Larson, brings humor into many of his images. PHOTO BY NICK VEDROS
32
marketing and communication professionals
rewards, since commercial clients usually have
helps (we’ll show you more ideas in chapter 4 ).
big photography budgets. A few good jobs can
Pricing and bidding are probably more
make your year. The rewards of commercial
important in commercial photography than in
photography don’t necessarily come easily.
just about any other photographic discipline.
This work is usually assigned by large
You’ll need to be able to explain to clients why
advertising agencies, and to get it you have
the job costs what it does, and what you’re
to have a spectacular portfolio, as well as a
going to do with their money to justify their
distinct style and usually a specialty. Emerging
investment in you. Success in commercial
commercial shooters need to focus on getting
photography will probably come slower than it
their books seen. Competing in national
might in wedding photography, but if it’s your
contests, showing up on the appropriate
passion, you can get there.
forums, and doing lots of networking among
Nature / Wildlife Just think: Who wouldn’t want to get paid to go to national parks and lovely stretches of wilderness to take photographs? While the call of the wild is strong, the prospect of making a living as a nature and wildlife photographer is not. This is a highly competitive category, and for every nature photographer who succeeds, a thousand others do not.
Many amateurs like to dabble in nature
To stand out in this crowded field
photography, and this makes it even harder to
you need to devote most of your time to
succeed. Nature photography is also probably
marketing, not to making photographs. Sales
the lowest paying of all the photographic
outlets include publishers of books, calendars,
specialties, because there is so much compe-
and postcards, producers of fine art nature/
tition. If someone has a picture of Old Faithful
wildlife prints, and stock and advertising
and is willing to license it for less than you
agencies.
are, you’ll have a hard time convincing the
Concentrating on a niche is one way to
buyer that your shot is better than his, or than
make money in these markets, and innovators
the million other photos of Old Faithful out
who find new ways to “productize” their
there. Don’t be discouraged, however. Nature
work will find the most success. Scott Bourne
and wildlife photography will always be in
created a successful stock agency selling his
demand. If you want to get paid in sunshine
photographs of birds. For buyers who needed
and are willing to specialize and market
only bird images, this single source was much
yourself, you can be happy in this category.
easier to use than stock agencies offering photographs of thousands of subjects. Nature photography also provides rare opportunities to “speak for the animals.” Wildlife photographers enter the world of photojournalism as they document the plight of so many incredible animals whose natural habitats are being destroyed daily.
I see wildlife photography as a responsibility and every image as an opportunity to speak for the animals. PHOTOS BY SCOTT BOURNE
40 G O I N G PRO
