Dear Sarah,
I just recently became a photographer. My goal is to focus primarily on families, as I am a mother and won't have the time to dedicate to wedding photography. Plus I love family photos since I can now understand how much a Mother loves to have these kinds of photos taken. I don't plan on becoming a huge professional photographer but I would love to use the money as a little extra spending cash on the side. My biggest problem is getting my friends to pay. When I first started I offered free sessions so I could build my portfolio, now though, I can't seem to get my friends to understand that I no longer do this for free. I'm having a hard time telling the people I love that they need to give me something in return for my work. On your blog you often talk about photographing your friends, how did you overcome the pay exchange without losing friends?
- Being Used
Hello Being Used,
Congratulations on your new photography endeavors and welcome to the crazy world of photographing =)
I think you started where most photographers start, looking to friends and family to help you get into your craft. As you said, you need a portfolio for people to book you... and the only way to get that is to offer free photos in the beginning.
The most important first step of any photographer looking to make money, at least in my opinion, is to finally draw that line in the sand and make a huge announcement about it. What do I mean by that? Let me tell you the quick story of my journey into "professionalism".
I was teetering on becoming a full time photographer for years. I would drag my butt home from another free shoot, edit photos for hours, ignore my husband until the gallery was done ...until he finally started to tell me "you're being used, people should appreciate you more for all your hard work."
My Husband has always been my biggest supporter and my biggest protector. When I finally decided to start doing what I love for a living I thought about what my Husband said and realized that I was the one to blame for being used. I never made it very clear to people that I wanted photography as a profession... I always simply talked about loving it.
You can't blame your friends for "using you" until you make the announcement that this is now your career.
I did mine like this: I sat down at my computer with my new website address ready, CCed everyone I had ever photographed and told them THANK YOU for all the support over the years. After all, up to that point they were doing just that... supporting me. I then explained my vision for the future, that I was going to be a paid photographer. I included the link to my site and asked friends and family to comment on things they saw that I could fix or things that they liked.
This made it VERY clear that I was now hoping to do this as a profession. I still periodically send out emails to groups of friends when I want to practice a new style and I make sure to start the email with FREE photo session. This is just one more reminder that I am doing this one session for FREE but that isn't the norm.
I'm not trying to beat them over the head with it, but I am gently reminding them that this is what I hope to do to pay my bills and that if you like my work and you post my photos, you should expect to pay me for them like you would pay anyone else.
MOST of my friends have been overly supportive. In fact I've had friends pay me later for a FREE session... which is highly unexpected and makes me feel overly loved.
If your friends are true they will understand... and if they are truly hard up for cash they will usually tell you about it and then it is your choice whether you do the photoshoot or not. I often let friends pay "what they feel they can" if that is the deal we worked out at the beginning.
Start by drawing that line in the sand. People aren't over stepping your boundaries until they know what your boundaries actually are. Thank your friends for their help and ask for their criticism on your new endeavor. If people feel involved they are less likely going to ignore the fact that you are taking a step down the professional road.
I just recently became a photographer. My goal is to focus primarily on families, as I am a mother and won't have the time to dedicate to wedding photography. Plus I love family photos since I can now understand how much a Mother loves to have these kinds of photos taken. I don't plan on becoming a huge professional photographer but I would love to use the money as a little extra spending cash on the side. My biggest problem is getting my friends to pay. When I first started I offered free sessions so I could build my portfolio, now though, I can't seem to get my friends to understand that I no longer do this for free. I'm having a hard time telling the people I love that they need to give me something in return for my work. On your blog you often talk about photographing your friends, how did you overcome the pay exchange without losing friends?
- Being Used
Hello Being Used,
Congratulations on your new photography endeavors and welcome to the crazy world of photographing =)
I think you started where most photographers start, looking to friends and family to help you get into your craft. As you said, you need a portfolio for people to book you... and the only way to get that is to offer free photos in the beginning.
The most important first step of any photographer looking to make money, at least in my opinion, is to finally draw that line in the sand and make a huge announcement about it. What do I mean by that? Let me tell you the quick story of my journey into "professionalism".
I was teetering on becoming a full time photographer for years. I would drag my butt home from another free shoot, edit photos for hours, ignore my husband until the gallery was done ...until he finally started to tell me "you're being used, people should appreciate you more for all your hard work."
My Husband has always been my biggest supporter and my biggest protector. When I finally decided to start doing what I love for a living I thought about what my Husband said and realized that I was the one to blame for being used. I never made it very clear to people that I wanted photography as a profession... I always simply talked about loving it.
You can't blame your friends for "using you" until you make the announcement that this is now your career.
I did mine like this: I sat down at my computer with my new website address ready, CCed everyone I had ever photographed and told them THANK YOU for all the support over the years. After all, up to that point they were doing just that... supporting me. I then explained my vision for the future, that I was going to be a paid photographer. I included the link to my site and asked friends and family to comment on things they saw that I could fix or things that they liked.
This made it VERY clear that I was now hoping to do this as a profession. I still periodically send out emails to groups of friends when I want to practice a new style and I make sure to start the email with FREE photo session. This is just one more reminder that I am doing this one session for FREE but that isn't the norm.
I'm not trying to beat them over the head with it, but I am gently reminding them that this is what I hope to do to pay my bills and that if you like my work and you post my photos, you should expect to pay me for them like you would pay anyone else.
MOST of my friends have been overly supportive. In fact I've had friends pay me later for a FREE session... which is highly unexpected and makes me feel overly loved.
If your friends are true they will understand... and if they are truly hard up for cash they will usually tell you about it and then it is your choice whether you do the photoshoot or not. I often let friends pay "what they feel they can" if that is the deal we worked out at the beginning.
Start by drawing that line in the sand. People aren't over stepping your boundaries until they know what your boundaries actually are. Thank your friends for their help and ask for their criticism on your new endeavor. If people feel involved they are less likely going to ignore the fact that you are taking a step down the professional road.
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