How to Start a Photography Business: PART III - Building Your Photography Portfolio and Networking

Hopefully, you have already read Part I (Setting Up Your Business) and Part II (Contracts & Getting PAID) of this series. Now it's time to talk about building your photography portfolio, creating a website, and networking to help you land gigs!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Website and Building your photography portfolio
2. Time for print (TFP), or trade work
3. Networking
4. Getting hired as a photographer means going out there and asking to be hired
5. Get involved in your local photography industry and SUPPORT EACH OTHER
6. Niche down but do all the work

Website & Building your photography portfolio

I’ve had my website for as long as I've had my business, if not longer. In a way, it made my business feel real, but mostly, it is a place to showcase your work, services, and give clients a feel for your brand and what you do. And no, an Instagram account is not a proper way to show your clients the work you do, sorry.

My website changed a lot throughout the years, and for the most part, I built it myself. I don’t have much knowledge of coding or anything like that, so Squarespace was great to create a visually pleasing site, but as my work changed, I found that I needed to make a lot of changes to my site and often couldn’t get it to look the way I wanted to. Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace are your most common places for websites, and you don’t need anything fancy or complicated. Just a place to curate and showcase your work, and a contact form or email.

The portfolio piece is what I find the toughest thing to do. In the beginning, I didn't have enough work, so my portfolio looked like a mishmash of random photos. When building your photography portfolio it will often look like this: events, portraits, bands, headshots… With the years I got to the point that I had so much work, I had way too many categories.

At some point, about five years ago, I split my business into two: one with my name, focusing on portrait and fashion photography, and the other with a studio name, covering corporate events and weddings. I was getting most of my work in the city in events and weddings, so I needed a portfolio to show potential clients, but I wanted my name to be attached to the fashion and commercial work I did, so I just separated the identities.

It actually worked really well for me, and eventually, I dropped the event studio as I don’t do that kind of work anymore, and if someone wants to hire me for it, they don’t need a portfolio, as they know me personally or like me for my commercial work.

I recently relaunched my photography website, but this time I am doing what I call a change from quantity to quality. My last website had a lot of photos.. like a lot. My photo section had 30 albums, each containing 10-20 images from each shoot, and my travel gallery had over 30 destinations, each with 30-40 images each… I am guilty of not being able to narrow down and curate. I find my work is very story-telling and often a body of work has to have a few photos together. But I decided that I wanted to curate a portfolio focusing on quality - the best of the best of my work. This might be the hardest thing I've done, seriously. You can check out my new photography website here :)

But the basics of building your photography portfolio and subsequently your website is the following: create and show the kind of work you want to be known for, and hired to do.

This doesn't mean you stop taking gigs that pay. When you are starting out in fact, I recommend you shoot every single job that comes your way, no matter the type or pay, just shoot non-stop. But when it comes to building a photography portfolio, you need to get selective and only show your best work and the work you want to be known for.

You can still have private galleries if clients ask for examples of work, or like me, if your bread and butter is event photography but you are really building a different type of portfolio, have a separate web, or a hidden gallery. It’s a bit of a catch 22. How are you gonna get hired to do the kind of work you like, if you don’t have any of that work to show? That's where creative shoots and TFPs come into play.

Time for print (TFP), or trade work

I am the first one to say do not work for free and value yourself. But before you gain enough experience, portfolio, and reputation, doing collaborations is the best way to get to the next level. When you are doing TFP (time for print) or trade work, you need to make sure that you are getting value out of it. There is no point in doing “free” work if it doesn't serve you any purpose. With the years I got more and more selective with the kind of collaboration work I do. Right now, I don’t do almost any, as my portfolio is exactly where I want it to be, and my networking and experience in the industry doesn't require me to do it. But when I first started out I used to do “free work” all the time. Community events, friends' birthdays, family births and weddings, creative shoots with new models, and even fashion shoots with local brands. When I was trying to build my fashion portfolio, while mostly making my money in event and corporate photography, I would get a team together and produce a shoot to create the kind of images I wanted to have.

You can easily pull ideas and inspo online, create a mood board and enlist your friends or colleagues to produce the shoot. Reach out to your local model agency and see if they have any new faces that need time in front of the camera, and practice. Ask around for local makeup artists or hairstylists who also want to build their portfolio, and talk to local boutiques that would give you clothes to use in exchange for some images… the arrangements and options are endless! 

Doing TFP is not only a great thing to do when building your photography portfolio, it is also a great way to network, establish relationships, and get to know your local industry, the big players, and how things work. In the past, I had creative shoots turn into solid clients and even regular recommendations for other paid gigs.

Networking

Networking is a fancy word for becoming part of your community. It isn't only functional for getting jobs and clients, it is also important to get to know your peers and other people that work in your industry.

Depending on where you live, there might be photography associations, Facebook groups, or even monthly meetups. Also depending on what industry you work with, you might find there are organized events for all vendors in that field (like wedding shows!). Getting to know the people you work with, and helping each other out is an organic way to grow your reach, widen your connections, and slowly plant the seeds for getting your name out there and the goal - getting hired as a photographer.

It happens quietly and slowly, but one day you realize that a photographer you know recommended you for a shoot he/she couldn’t attend, or smoother shooter hired you to assist. You might find that a wedding planner loved getting you and all of a sudden she is recommending you to her clients, or your friend, who is a graphic designer, recommends you for their agency’s new client to take over the shoot. All of these have happened to me and more.

In ten years in business ive never spent money on advertising. All my work came from referrals and recommendations. On top of this, knowing your peers means having people you can count on for backups, equipment, and advice. Other photographers are a great source of information for all things business, including your pricing, and how to deal with tricky clients.

I am not trying to turn you into a business machine, I don’t want you to be a salesperson, but I encourage you to think about every interaction you have, as a potential future client. One time, a friend of my dad's put me in touch with a woman he knew who ran an ad agency. I volunteered to help on set, taking notes, and helping out around with random things. Years later, her photographer got sick, and she needed someone last minute to sub in. I got hired for a commercial shoot, and since then, they hired me for a lot of other assignments. You just never know…

Getting hired as a photographer means going out there and asking to be hired

No one is gonna come looking for you, yet…

Harsh but true. Until people start knowing your name, and your work speaks for itself, no one knows you exist. You might be the best photographer ever, but if you are not out there looking for jobs, the jobs aren't going to magically come to you.

I get asked a lot how to land clients, or how to start a photography career because let's be honest, you are not a working photographer if you are not getting hired and working…. The answer is simple. Look for work, and look for it everywhere. Don’t be ashamed to ask for a chance, and don’t be afraid to reach out.

If you want to become a wedding photographer, research your local photographers and email them asking to help them out during their wedding season. Or, if you know anyone getting married, ask them to be their photographer. If you are too scared of the responsibility, ask your friends getting married to get permission from their hired photographer to shoot. Tell them you are doing it for free and to practice, and that you’ll stay out of the way. Reach out to every single person you know, and ask them where they work, and if their work event needs photos, of any kind, for anything.

At the beginning of my career, I did a lot of work for local community organizations. I asked what their budget was and worked within their limitations. After a year of working with them, all the families started to know me and recognize me, and eventually, they started hiring me for their family events, and later on for their corporate and business needs as well.

During my second or third year of freelancing, and after working for a fashion brand for a year, I noticed a local fashion company was shooting with a photographer I knew, and to be honest, didn't like their work… So one day I emailed the owner, who I had met in passing, asking them to give me a chance to show them what I can do for them. I turned them into my client, having that relationship turn into a few shoots a year.

Getting hired as a photographer means getting out of your comfort zone and ASKING PEOPLE TO HIRE YOU. Your friend needs a headshot? Your friend had a baby? Ask to do the session… you get the gist. Offer a really good rate, and a refund guarantee if the photos turn out awful… make it so they have nothing to lose, and you have little pressure to perform.

Get involved in your local photography industry and SUPPORT EACH OTHER

This is something I still struggle with, especially now with social media and the abundance of online exposure to others… Feeling there is so much competition can drain you and scare you... But hear me out. You need to approach your business from an abundance mindset. This means that you have to know there is enough work out there for everyone, and your peers aren't your competition, as no one is you and no one can do what you do.

When you feel competitive or that someone else is getting the jobs you want, you are approaching your work from a lack mentality. Usually, this comes from insecurities within, and it is hard work to overcome them, trust me, I know. But I encourage you to get to know your fellow photographers, appreciate their talents and diverse skills, and even learn from each other.

Being part of a community is so rewarding and so important, and it is beneficial in so many ways. I am not going to claim to know, like, or be friends with every photographer in my local area, but I have a solid group of people that I trust, admire, and love to share this crazy world that being a freelancer is. I have learned so much from photographer friends, and I've also been able to teach them my skills and strengths. I have photographer friends all around the world now, and my career and skills wouldn’t be where they are if it wasn’t for the bonds and trust we build. Being a freelancer is lonely as hell, having people that know your struggle can ease the way. 

Personal advice: Niche down but do all the work

As a last note I wanted to address something that comes up often. There is this idea that to be a good photographer, to gather experience, and to have a solid portfolio and clientele you have to niche down. You have to pick your area of expertise and focus all your time an energy on that.

Although this is in part true, it's hard to find a photographer who is equally good at portraits, products, and events, you have to know that no one really starts in a niche, not on purpose at least. As I said before many times, you want to do all the work you can in order to gain experience and polish your skills.

I have learned a lot about posing people for portraits, through my event work and having to shoot people that weren’t used to be in form of the camera.

I became a better studio photographer by understanding and working with natural light.

Every shoot that I've done helped me get better. But once you find the type of work that you love, then you want to focus on that. Niching down doesn't mean only doing that kind of work, but paying extra attention to growing that field, and showcasing it to potential clients.

I once reached out to a travel photographer I admired. He had his images printed on Nat Geo magazines and galleries around the world. His work reflected the kind of travel and photojournalism photography I was super interested in at the time. Once we got talking I realized my career wasn’t so different than his. How you make your money and what you shoot, doesn't necessarily need to always correlate. He made most of his income through teaching courses, selling stock photography, and shooting some events here and there. The photojournalism work didn't pay much, if at all, but it was what he loved to do. I realized that just like me, he was making his money through photography, but creating the work that he loved whenever he could, even if it didn't pay the bills.

As a traveler, I always found that my favourite photos were shot on the road, but I had a hard time feeling like I was a travel photographer, since most of my work was local. Now, years later, I can confirm that what I was doing was the beginning steps to niche down my career and work to what I love to do.

What I am trying to say is be patient.

Do whatever work to pay your bills, and never stop focusing on creating and showing the work you love and wanna get hired for. It's a soft version of “fake it til you make it”. Your career goals will constantly change, and your achievements will too. Being a photographer is a forever changing and ongoing journey. It is challenging, scary, beautiful, and rewarding… I hope my experience and advice will help you decide to get into this crazy life.