The best ways to build photography experience
When it comes to building your photography experience, you should always know your goal. Are you starting out and just need experience? Do you have a portfolio, but are looking to fill gaps in certain areas? Or maybe you’re already established, but want to push your creative limits?
Once you know your goal, you can start taking the action towards getting the experience you need. So without further ado, here are the two best ways to build experience.
Non-paid work
If you’re completely new to photography, non-paid work is the easiest way to gain experience, because you can generate this anytime, anywhere. You're basically offering value in exchange for nothing, all your subject has to do is give you their time. It’s the best way to gain experience and build confidence because there's no real risk for you or for them.
However, experience won’t just show up, you have to go out and get it. How you do that is by tapping into your personal network, like your friends and family, or by networking with creative groups online or locally.
Either way, you have to make it personal. You can’t just post a social media blast and say, “looking for a friend or someone who wants to take some photos with me, let me know if you’re interested!” You want to approach and ask people one on one because people respond better to direct communication.
If you want to build commercial work, there are Facebook groups you can join, where you can connect with other creatives who want to build their portfolios, along with models or brands that want to develop their brand.
You can even offer to help other photographers and ask to be their assistant on a shoot. You can learn so much from watching them work!
Collaboration
A collaboration shoot is when you are getting something out of a trade – you are giving them your photography services for their services or product. It's obviously best to do collaboration shoots for commercial work, with service or product based businesses, where they're giving you something in exchange for your talent and time.
You can collaborate if you’re just starting out, but this kind of shoot is best if you already have your skills nailed down and feel good about your experience. That way, when you show up, you can just do the collaboration with your goal of creating something specific for your portfolio in mind.
Also know that doing a collaboration might be a great foot in the door for potential future paid work. That’s because most commercial clients will not spend money on a big commercial shoot with you unless they’ve worked with you first. You could also do a collaboration with a new company, and then a couple years later, that same company might hire you at your full rate when they’re more established.
Always know your worth
Whether you’re doing non-paid work to build experience, or collaborating with brands, you always want to be clear about the worth and value that you're delivering.
It shows the people you’re offering your services to that you not only take yourself and your work seriously, but that you are giving them value out of the time you’re spending together. They are receiving something of value from you, which means they will take this experience more seriously. If it’s a free shoot with a friend, they’ll be less likely to blow you off, and if it’s a collaboration, the company will know exactly how much of their services or products to trade with you for a fair agreement.
So write down your rate in your collaboration agreement, or mention the value of your time when arranging a non-paid shoot! You might be looking to expand on your experience, but that doesn’t remove the value you bring to the table. Be your own advocate, and make your value clear!
I hope these tips give you insight and confidence to pursue your goals in gaining experience!
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