If you have a passion for photography, but you are having trouble making enough money doing it to make it your primary job, it can be frustrating. With all of the competition out there, it can be difficult to get your business off the ground. There are a few things that you can try to get your business off the ground.
Mini Photo Sessions
There are many moments in a person’s life that are worthy of being photographed. Newborn photo shoots, Christmas photos, yearly school photos, sports team photos, and anniversary photos should all be taken; however, most people don’t have photos taken on every occasion because of the cost. Most people will choose just a few events to have photographed. One way to get these people to hire you for every occasion is to offer mini photo sessions. You can provide a full session for the most important events, and offer a short 30-minute session for lower fee. This will allow your clients to photograph all of their special events, and you will get some work.
Stock Photography
There is nothing worse than looking at the thousands of dollars of photography equipment that you own just sitting there because you have no clients. Rather than sitting around, you should bring in a model or a good looking friend and do a 30-minute photo shoot so that you have some photos that would be suitable for the iStockphoto collection or on other sites, such as Fotolia. While you cannot earn thousands of dollars a year based solely on your stock photos, taking these photos is more profitable than sitting around waiting for clients.
Email Your Contacts
It is a good idea to email your contacts, however, you don’t want to bother them with frequent emails. If you do a pregnancy photo shoot for a client, you should put her due date on your calendar. A week later, you can send her an email with the cost of your newborn photo shoots. You can send these emails every year, offering a birthday photo shoot. Most people won’t even think about a photo shoot because they have so much going on. If they get an email reminder, they will be more likely to schedule a session. You can do this for anniversaries after you have shot the wedding, for Christmas card photos, and for many other events. This is how many successful photography studios in Leeds got their start.
Children’s Sporting Events
Shooting children’s sporting events is a great way to bring in money. If you don’t know anyone involved with the league, you likely won’t get a contract, therefore, you need to be creative. You can offer the league $200 to allow you to take photos at the game. Most will be fine with this since they are getting paid for doing nothing. Before you head to the game to take the photos, you should set up a Smugmug website with a folder specifically for the game photos. Next, you can make up fliers which includes the URL to the folder. This will allow the parents to view the folder and purchase the prints that they like. The best part is that Smugmug will ship the prints and collect the money for you. It is the easiest way to make a great deal of money for an afternoon worth of work. In most cases, you can expect at least 20 to 30 percent of the parents to order prints.
If you want to learn a thing or two about photography or if you want to have a photo shoot, visit afpimages.com.
