10 Tips For New Photographers

I set up my own photography business just over a year ago now and there are many things I wish I'd known beforehand, that could have helped me out. So, I have decided to try and help other budding photographers to learn from my mistakes and hopefully save them a bit of money in the process.

Miss Lillies

I have finally got around to finding an outlet for my greetings cards, the poor things have been sat under my bed since my last craft stall held back in March. I was lucky to find somewhere that is not only the perfect match for my designs, but had yet to find a greetings card supplier.

That One Photo

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about social media. Well today I’m going to write about that subject again, and how all it takes is that one photo to project your business into the limelight. It happened to me after I had a spate of family bluebell wood shoots booked in, in May. I decided one evening to hang back from rushing home and have a play with my camera, all by myself in the peace and quiet of the woods.

When I got home later and put the children to bed, I started going through the days editing. I normally start by going through the images and deleting all that are no good. After a while I came across this image below of a lone bluebell, thinking there was a blemish/fly in the bottom left hand corner I enlarged it to edit out the problem and was stunned by what I found.

The Photography Show On A Budget

Last weekend I went to The Photography Show. It was a last minute decision as I only booked the ticket on Wednesday, but I had been thinking about it for a while. I was toying with the idea of going with someone, but in the end decided to go it alone. The main reason was that I had specific things I wanted to see and do, and I felt it would be easier to do this on my own.

Last year launched the first ever Photography Show, so having not been there before I wasn't really sure what to expect. I have, however, been to hairdressing shows and the Clothes Show and presumed that they would be of a similar experience.

I must admit there were quite a few differences and I guess this was mainly down to camera equipment being a lot more expensive than clothes or hair products. For instance, don’t expect any freebies. You even have to pay for the backdated editions of magazines here.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed my day and learnt a lot. I’m already looking forward to next years Photography Show, especially as I now know what to expect and can go with this in mind. So I thought it might be nice to share my experience with you, so if you decide to go to The Photography Show on a budget, you have some insight into planning your day and maybe saving yourselves a few pounds.

The Power Of Social Media

Before I set up my photography business last year, I had been writing a parenting blog for three years. This experience gave me courage to build my own website and more importantly gave me a great knowledge of social media and self-marketing. Without this background, I wouldn’t have been able to do half the things that I have managed to do.

The power of social media never ceases to amaze me and you should use it to your business's advantage, look at it as free advertising! Years ago you had to pay through the nose to advertise and were limited in what was available to small businesses. But with the dawn of technology, social media and marketing, the world is now your oyster.

Photography has the bonus of being visual, there are no words for people to have to read, they either look at your image and like it, or they don’t, it’s that simple. It is easier to get a like and a share for a photo, than it is for an article that takes time to read through. This was proved to me by the fact in 3 years my parenting blog’s Facebook page only received 743 likes, whereas my Wildgoose Photographics page has had over 2200 in less than 6 months!

How Do You Become A Professional Photographer?

There is something that bothers me about photography, something that I just can’t get my head around and that is the question “how do you become a professional photographer?” I am a hairdresser by trade, I went to college for two years and gained my City and Guilds qualification in the Hair and Beauty industry. I trained hard and passed with flying colours… I am a “professional” hairdresser, I have the certificate to prove it!...

When I first got into photography back in the 1990’s I was lucky, I fell on my feet I suppose. I got to work freelance at Silverstone race track just by getting my face seen. Turning up to numerous F1 tests, blagging my way to a meeting with the media office (luckily they thought my photos were great) which then in turn opened the door to the fab world of motorsport photography.

What Are The Main Indoor Photography Lighting Options?

I have finally given in! With a couple of indoor shoots booked in next week that require good lighting and with the weather being just so, well, dull. I decided that I couldn't rely on the usual natural light photography that I love so much and in a panic decided that I need to invest in a studio set up for my living room.

Up until now I have used the light from my big bay window to cast a natural light onto my subjects (example below.) But, with a young models "portfolio" shoot coming up next weekend, I had to make an executive decision and chose something a bit more "professional". I'm not going to lie, I had no idea which photography lighting was best, so I chose a product that I thought would meet my requirements and thankfully I chose well.