Starting Out

Hello Marvin, to answer your question, I am writing this post show the steps you might want to take in starting out your professional photography carrier. I’ll start off with the options and end with my experiences. However, please note that the routes I have listed are not exhaustive.

Start Point
In short, there are basically 2 ways in starting a career as a professional photographer:

1. Self taught – Most folks will start out on their own after observing weddings/events photographers doing their job. They work out the cost of entry, the fees and figure out a process to freelance (part-timing) and cover the cost of the equipment and gain experience. Some might attend some courses from a photography center to learn the basics. Online photo forums are very useful for them. Most will end up doing weddings and events and/or portraiture or product shoots as they progress. Typically, the business learning curve is lower and the monetary gains are faster over the short term. Some prominent wedding photographers have taken this road and are doing extremely well. Their fees usually take a while to climb from because they have to figure out the market by trial and error.

2. Apprentice – Others will call up photo companies or photographers and assist to gain experience, esp. after reading fashion magazines, etc. These will assist for about 1 to 2 years full time learning the art and business of photography by observing their bosses. If the assistants are good enough after an extensive stint, the photographer might introduce clients or even include them as partners, this is rare however. Assistants are usually not paid well and the hours are long, wage is mostly $900 to the $1500 range but the skills learned will bear fruit in the long term ONLY IF the photographer is the top 10% in their field of work. The disciple will also likely take up the type of work related to their experience. Most advertising photographers take this route because it’s a relatively closed industry.

Couple of points to note:
a. As you can see, each way has its plus and minus points. It will take anything from 1 year to 4 years to complete a route. And after that it will take about 1 to 2 years to get the business up and running.

b. Some local institutions like Temasek Poly and NAFA offer photography as part of their visual arts or design curriculum. For photography based courses, most will go overseas to the US to study photojournalism and commercial photography. Most will go through internship with professional photographers and newspapers for a short stint before graduation.

c. During the early business years, the photographer will likely get entrenched in a particular area of expertise both by his art/skill and business opportunities. Let me explain, assuming that the photographer is good, it’s highly likely the work will snowball in the area of competency. And if the work snowballs, it’s very difficult to get out of that sector. Why? Because it will take another period of time to retrain some part of the skillset. Also, income might be affected since clientele base might have to be changed. Lots of time will need to be spent for PR/marketing to new clients. In short, it’s like getting a heart surgeon retrained as a brain surgeon. It’s possible in theory (since they’ve gone through med school) but generally extremely difficult in practice.

My Journey
1988 – Picked up photography in junior college. Read books, magazines and anything else I could lay my hands on. Did a small project for the school.
1990 – Did my first wedding shoot and started freelancing after meeting my first sifu, an ex-press photographer from Straits Times.
1994 to 1996 – Freelanced more doing commercial and wedding work.
1997 – Went full time professional photography doing the same stuff.
1999 – Apprenticed for 6 months with another former press photographer turned commercial/advertising photographer.
2000 – Got invited by Ngiap Heng to share a studio and office in Joo Chiat Place.

Here’s what I found out,

Stuff learned in 6 months with pro photographer > stuff learned 10 years on my own

What was learnt?
I learned what clients really wanted
I learned what to say
I learned what not to say
I learned how solve problems
I learned which problems couldn’t be solved
I learned about my responsibilities
I learned about staff responsibilities
I learned production
I learned post production
I learned precision

In short, I learned the business of professional photography. To be honest, I got whipped into shape during those months, the photographer was old school and he did things the old school way. Things had to get done one way or another, there was no room for excuses. If we were sent out to get pictures, then ‘die die better get the picture’. To him, how the business was handled was as important as the art of photography. At that time, I did not agree with the way he did some things but I only began to see his logic after I left to set up my studio.

One of the things that sobered me up good was this, he said, “Wes, I scold you when you have done something wrong. But when you are on your own, your client won’t scold you when you’ve messed up. They just won’t call you again.”

That’s all I have to share.

Best
Wes