Marketing for Photographers

Marketing yourself as a Professional Photographer

As a recent photography graduate you needs a way to to get professional work, But as a new professional you will need to market yourself to gain work. There many ways to market yourself some are even free which is a bonus for new professionals. 

Free ways to market yourself  

• social media - in modern society being be out there on social media is one of the quickest ways and cheapest way to market yourself. Having a Facebook , Instagram or twitter can access not only your friends but the public too. When creating these types accounts you need to make sure if you have a personal page on social media that your photography page must be separate. As having them both as one would not be professional because your personal profile could have images and statuses that could be inappropriate to a potential clients. 

• LinkedIn Page,  allows you to network with industries you may be interested in, Like Facebook it is social platform to help you find opportunities for work, on LinkedIn there may be other opportunities that you have not thought about that could offer work as well. 

• If you are really passionate about your work then maybe writing a blog could give you an opportunity to get your work out their to the industry, Having a blog of your own is a different of disseminating your work as unlike a social media platform wear they could be just images and small statement  about the image with a blog you could talk about the work ,why you have created it and the process of creating the work. it could give you work but also the blog could become an income stream, if a company or even photographic company like calumet, Redeye and Jessops  like your blog they could pay you to write it.

Ways to market yourself  

• advertising is the most common of marketing yourself, having business cards and a websites that most  popular way photographers make themselves known in the photographic world. But if everyone is using these advertising methods then how you going to stand out ? you could create a business card that show cases your work, instead of just having your name and what particular field you specialise  in you create a business card that has a show case of you work in miniature that way a potential client could see a sample of your style and work instantly. It would be an investment as the initial cost would be expensive for the quality and quantity needed and  every so often you would have update your cards as your practice improves but it could be worth it if you get more jobs than the outlay. A website ca show case all of your current and previous project. But to stand out you could have a online portfolio show casing a range of your work on the home page so a client doesn't have to scroll through lots of pages to find what they want. A website created by wordpress or company which set up different companies is fine but paying for a website to be designed would give you the most professional look which should set you apart from the other professionals starting out.

• Entering competitions can be a way to get your work out not just nationally but internationally. There are thousands of photographic competition out there for different genres and styles of photography so there is a competition out there for everyone. The prizes could be anything from a voucher , equipment or monetary prize, If you win a competion this could lead to work. If you win a major internationally competition  like the international photographic award it could mean work or funding to continue your own projects.

• Creating your exhibition, sounds hard but if you can find a space even a local hall and invite industries network at the same time.Networking can allow you to speak with potential clients and talk about your work could give the clients a better understanding of you as a professional. Your exhibition work may not be what potential clients are looking for currently but for future project you could be what they are looking for. Even the space where you have your exhibition may be interested in you as well.

Freelancing

A freelance photographer is one of the most accessible routes to starting a business. You can be you're own boss and pick and choose your job opportunities and not tied down doing work you don't enjoy. However free lancing means you dont have steady flow of jobs, you could have an employer who wants you for serval jobs but then no work for months.Marketing yourself is key when free lancing as you want to have as many opportunities as possible so by using some of marketing ideas above could really help any freelance photography to gain work. However you can market yourself well have a good body of work and have good photographic skills. But if you as person don't come across well then you will not get the work you want. Even if the client is awkward and hard work you can't let that get to you as if you react word of mouth spreads. Therefore this could harm your reputation before it has started. Even though you can pick and chooser your work due to the uncertainty of work you may have to pick jobs that you dont really want to do but this could lead to other opportunities so dont discount the opportunities straight away think about them carefully.

Overheads

Below are costings for an average photo shoot, freelancer would need to consider this costings when starting out. 

Studio- £90 Calumet price for studio hire (Calphoto.co.uk, n.d.)

Model -£40  according to (UK Models,n.d. )

Makeup-£60 according to (Anon, 2009)

Travel- depends on where the photoshoot from £5- £ 100 average £20

4X lenses-approx £2000 based on a sigma 30 mm, 2 nikon 50mm and a Nikon 70-200mm portrait lens

2X flash Heads- £267 (Wexphotographic.com, n.d.)

Body x2-approx £5000 Nikon D7200  and Canon EOD 5 Mark II 

Accessories e.g camera bag , lens caps- approx £785 (Dronesforless.co.uk, 2017)

Computer-£2349.00 Macbook Pro (currys pc world price )

Assistant-£8.50  (Assistant, 2017) full day £90

insurance £ 200

20,000 loan minus these overheads = 9,099 left 

Volunteering, internships and opportunities 

After university there different ways to get work , you don't have to go straight into being a professional photographer or full time work there other options to look at to gain work experience and other job prospects in the arts.

Artist Residency 

https://www.curatorspace.com/opportunities/detail/exploring-paper--artistinresidence-at-paper-manchester/213

Exploring PAPER is a 6-week residency based at PAPER, a gallery in Central Manchester,Paper’ and ‘Place’ is the theme for the residency looking at 'paper'and and 'place'in its widest context.If chosen the artists will be given free access to PAPER and its immediate surrounds to be utilised as an experimental studio space over a 6-week period. Every Saturday during the period, from 11am to 5pm, the artist(s) will have there studio open to the public and engage with them directly within the studio space. The Residency will run commence 25 July – 5 September 

this opportunity allows you to continue to learn you craft by creating work to fit a brief. But having the public to visit every week allows the artist to engage with the public which could lead to jobs as potential clients may attend and like your work and offer you work. 

Volunteer abroad 

https://www.gooverseas.com/volunteer-abroad/arts

Go overseas offers the chance for volunteers who have a passion for the arts to travel  abroad to Africa , Asia and South America. Some communities abroad lack the resources necessary to incorporate the arts into the school curriculum, while others are home to women who may need to learn a craft that can be translated into sustainable income. Activities include teaching the arts to disabled women and promoting intercultural understanding through photography projects. 

This opportunity allows you to travel and make a difference to world, by using the arts in the community you are educating the community you are in about a new skill and what is happening in the wider world.You get all expenses paid for instead of salary.

Tate Internship 

http://www.tate.org.uk/about/working-at-tate/internships

An internship with Tate will enable you to participate in some of the most exciting gallery work nationally and internationally in a really stimulating environment. This will in turn give you a number of formal and informal learning opportunities that will assist you with your future career.They offer internships in a range of fields including curating, marketing, learning and collection care with each placement lasting between four and six months. As well you get according to the Tate "You’ll be set specific objectives associated with the projects you work on and will have regular review meetings to gauge how you are doing." (Tate.org.uk, n.d) 

The opportunity to work at the Tate to learn skills like curating and collection care can not only broaden your job prospects by learning this skills but also help you as a practionner personally. Having skills in how to curate can help you if you credit your own exhibition as you have skills to look at your work and pick the best work to make your exhibition stand out. Also internship could lead on to a permeant position if talent is spotted so even though you don't get paid you could get a job at the end of it.

What i am i going to do after university ?

Last year doing professional  frameworks  i didn't kn ow what i wanted to do i was struggling to think of any idea of what to do . But now thinking about it now as the end is almost here i think  i would really want to go in to forensic photography, i have wanted to be a forensic photographer before starting university but i am not the best at science so i didn't think i would be able to do the job. I would like to look into this opportunity again before i rule it out completely as it would be the area of photography i would like to go into. If this opportunity is not available me then maybe as i like documenting crime and evidence i could look at going into photojournalism. I wouldn't want to shoot celebrities but i could look at being photojournalist in real life stories like crimes.