How I Became A Professional Photographer
Photography is a competitive field no doubt, but what kept me going was the journey. Yes, the destination to professional photography is important but the journey is what helps you gather experience along the line. I had very limited equipments in my arsenal what I first started out so I had to work my way up to fetch better ones.
No matter what always remember to start small. Here’s how I started.
The right focus: I didn’t start out with the fanciest ones, but had a couple of cameras that worked really well. A few different types of lens like wide angle lenses, tele photo zoom lenses are some you can experiment with at first. I always tried to get to know the equipment first, how it worked, how I could tweak changes for different types of photographs and a lot of these actually came from the manual that came along with the equipment. This was just the first step to becoming a professional photographer.
Once I was aware of the basics I started learning how to use editing software as we all know we need them to make the good look great. Becoming a professional photographer was a dream come true but the journey was what made it better.
Even if you are an amateur or a little further ahead in the photography industry you need a complete portfolio. I didn’t want my career to be dependent on family and friendly gatherings so I made sure I had one to show my work. I chose a few subjects at first and took some posed shots and candid shots all for free. I hired a few models in exchange of free copies of the pictures. I kept experimenting for quite some time, focusing on different styles like wedding, landscape, portrait and others. I tried to get my first few clients to buy prints, they liked what they saw and I started getting noticed. The money wasn’t much to count on but it was a starting and this was when I realised how much I would love to be a professional photographer someday.
I tried to shadow professionals and apply for internship, with hardwork it eventually paid off as I learned how to make a business out of it while being an intern. It took quite a few long nights, self-doubts and tremendous dedication down the road and that’s how I became a professional photographer.