Disclaimers:
Here's wishing you and I all the best in our endeavours to pursue passion.
Cheers!
- I haven't yet made it as a photographer. I would however in the same breath say that I've done some things right.
- I am definitely not the best person for this.
So, someone on Facebook - who added me after dropping by my website, was asking me for suggestions and advice etc. He went on to suggest I write something like what I hope this post looks like - as something people just starting out can look at for pointers.
So here are my two pence on the things one should / should not do.
Test Waters
Before deciding to get yourself that uber cool SLR, and damaging your pockets deeply in the process, it would be more than advisable to test waters. What I mean by this is doing photography with whatever tools and devices you have at hand - borrowing a friends SLR occasionally if possible. See how much you like to click, and equally importantly, see what people think of what you click. There will be both bricks and bouquets, but try and judge the feedback with an unbiased stance.
Once you've done this for a while - you'll have a better idea of whether you really want to do this, and whether you can. Each as important as the other.
The SLR & Starting Gear
So now, you feel a tad more confident and willing to do what needs be done to try and take your photography to the next level.
An SLR is the obvious next step. Here I'll just say that get yourself something a little higher end than you're comfortable with.
Why - Essentially, because a camera body is an investment thats going to stick around with you for decently long. You may get an array of lenses, but you getting a new camera body is a little less likely. It will mean you have to dish out extra money - in the long run, it'll turn out to be worth it.
Coming to the most FAQ as far as SLR choices go - Canon / Nikon.
Though I'm myself a Canon person, I think the best way to decide is to decide on a camera by each - and then go the stores and play around with it feel it.
Obviously internet research, blogs, comparisons, flickr camera popularity details should all be taken into account, but nothing as much as your comfort with the camera.
Also, starting out - getting more gear (lenses, tripod, a hi-fi camera bag) may not be the best idea. Take some time getting comfortable, seeing what sort of pictures you like to click, and then choose lenses etc appropriate for that genre.
Photo-blog
In my opinion, it makes most sense to buy a domain name, online space and set up your own website. Pixelpost is one of the best services to enable photo hosting on your domain name with some brilliant free of cost templates and a very convenient organised portal for uploading pictures.
Also, set up a google analytics account for your website. It helps in tracking traffic on the website in as much detail as you might need. A brilliant source on telling you how effective the methods you might use to spread work are.
Spreading your Work
There are a few good ways of doing this. A LOT of them being internet based of course.
- Photo Sharing Sites FotoStock, Flickr (not the best example), photoblog-community.com, photoblogs.org, and the millions of such websites out there on the internet range from near redundant to fantastic. The point is, even the worst one does you no hard. So sit yourself down, find them, create a decent profile, share your website. It DOES get you hits. Not too many, but importantly, ones you would otherwise NOT have access to. And it might get you a lot of random useless hits as well, no harm ever came of that though. Did it?
- Other online stuff Some of the other things you can do - GTalk statuses, Google buzz and the likes. Use them to spread your links. Ask good friends to share as well etc etc.
Now some non internet based stuff I have done, and found to work.
- Exhibition So it does sound a very daunting and expensive idea. But if you're in college - you can manage to get a hall at nominal rates or free even for a few days. A few prints done on a lightweight material (I'll explain why) wont cost the world, and will help convince others, and importantly yourself of your seriousness about this. A teeny article/ad in the local newspaper can help get interested locals to the event as well. Why I said lightweight is that you can keep this set of prints for other exhibitions you might be able to hold in other places. There are free galleries here and there and some googling will go a long way in helping you find these. When you make prints for someone - make them on a harder sturdier backing.
- Word of Mouth Another good way to get attention and possible sales is to first know the possible means of sales for you. Prints for decor or otherwise, someone giving you a project, calendar designing etc etc. Tell your friends, colleagues etc etc of these things in casual conversation so that they do think of you when they need it or when speaking to someone else about something like say getting a personalised calendar made. Shall help.
- Miscellaneous A few other things. If you do have a regular job (like I do) you could explore getting some pictures put up at work.
Here's wishing you and I all the best in our endeavours to pursue passion.
Cheers!