All articles copyright 2007 Jeff Coleman
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Find your photography style.
Deciding what type of photography is best for you should be based on what you like to shoot the most. Unfortunately nature photography (the most popular, romanticized genre) is extremely competitive and hard to make a living doing. Your chances of becoming a nature photographer are about the same as hitting the lottery. You must invest in lenses that cost as much as a car and you must be able to go on stakeout for days at a time in remote areas. If you have the time for all of that, you're going to have to do something amazing to get noticed.
Stock Photography is another losing battle. Again competition is extremely fierce and in recent years new web sites have popped up with rock bottom prices. Some new site allow anyone to sell their images as stock regardless of the quality. The need for stock images will never go away and for a select few it is a lucrative business. They study current trends in the market and help to set them. I suggest you forget about Stock photography.
All other types of photography are fair game. You probably won't discover your calling until you have a year or two experience. You can make it in any field of photography if you are committed 100%. Never settle for anything less than perfection. Conduct yourself professionally at all times no matter how difficult a client may be. Study every image you see, incorporating the most innovative ideas into your own work. When practicing, go ahead and blatantly copy an image you love or try to recreate your favorite advertisement. The only way to develop your style is by practicing a lot. |
