Professional Photographer - the first year (and a little before)

My experiences and adventures as a career changer and professional photographer

Hello there,

I'm Nick, 39 years old, from Munich and a professional photographer for a year now. I'll tell you how that came along and why I'm still doing this switch at the age of 38 before I draw an interim conclusion.

In 1997, at the age of 22, I graduated as a businessman. Already one year before I asked myself the question "Wait a minute, isn't it possible to be a bit more creative, am I in the right place?  So it happened that I decided against the businessman directly after my apprenticeship and started with an extra-occupational study to become an online designer. Then, in 1998, I moved to my first agency as a screen designer. My career continued, I became an art director, worked as a freelance creative director and finally managed a studio with almost 20 designers. During my career, I have advertised for many large brands such as Microsoft, BMW, Adobe, Fujitsu and Mammut. But there were also many small brands that have perhaps already been forgotten. Candy bars, coffee pads and sporting goods, I had them all. The agencies I worked for were sometimes small, but often large and international. I got older, but my colleagues got younger and younger. Finally, my tool was no longer Photoshop but Outlook, creativity suffered. I was 22 years old again and a businessman.

In search of a new hobby, I bought an EOS 60D with a zoom lens in November 2010 and started randomly photographing everything I could get my hands on, which is what beginners do. Girlfriend and work colleagues had to model for me (not always with pleasure). But no matter, I soaked up every bit of information and experience like a sponge. At first I felt called to shoot portraits and stagings with people, until I realized at some point that it is not quite as easy as I thought. I was not able to transfer the professional claim I was used to from my work in advertising to my motif. On the one hand, because I lacked the necessary empathy for the guidance of the model, but I was also strongly dependent on factors such as styling and visas. At some point I realized that I could achieve good-very good-results if I transferred the formal and very graphic approach I was used to from my work as an art director to photography. I started photographing mainly architecture. Here the source of error was easy for me to isolate. Myself.

In the next 3 years a hobby has become the urgent desire to change and thus to photography. Following a way to the end of my life but above all a job that I want to pursue full-time. The white cupboard next to my workplace shows quite clearly that this desire has its justification. Up to this point, I already had almost 40 publications in print media, some of them several pages long. Apart from that, the Hessische Rundfunk made a report about my work and I could be heard with a nearly 10-minute interview on the Deutschlandwelle. Awards and exhibitions, I was there.

The weekly workload at my then employer I was able to reduce at the end of 2012 from 40 to 32 hours, without my photographic workload would not have been feasible and yet there was almost no evening on which I would have turned off the computer before 11 pm, no Saturday and no Sunday on which I would not have had something to do with photography.

In August 2013 and resulting from it as a start date December then the decision to want to make myself independent as a photographer. Will I find a place in the highly competitive market? Will someone buy my pictures? Can I work commercially. I give myself 2 years to answer these questions. Start.

One year later, I can already say a little more about my not-so-new life plan:

Health

Working a lot is important in phases, but finding a balance is at least as important. I'm paying the price for the double shifts of the last 3 years with a slipped disc. So I want to listen better to the signals of my body in the future.

How often do I take pictures?

Professional photography and selling images does not necessarily mean having the camera in your hand every day. In fact, most of the time you're sitting in front of the camera, writing emails, making phone calls, retouching images or brainstorming for new projects. The actual photography is maybe 20-30%. With photographers who have as a business model purely commissioned work, for example, in the area of portraits may be different, it must even be, otherwise it would be impossible to come to the appropriate income to finance their own studio, equipment, etc.. I earn my money very often by writing emails, answering requests for photo, lifestyle or architecture magazines, collectors and the like.

Gallery owners are not your friends 

Just like you, they want to make money. Don't necessarily believe everything a nice gentleman or lady tells you on the phone or in an email. Of course it's flattering when someone tells you "I've never seen such great work, it's really something special, that's exactly what we were looking for". But you have to be clear, a scout who explores the market does not only ask one artist, but relatively many. Question critically, learn to read between the lines. Get written assurances about release dates (!), special events, etc. Read contracts carefully and ask someone for help if you don't understand something.

Having an advertising background helps

Through my work in and for various agencies, I know relatively well what expectations an art buyer or art director has of an image. During a production, I put myself in the position of the art director and imagine how the finished advertising material should look, where the typography should run, where a logo should be placed and where a potential distractor should be found. I also imagine I know what makes my clients tick (most of the time!).

In the past I have learned to prepare presentations for projects or for self-presentation, to build mood boards and to work with scribbles, which makes it much easier for me at one point or another.

I am used to a professional environment and working with visuals and I demand the same from my photography. If I can not do something 100%, then I let it be or bite me so long into the matter until I can do it.

Speed matters

I'm relatively sure: I have the majority of my publications because I simply answer requests directly and don't leave anything lying around. Editors always have a backup (at least that's how I see it), they themselves have deadlines and a certain time pressure. First come, first served .... Unfortunately, this is often associated with a certain amount of stress, especially when someone from abroad writes to you at 11:30 at night just before you actually want to crash or you have to cancel an appointment because you want to answer this request. Most of the requests I receive are in English, which requires a certain amount of transfer and more time than would have been necessary in German. Linguistically I am not quite as confident as I would like to be. Thanks dict.

Social media

Which platform is the right one? Where do I network best? To get to the point: What brings me the most.It all started with me with Flickr. Always on the hunt for little stars and mini-awards that you get after submitting a picture via the comment function. Relevant contacts: 0. picture sales: 0. but a lot of cat pictures and pictures of reflections in the water (sometimes from a bridge or something).1x.com had a certain attraction for me, also because it was a first benchmark (where do I actually stand?). I really wanted to get the curators to choose pictures of mine for the galleries, which I did with about a dozen pictures. In the end, however, one moves here in a network together with many colleagues but without potential interested parties in one's own pictures. I lost the interest.
I was at Fotoblur, in the FC and have also tried one or the other portal with exotic names, just to be "there". In the meantime, I've asked myself the question and deleted most of my accounts. What remains is Behance, Adobe's network for creatives. The list of my followers is a colorful mix of creatives, art buyers, editors and other interested parties. Most of my work was featured by Behance editors on the internal network, which was clearly reflected in the number of hits and the list of subsequent publications. If you have image material for a series presentation, which has a differentiating factor, I can only recommend to test Behance once, but you have to be patient, a feature does not come directly on the first day.