Hope Hawley
As a college student I know it can be hard to work and go to school full-time. Let me tell you about an option that you can do on your own time that works around your school schedule 100%. This option will also help you by building your skill level and introduce you to something that for most becomes more than just a hobby. Now how do I know all of this you may ask? Well, I’ve been doing it for a long time — about 6 years now.
Now you may be wondering what this working option is, the answer to that is photography. I recently lost my job and I started doing my own photography again and it has been amazing. I have been able to focus on school and still bring home the bacon. Photography is always in high demand because there will always be holidays, birthdays, and events — and people who want their pictures taken. Now if you’ve never done photography, don’t jump the gun — let me give you a few pointers to help you get started.
The first thing you need and really the only thing that will cost a little money is a camera. There are numerous brands of cameras, but I prefer Canon. The T3i and T5i are two of the best cameras in my opinion. Yes, these are expensive, but there are ways around paying full price, plus you can make the money you spend right back once you start taking pictures. My best advice is to go to your local pawn shops and look, because chances are they have some for sale cheap or negotiable. Before you jump straight into taking pictures I advise you to take a few tutorials about your camera and get to know it, and really become familiar with all of the buttons and features.
The next most important thing is backgrounds or locations. Some people do the whole paper backdrop thing but I think it’s a 1,000 % better if you take pictures outside with natural backgrounds. So what I suggest is picking a day that’s nice outside and just driving around your town and finding places that you think serve as good scenery and backgrounds. You could even take your camera and take pictures of them to see your lighting with the different times of day and locations.
Finally, you really just need to get your work out there. I would offer a few free sessions and then advertise, advertise, advertise. A good way to do this is social media. When you post some of your work on Facebook you get your name out there and more people will start booking you. Now you do have to come up with a price scale. There are many ways to set your price points so I’ll leave that to you.
Photography is something that will always be around whether it be used digitally or through print. This is something that you can do and you are your own boss, you set your schedule, and you determine your pay. It takes some time to get good at it if you want it to be your life long career but it’s worth it.