How'd you get started?

[pawparazzi]

I was doing it as a hobbie while helping out husband with his business. It has being really slow going for me because I have a servere learning disability. I had a private tutor help me but it got really expencive. Its taken a long time but I now can sell them to people but still have heaps to learn and what I think is great, others think is average. You can do gradually in your free time to start with.

[andrewwebster]

Some good advice here. go and get some qualifications and then approach people for some experience. which institutions do people recommend?

[NatB]

I too would like to know how to bridge that gap from quitting my job to taking on full time photography. I'd love to get into wedding photography but it's so hard as there are so many out there. It's got to the point where I think I might just do a formal course and see if that helps get experience.

[Redgum]

Whatever your chosen (dream) profession there will always be thousands of others wanting to take that direction. Only about 5% of us do the work we really love and succeed. The "profession" has little to do with it, it's all the other elements. Like Rick often says you need the basics of business under your belt but you also need qualities that let you deal with people, networking, sales, public relations, in huge quantities. And you will never start a business without at least a small pot of gold ($50k is a good start) and it needs to be unencumbered.
After all these things are in place you can look at the technical side, qualifications and if you have your head screwed on properly you will only buy the absolute basic supply of equipment and lease the rest in case you go bottoms up or simply don't like what you see on the other side of the fence. A great majority of people often realise their chosen profession is not what they really want when they get there.
Get rid of all the hype out of your brain, it is after all work, and if you are serious your life will depend on it (to eat anyway). When you do make it you'll know it - it's fun.

[LVL]

What a great thread. Thanks for asking the question Danny. That question is pretty much how I kicked my photography off again mid last year after a long break where I was working full time and also studying part time with the aim of "when I finish uni, I will buy a DSLR and take it up again".

After graduating uni I did actually buy a camera and having gone to a few live music events, watched photographers at work and wondering how, I actually just approached one and asked the question. How did they get started and were they a pro. An hour or so later - I had all sorts of useful advice and an invite to attend some upcoming gigs with the photographer in question.

Six months later I have been to a about 8 gigs of a variety of different bands, including Grinspoon, Shihad and a friend's brother who is just starting out. I have also photographed a charity event for a friend as well as some photo outings with that original photographer who has become a really good friend, and I am having an absolute ball.

I haven't made any money as yet but have started the process of setting up a photography business (i.e. register name, obtain ABN, register domain name for a future website). I am still maintaining my full time job which is totally unrelated to photography (I work in the legal industry) and am really enjoying both the contrast between the two industries and the freedom that having an unrelated full time job gives me to pursue my photographic whims. I think not being dependent on earning income initially really takes that pressure off to allow me to concentrate on improving my skills and at the same time gradually getting my work out there through friends, family, facebook, flickr and forum such as Australian Photography. I may never be a full time professional photographer but I think that is okay too as long as the balance works for me and I can provide quality work within a reasonable timeframe. I am also sure that it will come in handy being able to read and draft my own contracts.

Redgum - I have to say that I have always been envious of National Geographic photographers and the amazing experiences you must have had. Do you get to propose assignments or are you given strict parameters in which you need to work to get the shot?

[Redgum]

LVL, the key to working with major organisations, publishers etc., is not (in this case) photography. You need to be a storyteller, a writer, a creator if you like. Assignments are contractual and offers are made by the publication for specific stories and these are usually themed. It can work one of two ways, taking photographs for a particular story or taking a photojournalistic approach. The risk is high, you meet the costs and trust the work is good enough to be published. If not, you don't get paid. A lot of skills needed other than photography. I'm lucky in the sense that my work often comes through filmmaking (documentary production) and the combination of both professions helps me contain costs particularly if you're in a foreign country for six or eight weeks at a time. This also gives me other outlets like "Discovery" and a spin off to local media. But you're right, the experience, the opportunity to see and do what others (photographers) can only imagine is really special.

[LVL]

Thanks Redgum. It is certainly a lot different to the glamorous ideal I thought it would be (I guess similar to the image of a tv travel presenter). I presume those one off experiences and amazing images for your own personal collection would be some compensation if you were not successful in getting published.
I hope you don't mind my asking, but have you had yourself, or just heard of, many occasions where photographers didn't have work published? Or is it a fairly rare occurence, though the risk is always there? I guess one way of looking at it is extra incentive to go on a holiday you may not have otherwise considered. Do you have any recent Nat Geo work I could look up?

[Redgum]

My wife thinks my whole life is a holiday and if I take her somewhere, that's work. It's a complex industry, photography can be very lonely (like a pro tennis player) and filmmaking is the opposite (like a cricket team). I've had five photographic gigs (NG) since 1984, all with six digit outcomes plus, so it makes it worthwhile. When you consider that all those were done in conjunction with docos with budgets up to thirty fold, there is a good living to be made. And I got my first gig quite by accident when I was shooting a doco in central Australia called "CentrePoint". The assigned NG shooter didn't turn up for the expedition so I did both. High end magazine work is pretty much a closed shop and you don't get invites. You need to look. We, at least I have never got to keep any published work, that's part of the deal but there is some pre-shoot and seconds on our website http://www.redgumtv.com.au
Have a look through the video and photo montage to get an idea of where we go. Does anyone not get paid? Sure, but usually you're looking for just half a dozen specific frames and you stay put until you get them. I was part of the "water" story in Israel and needed to sit around for over twelve weeks waiting for opportunity. That's where journalism and filmmaking comes in handy. Something productive to do.

[LVL]

Thanks Redgum.

I will have a look at your site. Sounds like you have got it all sorted though with your expertise in the different mediums. It would certainly make your workload more efficient than most photographers and allow you to maximise your earning potential from each assignment. Congratulations. I only hope I will be able to be that organised down the track.