Photography: How To Make It Your Side Hustle.

1. Introduction: Six years ago, I picked up the camera for the very first time. Two years later, I turned into my full-time job and my Sita. So this lesson is going to be aimed at all those beginner amateur photographers who were went into hopefully build a future in photography. And it's also going to be aimed at the photographers that are looking to take their photography to the next level, we're gonna cover lots of different things. In this lesson, we're gonna talk about how to get started in photography, how to grow a client base, and how to just go around the business in terms of pricing yourself and just get in more work. Really excited for this lesson, I really hope that I can inspire you and give you the confidence to pick up the camera for the first time, to go out there and start shooting and hopefully turn into your full time cytosol. So let's get started. 2. How I Got Started in Photography: So if you're watching these lessons for the first time and you don't know too much about my background or how I got started in photography. I'm just going to quickly cover that right now. So many years ago, I graduated from university with a physiotherapy degree. Completely different to photography. I knew what the cameras, but I never thought about using one ever. Anyway, after I graduated from university, I moved back comb and this is where I set up my own sports injury clinic host in that for a year until the big recession came and I lost all my work. I ended up working in retail. I started as a sales assistant. This is the time where I really developed a passion for creating. This is where I just wanted to create all the time and this is something that I realized I had inside of me. So I moved from sales and I moved into visual merchandise in this is where I started to dress mannequins, shop windows. I started to change shops around. So decorating, displays. And I'm starting to take pictures as well, just on my iPhone. This is where I started to develop my passion for creative. After spending six years of working up the ladder, get into the position that I really wanted to get to. I eventually met my now wife Caroline, who lived in Denmark at the time. So I had, one of us had to make a sacrifice and we decided that it was gonna be me who move to Denmark. So I had to quit my job. So I move to Denmark of out no job when I moved. And this is where I found lots of different things about myself. I was out of work for six or seven mumps, couldn't find any work in my sector. So this is where I picked up the camera for the very first time and state two great content and take images. It was at this time where I was doing a little bit of modelling on the side. And I've got this campaign with a Olympus who were a launch in a new camera. And there's the Olympus Pen F. And they wanted me to be the face of this new camera in Denmark. So there in that campaign, they actually gave me a camera as well as the point-and-shoot Olympus Pen f. And this kind of all fell into place. I was create insight into get into photography. And then all of a sudden I had this really cool camera. I was out of work, so this was everything for me. I put all my passion in a way to create this is my hobby at the moment. So I literally had it round my neck the whole time. I was create an issue in every single day, I was learning the fundamentals of photography. I was trying to improve my work every single day. And we start to share our story online of how main Caroline met. It started to gain some traction because it's quite a funny story. This is where we started to grow an audience on social media. It was at the same time we were still learning and create in photography. So this all kind of fell into the same thing. Eventually, we got our first client. I still remember our first client. We were absolutely over the moon. I remember it was a 20 pound shoot. And we've got some free tee-shirts. Socialmedia completely changed over this time period. So our first job was for 20 pounds. We were over the moon and this is where we start to build a client base. Over the years, projects got bigger. Brands that we'd worked with states to get bigger. So to work with agencies and there's just got bigger over time. So that was a little story on how we got into photography and how we got to where we are now. But I'm going to show you now all the different steps and processes we took throughout that time period to get to where we are now. 3. Do I need an Education?: So do you need a university degree d, you need a background in studies to do photography full-time? The short answer is no. It's obviously going to help you because learning about the camera is going to help you along the way. But there are many other ways you can do it as well. I have lots of friends in the industry that are picked up a camera for the first time and turn it into their full time job. My good friend Jack Hardin, who you've seen before, probably. He's traveling the world now working with brands through and campaigns. I have a good friend, Morton, who is based here in Denmark. He had a very similar story to me. He was working at Sony Music Studios in Denmark and then picks up the camera for the first time. And now he is also working as a full-time photographer. So you don't necessarily need a university degree to get into full-time photography, but it will help you. But there are other things you can do to learn about photography and I'm going to talk about them in more detail. But the main thing you need to know is that there's no right or wrong way to take a picture. The hardest thing when you're starting in photography is trying to cancel out the noise and the criticism you're gonna get from developing your own style. There's gonna be people that have learned years and years of photography. They've been to university, get done all different kinds of courses and beat other kinds of things you need to try and block out. They're gonna tell you that your work isn't good. They're going to be critical of your work. You should have shorts it like this. You should have underexposed it a little bit more. All these kinda things you are going to face from photographers that I've been in the industry a long time. This is exactly what I faced in the very beginning. If I look back at my old images, I can see why. But the main thing is that you see this as a journey, is a beginning and to where you are. Now, you're gonna be learning along the way. Do not be too harsh on yourself when you're picking up the camera for the first time. I looked back at my images now and I'm very critical of them. A little bit shocked by the concept that I was creating by see this as a journey. I wouldn't, i've got to where I am now if I didn't have that in the very beginning. And also there's going to be time in say five or ten years where I look back at work on Create and now, and I'm going to have exactly the same feeling because every single day I'm learning the skills, I'm developing my own style. So that is the main thing you want to focus on trying to cancel out this noise and that criticism you might get in the very first few months, years of doing photography. If you do that, then you're going to be well on your way to making sure that this is going to be a really great thing for you. Like I said before, if you have a university degree or any kind of coaching in photography, this is obviously really, really helpful and it's gonna be really helpful to get on your way to becoming a photographer. But there are other things we can do to educate ourselves. And it's very important if you want to take this seriously, that you continue to educate yourself daily or as much as possible. So let's talk about these things you could do. Potentially to improve your photography. So the first thing I would probably do is find a mentor, find someone who inspires you. Now, very early on, I found a lot of people that inspire me. One of them is Fran. I've mentioned him before in previous lessons. At that time, I saw a friend as a really big inspiration and a role model. He was shooting really beautiful images out in the nature. And this is where I really wanted to get into a nirvana is with fashion. That is Jonathan Price. He's a Scottish photographer who got travels around shoe in street style and working with different fashion brands. Again, he was really inspiring for me. I looked at all this work and try to put that into my own work. And I'm not saying you need to copy everything these photographers are doing. But what I'm saying is take inspiration from them. Try and look at the things that you love about how they shoot and try and split that into your work and put in your own style on that. So for from very early on, even Tao, now I have mentors, people who inspire me. And I just tried to put some of their work into my work and trying to make it myself as well. So try to find yourself and mentor, tried to find yourself some inspiration. You can put into your photography. Now, there's so many ways you can learn photography right now. There's online courses, there is skill share, there's YouTube. You can literally type in YouTube basics in photography and all these things will come up. So there's no excuse for us not to learn about how to use the camera and get into learning how to shoot. The next way we can educate ourselves in photography is obviously for practice as well as courses. So when I started in photography, I literally had my camera everywhere with me. I had around my neck and I was shoot in every single second of the day. Not necessarily friends I was really inspired by, but I was just Shou In every fan and I was trying to work in my head how I can make this better. Now, if you are wanting to get into various specific fields, let's say fashion, then you need, really need to focus on the skills that you need for a fashion photography. So it might be opposes. It might be how to shoot to people at the same time. It might be learning how to shoot e-commerce. And it might be London had to shoot in a studio. So this some of the things that you might need to work on with that if you're shooting weddings and this is really intense and you need to figure out how to use your camera is you need to change the settings very quickly. You might need to look at the poses of the couple that you shoot in. And you need to try and understand light and working in different kind of environments. So that is also going to be something that you need to focus on. So why would really do is work out which kind of industry you want to go in. And we're gonna talk about that in more detail later on. And really focus on the skills that you need to educate yourself in this area. Practice every single day, even now. Even now, I'm learning every single day. I'm still practicing, I'm still shoe and I'm still trying to improve. That is the only way you are going to improve is fruit practice. Now this next one is find in kind of like an internship or someone who you can partner up with. So even now, I meet up with photography friends. I go round in the city and we do some street style. I was just talking about photography, where bouncing ideas off each other. I'm picking up new things on way to shoot, on getting inspired from these guys. And like an internship, you can find a company or a brand that you want to work with who need some content shooting with them with an internship, I would probably be a little bit more cautious of that because you don't have to exploit in your work. And we're going to be talking about that in more detail later on as well. But find some one who can inspire you and find something that you can be shoe in on a daily basis. And this is really going to help you in educating yourself in photography. Now the other thing that we can educate ourselves in photography as well, it's just learning the fundamentals of your camera, literally all the basics of your camera, that different modes. What IS o means? What aperture means, how this all works together. Learning the fundamentals of your camera and London, the Fundamentals of Photography. It's basically going to be the whole platform and the whole basis of you learn in, in the industry. If you don't know the fundamentals of your camera, the fundamentals of how to take a picture or having an idea of how to get a picture you want, but not understanding how to get there, then you're going to really come across some hurdles in your career. So very, very first thing you should do when you pick up your camera is learn the fundamentals of how to shoot and how to use a camera with all the set ends. And learn how to shoot in different scenarios. 4. Questions to Ask Yourself : So now you've figured out that you can pick up a camera, start learning straight away, and you can potentially turn it into a full time job with educating yourself and practice in. But you need to ask yourself some questions before you get started in photography. And these are some of the questions I put together that I would like to have asked myself in the very beginning because there is a lot of people that I've seen who have just quit their full time jobs because they see photography as a way of earning good money. At the same time, using it as a passion and a hobby. And it is kind of like that. But there is also another part of photography that you don't necessarily see. So you want to answer yourself some of these questions and make sure that there is the right thing that you want to get into. So let's just talk about some of these questions that I've put together for you. So the first thing that you need to ask yourself when you went into, get into photography is what motivates you, what is inspiring you to choose and get into this industry? Now this is different for everyone. Everyone has different motivations. It could be money, it could be that it's just a passion. And it could be that you just went into work with new people on bigger teams. So it's different for everyone. But just writing down what motivates me is gonna make you realize the reasons why you wanna get in photography and help you reach your goals and develop in your career. So are you prepared to start small? This is going to be one of the hardest things. Why can freelance is quite stressful? You're gonna have a big window of learning and educating yourself. Success for photography doesn't come over night. You might take some amazing images that get a lot of traction on social media and a lot of engagement. But this still is not gonna make or that you are a full-time photographer, takes years of building a client base, years of producing great work, and you need to prepare to start small. You're not going to go big instantly and you're not going to learn how to use the camera. In 19. This is going to be a really long process and you need to ask yourself, are you prepared for this? So there's a different side of photography that people who don't necessarily say if you're working in the fashion industry as a photographer, then there's gonna be a huge team such as makeup artists, stylists, models, lots, lots of more people on a bigger, bigger scale. But there's another side to photography that people kind of don't notice. And that is you're gonna be working alone a lot of the time you're gonna be editing, you're going to be emailing. You're going to be learning how to use the camera. You're gonna be taken pictures by yourself. You're going to be location scout in all these kinda things means you're gonna be working alone. So you need to ask yourself, are you prepared to work to work alone? If you're used to work in groups and this might not possibly be right for you because like I said before, there is a lot of the time you're gonna be working by yourself. And what can freelance is a little bit stressful when you're just a one man team. But there's also some really great benefits are working alone as well. So you just need to work out. Is this going to be something for you? So the next thing we need to ask ourselves, is there a need of where you currently are for the work that you want to produce. So I'm gonna give an example of a good friend of mine who was living in the North of England. He wanted to pursue a career in fashion photography. But there was no work in his area or the work was down in London because it's the capital. There's lots of things going on. It's busier, there's more brands. All the work was down there, but he was living in the opposite end of the country. So there wasn't a need for a fashion photographer up there. So you just need to ask yourself, is there a need for what you want to do in your area? If you want to be a travel photographer, where you want to shoot landscapes, but you're living in the city. You're not going to have access to the countryside, for instance. So you're gonna be needing to travel quite a lot, but just work out what is in your area. Are you able to do the work you want in that area or do you need to make some changes and some sacrifices? So the next question you wanna ask yourself is, do you have the time to actually do this? Do you have the time to invest in learning your trade with photography? You need to learn quiet a lot constantly over a long period of time and just develop your skills on a daily basis so you need to be prepared to invest in that. If you don't have the time to learn the trained, then unfortunately, this might not be something that you want to go into. So you need to ask yourself, do you have enough time to learn this trade? So now we have asked the questions, now we're going to write them down in like a worksheet. So this is just going to really help you understand some of the things that might pop up when you're a beginner photographer. It now that I've done this in three different stages. But with the first worksheet, state one is just starting out. These are going to be some of the questions that I come up with when I was a beginner photographer and how we can get around that, how we can overcome them. And just what your main goal is as a photographer at these different stages. Using this worksheet, you can just go on as you progress throughout your career. And I think that would be really helpful and useful to you. So let's start with this worksheet now. 5. Questions Work Sheet: So this is your first worksheet. There's free different steps and the first step is getting started in photography. This is basically where you just picked up the camera for the first time. You don't feel confident enough to start working with clients, but you're willing to put the work in. This is also in a similar scenario as sales marketing and running a business on your own. On the left column we have goals, questions, problems, and success. How can you overcome these problems? So let's just start with looking at the goals first. So these are the goals that I would probably put down when I was first starting to get interested in photography. And so I've got free goals. The first one is once into follow your passion. The next goal is probably learning how to use the camera. And the third one is probably look into build a client base. Now you can put as many goals down as you want. I've put free, but again, wherever you want to write down, that is totally fine and up to you. So now we're starting to answer the questions to see if it's something we want to pursue and it's something that we want to put our time and effort in. So the goal that says, once into follow your passion, I've answered the question, am I going to be good enough to do this? The second one, learning how to use the camera. I've asked the question, am I going to have enough time to do it? And the third and final one, building a client base is, do I know anyone in the industry? So you want to start asking these questions for your goals. So now let's look at the problems that you're probably going to face by answering these questions. So what Into follow your passion, not being good enough to do this, you're probably going to feel a lot of self-doubt. Learning how to use the camera. Am I going to have enough time? You're gonna be lacking some skills. That's going to be the biggest problem for that. And build in a client base. If you don't know anyone in the industry, you're probably going to feel a little bit alone and a little bit lonely. That's why felt when I was working in industry to begin with. So how do we overcome these problems? And this is what you want to write down. And this is what's going to help you achieve your goals and answer your questions and get behind the problems that you're gonna face. Again, this is going to be different for every single person. But for the first one of wanting to follow your passion and feeling a little bit of self-doubt. You could possibly arrange a tissue with your friends or your family members just so you can get a feel for shoot in. And if you're happy with them, then that's great. And if you're not happy with them and it doesn't really matter. That's probably how I would get over that one. Learning how to use the camera, not having enough time, lacking skills. I'm probably gonna do sets and time in my schedule to do some shooting. That way everything is planned. I can see what's going to happen in my week and just so I can prepare myself for this shoot. And the final one, building a client base, not knowing anyone in the industry and feeling a little bit alone. The first thing you can do is probably just send a few emails out to your favorite brands or your clients. They might not necessarily reply. They might not necessarily want to work with you, but is starting to build confidence in context in people. And that is really going to help you. That is the first worksheet. There's two more that you can do as you progress through your photography journey, just to quickly look at the oversteps. The second step is probably becoming a side hustle now, so you're producing some really great work, starting to get some regular clients, you starting to shoot and feel more comfortable with the camera. And you're working with small budgets now, but you're wanting to take it to the next level. As you can see, your clients are happy with your work, but you don't feel confident in producing campaign material and you don't own the equipment to do so. So what do you do? And the third one is now, it's the third step. You are shoe in full-time. Now, work in building a reputation. Your client base has never been bigger. How do you manage on your own? Should you expand, and how do you maintain your clients over a 57 or ten year period, as well as managing new clients. Now, like I said, these are just all examples of something that I would probably write down when I was beginning in photography and at different stages that I faced. You can literally do this as you want. Write down anything that you think will pop up in the moment that you're feeling right now. So hopefully that will really help you answer some of the questions and reach your goals in the future. 6. What Equipment Do I Need?: So having the right equipment is very important in photography and progressing in your career, you're going to be picking up all kinds of different new pieces of equipment. I'm just gonna quickly, briefly about which kind of equipment you need and give you some tips and advice. In previous lessons are spoken in more detail about which equipment you might need. So if you want in something in a little bit more detail, go back and have a look at that. But the main finance, but photography, that you have a camera, you're able to take pictures. We have this feeling, I don't know where it comes from, but we have this feeling of having the most expensive gear is going to improve your photography. This is absolutely false. You can take great images just on your iPhone and you can really learn photography just with a small point and shoot. You don't need the big expensive gear. Well, I will say about the big expensive gear is that it's gonna take your photography to the next level in terms of image quality, being more creative and just having more control of your images that you're creating. But to take a great image, you don't need a big fancy camera. You can just learn the fundamentals on a small digital camera. And that's the main thing I'm trying to get at here. You need to learn the fundamentals and you can do that on any kind of camera. You can learn about framing. You can learn about exposure levels just by shoe in on a normal, regular cameras. So do not be overwhelmed with all this camera gear that you see. Don't be overwhelmed. Don't beat yourself up. When you see someone's got a brand new Canon camera that you've wanted and dreamed about. It's not all about having the best gear. It's all about learning how to take a picture. But if you are going to invest in expensive gear and make sure that you are frugal. This means you just buying stuff that you need for your trade. You're not just buying stuff because you think it would be cool or you're spending all your budget on something that you might use once a year. Now, I have been there, I've got a camera covered here and the soda machine and this load stuff in there that I have never used. And I've wasted all my budget on my camera budget because at the time I fought was really, really needed and really cool. And this is going to improve my photography, which basically just sat in the back of my cupboard. There's only been used a few times, so be frugal. Camera gear is expensive. Make sure it's exactly what you need for your trade. So for instance, if you are doing wedding photography, he might need a portrait lens for when he did portraits. If you are doing wildlife, then you might need one of the big telephoto lenses. So just work out what it is you need for your trade and just make sure you don't waste your money because we've all been there as photographers and it's very important that you do, don't do that. And you buy the stuff that you only need. Of course, when you are just beginning photography, it might become a little bit of expensive because there is some things you do need to bind, such as extra batteries. Battery charges. You might need SD cards. And if you show it in a lot of content on role than unique and there be needed big SD cards. These are a little bit expensive. You might need a tripod depending on what you're shooting and you're going to need a card reader, you're going to be needed a hardware storage. So all these small accessories, they do add up, but these are things that are needed. So just make sure that you are prepared to invest in a little bit in your photography journey. But these are things that you need and you cannot work around these things. So I briefly just talked about lenses. I just wanna give you a little bit of advice. You need to pick the right lens for your trained, for instance. And if there was, if you're in a situation where you haven't found which you're Nietzsche's what your heading towards what your goal is in photography. Then there's two lenses that I would really recommend. And people often ask me which lenses I would use as a beginner photographer. And I would probably go for the 50 millimeter and portrait lens. As this is such an amazing lens, you get such nice images from using this lens. It's called a 50-50, which is kind of the the good value price one. And there obviously is more expensive 50 millimeter lenses. But from this nifty 50, you are going to produce some really great work. So that is probably the first lens I would look at purchase in. Also, if you want something a little bit more versatile, I would probably go for the 2470 millimeter because this is a zoom lens. You can change it for most scenarios that you're working in. So interiors, you can do it for landscape sometimes. So this is another great lenses versatile and you can change it into any kind of scenario that you, you are in. So these are two lenses I would really look at invest in straight away. So let's quickly talk about Renton. Should you do it? And the short answer is yes, Renton is really great. I'm going to give an example of a couple of weeks ago, I was in Iceland. I was shooting some whales and I dropped my lens on the boat deck. It's matched everywhere. It was my wildlife lens, which I also use for weddings as well. A few days, I actually had to go to a wedding and I needed this lens, so I went to the rental store, but I always go to I searched in what I needed and I was able to rent this lens and that I needed for the wedding shoe. Now, this is really expensive to go out there and buy another lens. So if you want to use a bit of equipment or you want to try something that you think about vest in M, then I would really recommend going to rent and these products and get hands-on feeling and you know what, it's going to be like. One of the things that you might need to invest in, and that is a editing program. So I use Adobe, I don't use anything else. And this is the thing that I started with. So for all my images, I use Lightroom. This might be something that you need to be prepared to invest in as well as only a small amount a month. But editing program is something that you really, really need if you're looking to be more creative with your images, if you're shooting on an iPhone, then you can easily use an app. There's no problem with that. And there's actually some really good apps out there so you can edit on your phone. But if your shoot in RAW images, then I would really recommend going in and subscribing to a software program where you're able to be more creative with your images. So finally, one thing that a lot of photographers forget about, and in the very beginning, I forgot about this as well until there was an accident. You need to make sure you have insurance that trope in Iceland a couple of weeks ago. If I didn't have insurance, I would've wasted so much money on that broken lens are defensive, pay so much in repairs. So it's really important you get the right insurance for all your camera gear. Now be very careful when you're insuring your camera gear because there's lots of different scenarios. And for instance, if I would have had if I didn't have my lens on my camera body. When I dropped it, then the insurance company wouldn't have covered that because the lens was on the camera body. The insurance company did cover that. So there's lots of different scenarios. You need to make sure that you're covered in every single aspect possible. I was at a wedding yesterday and I was sitting there with the lens that I rented from the rental company. There was a parasol, it was windy. This big metal umbrella flew down, almost hit that lens. And if it hit that lens, then that would have damaged hip as well. Luckily, they obviously insured. But these beings pop up, accidents do happen. And when you're using a camera, when you're in tricky situations, when you're in different environments, things do happen, but make sure that your camera gear is covered because you don't have any waste in all your money on that. 7. Where Can I Earn A Living?: So now we're going to talk about finding your focus area. Like every camera needs a focal point. As a photographer, you need a focus area. There are many different things as a photographer you can go into, but it's all about finding your niche, what excites you and what you're passionate about. I've listed some of the most common avenues you can go down as a photographer, lots of different ways you can earn money as a photographer. So I'm just gonna talk about these now in more detail. So the first Avenue you could possibly go down is being a wedding photographer. This is a mixture of portraiture and event images. It's really intent. It's really scary at times. You need to learn how to use the settings on your camera very quickly because environments change quickly in terms of wherever the scenario. So you need to be prepared to quickly change or your settings on your camera immediately. You need to learn how to set up poses and you just need to be ready for every single moment because this is really stressful as you'll only get one chance to do this thing. You can't ask the couple to walk down the aisle once again. So this is something that you need to be paid for if you are a wedding photographer. So the next one is event photography, is kind of similar to weddings. This is where you're gonna be shoot in rock concerts are going to be shooting press events. It's very intense. Again, you need to learn how to use different settings in different environments, but you do have a little bit more time. So this might be something for you, event photography. So then X one is portrayed photography as a photographer, this is kind of the one you generally think about when you're getting in photography. And you need to prepare to shoot studio. This is one thing that, that I'm not really good at it and get great portraits in the street as well. But if you went into work with brands that you want to take this into your career, then you need to know how to use it to import trait lenses. You need to know how to set up and work with light in studios and the great fame with portrait photography. It, there is a need from brands from the moment you are born up until an adult. So for commercials, you have children, you have teams, have adults. So there's always going to be a lot of work with portrait photography and also with portrait photography. You can slowly move into fashion if you want, you can slowly move into weddings. So this is something that you might also, once again to think about everything that you've ever purchased. It always needs to be photographed. So it might be an item of clothing that you brought online. This has been shot in e-commerce. It might be an item of joy that you brought. This has been shot in a studio, even things like cars or alcohol, if all being needed to have some kind of imagery with them. So there is a lot of work with product photography, but you also need to learn how to shoot it in the best possible way. I've really loved product photography. There's obviously some things that I'm not really great at, such as food photography that we've spoken about before. But there's lots of different avenues with products photography that you can go down. Landscape photography is all about creating beautiful images. And it's not necessarily about creating landscapes for print or postcards. It's also gotten someone somewhere and picking up the vibe of a city. It might be going to New York and he did some street style of the people in New York, of the food in New York, just picking up all the vibes of and this city. So travel photography is also something you could head into. So these are just six bins that I've listed. The great thing about photography is that there is so much more, there is probably 15 more ways of earning money through photography, 15 different areas, probably more as probably endless ways of earning income from photography and lots of different areas. The main thing is as a photographer, you just work out what you prefer to shoot the best, what you prefer, what your interests are, and just perfect in the skills in that area, in that industry. And then you'll be totally fine. 8. How to Build a Client Base: And we're gonna talk a little bit on how to build your client base. I'm going to give you some tips and advice on how he can build your own client base so you can get starting to work in photography, to start and in a trade. So basically, in a client-based is going to be key to success in photography. You need to learn how to get new clients, how to maintain them, and how to build your client base. It's very important when you're working with clients that you up professional. This is now your business. So they expect you to be professional. They expect you to get the work delivered depending on what the client wants from you. So let's talk about some of the things that you can do to help build your client base. So first one is that the client, when you're starting to work with clients, that they have the same expectations on both sides so the client knows what they're going to get from you, what you're going to be able to deliver it to them. And likewise, as a photographer, you know what the client is going to give to you. Now this is very important, that's all written down. It's done in a contract, is done in a formal way. This is now your business, so you need to treat it like one. Bernstein on building a client base is quite tricky because I'm going to tell you now that don't be afraid to shoot for free. Now, when I started my wedding industry last year, I think the first three or four weddings that I shot, I done for free. So I let the cup will know that I'm signed in photography, wedding photography. I've never shot on before. So your expectations have made shouldn't be really high. But you are going to have some pictures for your went in for free. So there's expectations on both levels. Now, the important thing for shoot him for free is that you don't get exploited. As a photographer, you are valuable, no matter your level skills you have. If you are taking pictures for someone, that potentially means you are working for someone. Do you not give imagery to huge brands, big brands that are gonna repost them because there is so much value in there for you. And it's very important that you respect your work. You are really, really important. And as a photographer, it's really important that you recognize this. But at the same time, if you are learning something, if you wanted to get into something and you can see a benefit at the end of it, then don't be afraid to shoot for free, to get into photography and said get fell off shooting is to ask, social media influences. Influences need content created constantly. And when I was shooting for a brand, I was always ask in to shoot influences because they always need a photographer. Now, as I was working with a brand, that brand would actually pay for their content. So it's a little bit more different. But if you're working with and influence that they will obviously have a small budget for you if they're taken their business seriously and they respect you. But this is a great way to start to feel comfortable with shoot in models, shoot in creators, shooting content regularly. As there is such a high demand for it, just in Copenhagen, for instance, I can name at least 25 big influences that I could potentially show you potentially work with. So there's influences everywhere. It's a great way of learning, is a great way of getting into photography. And the next one is kind of similar as well. Last year I had a friend who really wanted to get into like studio photography. And a great way to do this is to contact model agency. This is a great way to build your client base. So a model agency will have lots different models, different clients. So literally you can go onto a website. Usually the new face is not the really successful high established models, but the new faces to new models. Usually if you contact a moral agency, they can let you have them for a test shoot. So this means you can arrange your shoot for yourself and you can deliver images to the model and to the agency that they can use for their portfolios. So in both ways, they're helping you learn your trade. And at the same time, there get in important images from you that they can put in their portfolio. So brands can see how they model, see their work as well. So contacts in modal agencies is actually a really good way to build a client base. And if you're successful, then word of mouth will get around. And if there's a campaign and a model agency needs a photographer, then because you've been working regularly, professionally with some of their, their, their faces, then they're likely to hire you as well. One of the things that I used to do is to contact brands that had some new products coming out. So you could practice to learn to shoot these products. And potentially, if they'd like these images, they would buy the rights of EU. So for instance, There's new Canon equipment coming out in the next few months. And I had just asked cannon if I could get hands on, fill in with some of the products so I can shoot some content with them. Hopefully that they were really like the images and that were used these products for their launch as well. So there's kind of, this is a great way to build a client base. Start talking to a client just by going to see what new products are coming out. And then just slowly building a dialogue with the PR team and just get involved with the brand. So they might use your images, they might not. But you're just building a platform for you and the clients who have a dialogue with for now and in the future as well. And this bottom kinda goes hand in hand with what I just talked about. Just go around your house, pick up some products. That you think would be really cool and beneficial for clients to shoot. At the same time you're doing this, you're learning different things like product photography and might be interiors. But then if you send the images to apply and again, they might buy the rights from you. And like I said before, it's just building a dialogue with you and the client. And hopefully, if they don't buy your images now, they might start to think about you in the future for any kind of work that might come up potentially network and this is literally everything and this is going to be key to your success. In the very beginning, I didn't realize the key importance of network in I for I could just doing one work, go into my own little bubble, not speak to anyone. This is completely untrue. You really need to be out there outgoing. And I'm gonna, I'm still an introvert, but I am able to make sure that I am network in and speaking to other people as well. So one of the things I would really recommend you can do this in any way, but I'm gonna show you an example here and you can go through now yourself and input different things as you want. But I'll here I'm gonna show you how to make a client she now this is going to be just starting from scratch. You're going to have a few clients on there. But over a few years you're gonna have a huge, huge client list hopefully. And having a client list is gonna make sure that you are just on top of every single client that you have. You know, what content's been shot, you know, when the last time you were in contact with them, you know, some of the products that are coming out in the future. It's just important that you have contact information, just respond stuff like this. Because building a big client base is gonna make sure that everything is easier for you and that is Kate, you wanna make sure your work is easier for you. So we're just gonna go through this now, make a client-based sheet, and I'm gonna show you all the things that you need to look out for when making a client-based sheet for your business. Here's an example of a contact list. Mine is slightly different. I've been doing it on Excel, but I just need to do it this way to fit into the video. So mine is in Excel. I've been building up very, very long, many years. And I've also added a few more things into the Excel sheet just to help me with my workflow. So it's just all about finding and writing down anything that will help you with your work flow. But here are a few examples that you might wanna think about. Obviously the first one is right and down to the brand. This is really straightforward. So just write down all the clients that you've been working with previously. Then write down an email address is really important that you have a context for the brand, just in case you want to reach out again, or that you needed to contact them for something is really important that you have the email address stored in their next, what I find really useful is right? And then the position of the person that you're communicating with that represents this brand. So it might be head of PR, agency manager. It's also really important to write down their name as well. This is just going to make it a little bit more professional when you're contacting them. And nothing really gets missed that way, write down any current projects that you've got. So for victory knocks, we are doing a summer barbecue campaign for Toyota. We're promoting the new reform. So just write down any kind of current projects that you are doing at the moment. And then write down what kind of content you need to produce for this particular campaign. So it might be Instagram Stories and might be Instagram posts, it might be images that you need to provide the client. Just writing it down is gonna make sure that you have everything under control and he know what's expected from the client as well. Make sure you put an end date. This is going to make sure you are on top of things, things I'm going to get miss in, and you're going to finish off your work on time. Ro, Very important. Next, probably not so important is just writing down the phi of each particular campaign or any client that you're working with is or just keep things organized a little bit more. Next, also really important is to write down any previous projects that you are working with, that you've worked with with the brand. So if I'm going to go travelling and there's a brand that I really want to reach out to. I look back at my previous projects and see if there's anything in line with what I've done previously. If it's a brand that has worked with me many, many times, then I'm obviously going to reach out to them again because they like the work that I produce and they're more likely to work with me. So just writing down any previous projects that you've done is going to be really helpful. The last one is writing down the last time using communication with the brand. Now this is really important because you can look back and you can see the last time he communicated with them. Just if it's been a long time, just right. The brand and email just say You stay in their minds. He keep in the loop of things. Every Christmas, every new year, just write a greeting email just so they remember you, you're building that communication and that relationship with the brand. So if it's gone over a really long period than just dropped him an email, see how they are and get a dialogue started once again. 10. Conclusion: So that is it for this lesson on how to make photography your side hustle. I really hope you picked up a lot of things throughout the lesson. And I hope I've given you the confidence to pick up a camera and start shooting. If there's a few things to take away from this lesson, there is the main one is to make sure that your practice in and you're learning every single day, you're learning new skills. You're teaching yourself and you're educating yourself in photography. And never really important thing is that you take an inspiration from somewhere else and you're really spending time developing your own style. There are so many photographers out there today. It's really important that you stand out from the crowd. So make sure that you are developing your own style and you have your confidence in your own style as well. It's also really important that you learn how to use social media is 2020. We should be using social media now to expose our photography in the best possible way. Many, many years ago at the way to expose yourself as a photographer was just brew magazine covers. Might have been postcards and on campaign. But now there are so many different avenues to expose yourself. So you need to really learn how to use social media. And I, photographers in the older generation that simply find it really difficult to maintain their client base and get new clients because they simply don't know how and feel comfortable using social media. So really spend time looking into that as well. And one final thing is that you really need to make sure that you have a portfolio or a website to put all your best work on. This is going to be your main banks and this is how you're gonna get new clients to see your work. So for instance, I have a website via Squarespace, and this is where I've done all my best images with wedding photography, portrait photography, fashion photography. All my best images go on there. So any potential clients and come in and see my work and see how they can contact me. So that's a few final things to think about. And anyway, I hope you enjoyed the lesson and we'll see you on the next one.