So, who's making money out of their photography?

[Jorgen Udvang]

Passion goes a long way. Also in the professional world. The two should go hand in hand. Otherwise it'll kill your joy.

- Marc

That pretty much sums it up. Thank you for your long post. What you wrote makes a lot of sense to me.

 

[marchaers]

Thanks! LOL maybe just that quote would have been enough.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for the reply.

 

[steveash]

Thanks for posting @marchaers yours is an inspiring story and there is a lot of truth in what you say. I think personal projects and passion work is the bedrock of a commercial career. I googled you and think your work is fantastic.

After a period of intensive commercial work (still life/automotive) I was able to take a break when my daughter was born and spend a lot of time with her. Now she is at school I’m trying to revitalise my career. It helps that some of the work I did for fun over this period (often with a child-carrier on my back!) is some of the best I’ve ever done.

 

[marchaers]

Thanks for posting @marchaers yours is an inspiring story and there is a lot of truth in what you say. I think personal projects and passion work is the bedrock of a commercial career. I googled you and think your work is fantastic.

After a period of intensive commercial work (still life/automotive) I was able to take a break when my daughter was born and spend a lot of time with her. Now she is at school I’m trying to revitalise my career. It helps that some of the work I did for fun over this period (often with a child-carrier on my back!) is some of the best I’ve ever done.

Thanks so much for the compliment. I whole heartedly agree with you. I actually did (and am doing) the same as you. I have 2 girls here and decided to focus more on my family so I started working 'part time'. I cut out jobs or planned them on monday/tuesday/wednesdays only. Editing I can do any day or after they are in bed . It's a very important time to be around the kids.

I wish you all the best with picking things back up and if you have anything to share please do!

- Marc

 

[steveash]

Thanks, you can find me here: https://steveashdown.com/ I might come back with an update if things go well.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

Thanks so much for the compliment. I whole heartedly agree with you. I actually did (and am doing) the same as you. I have 2 girls here and decided to focus more on my family so I started working 'part time'. I cut out jobs or planned them on monday/tuesday/wednesdays only. Editing I can do any day or after they are in bed . It's a very important time to be around the kids.

I wish you all the best with picking things back up and if you have anything to share please do!

- Marc

There's another side to this that tends to be forgotten; how we define ourselves to the outside world, to potential clients. Your website sends a very clear message: You are defined by your work, by your photos and videos. To me, that was a timely reminder. I'm re-establishing myself as a photographer after nearly ten years in industrial marketing, and one of my worries has been "How do I present myself to potential clients?". The answer is "Through my photos, presented in a simplistic form." Nobody will hire me as a photographer for my ability to create a fancy website or design a perfect brochure (although I do some design as well). Let the photos stand out. If the clients like the style, chances are they will hire me. If they don't, I would probably struggle to meet their requirements anyway.

So it's time for me to make that website then...

Oh... and your photos are excellent, but you knew that already. You more or less said so yourself

 

[marchaers]

There's another side to this that tends to be forgotten; how we define ourselves to the outside world, to potential clients. Your website sends a very clear message: You are defined by your work, by your photos and videos. To me, that was a timely reminder. I'm re-establishing myself as a photographer after nearly ten years in industrial marketing, and one of my worries has been "How do I present myself to potential clients?". The answer is "Through my photos, presented in a simplistic form." Nobody will hire me as a photographer for my ability to create a fancy website or design a perfect brochure (although I do some design as well). Let the photos stand out. If the clients like the style, chances are they will hire me. If they don't, I would probably struggle to meet their requirements anyway.

So it's time for me to make that website then...

Oh... and your photos are excellent, but you knew that already. You more or less said so yourself

LOL I can only hope I didn't come off as arrogant haha.

But you're absolutely right. There is an unbelievable amount of wiggle room to present yourself in many ways. I decided to not suffocate myself by representing myself as something other than who I am. Down to the way I speak, mail and behave towards my clients. It surprises me till this day how much they prefer that to 'professional' behavior. That part only is important when it comes to delivering the images. I hear a lot especially in the past few years that clients notice how much I enjoy my work. It takes away stress and pressure on set from both them and the team. I joke around with my best friends that I basically am the same 'idiot' on set that I am at home and photography totally ruined me by getting away with it too long haha.

My first agent said it very well when I asked her if it was okay if I get a visible tattoo. I quote;

"Who cares? You can show up in flip flops and have gold teeth for all I care and they would respect that. You make images. The way you look shouldn't take away from that."

I don't have gold teeth and I wear normal shoes let's get that straight . But I really felt empowered when she said that. It's a good statement. It all boils down to the images and whether you're nice to work with. The rest doesn't matter so much.

I used to have an overcomplicated website actually. Too many options and basically already limiting my work to a specific 'category'. I only decided to go this simple website route 2 years ago. Because I wanted people to understand the imagery rather than the label one puts on it. By that I meant the label I put on it myself before people could even see what I created. It helped tremendously keeping it simple like that.

EDIT/PS: If you're in any way slightly savvy with website building. I highly recommend Squarespace (what I use) - I'm not sponsored by them lol but I've been using them for almost as long as I can remember. It's such a simple way to make a very professional looking website. I think it's much cheaper than having one designed as you only have to pay for the domain and 10 bucks a month (I think).

 

[steveash]

I like that Marc has photos of himself on his website. People are hiring his service not buying a branded product and this approach makes it more personal. I’m thinking it might help to get some informal portraits done for my site. I like the simple approach for a photographer website as you don’t want to distract attention away from the images.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

LOL I can only hope I didn't come off as arrogant haha.

But you're absolutely right. There is an unbelievable amount of wiggle room to present yourself in many ways. I decided to not suffocate myself by representing myself as something other than who I am. Down to the way I speak, mail and behave towards my clients. It surprises me till this day how much they prefer that to 'professional' behavior. That part only is important when it comes to delivering the images. I hear a lot especially in the past few years that clients notice how much I enjoy my work. It takes away stress and pressure on set from both them and the team. I joke around with my best friends that I basically am the same 'idiot' on set that I am at home and photography totally ruined me by getting away with it too long haha.

My first agent said it very well when I asked her if it was okay if I get a visible tattoo. I quote;

"Who cares? You can show up in flip flops and have gold teeth for all I care and they would respect that. You make images. The way you look shouldn't take away from that."

I don't have gold teeth and I wear normal shoes let's get that straight . But I really felt empowered when she said that. It's a good statement. It all boils down to the images and whether you're nice to work with. The rest doesn't matter so much.

I used to have an overcomplicated website actually. Too many options and basically already limiting my work to a specific 'category'. I only decided to go this simple website route 2 years ago. Because I wanted people to understand the imagery rather than the label one puts on it. By that I meant the label I put on it myself before people could even see what I created. It helped tremendously keeping it simple like that.

EDIT/PS: If you're in any way slightly savvy with website building. I highly recommend Squarespace (what I use) - I'm not sponsored by them lol but I've been using them for almost as long as I can remember. It's such a simple way to make a very professional looking website. I think it's much cheaper than having one designed as you only have to pay for the domain and 10 bucks a month (I think).

Not arrogant at all. If we don't believe in what we do and in our own success, how can we expect others to? As for dress code, I used to wear shorts, but since industrial photography is my main line of business, I had to skip that. There are regulations at most production environments, and shorts are not on the list. Luckily, I also do yacht photography.

I'm doing some web work for a customer who needed some updates to his website desperately. That's WordPress, so I think I'll continue along those lines (WP/Elementor). The nice thing with Elementor is that the user interface resembles Adobe, so I feel on home ground. We'll see how it goe. I should have something online before the end of November.

 

[marchaers]

Not arrogant at all. If we don't believe in what we do and in our own success, how can we expect others to? As for dress code, I used to wear shorts, but since industrial photography is my main line of business, I had to skip that. There are regulations at most production environments, and shorts are not on the list. Luckily, I also do yacht photography.

I'm doing some web work for a customer who needed some updates to his website desperately. That's WordPress, so I think I'll continue along those lines (WP/Elementor). The nice thing with Elementor is that the user interface resembles Adobe, so I feel on home ground. We'll see how it goe. I should have something online before the end of November.

Oh yeah regulations overrule any personal preference haha. Your area seems very interesting though. I love the idea that within the same medium you can still know so little when it comes to specialties. Industrial photography and Yachts sound pretty cool to my ears .

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

Oh yeah regulations overrule any personal preference haha. Your area seems very interesting though. I love the idea that within the same medium you can still know so little when it comes to specialties. Industrial photography and Yachts sound pretty cool to my ears .

There's an interesting relation between yacht interiors and some industrial locations though: they both suffer from lack of space and are notoriously difficult to light. My yacht photography actually started as an industrial assignment. I was asked to document the production processes at a shipyard, then got the questions "Can you do interiors?" and "Do you have a drone?". I didn't have drone then. Now I have three... and an assistant. Neither catching drones at sea nor decorating yacht interiors are one man operations. It's still pretty cool of course, but spending six hours inside the yacht for the interior shots with all the gear needed doesn't really resemble the yachting life that the images are supposed to reflect.

Oh... and the assistant seems to be turning into a girlfriend or wife, increasing the number of daughters from one to three. This work has had unintended consequences

 

[marchaers]

There's an interesting relation between yacht interiors and some industrial locations though: they both suffer from lack of space and are notoriously difficult to light. My yacht photography actually started as an industrial assignment. I was asked to document the production processes at a shipyard, then got the questions "Can you do interiors?" and "Do you have a drone?". I didn't have drone then. Now I have three... and an assistant. Neither catching drones at sea nor decorating yacht interiors are one man operations. It's still pretty cool of course, but spending six hours inside the yacht for the interior shots with all the gear needed doesn't really resemble the yachting life that the images are supposed to reflect.

Oh... and the assistant seems to be turning into a girlfriend or wife, increasing the number of daughters from one to three. This work has had unintended consequences

Hahaha I love the assistant story . That sounds like an awesome way of organically expanding your specialty.

Yeah the labour behind images are sometimes funny when you think about it. The things going on behind the scenes from shooting to editing are so huge and if done right you won't notice a thing in the images lol.

 

[getscreen]

Over here, the market's flooded with wannabe pros. Tried the online print hustle, but wallets are tight. Teaching's the fallback for many big names. Had to diversify to make bank. Cultural vibes impact how much people drop on pics.