Becoming a photographer
When you want to become a photographer, you think you have to invent the wheel all by yourself. Sure, you can go to a photo academy or take a photography class, but somehow they don’t prepare you for the real thing. What if a client doesn’t like your photos? Should you really have a contract? Does this image work or is it just me? Why is my client taking my images and putting an Instagram filter over it? These and a zillion other questions will pop into your mind, and you are alone… behind your desk…. at home…. Where no one is…
LOL, that sounded desperate enough right?
Luckily, here comes the break, it doesn’t have to be that way. Yes, maybe five years ago it was that way, but then a smart guy named Mark invented Facebook and after a while, we were able to create groups on Facebook. And what do you know, suddenly you have a gazillion photographer friends and colleagues.
This blog is about finding your friends & colleagues online. First off, where do you find these groups? I have a small list for you to get started.
Some significant International groups on Facebook:
Shoot & Share – spin-off from David Jay’s successful product Pass.
Restart – spin-off from Jasmin Star’s Creative Live class on rebranding your photography biz.
Facebook Wedding Photographers – created by Skip Cohen a.o., a photographer from the UK, who also teaches the biz of photography.
These groups are great for getting feedback on client issues or your work. You can safely discuss them with your colleagues inside a group since most of the groups are closed (meaning people can see that the group exists but can not see their contents). And, of course, you can discuss anything in the groups, read the guidelines before you post though. Every group has their special niche and directions.
Connecting with your peers starts to become even more fun when you also interact with each other in real life once in a while. That’s why it is fun also to look for local groups. Shoot & Share has local groups in every state and country. However, some are more active than others. When they are not active (like in the Netherlands) it is usually because another group was formed before the Shoot & Share created theirs.
Personal Story:
My photographer friends and I were discussing in our group that we have to celebrate our anniversary pretty soon; it’s been five years already since we met. Since then we evolved into a group of friends. We meet each other a few times a year and even go on small breaks together at least once a year. Lot’s of sharing goes on in our group and groups in general. Think about double bookings, advice, major fails and all that other stuff that you can not put on your public timeline ;-). Watch the movie at the end of this post for an impression of our get-togethers.
Finding photographers near you
An easy trick to finding local groups is to look out for the groups that photographers from your area are joining. As soon as you start to connect (i.e. make friends with them on Facebook) with other photographers in your area, you will see that Facebook will show you messages in your right sidebar telling you what groups might be of interest to you.
Another way to find groups is just to search for them. There are groups around topics like:
- Photography specialties e.g. newborn photographers, wedding photographers, etc.
- Tradeshows e.g. WPPI
- Photography blogs e.g. moderntog
- Associations e.g. Fearless Photographers
- Workshops e.g. Foundation workshops (these are usually only open to the students though)
- Software e.g. VSCO Film users
A final option is just to create your own group. What we see happening in our group is that if you keep the group size smallish (20-40) you get to know each other more and more as time passes. Like I said before I have a group of friends now that also share my passion for wedding photography ;-).
[thrive_text_block color=”note” headline=””]I highly discourage you to spend all your time on Facebook, our earlier mentioned friend Mark Z. doesn’t want to see you succeed. He only wants to see you spend all your time on Facebook so he can sell lots of ads. Ads that are tested through and through for audience and click rate, so you will be tempted to click on them all the time![/thrive_text_block]
Tricks to prevent you from spending all your time on Facebook:
- Turn on newsfeed eradicator. It’s a neat plugin (Chrome only) to eliminate your newsfeed so you can be focused on visiting your group and getting out of there in a productive amount of minutes (15 max. ;-)).
- Only visit your groups from the iPhone app, Facebook groups.
- Install Intently, so you see inspirational quotes instead of ads online. It helps a lot with the distraction. If you follow my photography quotes board there, it will inspire you to get back to your passion too.
- Install Self-control and only visit your groups when you have done your work, or as my customers would say it; when all my bars are green ;-).
[thrive_link color=’orange’ link=’https://www.shootzilla.com’ target=’_blank’ size=’big’ align=’aligncenter’]Click here if you want to get a fancy overview of all your clients like the picture above[/thrive_link]
If you totally hate Facebook and don’t want to create an account, you can also find a lot of photographer groups on LinkedIn. I haven’t found them as engaging, but maybe it works for you!
Would love to hear your story too. Are you in a group? What’s the best thing that has happened to you because of that? Did you miss something on this blog? Feel free to add a comment and I will add it! Thanks for reading!