Photography as a Business

Recently, I re-watched an great interview with the acclaimed portrait photographer, Gregory Heisler. There are some really points that he makes in the video and I recommend watching it. (You can find it here).

The photography business, as most other businesses, is about relationships. To a large extent, it has little to do with the kind of photography you shoot. it doesn’t matter if you shoot weddings, portraits, products, or anything else, you have to build and maintain a good relationship with your clients in order to succeed.

A lot of photographers talk about developing a style. What that means to a lot of people is that they develop a technique for shooting that may be unique or unusual. They consider this “style” as being what differentiates them from their competition. Unfortunately, technique is different than style or vision. Technique is something that can learned. For every photographic technique there is probably a YouTube video that shows you how to do it. No single technique is unique to a particular photographer.

Style, however, is quite different. A photographer’s style has less to do with how they process their images and more to do with how they see the world and interact with their clients. This is what makes a photographer unique and provides value to their work. While a photographer’s job is to create images that meet or exceed their clients needs, how this is understood and accomplished is based on the photographer’s style and vision. Technique is just one of many tools a photographer employs to bring their vision or style to life.

In the interview with Gregory Heisler, he said a mentor once told him “Shoot what you can’t help but shoot”. It is an amazing piece of advise. As a photographer, there are photos that I shoot because I can’t help myself. I feel compelled to create certain images and will plan out an entire shoot to get one photo. It’s often a bonus that I get a lot of good photos out of a shoot, but there are times when my goal is to capture a single, very specific photo. These photos are some of images I enjoyed creating most and are some of my favorites.

So, shoot what you can’t help. Shoot images you love and feel passionate about. Shoot what makes your head and heart happy.

Well, that’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!

-Ken.