Help with photography career

funky_monkies

funky_monkies

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Hi, I am looking for some advice and help about how to start a career in photography. I currently work in Healthcare and have done all my working life so I have no professional qualifications in this area at all, just a love for photography!

I Was wondering if anyone could recommend a good course/qualification to go on to help me start a career in this industry.

I live in the West Mids/Birmingham area.

Thanks!
 
A course won't get you a career in photography, alot of it is down to who you know and/or business skills.

Most photographers don't bother with courses and then some attempt them later on in life just for a feeling of achievement.

I did a photo BTEC Nat Diploma and it didn't teach you much about photography, it was more of an art course but pushed into photography. I was taught about darkroom and old photographers along with disciplines such as always taking you're camera everywhere and learning to shoot great images in not so great locations. This stuff is easily learnt by yourself and doesn't require a course that you have to put alot more time, effort and money into, It doesn't teach you much about the practical side of things and as I say, everything on the course can be self-taught with less hassle.
 
funky_monkies said:
Would you recommend just getting a portfolio together and contacting local photographers for work experience?

My main interest is in Wedding/family photography and would prefer to be freelance, but would like to get experience etc first.
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If you look through the business forum, you'll find that most Pros won't want to train up the opposition.
 
Have you looked at any night classes or camera clubs? Hot Courses is good for listings.

Education is great so if its something you want to do then do it! If its for weddings, etc then a more practical course with some business skills would be ideal for you. :)
 
mastertrinity said:
A course won't get you a career in photography, alot of it is down to who you know and/or business skills.

Most photographers don't bother with courses and then some attempt them later on in life just for a feeling of achievement.

I did a photo BTEC Nat Diploma and it didn't teach you much about photography, it was more of an art course but pushed into photography. I was taught about darkroom and old photographers along with disciplines such as always taking you're camera everywhere and learning to shoot great images in not so great locations. This stuff is easily learnt by yourself and doesn't require a course that you have to put alot more time, effort and money into, It doesn't teach you much about the practical side of things and as I say, everything on the course can be self-taught with less hassle.
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I've done that course and I agree - you wouldn't need it to start a career, by that point I'd self taught myself a lot and they didn't teach me a whole lot new, apart from hand processing and printing. I did a degree in it in Falmouth aswell, and I'd say the exact same thing, don't bother. You can teach it to yourself with enough commitment and hard work. Save the cash and invest in some good equipment :)
 
funky_monkies said:
Hi, I am looking for some advice and help about how to start a career in photography. I currently work in Healthcare and have done all my working life so I have no professional qualifications in this area at all, just a love for photography!

I Was wondering if anyone could recommend a good course/qualification to go on to help me start a career in this industry.

I live in the West Mids/Birmingham area.

Thanks!
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Hi there,
I'm in the same position and would love to start a career in photography.
Have been looking at the courses at the Botanical Gardens in B'ham, but just signed up to the DSLR skills course its £10 for 6 months inc. mag and the DLSR course, also if you go through Top Cashback - Great Magazine's you can get £6 cashback.

Kez :)
 
kezzz said:
Hi there,
I'm in the same position and would love to start a career in photography.
Have been looking at the courses at the Botanical Gardens in B'ham, but just signed up to the DSLR skills course its £10 for 6 months inc. mag and the DLSR course, also if you go through Top Cashback - Great Magazine's you can get £6 cashback.

Kez :)
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sorry link didn't work
Photoanswers Link
 
Kezzz - I think I am going to do the beginners course at the botanical gardens, I phoned up yesterday and the lady said to phone back mid march as the next intake is April. Also going to try and get onto a photo editing course at South Birmingham college and I have just been looking at a course on Learn Direct about starting up a small business which would also be quite helpful!

I will check out the offer you suggested, looks good!

Let me know how you get on and what you decide to do!
 
To start photography career you must create a portfolio of your best shots. The key is to choose your best work, have the shots processed by a professional lab and put them in a nice, professional-looking portfolio book. Bigger is better, but be careful of over-glorifying your own work. Make prints at least 8 by 10 inches and go up to not more than 12 by 14 inches.
 
gabriel67 said:
To start photography career you must create a portfolio of your best shots. The key is to choose your best work, have the shots processed by a professional lab and put them in a nice, professional-looking portfolio book. Bigger is better, but be careful of over-glorifying your own work. Make prints at least 8 by 10 inches and go up to not more than 12 by 14 inches.
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To start a photography career, you must go out and shoot, shoot some more, and more, and don't stop shooting. Shoot EVERYTHING that you can and love. You'll find where you're headed eventually. And as long as that's not landscapes or bug macros, then you might just be able to scrape a crust from it :D

Print portfolios aren't as relevant for some areas of work at the moment as others, web may well be more relevant for brides, babies and bah mitzvahs, it all depends....

I love my print portfolio, but rarely get to show it :( All depends on the level you're working at. Wedding snappers probably have example albums, baby snappers sample canvases and all that...
 
funky_monkies said:
Kezzz - I think I am going to do the beginners course at the botanical gardens, I phoned up yesterday and the lady said to phone back mid march as the next intake is April. Also going to try and get onto a photo editing course at South Birmingham college and I have just been looking at a course on Learn Direct about starting up a small business which would also be quite helpful!

I will check out the offer you suggested, looks good!

Let me know how you get on and what you decide to do!
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Cheers- will do
 
I am in a similar position to the op and have been for a couple of years. I think I am slowly coming to the conclusion that it's not the career I thought it might be so think long and hard if you really do want to do it or not. There are a lot of threads on here, especially the business section, that although good advice, really put me off the world of pro photography. Low income, long hours but not much time actually taking photos, nasty clients, a constant fight to promote your business over someone elses etc etc.
 
funky_monkies said:
Would you recommend just getting a portfolio together and contacting local photographers for work experience?

My main interest is in Wedding/family photography and would prefer to be freelance, but would like to get experience etc first.
Click to expand...

The best way to learn is to do it...along with a good dose of research.

For example, read up a bit about family shoots. check out online tutorials. Take on board the excellent advice offered on this forum.
Then get out there and offer to shoot family photographs for friends and family for free. In fact, ask if you can practise on them, again and again. Ask for their honest feedback and learn from it.

I must stress that their feedback must be honest. It's no use whatsover to you if a friend goes, 'Ooh, that's really good,' if it is in fact ****.

When you feel you have some good shots set up a website with them on and advertise locally.

See, no qualies needed for that.

Even the Photoshop editing skills you'd need can be learned from online tutorials. You can even pop over to Adobe's website and download trial versions of their stuff to practise on.

Hard work, well worth it, is what I say.

Fair voyage.
 
EMA747 said:
I am in a similar position to the op and have been for a couple of years. I think I am slowly coming to the conclusion that it's not the career I thought it might be so think long and hard if you really do want to do it or not. There are a lot of threads on here, especially the business section, that although good advice, really put me off the world of pro photography. Low income, long hours but not much time actually taking photos, nasty clients, a constant fight to promote your business over someone elses etc etc.
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That's self-employment for you.

It all comes down to this:

Are you happy being somebody else's skivvy or, despite all your accurately portrayed gloom and doom, do you yearn to fly as free as is possible in the work environ of our society?
 
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EMA747 said:
....Low income, long hours....
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I currently work for the NHS, so i'm already pretty used to that!! ;)

Thank you so much for all your helpful advice! I'm both excited and nervous about it all but I'm determined to at least make a good go of it and then if it all goes flop, I can still look back and say I tried!
 
robp said:
That's self-employment for you.

It all comes down to this:

Are you happy being somebody else's skivvy or, despite all your accurately portrayed gloom and doom, do you yearn to fly as free as is possible in the work environ of our society?
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My personal circumstances are these:
I did 3 years of a 4 year Civil Engineering degree and had to drop out due to health reasons at the time. Having always been interested in photography I decided to get serious about it and then looked into doing it as a career. My personal areas of interest are avaition, motorsport, shipping, travel that sort of thing. All very difficult areas to make a photography business in.
Now I am thinking do I go back and finish my degree, which due to the lack of good civil engineers pretty much buys me a decent job. Or do I try the photography which has no guarantees of even a small income and no form of job security due to the fact that there is no licensing/qualification like there is in civ eng. Ie if I get a civ eng degree someone can't come and steal my livelihood like they can in photography these days.
Another aspect of the photography business I don't like is the fact that everyone is in competition with each other and to be honest a few seem out to screw each other over. Quite a few people seem very egotistic and paranoid about their business. I just get the impression it might not be that nice a working environment. (I hope I don't offend anyone with those comments, it's not directed at anyone here :))

Photography is a fantastic hobby and I have met loads of nice people and had a really good time doing it. It's since I have started to think of it in terms of a career that I have seen another side of it and I have really started to suffer from lack of motivation to just go out and take photos for fun like I used to.
 
I'm being made redundant this year and toyed with the idea of doing photography courses and maybe trying to get a job in the industry, but I decided against it in the end.
Movies is another major passion of mine and I've got to say that having spent the last 5 years running a cinema, I don't love them so much any more.
I wish anyone the best if they want to go down this route, but I hope anyone that does has thought long and hard about it as I think that in this current climate it could be one of the worst industries to work in.
 
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