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If you’re just getting started on your journey as a wedding or portrait photographer, but are struggling to feel confident in your work, this post was made for you! Today we’re discussing 5 reasons why we believe that the most valuable thing a new photographer can do — more than marketing or upgrading your camera gear — is just get out and get some reps.

 

 

If You’re New to Photography…

So, if you’re pretty new to photography, but are getting out there and shooting every opportunity you get, a lot of this post may just be encouragement to keep doing what you’re doing. But if you SAY you want to grow your photography business, and are just sitting on the sidelines waiting for well-paying clients to come to you, then this might be the spark you need to change the trajectory of your business!

In that spirit, here are 5 things that you get EVERY time you go out and shoot, regardless of how much money you’re being paid to shoot. And before we jump in, there’s another way to look at this list: 5 reasons why you should keep your prices a bit lower than what you’re worth when you’re first getting started, because going out and getting the reps can be just — or even more valuable — as the money you make. So let’s jump in.

 

 

Benefit #1: Experience

This may seem obvious, but the very first thing you gain each and every time you go out and shoot, is the actual experience of going out and shooting. Another way to think about this: every single shoot is like practice for the next one. Just like working out strengthens your muscles over time, all aspects of photography — whether it’s setting your settings or posing your clients or finding creative composure — are like muscles. They get stronger each time you go out and use them.

 

So while education and learning from people like Sarah and I is a super important aspect of growth, if you don’t get out and practice what you’ve learned, maybe trying just one new skill each time or focusing on one aspect of improving your work, you just won’t really get any better with time. And also just like working out, no one does one set of sit-ups and has a 6-pack the next day. But people who commit to diet and exercise and stick to it for weeks and months will see results. What if you looked at photography the same way? Like a muscle that needs to be trained a few times a week.

 

 

Benefit #2: Confidence

That leads into the second benefit you get from shooting that you just cannot put a price tag on: confidence. One of THE most common struggles we hear about from new photographers is imposter syndrome: the feeling that, no matter how much you grow and learn as a photographer, you’re not a “real photographer” and don’t deserve to be getting paid what you get paid or don’t deserve whatever success you’ve achieved. If this sounds like you — like you’re just waiting for your clients to discover that you’re not a “real photographer” and explode on you — the only way to stop feeling like an imposter behind the camera is to put in the hours and learn from past mistakes.

 

Because at the end of the day, only time and experience breed confidence. Plus, the more you get out and shoot, the more likely you are to encounter difficult or wacky experiences, like wedding day schedules that totally implode or a family portrait session that goes off the rails. The only way to feel confident ahead of these situations is sometimes to experience them once, learn how to handle them better next time, and be ready for when they come around again.

 

At this point in our career, Sarah and I have booked and photographed around 150 weddings together. So when we step onto a wedding day, you better believe we feel like we are in our element, in control, and confident that we can produce stunning imagery. But if you asked us how we felt stepping onto our third or even our tenth wedding, we probably felt anxious, nervous, and not all that confident in our abilities. It truly is one of those things that comes with time.

 

 

An Important Reminder!

And speaking of confidence, you probably know that whatever you end up charging for your photography, you need to be confident in your own pricing, or no one will be convinced to buy from you. That’s why, last month, Hunter and I hosted a workshop called “Pricing for Wedding and Portrait Photographers: How to Know What to Charge to Get BOOKED!” If this sounds like the kind of workshop that would help you and your business, the replay for the entire workshop and ALL of our pricing secrets is available for purchase at this link.

 

The thing is, it’s okay to do a few free sessions or under-charge for your services a bit when you’re first getting started so you grow more quickly as a new photographer. That’s basically what this whole post is about! But eventually, you will need to understand how to price yourself appropriately, and if the thought of figuring that out is overwhelming or confusing, we’d encourage you to check out the workshop.

 

 

Benefit #3: Portfolio

The third benefit of just getting out there and shooting is improving your portfolio. Each photoshoot or wedding you photograph has the potential to build your portfolio into something stronger. This is especially true early in your career! When I think back to our first couple of years in business, it felt like EVERY time we went out and shot, we took at least one image that was a top-10 image of all time, and we were constantly updating our portfolio.

 

Even today, we still make sure that we update our portfolio at the end of each wedding season, because we’re still growing as photographers and shooting new content and new couples week in and week out. But when you’re first getting started, building a robust and diverse portfolio of work is essential to booking future jobs, and — more importantly — being able to raise your prices over time.

 

 

Benefit #4: Word-of-Mouth Buzz

Okay, number four: word-of-mouth buzz. Every time you take photos (even for free) and your clients post those photos on social media and tag you, suddenly, your images and your business are in front of not just YOUR Facebook friends or Instagram followers, but THEIRS too!

 

If you saw any of our posts in the called “10 Free Marketing Tactics for Photographers” blog series (Post 1 here), you know that we talk a lot about generating organic buzz around your photography by playing into your own personal network, as well as the personal network of your clients.

 

Specifically, in Part 7 (here), we talked about how in our first 5 years as wedding photographers, word-of-mouth referrals was our biggest source of jobs in 4 of those 5 years, and led to just under $100,000 of wedding bookings. And we know anecdotally, many of those clients told us that they saw our photos on so-and-so’s Facebook or their friend so-and-so shared our images from their own wedding on Instagram, and that’s how they found us.

 

 

Benefit #5: Looking Busy

And this actually leads into our last benefit of shooting that isn’t money: just looking busy. This may not seem like an asset to your business, but projecting yourself as an in-demand photographer can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Very basically, humans always want what we can’t have 😂 Diamonds and gold are valuable not just because they’re pretty, but because they’re rare. If that weren’t the case, diamonds and gold would’ve lost all their monetary value when we invented gold paint and fake diamonds!

 

The thing is, if I’m a mom thinking about getting a family session, and as I’m scrolling through my Instagram I see you posting new work for the third time this week, I’m going to think to myself, “Wow! This photographer is ALWAYS out shooting! They must be booked up like crazy!” And then subconsciously I’m going to think, “Therefore, they must be valuable. Other people want them.” And I might even reach out right away, because I want to get on your schedule before you book up. And the thing is, this is true no matter how much you’re charging for those sessions.

 

 

Action Step: “So what do I do next?”

If you’re convinced that you want to get out and shoot more, but just don’t know how to book those sessions, we feel you. We remember what it was like to be first getting started and to want SO badly to be out there shooting more, but just not knowing where to start. But we also know that the #1 best thing you can do in the super early days of your business is to get out and shoot as much as you can. So here’s a few quick ideas:

 

Start by reaching out directly to friends and family. If you’re at square one and don’t have any portrait portfolio to speak of, literally beg your friends and family to let you take their photo (and of course, keep a few digital files). Then, once you’ve done a handful of stuff for friends and family, post a “model call” on your social media to engage your wider personal network. Say you’re looking to experiment with some new posing or new locations, so for a limited time you’re going to offer sessions for free to a select number of families or couples or seniors. Use these sessions to keep growing and getting those 5 things we just talked about!

 

Then, you can ease your way into charging. Maybe you start with mini-sessions so you can keep the price low, or maybe you offer a fall special or other incentive to get people to book some of those first paid sessions with you. And over time, you’ll get to the place in your business where these things aren’t quite as important to you anymore. By year 3 or 4 in our business, we still appreciated that shooting grew our portfolio or exposed us to our clients’ networks, but at that point we were more concerned with growing a profitable business than we were about gaining confidence or reps, so it was more about the money.

 

But early in the game, sure, maybe you could charge $150 right away and book a couple of sessions each month. But maybe you stick with $100 so you can book a couple of sessions each week, and keep racking up on all the benefits that come with getting out there and getting those reps!

 

Want More?

 

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