Happy Day Shoppe.rs,
Today our “Fridays With A Flash” post comes from the sweet Jennie Pyfferoen of Jennie Pyfferoen Photography. When I first spoke with Jennie to tell her how much you Shoppers loved her, she couldn’t believe it. She was honored that people everyday were inspired by her photography and I was just thrilled to find out she was located right around the corner from me!
Jennie is a newborn and maternity photography located in Nashville, TN(which happens to be where I live ). In her spare time she conducts workshops that include Mommy Camera Workshops, Newborn Mentoring, and Photographer Mentoring. She also happens to be a member of the National Association of Professional Child Photographers (NAPCP) who we happen to be a preferred vendor of.
Today Jennie writes a guest post for us on investing in your photography business. Thanks Jennie for sharing with us not only some great advice but these precious images.
Jennie Pyfferoen Website
Jennie Pyfferoen Facebook
Investing in your photography business
Investing in your photography business plays a major role in what market you reach, how much money you make, and how successful you are. Im going to discuss three areas of investment: equipment, studio space, and props.
Equipment.
Your equipment is essential. While one photographer may begin their business with an inexpensive camera and inexpensive lenses, to be truly successful, photographers must create a high quality product. The art may be there, but without the equipment to back it up, the quality will lack. I will not pretend that investing in your business is easy and it does not happen overnight. But if you create enough revenue and can put what you make back into your business, it can happen eventually. I highly recommend using a full frame camera and high quality lenses. Great lenses and great cameras create beautiful, high quality portraits.
Also, investing in high quality computers and external hard drives, is also important. It is ideal for photographers to use Mac Computers, as they work quite well for artistic jobs and last a long time. Also, finding a really good external hard drive, one with multiple terabytes and that can back itself up in the event that one of its own hard drives crashes, is also important. The last thing you want is to lose files. Having a good computer and external plays a major role in protecting images.
Investing in Photoshop is an absolute must, in my opinion. Its by far the best editing program out there and I find it essential for all types of photography.
I am a natural light photographer, therefore I cannot speak much on studio lighting. But with my experience, I would say that it is likely to follow the same rule “you get what you pay for”. This rule also applies to clients. Clients who want the best, will pay for the best. To get the higher-end clientele, you must create the best images.
Studio Space.
Now, this is not easy. Not everyone can afford studio space and finding it can be a real challenge. I looked for my studio space for 5 months before deciding, despite knowing of its existence for a long time. I needed time to feel it was right and to look at all of my options. Photographers need to take into account how much open space they need, how much room they need to store their stuff, and how comfortable the clients will be. It is also important to find a space in a safe area and one that is not run down. If you can legally run a business out of your home and have a way for clients to enter through a separate entrance, I find this to be a great way to have studio space as well. I also feel that if photographers have a studio outside of their home or have a separate entrance, it is a more professional route to running a business.
Props.
This is the area where many photographers go the cheap route. Im not saying photographers cannot locate affordable props that are fantastic. Im saying, its essential to your business to choose props wisely. I have had many discussions about this. I am a well known prop addict. I love them. However, I am a newborn photographer and therefore use quite a few props with each session. I do not use faux flooring, I spend a lot of money on my buckets, boxes, bowls, hats, headbands, and fur. But I truly believe that cheap props make a photographer appear cheap in their photos and using high end props can create higher-end photos. I have even had clients tell me they came to me instead of someone else because they use cheap props. Here are some images using my own props.
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did. Have a great weekend Shoppers!
~Heather
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