Overcoming Fears

[gkarris]

Maybe best to just post a new thread.

Where I used to work I saw a guy taking pics of a meeting we were at. He had some *pretty nice* equipment (I can't remember Canon or Nikon, but it was definitely L or ED glass and an upper model dSLR).

He said he got it by taking pics on the side at kids' sporting events and selling pics to parents. The parents love his pics when they find out how much their P&S cameras fall short at that type of shooting. He makes a lot of money on the side to pay for his hobby and supplement his income.

I'm wondering how I overcome my fears and start doing something like this? My job right now pays low and I would like at least one of my hobbies to pay for itself.

My fears go back to shooting weddings with film. I usually would have the couple buy the film, and they would process it themselves. Or I would just give them the negatives as part of the wedding gift to supplement their professional pics.

Now with the advent of digital, it's a lot easier to "hand them over".

What is now weird is seeing them make their own photo albums and my pics are in them (amongst others or the pro's) - not to mention my pic nicely framed on their mantel.

Now, when I mentioned about maybe getting paid, it's "Talk to the hand..." :eek:

What initial fears did you have in starting out? How to overcome them?

[chantu]

Hi,

I don't have much experience but I hope one day to be that "guy" you mentioned. I just started precisely 5 days ago. There was a Fair at my kid's school and one of the parents asked my if I wanted to be the photographer to take photos of kids/parents in a harvest theme setting. She mentioned I could make some money on the side, so I thought to myself why not? After looking at some of the photo hosting websites, I settled on zenfolio.com, and ordered the "premium account" which is geared towards making money. My greatest fear?? I've gotten a number of compliments about my photos in the past, but would any be willing to pay money for them? I gotten a couple of orders this past week, not much but it's a start, hopefully. Here's my foray into the business:

http://wesleylee99.zenfolio.com/p1015425667

(P.S. your comments are welcome about the site)

-Wes

[kenwood33]

hire someone to do the customer facing job for you, so that you can focus on shooting

[NickJushchyshyn]

What initial fears did you have in starting out? How to overcome them?
My greatest fear (starting out long long ago) was asking for payment up front without the experience to know unequivocally that I would be delivering fantastic work to my customers (which are invariably friends in the early days). This was pre-digital, so there wasn't any "chimping" at an LCD to make sure things were going well.

As it happens, things DID go well, and word of mouth has always helped things grow.

Now with the advent of digital, it's a lot easier to "hand them over".

What is now weird is seeing them make their own photo albums and my pics are in them (amongst others or the pro's) - not to mention my pic nicely framed on their mantel.
Well, the advent of digital also means that the person receiving those photos had to go out of their way to have those photos printed and framed for the mantel. Seems like pretty high praise for a free file you handed them.

Bottom line is that if you want to be paid, you can't "hand them over" ... and, unless you have an explicitly clear agreement before hand, you can't really expect to be paid if you do "hand them over".

Now, when I mentioned about maybe getting paid, it's "Talk to the hand..."
yeah? so? Other than saving you the trouble of handing over your photos, what have you lost?


OK .. so ... you've gone on about having a fear.
What exactly IS it that you fear?

[gkarris]

OK .. so ... you've gone on about having a fear.
What exactly IS it that you fear?

I guess trying to start a business with all this and after all the valuable time, money, and efforts, having it fail - or worse someone stealing work, or suing becuase of using a photo of them without permission, someone saying you've stolen their work/idea, etc.

[ChrisRabior]

To put it in sports terms.. you can't score if you never bother taking the shot.

Check out sites like SmugMug, Zenfolio, ExposureManager. They're not all that expensive, and the tax benefits to claiming it and your equipment for business expenses are a bonus. If you sell, congrats. If not, then either get better or throw in the towel.

I started a Smugmug with the thought "if people don't like my stuff, they won't buy it, and I'll be out $150 and some time". I signed up, and I'm happy with how it's worked out. I've been able to sell some work, I've gotten more exposure with it, and the mere bonus of having unlimited storage was well worth the yearly fee. No regrets.

[Frugal]

I guess trying to start a business with all this and after all the valuable time, money, and efforts, having it fail - or worse someone stealing work, or suing becuase of using a photo of them without permission, someone saying you've stolen their work/idea, etc.If you don't take risks you'll never move forward in life. Life is uncertain. What if Bill Gates had been overcome by fear and his tiny company had never written DOS for IBM? Where would he be now? (No Mac vs. IBM debate pls)

[NickJushchyshyn]

What if Bill Gates had been overcome by fear and his tiny company had never written DOS for IBM? Where would he be now? (No Mac vs. IBM debate pls)
David Bradley's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bradley_%28engineer%29) Ctl-Alt-Del combination wouldn't be nearly as famous or useful as it has become. :)
(How's that for dodging the Mac/PC fire ;) )

Back on topic...
So ... you don't have to go into business. If you do, you have the face the very real prospect that one or all of the things you fear will happen.

Now ... what's so frightening?
after all the valuable time, money, and efforts, having it fail
You already have a camera and gear taking photos that people are framing for their mantel ... so you don't NEED to invest more money ... and you're already putting time and effort into photography, so what do you loose if it "fails"?