Last Updated: February 15th, 2020
If you had suggested to us just a few years ago that we’d be running our own business – much less a photography business – we’d probably have laughed right in your face.
We’re all for hearing the many crazy ideas this world has to offer, but being professional photographers was something so foreign to the way we have lived up until recently.
For much of our time together and apart growing up (as we have been together for over a decade now as a couple), photography was one of the artforms we always bonded over. We remember high school art classes that enabled us to take stylized artistic photos of thing around us – usually flowers, the dog, or something else pretty mundane. Having this ability to create something, and it be so accessible, is pretty enticing for any young person out there wanting to express themselves.
As one might imagine, as we grew older, our appreciation for photography changed and so to did our tastes. In truth, this is something that continues to evolve with time and experience, and we hope it never stops.
Still…flash forward the January 2017…after second shooting weddings and building a small portfolio, Jes (the girl half of this blogging duo) decided to purchase a Canon 5D Mark III on her own dime as “the one piece of equipment needed” to shoot weddings. With Chris’ support (…the guy half of this blogging duo…), it grew rapidly into being something that could be sustainable as a career path we could create for ourselves – and do together.
You might call it living the dream – but in truth, we are not quite there yet, though we meet all the goals we set for ourselves. We still continue to hold full time jobs in the corporate world, and do our photography business as an additional full time job on top of it. We’re not workaholics, but we are passionate for what we do, and where we want it to take us.
What have you done right?
Before we talk about the things we would do differently if given the chance to start again, we want to take some time to talk about the things we have done right. It’s a funny thing because in a world where many people seem to do a lot of things wrong, we can reflect on the past 2+ years of this process and see that we have been doing things pretty well (all things considered).
Formal backgrounds
We are very fortunate in that we have been pretty highly motivated individuals throughout our lives, having been through college and with degrees that support both our current full time jobs, as well as our business prospects – these being degrees in Graphic Design (for Jes) and Psychology (for Chris).
With the graphic design educational background and work experience, Jes brings this necessary skill to our photography business and can effectively use Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, and other platforms easily to get us through the editing of image to our stylistic preference.
For Chris, while maybe not as obvious in application, a background in Psychology lends a lot of credence to working with people in general – and his current job as an analyst puts him in the position to frequently be thinking outside of the box, and exposed quite heavily to a lot of legal jargon and contracts. All of this has helped along the business needs behind-the-scenes when it comes to putting together contracts, business accounting, and so on.
In addition to all this, our diverse work histories come paired with frequent exposure to having to brand and market something.
Going through formal hiring processes, for example, has taught us how to make ourselves marketable – and we built on this with our photography business as we began to identify the qualities that would attract like-minded souls to us to photograph them.
Photography as an art form we enjoy
With all the formal qualifications we might have to start a business (not like they’re actually needed, though!) – there is an infinite number of business opportunities out there. Photography was something that evolved naturally for us – having enjoyed taking photographs as we grew up together.
The spark really came through the process of working with our own wedding photographer, Hannah from Sparrow & Lace Photography, and seeing the opportunity in our area. It’s a funny thing, given how saturated the photography market is in our area – but we feel we have something unique to offer, and it has been working well for us so far.
While our exploration of photography from young ages was fairly child-like, in the past few years we expanded our knowledge rapidly and applied it to a large variety of shooting scenarios. It is a really unique art form to take on, because while it might be easy enough to master in one scenario, such as when shooting during Golden Hour light, it can be challenging even for a seasoned photographer in more difficult lighting situations. This is the aspect that can sometimes make photography as a technical practice stressful, but it’s rewarding to overcome.
Smartly invest in ourselves
Once we looked at the skill sets we have, and decided to actively pursue a career as photographers running their own business as husband & wife – we made it a necessity to invest in getting the right gear to do things right.
No longer could we just be limited to budget cameras.
No longer would shooting at a high ISO be the only option available to us to light an image in the dark.
The list goes on that ends up defining the differences between a pro and amateur photographer.
No doubt, not everything is just in the equipment – a lot of it is the technical knowledge and customer service, which is probably even more important in the long term. On the service end of things, we got Honeybook specifically to help expedite contract signing and invoicing.
In terms of costs, we’ve spent in the area of $50,000 on equipment, software, and so on in the course of 2 years – some of which directly benefits us, but all of which directly benefits the people we do work for. All of these purchases were self-financed, originally through our personal savings from our regular job, and as time as progressed, only pulled from money earned through our business directly.
By no means are we loaded with money, and in fact during the early stages of things, we operated without making any money at all.
Now, in September 2018, we have just passed the point where we can begin setting money aside for ourselves – and making actual judgments on our future as photographers.
Set up an LLC & got insured
One of the most important things we have done in terms of running our photography business is deciding early on to set up as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and get business insurance. With the number of clients we currently do work for, it is essential for the legal protections and financial protections both of these things grant you.
These are two of the biggest mistakes other photographers make – and often a sign that someone is not taking it seriously as a career option, and instead looking to make a quick buck. If shooting only once in a while, it’s probably not a big deal – but if you want to make photography a career – you need to incorporate and you need to get insured.
While we did this on our own through various government portals (for the LLC) and Hiscox Insurance (…for the insurance) – you can also go through a service such as LegalZoom to set up your business (though it will cost you more).
And now…for the moment you’ve been waiting for…
What would you do differently?
We think that the response to this question would be a lot more revealing if we felt more mistakes were made on our end. As we have showcased, we’ve done a lot of things correctly – though we’ve also felt the repercussions for going a responsible route that has taken 2+ years to get us to the level of success we currently are sitting at.
For ourselves, this is simply our personalities: we are always down to take risks and do new things, but we take calculated risks.
We’re not the types to just walk out of our steady jobs on a gamble.
While there may never be “certainty” to photography as a business route – it’s certainly easier to place bets on someone with 20 weddings booked for the next year already (and guaranteed income) than on someone who struggles to even get a single inquiry.
Had even one of us left our current jobs in exchange for our photography business, there is a high possibility that success could have come a little quicker for sure. And this is an area where we may have done things differently.
The impact this could have had would have been significant. For 2 years, we’ve maintained 80+ hour workweeks every week with even our downtime in the form of vacation travels such as to Iceland being given pretty heavily to photography.
Reaching farther back into time, while Jes’ Graphic Design background is so great for our business – had Chris went to school for business, marketing, or something like this, it may have made the business side of things even more well defined at the onset. Some of the reason for this change stems from his education being less of something he cared about, and more of something he wanted to just get over with. Formal education, much like a traditional career path, can be pretty de-energizing unless there is passion behind it.
Hopefully our thoughts on this topic give you some insight into why we decided to get into photography as a business, and show you some of the good and bad decisions that have been made in the process.
We’ve heard this question quite often, and see it posed to other photographers all the time; and most of the time their stories are much more interesting than our own (we do admit). Our decisions have been extremely grounded, logical, and rational – and come paired with a lot of background knowledge in many of the things that could make a business like this work.
Still, it can be difficult to not look back on 2 years of life and wish, even just a little bit, for some more time to spend with others in our lives. Certainly, if there is not full success for us, this would be the biggest thing we would have done differently. Missing family events, not seeing friends for months on end, and so on. This is probably the greatest challenge, and comes to anyone working multiple jobs, though we hope it to be short term loss in hopes for a longer term reward of being able to offer more time to these people in the future – and on our own terms.