THE Austin Photographers Blog

Hi my name is Zack Tullier and just wanted to create a series of videos to help keep you informed on everything photography. Whether you would like to get started in making your first dollar through photography or to keep you up to date with trends on posing or new photography tech, I hope to create an extensive database of knowledge for anyone seeking to become a photographer professionally or just for fun! I would like to start this first video with Creating your first photography business and go over some things I have learned while creating mine. I find it’s best to learn from other people's mistakes so hopefully you can learn from mine and save you some time and headache in those first couple of months.

Creating your first photography business

I first started my photography business in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and have since moved to Austin, Texas. I think Baton Rouge has got to be one of the worst cities to start a photography business, it is very small, not a lot of venues or parks to shoot at, and no one really seems to care about photography much there. That all changed once I moved to Austin, I have only been here for a few months and it is a very big difference in the amount and quality of clients. But with that said, I was able to start and grow my business in Baton Rouge. It was not easy but it was possible, and if I was able to grow my business there then I am confident that no matter where you live you will be able to start and grow a successful photography business too!

I think a good place to start is social media. This is free for anyone and just about every photographer has a social media account and focuses heavily on it (so it must be worth it). You can always start with your name as the business name, this helps you as a person become credible. Your clients will want to know who is coming into their house, their facility, around their family and friends, so they will probably search your name and will look into who you are. This is a good time to clear up anything you may have posted on your existing social media accounts (any party videos or unwanted photos)! Try to make your existing pages or your new content professional and clear of anything that would turn people off to the idea of letting you into their house to photograph their family (people do more research on you than you may think). Creating a logo at this time will also save you some backtracking later on when you are ready to create your website and business cards. Ask a graphic design friend, look up some tutorials on Youtube, or even go to a website like Fiverr and create your first logo. This will most likely change and evolve into something better later on, but it is best to start this process early in your career.

Now that your social media pages are created and are clear of any uhh… unwanted content, it is time to move onto the first content you will post. Before you run out and buy the newest Sony camera with the fastest and sharpest lens, just know that you can start with a different kind of camera that everyone has in their pocket. You can take great photos and videos on any decent cell phone, and most clients can't even tell the difference (it is sad, but it is true). You just need something on your page so when people look you up or if they want to follow you, you will have at least something. But, I think it is a good idea to start with at least a basic camera if possible. There are so many people who start with a Canon Rebel, infact my first camera and some of my favorite photos came from a Canon Rebel T3, this was not even a T3i so my video content was worse than most Iphones at the time! This not only looks more credible to your first clients or when photographing an event, but it also teaches you the skills while using a camera. The ISO, aperture, shutter speed, changing lenses, how fast batteries die, SD cards, formatting your SD card then forgetting you never backed up the photos! Any basic camera for $300 will teach you the same fundamentals as a $5000 camera. Also, making mistakes at this level is a lot less harmful to your reputation than making these mistakes when you are working with large clients.



Now it’s on to getting your first content for your social media. One way that I got started is by volunteering. It doesn’t matter what you are volunteering for, as long as you are out taking photos and adding content to your social media. This not only teaches you the fundamental skills of photography (you will learn to switch from inside to outdoor settings quickly, learn Kelvin differences with certain lights, shutter speed and why all of your photos look blurry, posing people, composition, and a lot more). During this time you should also be working on getting out of your comfort zone. Some of the best photos at an event are group photos of people turned to you and smiling or doing a silly pose. I was extremely shy when I first started photography, and never even thought to go up to a group of people and command them to pose for me, I had a tough time getting 1 person to pose for me! In this career, you have to work on social skills (along with business skills but we will get into that later) in order to be successful. I always thought if I learned everything about cameras, lenses, software, lighting, settings and all that stuff, I would be successful, but I slowly learned that those camera skills only make up about half of being a successful photographer. This is also a good opportunity to start networking. Talk to people and offer them free sessions or if they know of any upcoming events. When I first started photography, I did so many free sessions that people looking at my pages thought I was already running a successful business. This gave them the confidence to pay me and I didn’t even have to ask for it.

Now you have created your social media accounts so people can find you and view your work, and you actually have work for them to see, it is time to move onto growing your business. This part requires some money to be invested into the business, it doesn’t require much and it will always pay you back with interest! If you are making any kind of money from your business then you should probably be investing almost all of it in growing the business, if you have a full time job (like I did) then putting some money from each paycheck into your business will help it grow much quicker. I would first start with creating a website. This is very cheap and very easy to do, there’s lots of resources covering this and I will even cover this later on in a different video. Having a website to showcase your portfolio is similar to having a social media account, but it gives people the confidence to spend even more money for your services. This is also a good time to create and purchase your first business cards. I find that handing out business cards at events gives me a better return on my investment than most ads that I run.

You now have just about everything you need to offer your photography services to people with confidence. Just make sure you are able to take payments through cash, check, or credit cards with services like Paypal, Cashapp, and Venmo (I will make a video on this later on).

That just about wraps things up for my first video here, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or comments about this information. I look forward to seeing some new photographers at the next event I attend!

Written by Zack Tullier, Owner and primary photographer for Saturn Photography