4 Life Saving tips for my first year of shooting Professionally

By Torian Alllen from The Allens Photography

Photography saves lives and promotes joy, or at least that’s how we look at. Jiyeon and I have only been shooting professionally for a little over a year now, but we have learned a lot not only about the photography business, but about ourselves and each other also. It’s important that you keep that into consideration while you build your dream, or hobby.

28 of the BEST Tips for Growing Your Business

Business came really easy to us, Jiyeon being a business major, and I a supervisor in the Army. We knew already how to lead and get things done, but we didn’t have the art aspect of the business down. This didn’t stop us, however, and we are thankful to this day that we didn’t stop moving forward. This leads us to our first point.

1- Never Give Up

It’s really too easy to just look at the picture you just took and say, “wow this is terrible, I need to quit while I’m ahead.” To be honest, Jiyeon sure did. Before I joined the business, she was just about to call it quits and start looking for a job, but I convinced her to stick with it.

2- People Are Different

This is something that you’d think we would already know, but it really through us for a loop. By the time we had gotten our first “picky” client, we had already had a few weddings under our belt and a ton of engagement shoots. All satisfied customers. But this time, our client really had a hard time with some of our pictures. It was a deep blow for us, but to be honest it was guaranteed to come. What we got from this is that you as a photographer will have
to come up with your own individual style and look.

That is what you are getting paid to shoot. If you try to replicate someone else, it will be extremely hard to keep up, maybe impossible. Your client won’t get what they asked for, and now your brand has its first negative hit. Which leads us to our last point.

3- Build a Team

Shooting and editing takes an almost insurmountable toll on you if you’re doing it all on your own. This is our biggest lesson learned, and the entire reason I joined the business with my wife in the first place. Remember, even a bicycle has gears. You’re going to need to figure out a way to lighten your workload and create a way to work more efficiently. When I joined, I took on the writing, networking, and tech support. If you sign up for services like Wedding Wire you’ll find that they have plethora of different services that you can use in order to make things run more smoothly for you so that you can focus on your business.

4- Above all, remember to have fun!

Photography is only a medium. Your clients are going to remember an experience through your photography. You may even save a marriage 20 years from now. You have to keep that in mind while you’re shooting. If you’re stressed, your clients will be stressed. So have fun, and be happy. You’re a photographer.

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Torian and Jiyeon Allen are wedding photographers based out of Georgia who are in love with travel, bike, thrift shopping and of course taking pictures of people in love.