Apart from being the title of a wonderful podcast hosted by Scott Borne and Skip Cohen, Going Pro seems to be a question that a lot of photographers ask about.

How do I make the leap to being a full time professional rather than weekend warrior or keen amateur?

Over the next few weeks we’re going to concentrate on not only the mistakes that photographers (myself included) make, but also hopefully we’re give you a guiding hand. We already have a massive archive of articles which can help you along the way but what we’re hoping to do is not only add to that but organise them into a simpler structure.

Where to begin?

An education is important….. what form that education takes is another matter altogether.

I have a had the befit of two types of photographic education

1. A formal university education – where technically I studied photography although to be honest I learnt more doing my A level photography course.
2. Being thrown into the deep end – I spent 5 years has a photographer on cruise ships which is about as ‘deep end’ as you can get….. my first wedding for example, was my manager putting a camera in my hand and saying… “go shoot that wedding… and don’t mess it up”

Of course there are lots of other different types of photography education (this site hopefully being one of them).

It’s very easy to spend thousands of pounds on courses without any real sense of direction so spending time in the beginning formulating a plan is a good place to start.

Once you know where you are and where you’d like to go then it’s a whole lot easier to find the way to get there.

The Plan

What do you already know?

There’s no way I could put together the sort of business I have today with the knowledge I learnt at university but the rest of my education did give me at least a base to build from.

Think about what you already have then build your plan form there. Do a ‘business audit’ and look at what you have already and hopefully it should tell you what you need.

What do you know?

• How comfortable are you with your camera’s settings? Do you understand the basic photography principles? -Back to basics – P doesn’t stand for professional.
• Editing – How comfortable are you with editing? What level would you put yourself at – in other words, what can you edit to a level you’re happy with?
• Websites and online presence – what do know/what can you do already?
• Business experience – what experience do you have in any type of business?
• Marketing and sales – what experience do you have?
• Financials – what experience you you have with bookkeeping or self assessment?
• What sort of person are you? For example; Are you good with children? Are you a good communicator?
• What equipment do you already have?
• What equipment do you have a working knowledge of (that you don’t own).
• What training have you already taken part in? What knowledge did you gain?
• What areas do you have experience in?

What do you want to do?

Before you start any training you need an idea of where you want to be. So maybe ask yourself a few questions….

• Where would you like to be in 5 years time?
• What area do you want to specialise in?
• Why do you want to specialise in that area?
• What area don’t you want to work in?
• List some of your favourite photographers/websites.

Things you need

• Time – how much of it have you got to spare or are willing to give up?
• Money – as above!
• Location – do you have/need somewhere to work? What kind of space you have have available to you now?

If you’ve answered all of these questions and you’d like my opinion on them then please send them on to me via the contact form.