5 Things That Can Help You Establish Yourself as a Photography Expert
While the road to becoming a photography expert may be long and one that requires effort and consistency, it is also a fun and engaging one. Besides, photography has become a lucrative field, offering a plethora of opportunities for young photographers.
If you are clueless about how to become an established photography expert, you are at the right place. Let’s see how the following tips, including photo competitions and blogging, can help you go from zero to hero in a matter of months.
Getting a Degree
In order to add some credibility to your CV, you should consider getting a degree. Don’t worry too much about the cash. Thanks to the Internet, you have a plethora of opportunities to get a degree even if you are on a budget.
If time and money are not that much of a problem, “old school” education at one of the photography schools is an option that you should definitely consider. This is a great way to get both education and build life-lasting connections with colleagues.
The next option is an online university. This will enable you to get your degree from the comfort of your home. The prices vary which gives you freedom to choose the best schools for your budget.
Lastly, you have access to numerous online course platforms. Make sure to pick the ones that are created by professionals, have a lot of positive comments and high ratings. More importantly, pick the ones that reward a certificate of completion which you can attach to your CV and share online.
Photo Competitions
This is another thing we can thank the Internet for. Online photography competitions are a relatively new concept. They are a unique opportunity to engage with other photographers from around the world, exchange opinions, receive constructive criticism, advance your skills at a rapid pace and while you’re at it, enjoy the gaming aspect of photography contests.
Photography competitions are designed to help you improve as a photographer by progressing on your path. During the competition, you will receive all kinds of rewards and achievements as part of the community feedback, which are powerful incentives to continue pushing forward.
A bonus to competing in online competitions is that some prizes include money. Money that you could put towards new photography gear!
By participating in this type of photography challenge, you will constantly feed your passion and become better. Photo contest websites will also put you in a position to evaluate someone else’s work and post comments. This is an excellent opportunity for you to check where you stand in terms of knowledge and skill.
Blogging
Blogging is another pathway that you can take at the same time, with all of the others on this list. Blogging comes with many benefits for young photographers. It offers the opportunity to build a name for yourself and position yourself as an authority in your niche. You’ll need to invest time and effort in figuring out how to create effective thought leadership content, but it’s well worth the effort.
Setting up a blog is very easy, so don’t worry if you don’t have experience building and launching a website. Most web hosting providers offer plans that support WordPress. These also include the option to choose from a number of great looking premium WordPress themes. This means that you will have your site up and running in no time, and it will require no coding at all.
What to write about? As a photographer you have a number of options. You can write about camera settings, how to choose proper gear, share tips and tricks that you’ve discovered, or even join the craze and upload photos of food porn and other consumable creations. Establishing an online presence will definitely push you towards being recognized as a photography expert.
A Rock-solid Portfolio
Building a rock-solid portfolio is hard, especially when you don’t have that much clients knocking on your doors. This is why you should start shooting for free, especially if you want to build a name in the portrait photography domain. In any case, in order to build a rock-solid portfolio, you will need lots of shots taken.
Once you have a lots of photos, you can proceed to the next step - image editing. You don’t have a clue about it? Don’t worry, YouTube can help you with hundreds of free tutorial videos, or you can turn to Photo Processing Softwares. Those, combined with a little bit of practice, will make a professional image editor out of you!
Still not confident about the shots in your portfolio? Run them through a photo contest.
Specializing
And the last thing you should focus on is establishing yourself as a photography expert, specializing in one field. The saying “jack of all trades and master of none” applies really well to the photography business.
Try to identify where your passion lies and stick with it. By focusing your energy and time on only one type of photography, you will speed up the advancement process of reaching the title of an expert.
Hopefully, you will find these tips useful. As you can see, you will need to diversify your efforts to be able to become a photography expert in these modern times. Don’t forget that your gear and skill make only half of what you need. The other half is your experience and the contacts you make along the way.
