Reply To: Still learning…

[IHF]

I’m still learning too, but I don’t have a website, market, or have clients.  I don’t feel it nessesary to invest so much into the learning process or be in business while I learn and build my fundamental  skills nessesary to be a professional photographer someday. To me it doesn’t seem right to ask others to invest in my learning process as well. Once I have a foundation build,  then it will be time to portfolio build and be in business.  I WILL shoot at a discount while building my portfolio, but my real prices will be displayed/posted so people can see that soon I will be raising prices, and so they can see the true value of my work.  Right now what you are doing is collecting clients that like cheap prices, and labeling yourself as the cheap tog, all while working too hard shooting for others, instead of for yourself.  marketing, customer service, people skills, etc is not growing as a photographer. Yes!  These are all very important things to learn if  you want to be a successful professional, but not so important to learn while you are still clearly struggling and learning the basics of photography.  You’ve taken too much on at once.  You are a fauxtog, but only because you practice like onE, and have jumped in head first without building your foundation first.

If you disagree, and feel you are still ready to be in business and portfolio building.  Please take the nessesary steps to be legit.  Get your ducks in a row, figure out what you need to charge to make a profit after fees, expenses and the cost of doing business, and post those prices while you build, so your clients know how much you are worth.