How To Be A Freelance Photographer?

A friend of mine working as Talent Care Manager was always passionate about photography. Two years ago, my friend and his wife started a food and travel blog. His blog was the perfect answer to his wife’s passion for food, and his for photography. The duo traveled and cooked delicious food and covered the experience with amazing content and photography. They started this as a hobby, and now they are on the list of top 10 food & travel blogs in India. So long story short, if you are passionate about something, you can actually make it your career. In the case you love photography, you can always make it your freelance of second career.

Below are a few tips for becoming a freelance photographer shared by my friend:

1. Choose your niche

What’s your forte in photography? Events, wildlife, portrait, whatever you are best at, find that out and work on enhancing your skills. For a freelancing career, choosing your niche is as important as it’s the fineness and perfection. Your clients would hire you for your uniqueness. You need to major in one type, in order to get more freelance projects.

2. Obtain required certificates and licences

To turn your passion into profession, you might need to learn the minuteness of the art. Any certification or course in the field would bring more trust in your individual brand. While for a freelancer, business licence is not considered a must have, but it is definitely an advantage. Study your state and country requirements for the business, and eventually work towards it.

3. Build your personal brand

Showcase your talent to the world. Have a website or a blog and be active on social media. Recently, I had to hire a graphic designer and I came across a freelancer’s profile on about.me. His introduction and portfolio was so impressive that I decided to speak to him about my assignment and 3 days after, he was onboard for a long term contract assignment. Social media has tremendous potential for freelancers. From creating content, to sharing it and gaining new clients, you can do even more and all for free. The successful freelancers effectively utilize social media to create their personal brand.

4. Pick your first few assignments wisely

For a new comer into the world of freelancing, the only asset is the praise and publicity they receive from their clients. Unless you promote your talent with positive recommendation from your past clients, there no way people will trust on your expertise in professional projects. To begin with, be flexible with your pricing but not the quality of work that your pick to executive. What more? Participate in contests and promotional events for publicity. Utilize social media, friends and family references to find about projects that promote newbies into this field.

5. Build a portfolio

Foliolink, Weebly, Pixpa are few websites that offer you all tools and tags to create your online portfolio. Your do not have to be a coder to work on these. An online portfolio is a great way to tell your story, your creativity, talent and passion.

6. Where to find work – find out

Freelancing is overwhelming, some days are lucky than others. The days when you have no new assignment might pull you into “is it worth doing” trap, so stay active always. There are lot of websites to exhibit your content, blogs, photos, videos and network with like minded people. Have courage to talk to potential clients, do not hesitate to send introduction emails, make cold call to companies and ask friend for references, that’s most likely how freelancing business picks up.

Freelancing is a not just an option but a career choice by many who love being their own boss. You searching for freelance photographer jobs is not something to be looked down at. Check out freelancing jobs on sheroes here - Freelancing Jobs

Written by Meetu Khanduja