# Interesting article for those thinking of going Professional



## table1349 (Apr 17, 2016)

4 Artist's Instincts that You Need to Overcome Before Transforming Your Photography from Hobby to Career | Fstoppers


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## dennybeall (Apr 17, 2016)

Very good article. All of these things have been said and debated on this and other like forums. They are true of the photography business and slightly modified are true of just about any service related business.


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## tirediron (Apr 17, 2016)

To summarize:  "Give the customer what _*they*_ want, not what you think they should have!"


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## table1349 (Apr 17, 2016)

tirediron said:


> To summarize:  "Give the customer what _*they*_ want, not what you think they should have!"


It's amazing how many fail to comprehend that simple fact of business.


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## tirediron (Apr 17, 2016)

gryphonslair99 said:


> tirediron said:
> 
> 
> > To summarize:  "Give the customer what _*they*_ want, not what you think they should have!"
> ...


I've had clients say to me, "We tried this with so-and-so, but all he/she wanted to do was..."  I make lots of suggestions to the client, and always appraise them of possible issues, but at the end of the day, if they want to pose in a parking lot at high noon in black & white costumes with big, pink bows and huge hats....


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## table1349 (Apr 17, 2016)

Too many professional photographers these days put themselves out there rather than photography.  From my experience, sounds similar to yours, you sit down with the client and talk to them, what they are looking for, a particular style, theme, etc.  Once you have the idea of what they want you offer suggestion that might help round out what they are looking for.  Seldom do most customers know exactly what they want.  They have a good idea which is what a successful business photographer helps them build upon.

In fact it was fairly recently we had a newbie that indicated that his business model was going to be based upon given the customer what he wanted.  Haven't seen that member lately.  Would be interesting to see how that whole "It's all about me" business model is working out.


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## DrumsOfGrohl (Apr 19, 2016)

I'm just curious here.  Do you professionals find yourself sacrificing the Art? Do you lose the passion for art by having to conform to whatever the client is willing to pay for? Do you lose some expression?


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## Overread (Apr 19, 2016)

DrumsOfGrohl said:


> I'm just curious here.  Do you professionals find yourself sacrificing the Art? Do you lose the passion for art by having to conform to whatever the client is willing to pay for? Do you lose some expression?



That assumes the professional only produces for the client and not for themselves. Pros can do stuff outside of hired sessions; so sometimes what they work for might not be their art; but they can do that outside of those situations. 


Other times a professional has a style or method that is their "art" which specific clients look for and desire to have. So in some cases the photographer has even more freedom because they are being asked to be creative and being paid to do it. 


And in reality you get clients at both ends; those who want to define every detail and those who really haven't got a clue what they want except that you will provide it (the latter can prove to be the harder to work with because it generally means a lot of revisions as they dislike what they see because they've not clearly communicated their thoughts to tell you what they want). 



In the end yes most professional work will be repetitive; what the client wants and if yo udo it for long enough you'll have  a stock series of formulas for certain shots.


But like I said it depends on your market as to how free you are;


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## manaheim (Apr 19, 2016)

The way I did it sometimes was "Ok, cool, we can do that. Hey... after, would you mind if we did a quick shot where we do XX?"

Or I just do like John says, recommend, make note of the potential issues if they don't go my way, and then shrug when it all blows up in their face.

That works a lot. I do that in my full time professional business life as well.

The rules apply pretty much universally across businesses, it's just that the "art" of it is not really some big magical thing... it is a combination of instinct, experience and intelligence.


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## astroNikon (Apr 19, 2016)

You do with the clients wants and inform them of the caveats.

and what are you supposed to do when you show up at a wedding, the day is a miserable overcast day, and the church is dark from no sunlight at all.  Are you supposed to ask them to reschedule or go to a different venue ?   Ha!    you get paid for your expertise.  Informing the client of the caveats in one way or another is the right thing to do.


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