# Starting a photo business assistance a teen?



## photoman720 (Jun 17, 2007)

Alright, i am a teen who wants to start a photo business. What are some things i could do at 15. Maybe freelancing? Thanks in advance!


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## DeepSpring (Jun 17, 2007)

Are you looking to do portraits?

I'm only 17 and have my own little thing. First off you should just take a lot of pictures and try to build your portfolio up. Offer your friends free photo shoots as long as they credit the pics to you on their myspace. Overtime you start to invade everyones myspace and people will message you "hey I saw the pics you took of so and so, they look nice, I'd liek to hire you to do mine.

You can set up a myspace account and try and network a bit with that and you should also, if you want to be taken more seriously, set up a real website. 

I would say the main thing now tho is just keep taking pictures and practicing. Eventually you can get some business cards and make little flyers to hang up around town on various stores bulletin boards


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## photoman720 (Jun 17, 2007)

alright! I will try that! Any more ideas that might deal with potraits or other photo opportunities?


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## smyth (Jun 17, 2007)

maybe go try shooting some sports events, build up a portfolio, and maybe eventually try selling them to your local paper or whatever.


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## Big Mike (Jun 18, 2007)

It depends on what you want to shoot.  'Freelance' doesn't tell us anything...that just means that you don't work for a company in particular.  

It helps to shoot what you like and what you know.  So if you are into a sport, then shoot that.  If you like people, then shoot that.  Build up a portfolio and go from there.  

There are any number of ways to make money with photography...but you have to find a market for your shots.  Keeping in mind that you are 15 and probably don't have a lot of experience...you will need to find people that won't mind about your age.  Shooting weddings, for example, might be a tough sell.  Shooting portraits of kids your age (for their parents) might be a better idea.  Also, consider that these days...most teens are probably active on the internet...MSN, Facebook etc...all that stuff.  They usually have avatars or some sort of photos of themselves...but they are usually pretty poor photos.  You could go around offering to take better quality photos for them to use on their on-line communities.  Charge them $20 a piece, or something like that.


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## photoman720 (Jun 18, 2007)

Big Mike said:


> It depends on what you want to shoot.  'Freelance' doesn't tell us anything...that just means that you don't work for a company in particular.
> 
> It helps to shoot what you like and what you know.  So if you are into a sport, then shoot that.  If you like people, then shoot that.  Build up a portfolio and go from there.
> 
> There are any number of ways to make money with photography...but you have to find a market for your shots.  Keeping in mind that you are 15 and probably don't have a lot of experience...you will need to find people that won't mind about your age.  Shooting weddings, for example, might be a tough sell.  Shooting portraits of kids your age (for their parents) might be a better idea.  Also, consider that these days...most teens are probably active on the internet...MSN, Facebook etc...all that stuff.  They usually have avatars or some sort of photos of themselves...but they are usually pretty poor photos.  You could go around offering to take better quality photos for them to use on their on-line communities.  Charge them $20 a piece, or something like that.


Alright thanks! I meant ?freelance? as taking photos for some local newspapers. How do i go about doing this?


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## DeepSpring (Jun 18, 2007)

photoman720 said:


> Alright thanks! I meant ?freelance? as taking photos for some local newspapers. How do i go about doing this?



I haven't done it myself but I am planning on trying to this summer. There are a few small papers in my area and I was planning on going in with a portfolio of various kinds of shots from portraits to sports to events to show that I can cover anything and also all of the issues of my high schools paper because I am the photographer for them. And with any luck they will hire me to go shoot. The pictures in most of em are not so great, I'm assuming it's whoever is writing the article w/ a little p&s.


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## tr0gd0o0r (Jun 18, 2007)

Where are you from?  

If the answer is a smallish town, it is likely, from my experience, that the photo editor at the local paper will be fairly open, and enthusiastic about someone interested in the business.  If you just email/call him/her, s/he will probably be happy to give you the opportunity to ride along with one of the photogs.  This could easily lead to an internship, and eventually to being called for extra assignments.  Unfortunately, none of these things will pay much, if anything.  Getting into the newspaper business is tough, and with so many people wanting to get into the business, it will be difficult to get any money out of it at age 15.  However, it is very possible you will be able get a ton of great experience.


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## Christie Photo (Jun 26, 2007)

photoman720 said:


> ...as taking photos for some local newspapers. How do i go about doing this?



When I finished HS, I found I had some time on my hands.  I wrote a local weekly newspaper saying I was available.  I got a call within a week.  I shot football games at two local schools every weekend.  It was a bunch of fun, and I got a photo credit every week.  35 years later, folks still mention this.

Good luck!
Pete


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## photoman720 (Jun 26, 2007)

Christie Photo said:


> When I finished HS, I found I had some time on my hands.  I wrote a local weekly newspaper saying I was available.  I got a call within a week.  I shot football games at two local schools every weekend.  It was a bunch of fun, and I got a photo credit every week.  35 years later, folks still mention this.
> 
> Good luck!
> Pete


Cool! I will try this. Also did you get paid for doing this?


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## jstuedle (Jun 26, 2007)

In your spare time, look into the local community college and see if they have a degree program tailored to your desires and/or needs.  If not, look for courses  to help develop your eye, understand lighting and shadows, seeing and understanding color, studio lighting and so on. Also look at studying boring stuff like ethics, copyright and current law related to photography. Never stop learning, to do so only lets us become bored with our craft. There is nothing wrong with shooting all day and spending a couple nights a week studying.



EDIT: I went back and re-read your age. Might want to put off the "shoot all day, study at night suggestion. Duh....


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## Christie Photo (Jun 27, 2007)

photoman720 said:


> Cool! I will try this. Also did you get paid for doing this?



Yup.  I came up with a per print charge.  If I remember correctly, I would make 8 or 10 prints each week.  They usually printed most of them.  Since it was a small, local paper, they liked to get prints that had a variety of players so they could include more familes in their paper.

They usually made their own photos, but night action shots were a bit tougher so they liked what I did.  I had my own darkroom and I could deliver prints in few days...  time enough for their next issue.

Good luck!


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