To think this might work?

[HenrysHome]

I’m thinking of starting a little photography business as an escape from my v stressful job. I’ve never done anything like this before and am terrified I’m making an awful decision!

I am thinking of offering this package -
Up to 2 hours photo shoot at your home or local location of choice
30 edited photos to keep and print/ distribute as much as you like saved as a digital file

For £150?
I would do ‘normal’ shoots as well as birthdays/ new babies/ graduations etc.

I would need 10 sessions a month to keep my current salary although I’m not worried about the pay cut in the first instance. Does this sound doable/ a reasonable price/ something people would be interested in? Is it totally unrealistic?

Please be honest (but kind! I’m terrified!)

Are you leaving your job right away?
Also, what experience in photography do you have?

Do you already have a good portfolio of work, a reputation and an online presence etc? I think £150 is very expensive for a photo shoot with a photographer who doesn’t already have a good reputation and a strong portfolio and especially if you don’t have your own studio.

I have a close friend who started a photography business which is now fairly successful, but it has taken her years to build up a client base and a good portfolio of images to use on her website and the experience of how to take good photos in different location, of babies/ animals and other uncooperative clients etc. She also started off offering photo shoots for around the £30-£50 mark so that she was very competitively priced and was able to build up clients.

You can’t just go in and charge £150 without a good reputation and a good portfolio of your examples.

It can work - but be prepared for a lot of leg work for getting the jobs. Friends of mine do this and say that the admin side and getting clients takes up the majority of time as opposed to shooting/editing.

Fuck me your job must be stressful if you think this will be less stressful. Arguing about price location, composition, everyone knowing more about your job than you do. Some people being reluctant to be photographed, weather, expensive equipment, sub ideal settings in people’s houses (and how to tell them) time spent editing......etc

I think if you’re looking for something less stressful, this probably isn’t it I’m afraid. Unless you have enough income for this to be a hobby business.

Start doing it one day a week and see if there is a market for it. Don't quit right away, you could be left with nothing. If you can afford it go part time first.

10 doesn't sound like a lot but it really is, if you think about how often people have professional photographs taken. Also, a lot of people would want weekends, and cramming 10 photoshoots into four weekends is optimistic.

Also, have you thought about costs? I'm a bit worried that you think if you do 10 photoshoots at £150 each you'll have £1500, but there would be costs to take off that - at the very least travel, but also new or replacement equipment, which could swallow a huge chunk.

Do a few free sessions for friends and see how that works out time and expenses wise.
I'm assuming you have the knowledge and experience and a decent camera with a few different lenses? Lighting? Good graphics program to edit them?
It could work but you'll need to get a reputation as alot of this kind of work is word of mouth. Approach play centres etc see if you could offer a portrait session for the kids for nominal amount (would probably need to print the pics there and then) and x% off if the parents book a proper session... that sort of thing.
Didn't they do this as a challenge on The Apprentice one year? I think they set up a pop up in a mall.

£150 for you to come and take pictures in my own home? When you don't have an established reputation and portfolio? I think you're in cloud cuckoo land, sorry.

Also bear in mind 10 sessions a month is quite a lot to manage, especially when you are working on location and not in a studio; a 2 hour photo shoot is likely to take most of the day in terms of travelling, discussing what the client wants, setting up your equipment, playing around with your equipment to get the lighting right, the 2 hour shoot and then packing back down and travelling home. Chances are you will struggle to do more than one locational shoot in a day, especially in winter when hours of natural light are low. Realistically most people will want photo shoots done at the weekend and not a weekday so you will likely need every weekend to be booked up to manage 10 bookings a month. You will then have 60 photos to edit to a professional standard every week in addition to working hard to fill bookings and get clients and get your online profile out there.

I’m not saying it’s impossible but it will be hard and I think reliably making £1500 a month will be very very difficult unless you’re able to take a pay cut for several years or unless you already have some experience taking professional photos, some clients lined up and a good and varied portfolio of work.

10 doesn't sound like a lot but it really is, if you think about how often people have professional photographs taken.

Sorry, reading this back it's not clear what I meant - what I meant is it isn't something that you can rely on repeat custom for (if people come back to you again it's likely to be years later) so you need to find 10 new people each month. I suspect you'd find it quite easy to find your first few clients by tapping up people you already know, but finding client 43 is going to be tough because you'll have completely exhausted any existing pool you have.

What experience do you already have in portrait photography? There is so much more to it than taking the photo - composition, location, people skills and so on.

You haven’t said anything about why you think you’re a good photographer, and what equipment you have.

This is not the kind of business idea that you need to, or should, quit your job for. Start it on your days off, and see if you like it, and if your clients like you.

I’d be a bit wary about just providing digital. You can take great photos, that when they’re printed off in the kiosk at Boots look rubbish. Not great for your reputation. Note that I have no experience in this business so may be talking out of my arse, but I think that initially a package that includes one printed photo might help that.

Do you have experience as a photographer? It isn't clear from your post.

And please...
Get out of the mindset of calling it “a little photography business”.

Can you imagine a man saying “I have a little photography business?”. No, he’s say “I am a photographer” or “I own Photo-Company-Name”.

If you take photos for money then you are:

• a professional
• a business owner

Call it your little photography business and it screams hobbyist. I don’t want to pay £150 to someone with “a little business”. I’m not suggesting that I think you go around saying that to people - but it’s your mindset.

If you’re going to do this, be a successful photographer. Not the little woman playing at a little hobby!

There's certainly a gap in the market for this kind of casual non-wedding photoshoot, but for 150 a pop it would need to be a top notch experience. So proper professional images and a prompt turnaround. Have you looked into who would be your competitors locally?

By 'gap in the market' I should say that I live in the middle of nowhere and there's nobody within 50 miles who could do an outdoors family photoshoot for us when I looked recently. It was all studio stuff which wasn't what I was after. Basically, do your homework on what photography is available locally to you and what your client base might be after.

There’s no gap in the market in my area... it’s a market, yes - but plenty of people filling it. But if you’re good, and get your head around marketing yourself as well as photography, there’s no reason someone new can’t compete.

OP, I just read back my “little business” comments - I just wanted to add, I didn’t mean that to sound critical! I meant it in a cheering you on way! If you have a talent, recognise it - don’t undersell it in your own mindset

We had a baby photo shoot in our own hone and it was £50. She has an amazing portfolio and did a friends wedding photos too. I wouldn't pay £150

@Ellisandra you are so right! I see it so often with women. No one takes business x seriously unless the owner of business x takes it and themselves seriously.

Most of the decent photographers near me charge around 100 quid for location shoots...they do mini shoots for around 50.

I'm a keen amateur photographer and have offered to do shoots for my friends for free to try and build up a portfolio.

No gap in the market near me, either - I noticed when I had DS that all the local FB groups for anything related to babies were absolutely inundated with people advertising newborn/family photo shoots, both at home and in a studio, and wondered how there could possibly be the demand to keep them all going (I only know one person who had a newborn photo shoot)

How closely have you studied your market? What competitors are operating locally, how much do they charge and - most importantly - what is the quality of their work like and how much experience do they have? If your nearest local competitor has 15 years’ experience and the portfolio to back it up, and is charging £300, £150 could be an enticing price. If that same competitor is also charging £150, no one is going to pay you much more than £75.

Critically evaluate your work against theirs in as detached a way as possible. (Not easy I know when it’s your own work!) Is theirs better? If so, is that down to you needing better equipment, more practise... or are they just genuinely more talented?

Have you ever tried using sites like 500px to advertise your work for sale? There’s a lot of competition, but the comments alone can be helpful. Getty picked up a few of my images for sale, which was a lovely confidence boost - but no one has bought yet, which makes me think I’m probably a strong amateur rather than a professional in waiting. Be realistic about which you are.

Try dipping your toe in the water. Would friends or family help out by modelling for you? If you get any interest, could you do weekends only at first and keep your job on?

It’s by no means a terrible idea - just one that needs more thought and research.

Thank you for your replies everyone. It’s still very much in the early stages yet and obviously I’m nowhere near quitting my job at this point. I’ve just lined up a few people in my local area who are allowing me to do a free shoot for them as practice, they can keep the images digitally as a thank you. I just wanted a bit of feedback to know if it was a totally unrealistic idea or something I can build up as an escape route over time. Sounds like it has potential with a bit of hard work and I’m no stranger to working hard. I have had a look at some local photographers and they all seem to charge at least double for a very similar service so I thought £150 would be a good starting point (half of my established competitors rate) but maybe I need to drop it more to start off with? Thank y oh for the food for thought.

£300 for 2 hour photoshoot and 30 pics?
Are you talking wedding photography?