I’m Starting a Freelance Photography Business
It’s been over a year since I last posted on this thing, but I’ve got some news to share: I’m starting a photography business as a side-hustle and I have no idea what I’m doing or where it will take me.
I’ve wanted to become an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember; a lot of which dates back to when I was a young kid that would find any way possible to make an extra buck. Whether it was negotiating a $2 raise to my bi-weekly $3 allowance that my parents paid me for cutting the lawn at my childhood home, rummaging through old toys to sell at neighborhood yard sales, or knocking on doors after snow storms to shovel lawns around the neighborhood, I was always looking for ways to make money of my own. While I’ve spent my time as a “professional” (still weird for me to say about myself) working a career in the more traditional sense, that curiosity of exploring new hobbies, interests, skills, and how all of those could culminate into other streams of income has never left me.
One of those areas of curiosity that I’ve revisited and explored a lot more of over the last year or so has been photography. Photography, much like the entrepreneurial ambitions I have, has always been something I’ve loved. I have a very distinct memory from when I was a kid of completely disassembling a disposable camera because I wanted to know how it worked. I figured out a way to make the flash go off by connecting it to a 9V battery and examined all of the inner-workings of the gears that make the ever so satisfying “click”. I was also the expert user of our family’s “super fancy” 2MP digital camera that we must have gotten in 2003 (around the time my youngest sister was born) and was always fascinated by the analog SLRs that my late grandfather carried around with him. When I got a job at Best Buy during my senior year in high school, my favorite department to work in was the photography department because I got to talk to people all day about how cool all of these DSLRs were (while also getting to play around with them when things were slow at the store).
It was around that time, however, that I stopped having as much of a fixation on standalone cameras. It was also around that time when I got my first smartphone: an iPhone 4 that I got as a graduation present before going away from college (coincidence? I think not). Having a camera in my pocket everywhere I went was awesome! I could take so many pictures! The world was my oyster, but I quickly found that I rarely took any pictures. I had this tremendous piece of technology that I was carrying with me everywhere I went, but didn’t actually use it in a way that could satisfy my deep seeded love for photography.
A new spark for photography, however, hit me last year when we were at the height of the pandemic in NYC. I found myself watching a lot of YouTube and seeing photographers like Peter McKinnon post amazing things about what he could do with a camera and his imagination. I dove into research about different types of cameras, started thinking about how I could make a YouTube channel of my own (more on that later), and learned about the creative ways cameras could be used. I ended grabbing a Canon EOS 250D (my first DSLR!) in August of last year and started learning about the exposure triangle and how to take pictures in the wild. To get out of the apartment, I’d go on (masked-up) walks around the city just to get comfortable snapping pictures and testing my (lack of) skill in playing with ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. I had a ton of fun with it and ended up subscribing to Adobe Lightroom to help in editing the photos I was taking. I’ve tried to be much more intentional about documenting the things I do or places I go and it’s been a lot of fun to look back on these memories.
I quickly learned that I love the process of scouting out locations, taking some shots, bringing them home with me, editing them, and marveling at the ok job I was doing at actually taking pictures. There was one day in January, however, that I truly realized how much I loved the process of getting out there with my camera. I was walking around Long Island City one afternoon and was able to snap the shot below of the Manhattan Skyline towering over the East River. I loved it so much that I felt compelled enough to get it printed and framed to hang in the living room of our new home in Jersey City.
Manhattan Skyline as seen from Long Island City
Photography has this amazing power of being able to capture so much in a single frame. We’ve seen this especially ring true in the past year with all of the pictures that have emerged from protests, hospitals, and moments of suffering. The striking pictures of people everywhere wearing masks, standing 6 feet apart in lines at grocery stores that wrap around the block, and sitting in spray painted circles at public parks that encourage distancing seem to be the norm nowadays, but photography also has the amazing ability to capture pure joy.
An incredibly fun experience for me this past summer was getting to take engagement photos with my now wife. It was fun (and slightly awkward) to be the subject of a photo shoot in public, but I absolutely love the end result. It also still gives me a ton of joy when I see pictures of other couples having just as much fun in similar pictures. It’s these types of experiences that I’d love to play a part in capturing, which is where this idea of testing out this freelance photography thing has come from. I don’t really know what I’m doing, how to find clients, and if the pictures I’ll take will end up being things that others will seek out, but I’ll never know unless I try! I’ll probably get started by offering up my time to couples, dog owners, couples with dogs, and people looking for solo shots in exchange for buying me lunch, but will expand it from there to see where it takes me. If you or anyone you know is looking for some “professional” photos, hit me up and I’ll be happy to take you on pro-bono as I start building up my portfolio 😃.
As Adrian – one of my favorite YouTube creators (@BarkAndJack) – recently said on a video he posted this week, “getting on with it” is the only way you can test a hypothesis you have about something you want to try. By just getting started with something you’re interested in or curious about – right now – you open yourself up to so many potential future opportunities, which can get the flywheel of your personal growth spinning.
I’m really excited to see where this takes me and look forward to updating you all along the way.
Talk soon,
Nick
