I often get email from high school and college students who suddenly want to become professional photographers. It's been amazing to me that the majority of them can not write a grammatically-correct sentence, much less run a spell-checker before clicking "Send"!
It seems that they stumble upon my website, say "Oh wow, that's awesome! I want 'ta do that!", and then scribble out an email as if they are Twittering a friend. It's flattering to my ego but sad.
Here's a sentence from a recent email: "I am also wondering how long have you started your own photography and
if you can, please send me some more information on your photographys."
My "photographys"? What is that exactly? How long have I "started"? Umm.... once? Or are you implying that I'm not past the starting point yet? That sentence was from a college student. The rest of the email was not any better, and I didn't know by the end of the email if she wanted to become a model, a photographer, or both.
One other thing that I see constantly, "I" should be capitalized! "i" by itself is not a word. It's a letter!
I've helped many people over the years by giving advice and pointing them in the right direction, but for any student listening realize first and foremost that professional photography is a business! Act professional and write professional. I don't want to waste my time replying to someone who seems to be bored and wasting their own time.
From now on I'm going to start doing what I recently read Lou Jones say in a magazine article. He replies to inquires and tells students to email him back on a specific date at a specific time, say two weeks away. I believe he claimed that the technique eliminates 80-90% of the people. The majority have probably forgotten all about their new-found calling by then, and the rest are likely to be sincerely interested.
For anyone reading who falls in the later category, the best advice I can give is realize that there is not a shortage of highly creative people in the world. There are thousands upon thousands of them. And unless you restrict yourself to a small, local market and never desire to grow beyond that for the rest of your left, you will be competing with ALL of them. Today the internet makes it easy to sell your goods and services to anyone in the world. The trade-off is that you are now competing with everyone else in the world.
Being creative is not enough. Your talents are useless in less you have extensive technical skill to bring to life whatever you can imagine and consistently at will. Any amateur can randomly create spectacular photographs, being able to do so at will whenever called to do is a large part of being a professional. Technical skill includes equipment knowledge and selection, lighting, operating in diverse environments, and extensive computer skills in the digital darkroom (among many, many other things). Plus, you'll need to know about business and marketing.
I would advise any student to take as many, if not more, classes in business and information technology than in photography. In fact, I would strongly suggest a college major in business with a double-major in information technology or computer science (or a minor at a minimum) and then follow that up by going to one of the top photography schools in the country.
Finally, if you are not willing to spend the rest of your life constantly learning, then don't even bother! The pace at which things changed during your grandfather's time was significantly more than in your great-grandfather's time. The pace at which things have changed in your parents' lifetime far exceeds that of your grandparents. The rate of change in your lifetime will be more than you could ever image. The rate of change, of change itself, is ever increasing at an exponential rate. Likewise, the rate at which entire businesses, business models, and people's skillsets become obsolete is ever increasing. Plan for it.
If none of the above deters you, then go for it!
