You love taking photos, you might be already very good at it because you’ve being doing it for years as a very passionate amateur photographer or you might just be starting out. Either way, you’d like to explore the idea of becoming a professional photographer.
Where do you even start? Your first step is quite simple, all you need to do is to shoot, that’s it. The very hard times and choices will arrive later, for now just have fun taking photos and don’t think too much!
What should you shoot? Anything and everything. You will need to find your niche and the only way to find it is to try as many genres of photography as possible.
Just take your camera and go out in the street and start photographing, or just stay home and experience with what you find there, inanimate objects, family, pets. ANYTHING goes, it’s so easy! I used to go out in the street or nature and photograph things I found interesting, such as details of buildings, trees and cityscapes.
It’s going to take a while (months or years) before you realize what you are really passionate about and you’ll have to keep going until you get there. Until you know what it is that you are really crazy about. That’s going to be your niche and the narrower your niche, the better.
My passion for food photography didn’t start until pretty recently, before I was all about portraiture and street photography and had no idea I enjoyed photographing food so much. Also, I believe that developing your food photography portfolio is somewhat easier compared to other photography genres, such as portrait or product photography.
You don’t need anybody else in order to create your food images (at least in the beginning), all you need is some food, a window and a camera. Those three things are enough to work on your craft and learn the two pillars of photography: lighting and composition.
I do not recommend choosing your niche based on factors other than passion. Why? Because no matter how talented you are, your life as a photographer is most likely going to be very hard in the beginning and I strongly believe that passion is the only force that can help you break through the never ending challenges a photographer normally faces. My two cents.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please share your experience with the community by commenting down below. If you enjoyed this information, please share it on your own channels.
Thank You and Happy Shooting!