Finding and Communicating With Clients

Tips For Finding Photography Clients It is hard for me to believe, but there are some people who can very naturally approach and talk to people.  On top of that, some of those may also have the advantage of being well established in their community.  Those people may not need the tips offered here.  For everyone else, here are some ideas you can use to help you find photography clients. Practice Working With People It starts with being willing to practice working with people.  It may not be comfortable for you.  Believe me, I get it if you don’t find it easy to talk to someone you don’t know.  Not only do I feel totally uncomfortable doing that, the other person often feels that, making it doubly awkward. Don’t give up on it.  Just like you can learn how to make good images, you can learn how to work with people. Think about what it took to learn how to use your camera. Maybe you feel like you are still learning how to use your camera (I know I am), but learning how to do anything requires effort and practice.  Some have a natural gift to learn something and excel at it, but most of us have to work hard and practice to become proficient with a skill. Talking to perfect strangers and working through to the point where they may become your clients may never become easy for you. It may never be something you look forward to. But no matter how challenging you find it as you get started, everyone can get good enough at it to win clients. Start With Kids One of the easiest ways to get started practicing with people is to reach out to those around you and ask if you can do a shoot with their kids. Parents are usually very happy to have someone make pictures of their children as long as the camera is not pointed at them. Plus you get to work with the kids.  Kids may bring some of their own challenges in being able to sit still enough or follow directions, but they generally are not worried about how they look or get anxious just because you point a camera at them.  Adults tend to freeze up considerably as soon as a “real” camera is pointed at them. Ask your neighbors, the people at your church. If you aren’t completely confident in your photography skills yet, let them know you are practicing but they can have any of the images they want for free if you can practice with their children. That said, DO NOT PRACTICE ON YOUR KIDS! There are only so many pictures your own kids are going to let you make of them. You don’t want to waste them as you are learning how to do lighting or have the right settings on your camera. It doesn’t make a ton of sense, but the neighbor kid seems to be fine with making a lot of pictures and sort of having fun with it while your own kids find it a chore very quickly. Farmer’s Market It may not be called this, but every town has some kind of weekend gathering place where people come together to sell various goods.  You can usually buy an inexpensive spot at the market, set up a photo booth of sorts, and then just practice your skills at talking to people and inviting them to come and make a picture with you. You don’t have to be perfect with your lighting or camera settings. You don’t have to be great at talking to people. This is a chance to practice with a wide variety of people and improve all of these skills at the same time. These markets tend to be in the middle of the day when there is very harsh sunlight, so you will need some kind of structure to shoot under.  You could ask around to borrow a pop up shade,