Like any trade, photography and videography are skills learned over time through lots of practice, patience and unplanned screw-ups. Don’t be fooled! Only through extensive client experience and acquisition of expensive equipment comes the ability for someone to call himself or herself a professional photographer/videographer.

In order to call yourself a “Professional,” I personally believe you have to go through 5 different levels before you can call yourself a true professional. Only after understanding these levels, I’ll teach you a way to evolve the process…

By starting as an Occasional Photographer and Hobbyist, you start learning the basic skills of photography/videography. In this phase, you might own a camera under $1,000. These 2 levels are devoted to those learning the craft. They may or may not have taken classes on photography but aspire to become better.

As an Amateur, you start acquiring higher-end equipment usually between $1,000-$3,000+. These are the artists that are devoting more time to learning the trade. They usually take on projects at a lesser budget and will offer their services for free to gain experience.

After reaching the Semi-Professional level, this person will start taking gigs on a regular basis. In many cases, the Semi-Professional level person is very creative and eager to take on projects but lacks the business ability to take their profession to the next level. They’ll invest between $5,000-$10,000+ in their inventory of equipment. And, they realize that when engaged to do larger projects, they’ll have to rent equipment to insure best outcome for their clients.

Usually, when someone reaches the Professional Level, this means they’re the best in the field and they get paid on the higher end of the spectrum for their work. It takes years of experience to reach this level. And, at this level, the professional usually has over $20,000 in equipment. In addition, the person is continuously purchasing new equipment, educating themselves and has a book of business based upon referrals of previous business.

Although I fall within the listed requirements above of being a professional, I still don’t really consider myself at that level as yet. This is even though I’ve acquired and/or invested more than $20,000 in camera and audio gear (not to mention the gear I’ve rented) to better help facilitate my client’s message since I specialize in Public Relations. I’ve produced TV commercials, web marketing videos and lots of B-Roll to help facilitate stories on local and national newscasts across the country. Video I personally shot has been seen on CNN/HLN, Fox News, CBS, NBC and ABC Evening Newscasts, as well as hundreds/thousands of local stations across the country. But, I still don’t consider myself a professional. Don’t let my statement fool you though…This doesn’t mean I don’t produce professional work!

As an agency owner of Chemistry Multimedia with over 20+ years shooting video/photographs, I have learned that there are many different ways to accommodate my clients.   I’ve evaluated my strengths and weaknesses and in many cases now, I’ve transitioned to taking the producer role while hiring those that will facilitate my client’s needs that fit their budget. This means I manage the professionals I hire.

My clients base most of their business decisions regarding video/photo projects on their budget. And, in knowing that, I’ve learned to walk away from potential clients that have unrealistic expectations and budgets while other colleagues of mine will chase those leads until they realize the cost of doing so puts them out of business. But, with any budget, I can easily determine what type of ‘quality’ the client will get. I can hire a crew within their budget to get the job done. Of course, with a bigger budget, I can produce a better quality outcome for the client.

My current set of clients mostly consists of national non-profits, so I have to stay within a very limited budget to acquire their desired outcomes. There are many reasons to shoot photos/video. You can shoot for artistic reasons, commercial reasons, professional reasons, for the media, and now, social media reasons.

THE SECRET…

Most organizations now shoot for social media purposes thereby they try to publish the photos as quickly as possible after an event in an effort to get the exposure desired for the event.

I consult and represent a couple high profile non-profit foundations. In saying this, in many cases when I’m producing an event and can’t get behind the camera, I get the commitment from at least 3 people with cameras at the event to take photos. I don’t care what type of camera they have. I don’t care what experience they have. In some cases, I’ll give them my $3,000 camera to shoot with! I also tell them to shoot as many photos as possible. And, when they think they haven’t shot enough, I have them shoot more!

The BIG PICTURE here is that by having thousands of photos to choose from, I can quickly edit all these photos with software called Lightroom. This allows me to choose the best photos quickly out of the thousands of photos taken. Then, usually within a very short period of time, I can edit, crop, caption and post the most amazing photos of the event therefore giving the allusion that you paid high quality photographers to attend.

*NOTE: With this secret being disclosed, don’t always count on getting the pictures you need. You have to disclose a specific shot list to your helpers to insure they are looking for what photos you, as the organizer want.

With the above strategy taking place, I can say that I can now produce an event and still provide amazing photos of that event without even being behind a camera.   That doesn’t mean that I still don’t shoot! I carry 40 lbs of camera gear almost everywhere I go, because I still strive to be that awesome photographer whenever I need to be.

If you are interested in talking more about our strategies or would like to hire Chemistry Multimedia, please call us at 314-603-2866.