How Do I Become a Freelance Photographer?

Video Transcript

"This is Anthony and I am going to talk about how to become a freelance photographer. The first thing that you want to remember about becoming a freelance photographer is can I go on assignment in a moment's notice because when you are freelancing it is kind of your day revolves around your schedule and who you are working for but it could all change in a heart beat and I know first hand how that goes. That is one of the things that you really need to remember is am I flexible, am I willing to do what I have to do to get the assignment and get the job done? Number two, is how to become a freelance photographer, how do you break into it? Most freelance photographers approach newspapers, organizations, that need photographers, that need spot photography, a great place to look for these types of situations would be newspapers. A lot of state capitals, a lot of school districts, a lot of sports, they might just need someone right away and then you could step in. Another important factor of having this piece of equipment is essential to becoming freelance photographer, you need a cell phone. I used to have at least two cell phones and a pager when I first started because if you are starting to really getting successful people are going to be calling you and if you don't pick up that phone or answer that text they are going to call the next person and it is sort of irritating at times but if you have that type of personality that knows how to return a phone call quickly to an editor or to anybody offering you an assignment, then you'll do pretty well and number two, you are going to want to get a portfolio together because nobody is going to hire you sight unseen. They are going to want to see some work whether it is a portfolio. Even nowadays I feel a blog will do, just something so they see who you are, what you've done and what you can do. Then from there you start to build up a reputation for what kind of work you do, how fast you can do it and what type of style you like. I always tell my students as they always told me develop a nitch, develop something that you are really good at, whether it be political, sports, it could be really just about anything. One of my colleagues used to do conventions. He was just a great convention photographer and he lived in Chicago where there are lots of conventions so he kind of had a market on the convention angle where they would call him up and he would go. Freelancing in general is not anything that you can depend on and that is something that as I got a little more mature I found to be not a very good aspect of being a freelance photographer but if you can build up your client base where you have someone calling you once, twice, three times a week you have that confidence that you are going to be able to make that money. So that is always something I try to warn people about when you are working as a freelance photographer and that is essentially how you become a freelance photographer."