For "T" and anyone else looking to establish a career as a professional photographer, here are just a few bits of advice.

1. Build your portfolio now. Don't ever stop. You may not have the time, resources or contacts to push your work now, but when you do, you want to make sure you have a knockout portfolio.

2. Find your style–this is how you can separate yourself from other photographers. How do you do this? Shoot, study, and shoot some more. It may be inspired by some other talented photographer(s)like Mike and then tweaked with your own take on things. Regardless, work on establishing your style. That goal is to have someone look at a shot by "T" without a photo credit and be able to say, "That has to be a 'T' shot…I just know it

3. Learn the business of photography. Shooting really is the easy part. The challenge is offering the complete package to potential clients. How do you do this? Take business and marketing classes in college. Study books. Ask questions to more established photographers.

Lastly, this industry is certainly facing a challenging time right now, but it needs invested, passionate newcomers like yourself. Commit yourself to taking care of not only your own needs as a photographer and future provider (to a family), but to taking care of the industry's needs as well. It is only as healthy as we keep it. Best of luck!

http://www.adambarkerphotography.com

Excellent post Mike.
My thoughts.
1. Follow your dreams – but know exactly what those dreams are
2. Never do anything just for money
3. Understand that photography is a business, a career – look to your future and make decisions accordingly.

Mike,

When I saw your blog title on the link to my page I thought, "uh-oh – something's wrong." Relieved to see that's not the case.

I'm not a photographer, but a creative like you. I got my kick-in-the-head to get off my duff and start word-smithing again because of you and while it's been a slow silk road to China, it's not been futile. So, thanks. I think.

There are three things I do daily that can be helpful to any creative:
1. Write. doesn't matter what, but it has to be something, even if it's editing text on the website. I'll guess for a photographer the Daily Shoot is a good idea.
2. Think. I am a writer. I'm not the job I do sitting at the desk. I am a writer – it's remarkable what that shift in thinking has done.
3. Network. Writing groups, publishers' associations, editor contact, book signings, other websites, whatever it takes to get my face in everyone else's. Hopefully they like what they see.

Hey "T". I was (and will always feel I still am) in your shoes not too long ago. I knew exactly how I wanted to live my life and show the world around me. The trouble was figuring out how to start. I had all of the passion in the world, but no way to jump start the momentum. I spent a year traveling, guiding and doing a lot of soul searching until I became so fed up with not making any progress that I gave myself no other options. I decided that I would put all of my eggs in one basket and do whatever it would take to get more experience, get better, build a portfolio, learn the business and get out there.

A few things came together (definitely not all at once and not as soon as I would have liked) and I ended up getting an office job working with a great adventure photographer. That is where I started learning more about the business and making connections, but the shooting was still up to me.

I worked my way into the local newsgroup and started working a few days a week at the local papers. I was doing everything possible to just get better.

I had already been through a formal Photojournalism education in college, but working in that situation taught me how to be a freelancer. I did this for almost two years before stepping out on my own, and if I thought I worked hard before, I work doubly as hard now. But it is also doubly rewarding.

This is just my experience. Everyone has their own way of getting to where they are, but there are similarities across the board.

1. Work hard and never give up.
2. Learn your craft and learn the business.
3. Be a forward thinker.

You are young and already thinking and feeling all of this and I want to give you props for that. I'm not sure what your education plans are, but take a look around and see what might offer you the best opportunities and take the time to talk to as many photographers as possible to get as much feedback as you can. You may be able to land an internship or job with another photographer before you even get out of high school which puts you about 5 years ahead of me. Reading what you wrote and knowing how you feel, I would say that if I was currently looking for an intern or someone to help me out in your area, you would be first in line.

I'm not sure where you are in Oregon, but I know a few photographers there that may need some extra assistance here and there. No guarantees, but it wouldn't hurt to try. Please feel free to get in touch with me any time.

Keep charging!

A few thoughts here for you T:

When I was 15, I thought being a sports photographer would be one of the coolest jobs on the planet. I also wanted to be an astronaut and a pro tennis player. Tennis didn't work out but I went on to study physics (thinking NASA) and at the end of those studies and after working in physics realized that wasn't my cup of tea either. So I headed the call of the outdoors and brought my camera along. As some others have said here, with enough passion anything is possible.

I just finished writing a book on Adventure Sports Photography (Digital Masters: Adventure Photography) a few months ago – it will be out this fall and the last two chapters talk about what it takes to start a career. While I can't include everything I covered in the book here there are a few key points that others have hit on in their comments:

1. Not only do you need passion as others have said, but you have to want it big time. It has to be an obsession. This is key!

2. You need to work extremely hard. (Part of number 1) And you need to be technically excellent with all of your skills these days (photoshop, digital workflow, etc.) Though these can be farmed out if you can afford it.

3. You need some talent – but that can be learned too – with enough passion. Also, taking the photos is the easy part. Or at least it should be. Running the business side of things is the hard part. By that I mean getting work, not the day to day stuff.

4. As others have said it is a business so I'd highly recommend either getting a degree in that or doing some serious research.

5. If you can get a job as an intern or assisting other photographers, especially now when you are young, that can really help cement what you want to do. I was lucky enough as a young chap to assist a local photographer when I was in junior high and high school and that was a huge plus for my career.

6. The best advice I ever got was "keep your overhead as low as possible." I didn't fully understand that when I was starting out but it has been sage advice over the course of my career.

And just in case you find them useful (hopefully this is ok Mike) you can also check out my newsletters which are chocked full of info – lots of folks love it – here is the link to all the back issues:

http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/backissues.htm

Note: Mr Mike Tittel is on the cover of the latest newsletter – he was kind enough to model for me a few weeks ago when I was out in SLC for the OR show.

Great post Mike. Keep up the great work!

Thanks everyone for the great advice! Hearing more about the business aspect of the profession really helps. My passion is taking the photos as I wrote about in my e-mail above. Although, it is even more clear now that it takes more than that to get to where you all are. Each with your own stories of how you got where you are, yet all of you share not just the passion but the drive that got you there.

Thanks a bunch Mike for getting this out there, for your advice, and thanks to everyone else as well.

Tyler "T"

Mike, thanks for the great blog posts. I'm just starting out, getting my feet wet and reading your blog is encouraging, motivating and inspirational. You are great.