Expert: Don Wood - 10/22/2010

Question
QUESTION: I have an interest in photography and I'm pretty sure that's what i want to do as a career but I'm majoring in chemistry in college... can you give me some advice on how I can pursue photography as a career?

ANSWER: You need to take some business courses to help you in determining the prices you need to charge to fulfill your dreams of becoming a photographer. You will need to take some photographic courses to determine which area of photography you will prefer to do. A dose of reality is necessary here. Out of 10 photographers that start a year, 8 will fall out, 2 may last out a year, 1 may last more than 2 years, but most will not even last out the year. The basic truth is that taking pictures for a living requires a lot of training, patience, luck, and the ability to sit waiting for customers while enduring the strains of paying the rent, equipment, taxes, living expenses. The first 3 months of the year traditionally are the slackest of the year. Photography is an industry that is based mainly on sentiment which in a recession such as we are in now is difficult to make it. Customers for some reason prefer to eat, pay rent, etc rather than buy the pictures you produced for them. Pictures will never take the place of the above-mentioned living expenses. You will find it to be either feast or famine, either you have so much to do that you wonder if you can keep up the pace (a good Thing) or you're sitting waiting wondering if you can pay the rent this month or eat(bad Thing)this month.
All this being said photography is an excellent part-time activity which will give you the extra money to indulge in your paying hobby, photography. I'm not talking about commercial or other fields of photography which can be a little more stable than the portrait field, including, weddings, reunions, etc. You should probably consider broadening your knowledge of Chemistry, get a job in that field and dabbling in Photography on a part-time basis.
I do wish you well. Remember that the more training you get in both business and photography will help you become that 1 photographer that makes it past 2 years. If I can be of further assistance, please use this arena to contact me.

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QUESTION: I'm also writing a paper about photography for my writing class and i was wondering if you could tell me what you think what elements are needed to make a good photograph?

ANSWER: Imagination plays a key role in a good photograph. You need to be able to determine where to place the camera both as to height or other dimensions, the shutter speed, the focus, the f/stop, whether a shallow depth of field or a wide depth of field. All these play an important part in photographing a scene. You must also determine what you are trying to do with that picture, is it a memento to remember, is it trying to show someone how to do the action, is it both, does it show the amount of effort required to do the action. I know that this is just a small part, my idea is that you are being pointed in the right direction, it's up to you to use your imagination to visualize the picture, and use your technical skill to achieve it. I wish you well. Ask again if you want more clarification.

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QUESTION: which type of camera do you prefer using?

Answer
I personally prefer the Nikon brand. However, what you use is immaterial if you imagine what you want and look for it. We are in the digital age. You will need a camera that you can get decent sizes of pics. 8x10 should be the minimum as that is what most of your portraits, wedding pix, reunions, will require. There is a whole gamut of cameras and prices out there ranging from the point-n-shoot to the advanced features of being able to use either automatic settings or the do-it-yourself settings. Whatever camera you use you must do a complete study and practice with the camera until you do not have to decide which setting to use. Then you can concentrate on visioning the picture and capturing the image that best suits your preferences and those of your client. Thanks for asking for the follow-up. Good Luck!