Expert: Don Wood - 7/8/2006

Question
Hello Don,

My name is Lauren, im 12 years old and all my life I've wanted to be a Professional, World renowned photographer. It's something that I know in my heart is what I want to do. I read all the photography magazines, I've just saved up my money and bought a really good digital single lens reflex, I've also saved up my money for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and now have that. I want to start taking classes, but unfortunatlly have not been able to find any decent ones in my area (Houston,Texas). I guess what I want to ask you is, what advice could you give me. I want to do everything I possibly can do be the best I can possibly be. I'm a hard worker, a leader and I dream BIG! People like you inspier me. I would do anything to make it big as a photographer. The joy that it brings to people just seems so rewarding. Thanks for all your help!

God bless,
Lauren :)

Answer
You are the one who inspires me. At the age of 12 and to be so enthusiastic about an up-coming career is fabulous. All this being said, you must start developing your photo eyes. By this I mean that you look at what you want to photograph carefully, seeing if perhaps a slightly different angle would be better, perhaps you need to get closer, perhaps you need to be able to isolate element you want to photograph. This is a necessary stage in your development of your eyes. Another need you will want to develop is your business sense. If you take a picture which costs you $.25 to print, you could make a 100% profit on it by selling it for $.50. But consider this, you're trying to earn money by taking the picture, figure in the cost of the film, camera, flash into your total. In the event you're taking a wedding, you must also figure in your clothing, your transportation including gas to and from the setting, then you add in the amount of pix you must take to achieve your goal of the perfect picture. Have you already decided that your profit per picture should not be the 25 cent profit of the original picture.
You have a lot of time before you will be out in the world attempting to make your own living. With the rapid advances in photographic equipment equipment you get today that is state of the art will be out-dated in 6 years, ex. I got my first Nikon 990 in 2000, that is horribly obsolete now. But you can still hone your skills by volunteering to use your photo skills in school projects, such as news, yearbook, and other projects.
Go to Art Museums, Photography Museums, examine sculptures for the purpose of finding what the artist was trying to convey. The principles in all these art genre are very basic. By learning to see with photo eyes, you will get better and better with your photography.
Join a photography club, some will have divisions for youngsters such as you with a reduced membership dues. Most will have monthly or annual contests that you can enter. Some will critique your photos at the meetings. Such criticism will be valuable to developing your eyes.
I would in addition plan to go to college and take business couses, and minor in photography.
There are technical colleges where you can learn photography skills.
This career choice lends itself very easily to a part-time career since the greatest majority of your time spent will be when others are playing, having family reunions, being married, etc.
Don't get discouraged, you've chosen a career in which many aspire but few succeed. For every 10 who start out in the year, by year's end, all may have quit, maybe 1 will continue for another year before giving it up. But you could be one of the few who achieve your goal.
But most important is that you continue your hard work, working at leading, and continue to pursue your dreams. I do wish you well in all your coming endeavors. Please keep in touch.
Don't be surprised if you change your plans several times before finally deciding on the career you want, and even then you might change again. The trick to success is to keep plugging, always challenging yourself to become better. You seem to have that drive. Keep it up!
Thanks for asking.
Don