• Home
  • Reviews Index
  • Best Gear
  • Inspiration
  • Learn
  • Disclaimer
  • Staff/Contact Info
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Features

The Secret to Being Hired More Often as a Photographer

Chris Gampat
No Comments
02/12/2015
2 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Samsung 50-150mm f2.8 OIS review product images (5 of 10)ISO 4001-40 sec at f - 4.0

No, it isn’t your gear. While your gear can make you look like a better photographer in the mind of the fashion world, it isn’t the secret to what makes you more or less of an attractive candidate to someone who wants to hire a photographer. Yes, being more affordable than the other can work and in the cases of people who aren’t very discerning, that’s all that you’ll be able to do.

In many cases, that isn’t a winning battle at all.

As a blog editor and a photographer myself, I’ve been on both sides of the table and in many ways there is an interchangeable hierarchy.

The hierarchy of how to get hired as a photographer goes in a varying order, but roughly runs something like this:

– Budget (some folks just want it done cheaply and don’t care about anything else. Typically, these are the people that expect Annie Leibovitz levels of work for $40.) But in other instances, you only have a very small budget to work with as a marrying couple, business owner, etc.

– Capabilities (Can you do 360 photography? Are you equipped and experienced to do it? Or can you deliver the look in headshots that someone wants? If you say yes, do you have an adequate body of work that can prove this?)

– Creative Vision (Do you have the vision that your client wants? Can you deliver images that they can see themselves being proud of paying for?)

– Timeliness (can you do the job in a timely manner that meets their deadlines?)

– The Extras (this is never a big factor, but in some cases it is. When I was a wedding photographer, part of how I got new clients was by eliminating the Silver bound albums, marketing it as being environmentally friendly, and instead offering to pre-load all of their images onto a brand new iPad for the couple. What I found is that the brides wanted it, but the grooms wanted it so badly that they pressured the brides to cave.)

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Pentax K3 first impressions product photos (1 of 8)ISO 4001-50 sec at f - 2.5

These four factors are a hierarchy of needs that a photographer should consider when they want to be hired. In some situations, budget wins over everything else and you can probably find a way to do the work cheaply, for cash, and with minimal effort on your part (yes it’s true.) But those looking for the best creative vision are those most likely to pay the premium. So with that said, all photographers need to find a way to steadily develop their creative vision over everything else.

Just make sure that you can actually do the work.

creative vision gigs hiring photographer
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
Previous Post

The Digital Photographer’s Introduction to Film Photography

Next Post

Chad Sexton: The Effectiveness of Lighting and Posing in Fashion Photography

The Phoblographer © 2023 ——Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
  • Home
  • Our Staff
  • Editorial Policies
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
  • App Debug