• 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
Photography Culture

How to Grow as a Photographer on Instagram (And Off It)

Chris Gampat
No Comments
04/26/2022
3 Mins read
Cecilia's Multiple Exposures with Chris 31

Fact: you can grow as a photographer by collaborating with folks and networking with people on Instagram. But there’s a huge difference between growth on social media and actually growing as a photographer. In fact, they’re very far from one another. If you’re making money as a photographer on Instagram, it’s because you were hired to do a gig. But let’s explore more of that in this post.

We hate banner ads too. Download our app for iOS, iPad, and Android and get no banner ads for $24.99/year.

Networking Off of Instagram

Instagram isn’t the end-all-be-all of photography. Here’s the truth. If you’re an Instagram photographer of some sort, then the truth is that you’re probably actually a social media influencer. If Instagram suddenly deletes your account, who would want to hire you? By legal definition, a photographer makes money off of sales of their photo services. Folks call me a photographer all the time because I test cameras, but I’m a journalist. We feature photographers all the time on this website, and those are working photographers typically. 

With that said, you need to find ways to network off of Instagram. Maybe it’s in-person with the clientele that you’re interested in working with. Otherwise, it could be with lots of other folks that can bring you sales and support. You can also find ways to network virtually. But if you do, then make sure that it’s at a place that can bring you sales or some sort of symbiotic relationship.

Develop Your Website

Do more than just Instagram. For ethical reasons, we recommend choosing Format, Wix or PhotoShelter to develop your website and grow as a photographer. We don’t at all recommend Squarespace because they’ve supported the Unsplash awards before. A website will function as a place to permanently store your work. Think of it as your flagship store location, and now you have to find a way to get people there to make a purchase.

Develop a Photo Speciality Social Media Presence

Besides Instagram and places like TikTok, you should work to share your photos on a place that actually supports photographers. A few examples are spots like:

  • Behance: Owned by Adobe
  • Flickr: Yes, I know…
  • 500px: Another long time place for photographers
  • Model Mayhem: It has surely cleaned up over the years.
  • Photo Vogue: One of our favorite spots

Get an Email Newsletter List

I don’t think I can emphasize enough how important it is for a photographer to create their own email newsletter list to let people know about what they’re doing. It can sometimes be the most effective way to talk to people professionally. More importantly, make sure that it’s a list of only the folks who might want to work with you and bring you revenue.

Grow as a Photographer by Making a Zine

To make a zine, you need an idea. More specifically, these ideas need to be worth putting into a zine. Don’t create a zine about your photography. Instead, grow as a photographer by making a zine about a specific body of work. 

Form Actual Bodies of Work, like Projects

That brings us to our last way to grow as a photographer: to develop actual bodies of work. On various websites, I see things like portraits, landscapes, etc. all under subsections. And those are great! But sometimes it makes more sense to segment them even more. Remember, you’re thinking as an artist, but you’re catering to people who don’t think like artists. You need to make it simple for them to navigate.

grow grow as a photographer instagram photographer social media website websites
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 Best Affordable 85mm Lens for Your Camera System

Next Post

Tamara Hijazi Finds Photographs to Be Time Capsules of Memories

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