so i spend too much time here...

[atelier7]

much more than reviewing the financial models i'm supposed to be building at work...

what's a bean counter to do???

anybody ever made the career switch into doing something related to photography gradually?

 

[sf]

you couldn't possibly spend too much time here. Look at your post count. And you've been around longer than I have!

I'm trying to make that swtich. Or more accurately, to start in that career when i finally finish school. I'm just building a portfolio and getting some experience under my belt so that I might be more likely to pull it off when the time comes.

Most important thing is the portfolio. Dean of Brook's Institute of Photography told me that you don't need experience or a photography degree to make it. All you need is proof that you've got the skills. Or more accurately, the TALENT.

Experience and a degree just help you get that skill - and often set you up with a vital network of friends and acquaintances that will hook you up later.

 

[boarini2003]

you couldn't possibly spend too much time here. Look at your post count. And you've been around longer than I have!

I'm trying to make that swtich. Or more accurately, to start in that career when i finally finish school. I'm just building a portfolio and getting some experience under my belt so that I might be more likely to pull it off when the time comes.

Most important thing is the portfolio. Dean of Brook's Institute of Photography told me that you don't need experience or a photography degree to make it. All you need is proof that you've got the skills. Or more accurately, the TALENT.

Experience and a degree just help you get that skill - and often set you up with a vital network of friends and acquaintances that will hook you up later.

Well said. In the end, it's the photographs that do all the talking.

 

[ErnestoJL]

I´m doing that switch, for two different reasons.

#1: on June 30 it´ll be one full year without any serious employment related to what I am, an electronics technician with 36 y. of experience. So, I was forced to go to #2

#2: and perhaps most important, I like it (photography) since I was 10 y.o. (it´s long way before I started in electronics (and I love it too!!)

Then I´m shooting trying to build my portfolio, and repairing cameras, mostly old types. All this together with some other small activities related to electrical and electronic issues is what is supporting me now.
Main benefit is that I´m really happy doing this and I have no other boss than myself.
In the spare time I have I´m developing a small exposure meter to mount it on top of some meterless cameras I have.

Ernesto

 

[pesphoto]

Im the opposite. I'd like to get out of commercial advertising photography and roam the streets taking photos and not give a d--m if I make money off it. Sorry, don't mean to discourage, Im just a little jaded is all. In reality I dont know what else I would possibly want to do for a living,
such is my dilemma.

 

[sf]

Im the opposite. I'd like to get out of commercial advertising photography and roam the streets taking photos and not give a d--m if I make money off it. Sorry, don't mean to discourage, Im just a little jaded is all. In reality I dont know what else I would possibly want to do for a living,
such is my dilemma.

I really want to get into fashion photography - but my portfolio is weak and it's hard to fill a portfolio with that kind of work unless you have access to models with wardrobes.


this is what i have to work with in trying to enter the professional photography industry, and I really need a boost of something relevant. I've had a number of people tell me that my work is too "About the photographer and not the model", which I understand and agree with. I think that's where you need to start. Find what material you NEED to have in there to be effective in showing the portfolio around, and then shoot as much of that genre as you can.


http://www.shutterflower.com/portrait gallery/index.htm

 

[ruben]

I really want to get into fashion photography - but my portfolio is weak and it's hard to fill a portfolio with that kind of work unless you have access to models with wardrobes.


this is what i have to work with in trying to enter the professional photography industry, and I really need a boost of something relevant. I've had a number of people tell me that my work is too "About the photographer and not the model", which I understand and agree with. I think that's where you need to start. Find what material you NEED to have in there to be effective in showing the portfolio around, and then shoot as much of that genre as you can.


http://www.shutterflower.com/portrait gallery/index.htm

I am glad to hear about your fashion interest, as I too go out of my mind whenever I review magazines like Vogue.

As for the entry problem, I think without any authority or experience in pro uses, that the main issue is not the wardrobe nor the model but your creativity. Show a portfolio displaying originality and perfect technique and the sharks will catch you, even if you have not had used an expensive model or fancy wardrobe.

But perhaps a better and more intelligent approach may be just to start as an assistant to a good fashion photographer, doing whatever needed to do without protest. Study the surroundings, the clients, the schedules you are to match, the different models, etc etc, AND WHEN THE TIME COMES DELIVER YOUR STRIKE. By then you are supposed to have a high quality portfolio, achieved free.

This would be my choice, if I could go back to your age.
Cheers,
Ruben

 

[jonasv]

I made up my mind on what I'm going to do, and I don't want to spend too much time talking about it, but rather I'm just going to do it - now, not later. I have been serious about photography since a year, and I've been actually practising photography in a serious manner for only a few months -- I've taken a ridiculously low amount of photographs as of yet. I only take pictures when I have to, I never take pictures for fun without a purpose. But I made up my mind.

I want to be a war photographer. I have thought about it long and hard and I've made up my mind. I don't want to give up my studies (history) because I figure they will be just as useful to me. I'm not going to study photography. I'm just going to do it. Starting this summer, in a month or so, I'm going... not necessarily a war yet, but at least a zone of conflict and/or restlessness: palestine/gaza, afghanistan, iraq, pakistan, ... I have trouble making concrete plans because I don't know how to go about it.

But I'm gonna do it. This summer.

 

[wtl]

jvx - check out how james natchwey started as a war photographer, if you haven't.

 

[wtl]

so i spend too much time here...

i do too. but posting another thread and read all the answers is not going to help much.

 

[jonasv]

jvx - check out how james natchwey started as a war photographer, if you haven't.

I've admired his pictures many times, but hadn't read his biography yet. Interesting. Another favorite photographer of mine (http://www.timdirven.com) also did what I'm planning to do - as a student he went on his own to Kosovo, Romania, Bosnia, ...