First Year of Business {Camera Talk}

by: Ashley Fisher of Ashley Fisher Photography

I think we all can agree that there are a LOT of things we wish we would have known during the first year in business. I, along with many, many other photographers and small business owners, struggled through our first year, afraid to ask questions, making mistakes that could have been avoided had we just had some sort of guide or mentor to help us walk through it. Seriously, that SUCKS. Thankfully I found a community in the latter part of my first year that helped me through a lot of the growing pains in my business, but I really wish I would have found someone early on to assist me.

I should put it out there that over the summer last year, when I wrote out my five year plan, on it was “become a resource for other photographers.” What I didn’t plan was for that to happen so soon. But last week my husband called me at 7am (have I mentioned that I am NOT a morning person), and was like, “I have a brilliant idea. You should do a blog series for the first year in business.” The funny thing was that I’ve been thinking the same thing. But I figured he should get at least a LITTLE bit of the credit.

So I’ve been brainstorming for a while on what all I want to talk about, what I wish I would have known, what I think you might need help with but are afraid to ask, what I didn’t even know to ask about because I didn’t even know it existed, and so on. And I feel like I finally have a pretty solid list of topics for the series. The “First Year in Business” series will be posted every week on Tuesdays, and I have some guest bloggers lined up, so you won’t just hear from me! So if you want to keep up with the series, make sure you subscribe to the blog or like me on facebook so that you’ll be notified of new posts!

Ok, so on to part 1 of the series!

So I figured that I would start the series by telling you my first year in business story because you can’t really understand what I’ll be telling you over the next few months without knowing my background and what I wish I would have known.

The Beginning
Two years ago, I passed the Bar Exam. The market was terrible, and I couldn’t find a position as an associate. I started working at a large law firm downtown on a contract basis, but I was making hardly any money, and I just flat out was not happy. I got married at the end of 2011, and while we were on our honeymoon, my husband bought me my first camera (a Nikon D7000), a 50mm 1.8, and a 60 mm 2.8 macro. At the time, I was also planning weddings and doing some design work on the side, so my intent was just to be able to take good photos of my products for my brides to put on ETSY. But then I started doing free portraits for the sorority women I advised, and I started to fall in love with photography. I was absolutely smitten in November of 2011. Was I good? No. But I did see some flickers of talent in my work, but my technical skills (and business skills) were severely lacking. I had my first paying shoot in November for a family, and I felt so bad about the entire thing (it was HARD) that I told them at the end that they didn’t have to pay me. I didn’t charge again for a LONG time because I was terrified that I wasn’t good enough. But I was in love with photography, and I was willing to learn everything I could soak up. But I was SCARED…of everything.

December 2011. Fear.
In December, I joined a facebook group comprised of professional photographers who were also members of the website where we all planned our weddings. I was embarrassed to post, ask questions, and I really just felt like a HUGE sham. Like I didn’t deserve to be part of the group. I felt like I would be ripped apart if I posted any of my photos, and heaven forbid I have a question about my camera or photoshop…so I just didn’t ask. And these girls were my “friends.” Would they have actually ripped me apart? No. Of course not. They might have laughed or judged me behind their computer (I still don’t even think they would have done that), but they would have been nice and answered my questions had I had the courage to actually ask them. But I let my own fear get in the way, so I just didn’t ask. And instead I struggled. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, especially in photoshop, so I just applied a LOT of actions to my photos thinking that’s how people actually edited. But at least it did help me learn photoshop later.But I did create a website and write my first contracts this month, so at least I did SOMETHING towards being a legitimate business. Disclaimer I should mention that there are websites out there that are not so newbie-friendly, and they will, in fact, rip you apart if you ask questions. The key is to find yourself a supportive community. If you sense negativity, it probably isn’t a safe space. People who genuinely care about the industry WILL support new photographers and will teach you, and you just have to find one (hint: the showiteers are an amazing community).

January 2012. Imitation + Cluelessness.
In January, I booked two weddings with no wedding work to show. One was my best friend from elementary school, and one was a referral from a mutual friend. These two couples will NEVER understand how much their faith in me means to me. They gave me my break, and I will be eternally grateful for that. I shot my first two engagement sessions on aperture priority mode (hey at least it wasn’t auto), but I will share this little tidbit. I couldn’t figure out why, on aperture priority mode, I couldn’t change the aperture. BECAUSE I didn’t realize that there was a dial on the front of the camera. So I perpetually shot on 1.4 or 1.8. Awesome, right? No. Not at all. I also took my ipad to every session with me and copied poses because I didn’t know how to pose people. Instead of being inspired, I just imitated other photographers. Anyway, I was googling one day in January (who knows what I was searching for) and I saw something about WPPI. I was thinking what in the heck is WPPI (and I called it whippy instead of W.P.P.I…I felt like a moron when I said it when I was at WPPI U). But the more I read, the more excited I got about it. And I had found a discount code, so it was feasible for me to go. I had “met” Nikki Closser while planning our weddings on Project Wedding, and I was friends with her on Facebook and saw that she too had recently started photography, so I messaged her and asked if she wanted to go with me. And sure enough she did.

February 2012. The First Turning Point. WPPI.
So in February, we trekked out to Las Vegas for 9 days for WPPI 2012. I was there for the first few days by myself, and I did put myself out there, and I met a lot of really great people at WPPI U. I was still TERRIFIED to call myself a photographer, so my elevator pitch was that I just quit my job as a lawyer, and I wanted to learn more about photography. People either loved my honesty or pretty much laughed in my face and didn’t take me seriously. Oh well. Once Nikki arrived, I felt like I at least had friendship and support, even if we were both clueless in this HUGE conference together. I think the point was that we were together, and we were on the same playing field, so it just felt like I could ask questions and make some progress in my business. WPPI was definitely the first big turning point in my business. But there were three HUGE lessons I learned while I was there. The first was that there is no one right way to have a successful photography business, and you can’t just follow one person’s methods. You have to be unique + take pieces from everyone to create your OWN business and experience. The second is that you do NOT have to buy everything. Buying gear and posing cards and dvds and so on will NOT magically make you a better photographer. The only thing that will make you a better photographer is by doing it. By practicing every day. By learning as much as you can. By being patient. There is no shortcut to anything worth having, especially your photography career. I *wish* I would have known this lesson at the time, because I, in fact, bought approximately $1500 dollars worth of stuff at the WPPI tradeshow thinking that it would magically help me. WRONG. And that $1500 could have gone towards me getting something I actually DID need! Bummer! The third was learning that there was this thing called CreativeLive that was FREE education for creatives. Over the next few months, I was OBSESSED with watching and buying CL courses. I literally threw myself into education (creativelive + other books), and of course, that drive was a good thing for my business. I also met a St. Louis photographer, Donnell Probst, at lunch at WPPI, so I finally felt like I had a friend in the local market. After WPPI, I reached out to her, and she graciously answered my questions, and for that I will always be thankful. Love her.

March 2012. Freedom + Creativity.
I came back from WPPI to spring in St. Louis. And it was kind of like spring in my business, too. I felt rejuvenated creative, confident, and very much feeling like I COULD do this. I could be a photographer. I just had to put my entire heart into it and work my butt off. I still was on my gotta buy stuff kick, so I did come back and buy a lensbaby (I don’t know why other than Lindsay Adler said it was awesome) and a SB-910 flash since I wanted to learn more about lighting. The flash was a legitimate purchase, but I don’t think I’ve used the lensbaby more than 3 times since March. Awesome. I did start shooting everyone and everything (for free), and I made the transition from imitating other photographers to being inspired by other photographers and adding my own creative twist. And just in one month, my work product changed dramatically. Every shoot was better and better, and I was LOVING it. For my birthday, John surprised me and ordered me the Nikon D800 and showed me that he really believed in me, too (but it didn’t arrive until May). I felt for the first time in a VERY long time that I was doing something that made me happy and could potentially be a career for me.

April 2012. Second Shooting.
In April, one of the girls in the photographer group, Kate, sent me a message and asked if I wanted to second shoot a wedding at the end of April with her. I was terrified, but I desperately wanted to learn more about weddings, so I jumped on the opportunity. I didn’t have ANYTHING I needed for a wedding. I was shooting at that point on a crop sensor D7000. I had one flash. I had a macro. And I had a 50 mm 1.8. I asked Donnell + Nikki what I needed, and I put my first rental order in at LensRentals for a 24-70 2.8 and 70-200 2.8. On the wedding day, I was probably the world’s worst second shooter. Instead of getting different things for Kate, I followed her around and got pretty much the same shots as her. But I was loving shooting the wedding. Until right before the ceremony when I DROPPED my camera, lens down in front of the groom, all of the groomsmen, and Kate. I didn’t have a backup with me, so I prayed HARD that it was ok. At this point I did not have insurance for my business, and I’m fairly certain that I didn’t select the rental insurance box when I ordered the lenses from LensRentals. I picked up the camera, and it wouldn’t work. I looked at the lens, and thank goodness that it wasn’t shattered or scratched (how I avoided that, I have no idea). But it still wouldn’t work. I took the lens off (it was a little tight), put it back on and miraculously it worked. Later in the day when I put the macro on, it wouldn’t work. It just gave me a FEE error, and I couldn’t figure out why. Turns out that I broke the internal autofocus components of the camera, so the only lenses that would work on my camera were the lenses that had internal autofocus themselves (like the zooms and G series lenses). Anyway, that day was crazy. Not only was it my very first wedding ever, there was also a freaking tornado and hail storm! It was INSANE. So seriously, when people say be prepared for anything on a wedding day. They mean it. ANYTHING. Two days after the wedding, I got insurance. Big relief. And shortly thereafter I ordered a sample album of that wedding from GraphiStudio that I had gotten for free from WPPI. I really felt like I was on the path to becoming a legitimate photographer.

May + June 2012. The Second Turning Point. The Everything Photographer, The Five Year Plan + The Showiteer Community
My D800 arrived at the beginning of May. And then I became the everything photographer because I wanted to shoot everything. I did a newborn shoot (and bought probably $500 worth of newborn props). I liked it, but I knew that it wasn’t what I wanted to do all the time. I’ll still do them, but that’s definitely not the direction I wanted to take my business. I also did my first two glamour shoots in May, and I fell madly in love with them. I felt SO good about my glamour work. I did some family work, some kiddo work, another wedding, signed up to do a birth in July, and more. June was definitely the month that I started to realize that I didn’t want to be the everything photographer. I wanted to be a wedding + glamour photographer, but I didn’t know how to make that happen. Since you can’t get anywhere if you don’t know where you’re going, I bought myself a HUGE white notepad and started brainstorming. I wrote out big dreams…dreams so huge that I didn’t think I’d EVER accomplish. I wrote out my client experience. I described my ideal client. I made financial goals. I wrote out a gear wishlist. I made a social media plan. I researched websites and wrote things down that I was attracted to. I brainstormed marketing ideas. I made a new pricing structure (better than it was but still not profitable nor competitive). I wrote down random thoughts. I just wanted to see it all on paper. And then I laid out the sheets all over the floor, and I started to see my business plan come together and see the steps I needed to take to make it happen. It was at this moment that I wasn’t afraid anymore to call myself a photographer. And so I finally had the courage to join showit and the showiteer community, and it was definitely one of the best decisions I could have made. This community is so supportive and willing to share and serve others. I’ve improved my business tenfold since I joined that group. Thanks, showiteers, for being so awesome. I did, though, make the conscious decision that I would not actively market until January of 2013. I knew that there were so many things that I need to accomplish first, build the foundation of my business, and get my feet under me. So the next few months were spent building my portfolio + focusing on the technicals and getting my business together.

July + August 2012. My First Solo Weddings + The Pure/Julie Paisley Workshop
My first solo wedding was in July of 2012, and my second was in August. Before these two weddings, I was determined to learn more about flash and get my flash off of my camera, so I borrowed Zach Arias’ One Light DVD from a friend, and I learned all about off camera flash. It was SUPER helpful, and even though I didn’t do a fantastic job with my OCF, I did it. Done is better than perfect. Always strive to learn a little more and do something a little different. Right before my first wedding, I booked a wedding with my new pricing + sold an album, which gave me a TON of confidence. For my first two weddings, there were a lot of mistakes, but I maintained control, did the best I could with my skill set, and provided a great experience to my clients. I learned a ton from these two weddings, and I’m incredibly thankful for these two couples, as they’ve both been fantastic referral sources and supporters of my business. In August, John and I roadtripped down to Florida, and I attended the Pure/Julie Paisley workshop. I met 15 amazing women, I developed my technical + post processing skills, learned a ton about the business side, and I realized that I was in a good place for only being in business for less than a year. I mean I still had a TON to do, but I got some reassurance that I was at least on the right path.

September + October 2012. The Mad Rush.
In September and October, I was insanely busy. I had back to back weddings. I ran a buy one get one free special and got a TON of business. This was the first time I felt comfortable charging for my services (so a good almost 10 months after I first charged). I did several promotional shoots so that I could build my portfolio doing exactly what I wanted to show. I made a friends and family plan so that they valued my work, too, and didn’t just get everything for free. I booked more weddings, which made me SUPER excited. I was starting to get referral inquiries. I was swamped. I also realized that spending hours and hours behind the computer, zooming in and editing every little thing on every photo, and delivering WAY too many photos would quickly drown me. So I had to make a decision to change my business model, only deliver the 30 best photos from a session (this way they loved all of their photos instead of having 5 of the same pose with slight variations), and only retouch based on requests. Photoshop was sucking the life out of me. It took me a good four months to make the transition from Photoshop to Lightroom, but I can finish a session so much faster now. When October was over, all I wanted to do was sleep.

November + December 2012. The Third Turning Point. Seattle + The Business Consultant.
At the beginning of November, I went to Seattle for a long weekend to visit Nikki. It was the first time that both of us really had time to sit back, reflect over the past year, and talk about where we were going. I knew that I need to rebrand and figure out how to attract the kind of client I wanted. I knew that I need to figure out how to be profitable and support my husband and stop draining our bank account with this glorified hobby that I, at that point, just wished would bring money in. I knew that I needed to really cull down my portfolio and only show the work I wanted to do. I knew that I needed to get MORE of the work I wanted to do, so I planned a glamour weekend for 8 girls (which was AMAZING). I knew that I needed professional help and that I needed to invest in my business if I wanted to be a legitimate photographer, so I hired a business consultant, Sally Sargood of I Need a Sally. Over a three week period, we rebranded my business, defined my goals, reworked my business model and pricing structure, talked about my why (of why I am doing this and not working as a lawyer), further reworked my client experience, brainstormed a LOT of marketing ideas, and so much more. I was tasked to redo my website + blog. When I originally did my showit site, I didn’t feel like it was a reflection of me, my client experience, or my brand. And honestly, I think it was because I didn’t KNOW me as a photographer. But this week was the first time that I sat down and looked at all of my work as a cohesive unit and started to see my brand. I realized what was important to me when serving my clients. I finally understood what I wanted my clients to see/think/speak about when they experienced Ashley Fisher Photography. And my website + blog design was completed within just a few days. And I had an AMAZING response. I also decided that starting on January 1, I was going to blog five times a week and be a resource to other photographers and my clients. I knew that 2013 was my year. And I was SO excited.