When do you know you’re ready start a family photography business

That moment of realisation when you think ‘Ok, I think I’m ready to start my photography business’ can be a moment you’re finding hard to reach.

It can be a confidence issue, a fear of the unknown, or even technical ability. Maybe you just think your skills aren’t up to par yet. So many things make us question and second guess starting our own business.

So when is the right time? Now obviously there are a number of factors that come in to play to determine whether you are ready to start your family photography business, but here are 5 signs that I consider to be important factors.

1. You know your camera like the back of your hand

This is probably one of the most important factors of knowing when you’re ready. You don’t want to be in the middle of a session with kids running crazy and parents losing patience while you’re trying to work out why your photos are coming out blurry, or you can’t find where to select your focus point.

You should be confident photographing in manual mode and be able to handle that camera like a ninja handles his samurai sword. Know what every button does and what you need to adjust to get the shot you need. Being able to adapt to any situation is essential. If you have kids of your own you know what I’m talking about. They are irratic, unpredictable and can change their mood at the drop of a hat.

2. Your legs are now the same height

It’s an epidemic a lot of photographers battle with every day. I battled with it for a long time and nearly needed medical intervention to correct it.

The diagonal photograph is when all your photos are composed with the horizon on a severe angle. It’s something you may not even be aware you’re doing yet, but you need to make yourself aware and correct it, or you’ll be rotating every photo in post losing precious megapixels and photo real estate.

Once you’ve mastered the flat horizon, you’re well on your way.

3. You’ve mastered the art of child photography and kid wrangling

It sounds easy, but photographing kids is a tough gig. They are only still for about a fraction of a second at any given moment, so your photography style needs to become more like gun slinging to nail the shots you need. You can all but forget single shot mode and one shot focus. It’s all about continuous focus and high speed shooting, kind of like you are photographing a sporting event.

To add to this, most kids moods are like a roller coaster. One minute they’re bouncing of the walls, or hanging upside down on a swing… The next minute they’re trying to hit your camera with a stick, or crying because their head hit the ground when they were swinging upside down. They can also be extremely shy, or super crazy.

What I’m getting at is you need to be able to handle anything these little ‘angels’ throw at you. If you have kids of your own, you’ve got a good head start. If not…. May the force be with you.

4. You are being asked by all your friends to take pics of their family

When you first start taking photos you’ll probably think they’re awesome and that you’ll win competitions. If you’re still fairly new to photography in general it’s time for a reality check – they’re probably not awesome… Yet.

Anyone that has been a photographer for a while will know what I’m saying when I tell you the photos you’re taking now that you think are awesome so you post the entire 350 of them on Facebook in an ‘a day in the backyard with the dog’ album, you’re probably going to look back in six months and think ‘why the hell did I think that was good?’.

Even though your mum and your untie say what beautiful photos you take, it’s going to take time (you should see some of the HDR photos I posted in my early days – eek!). When it’s time to start thinking about starting your family photography business is when you start getting random Facebook PMs from old friends asking if you would do some family photos for them, or ‘hey, how much would you charge to photograph my son’s birthday party’. This is a strong sign that your photos are now at a point where people are willing to pay money for them.

5. You are confident you could deliver photos a client would be happy with

Ok, you’re now at the point where you’re producing some pretty decent photography. When you go out and shoot though what percentage of your pics are high quality? If you’re finding there’s only a few that are any good then don’t quit your day job just yet.

Photographing a family session, I’d be expecting to be bringing home at least 30 high quality images from an hour long session (and no that doesn’t include the 20 you took of the same scene that could be used as a stop motion vid).

Once you start confidently capturing over 30 high quality images in an hour long family session you’re less likely to be in a position where the client is saying ‘did you take anymore’.

Conclusion

Please don’t just read these 5 points and tell yourself ‘Great, if I only need these 5 things then I’m good to go’ because starting a photography business isn’t that easy. It takes patience, practice and preperation. The 3 P’s of starting any photography business (Huh, I just came up with that. I like it). Hopefully though these points can help you in beginning this new exciting journey.

Make sure you head over and join the Family Photography Business Beginners Facebook group today for more tips and discussion on everything family photography.