Starting my Business

[jlcharles]

If you can't afford the lenses, rent them. If you're going to have a business, do it the right way and register it as a sole proprietorship at the very least. This also means that you're going to have to charge sales tax as well. There's no reason not to do this on the up and up.

When I shoot sports, I personally like to use aperture priority and adjust my iso when the speed starts dropping. I'll open up wide on a 70-200 f/2.8 to get nice isolation, since that's what a parent is going to want to see. Tack sharp with their kid as the focus. I guess when you're shooting in shutter, you aren't paying attention to the camera's meter. Your shutter speed is probably too fast for your max aperture.

Twice this year, I shot street hockey tournaments. 2600 photos from the first are up on my site and 2000 from the second. All sorted by game and with the duds tossed. If you can't go through one card, theres a problem.

Above all, take pride in your work. If I get a print back that I think could be better, 9 times out of 10, I re-edit it and re-print it at my cost because my prints represent me.

And I too think that prices are very low. I would say that average 8x10 prices locally are in the $4-5 range. Think about how much you are making for your time.

Take a look at this stuff:

John Harrington's Blog
http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/

For help with lighting your indoor stuff.
http://strobist.blogspot.com

 

[Karpfish]

I'm in the same boat as you, I'm a sophomore in HS and I just started up my business. I'm selling through Photoshelter, the ability to buy online is much more appealing to parents. I am in the process of setting up a real site with photshelter integration, but for now I have my domain name set to redirect to my photoshelter main page.

WWW.Karpphoto.com

 

[techster85]

Maybe you should invest in some classes and some books before going out and trying to sell your product. I realize that you have practice, but your work isn't where it needs to be to really sell your stuff. and using the excuse of "oh well people in my area..." is not good business, if you aren't willing to be defend your work yourself without that kind of excuse, then your work needs to be fixed...

I sell through photoreflect and use Miller's Press for all my printing. I agree with what was said earlier, sometimes you have to reorder a print three or four times to get it right, because your name and your reputation are on the line.

Above all, you need better glass to really do anything sports related, the kit lens with the d50 blows for that kind of stuff (it's great for soccer mom's though...)

I will say this, if you have the drive and determination to start a business this young, just think of where you will be when you're like me walking out of college? I still am scraping to get my name out there, you will have your name all of over the place if you put out a good product and run a solid business. There are tons of books out there on running a photo business, you'd do well to pick some up and read through them before launching down a path that could fail...