Sports photography and learning your industry

Sunday morning I had breakfast with the awesome sports photographer, Donald Page. We talked about how he got started and his first job as a sports photographer. You can read more about him in a post he did over at Scott Kelby’s blog. The one thing I took away from the conversation(there was more than one but this is one I’m going to tell you about) is that you need to research your industry. If you are going to be a sports photographer do some research on sports photography. The shooters, the equipment, who buys it, what agencies represent the photographers, etc. If you want to do stock photography figure out what sells, the equipment you might need,  the expenses(you might need a studio, need to hire models, get model releases drafted by an attorney, etc), and how long before you can expect to work before you start making money.

This may seem really obvious to you but it was a big realization for me. I’m exploring the types of photography I like but in 14 months I need to start making student loan payments and they are going to be expensive! I need to figure out how I’m going to create an income from this before that happens. If you want to know more about sports photography check out episodes 59, 60, and 61 from D-Town TV that explore the equipment you will need for sports photography.