Starting a Photography Business: Part 1 – From Conception to Birth; a Business is Born

Quietly sitting on my garden bench drawing a picture from a photo that I had taken of the island of Capri in Italy, when I was living there, I was feeling into the thrill of the moment of standing in that spot to take the photo, mind body and soul I was back there, when I heard a voice say, why don’t you share these photos with everyone?  In that moment, in that space of love for my subject it seemed a perfectly easy step, why yes, of course I’ll share them.

As I returned to the present moment, all manner of questions started coming into my head, mainly how?  I was like a chimney pot with ideas smoking out the top of my head and my charcoal was writing so fast it’s amazing it or the paper didn’t self combust.  Just how would I share them?  The easiest and cheapest way without giving me overheads was obvious; a website, but oh my goodness!  How do I even begin to do that?  Could I maybe build one myself from scratch?  If any web designers are reading this I hope you didn’t just choke, I was, I think, touchingly naive, surely anything is possible? That is what we are taught.

Over the next few weeks I will share with you the steep learning curve I’m taking from the aha moment to actually getting a professional ecommerce site up and running.  From how to find a trustworthy web designer to all the essential things you need to know about being found on search engines, do you have to pay to appear on Google?  How to market your website and use social media effectively, how to work out pricing for your product and most importantly how to feel comfortable about asking for money for your photos, yes I know, that’s a biggie.

Now I’m at a point where I have a wonderful team of suppliers around me, it wasn’t always that way.  When I had the idea it was as if I was standing in front of a gaping chasm teetering on the edge feeling as if any second I might fall off, however when I started to find my feet I felt and still do feel a wonderful excitement deep inside.  Sure I’ve had my moments of doubt, but the thought of working for myself doing something that I love, something that I trained for many years ago before going to work as a producer in radio and television, bringing my passion of the countryside to others makes me want to leap out of bed in the morning.

So, I’ve had the idea, I’ve written a list of questions, ideas of how and where to market my work, what format I want to present it in.  Now I’m going to stand up from the dark wooden bench and go and do some research.

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Ruth Bayley

Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.

However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.

Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.

www.healingwithphotography.co.uk