It’s Good to Talk (to Other Photographers)

I’m writing the first draft of this article sitting in a cafe in Edinburgh whilst reflecting on a delightful morning of pure, unadulterated ‘tog’ chat (or photog if you prefer). My reason for travelling the length of the country overnight on a bus wasn’t for a morning networking, but I thought I’d take advantage of having a few spare hours to share and learn over a black pudding and haggis brekkie.

In the dark ‘ol days of photography when dark rooms were dark and starburst filters were…. well, they were always rubbish….. Photographers would hide away in their (yet to be painted white) studio avoiding contact with any others who may dare to tread near their patch. The fear that talking to any fellow professionals might somehow lead to us being robbed of the wonders of our business and artistic mind…….. but that was then.

Today the modern photographer embraces world of web 2.0….. he tweets (even though he doesn’t really know why) he posts reasons why it’s important to hire a professional photographer (and not Uncle Bob) on his blog and he worries about the thousands of pounds/dollars he’s losing when someone uses his images as their Facebook profile.

Yes people…. we have come a long way since the fridge was a place for out of date film rather than food…… but are we really embracing all of the benefits of this brave new world?

It seems like we talk more, we’re commenting, liking, tweeting and trying put be constructive in forums. But are we taking this new sense of openness in to real world and talking to real people?

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in business for 10 minutes or 10 years, there’s always something than you can learn. While there seems to be an infinite resource of ideas and training online there does also seem to be a growing amount of offline training courses that have emerged.

This can only be a good thing, although as a photographer friend of mine pointed out “I learn more in the bar after the training course”.

Call me a complete photo nerd, but I really do love chatting to other photographers.

For me, a casual chat over the odd pint is ten times more useful than any training course. Some conversations may just be one way, others might just be confirming things for you, be what’s important is that someone gains at the end of the day.

Not that I’m anti-training courses. But I’m arrogant enough to think that I can collate enough information in less formal situations. Couple that with the right amount of ‘field’ experience (and mistakes) and you’re on your way to building something exciting for your business.

I find it quite strange when talking to other photographers when they tell me that they need go on some particular training course. When I ask them why I get lots of different answers but they’re usually along the lines of “I want to be able to do that”.

What’s wrong with just asking someone what they did to get to the point where they’re charging people to show them how they set up their lights? (Then again, they might charge you for that information).

I don’t really like business courses either. What you’ll end up with is one idea. Give me a group of ten photographers (no matter what level) and you’ll end up with hundreds of ideas….. they might not all be brilliant ideas, but there’s no formula for success, no right or wrong way to do things.

So go and improve your photography business…. go and have a chat with another photographer….or 10…. even if they’re ‘the competition’.