How to Choose a Professional Photography Genre

In this video I discuss how to choose a professional photography genre. The easy advice would be to say to follow your interests. But there is a lot of variation between different types of photography to consider from how you deal with your client, how often you deal with them, how much editing is involved and much much more.
I have been a professional event photographer and photography teacher for 10 years. Follow the links below to see my work.
mikmilman.com
Patreon | / mikmilman
Instagram | @retrograding / retrograding
Facebook | / mikmilman

[@yijiafu323]

I can’t thank you enough for sharing all this amazing thoughts not only on technical side but also on the career growth side 🙏

[@MikMilman]

Thank you, Yijia. I have one coming I really think you'll enjoy.

[@gltzddonut]

I don't want to sound too pessimistic but today I think becoming a professional photographer is a really bad idea. People don't seem to value photography, people just swipe left and right all the time and value speed and convenience. How fast is it, how sharp is it. Be it an 8x10 drum scanned portrait or an instant snapshot, everything looks similar on screen. And no one sees the difference. You only got a few seconds to grab their attention before they swipe to someone else. They don't want to bother going to galleries and looking at large prints requires so much effort. Instant gratification monkey society. We just like fancy filters. I feel like the audience a pro photographer speaks to is getting smaller and smaller.

[@jennanadigoo785]

I think this is a larger problem with "fine art" than it is with professional work.

[@guyphoto9437]

A lot of what you said is correct. I'm semi-retired now after a photography career that spanned more than three decades and I ended up closing my studio as a result of business literally drying up. And every single one of my friends who owned store front studios closed up too, especially if all they shot was weddings. Selling prints used to be our bread and butter but people began insisting on all the images on CD's and for us pros it was like giving away the negatives when we shot film, that's giving away your work for free--and I didn't do it. However, with the advent of digital everyone became a "photographer" and many of these "photogaphers" were somewhat savvy with post processing software and they were shooting weddings for a few hundred bucks. Their work sucked, but no one seemed to care. So weddings I once shot for $5,000 were no longer going to be marketable when Uncle Joe had a camera and would do it for free. Uncle Joe didn't use pro labs, didn't have any idea of how to put a digital album together, etc., but he was free. So he shot the wedding, gave all the images to the bride and groom on a CD and they took it to a local lab and had the images printed, no post processing, and the local drugstore lab with regularity made horrible prints. The same with graduating seniors I had a thriving graduating senior market, it was a large part of my income, that dried up with the advent of digital. I love digital, but it hurt a lot of us pros a lot. I think you can still be a pro and make money, but...it is much harder even if you are an excellent photographer, which you should be if you call yourself a pro and have a business license. Most so called "pros" here on you tube have probably never printed images. They all go on social media where because on every device you see them they look better than they are because of back lighting. That old photographic question is still alive and well: What's the difference between a photographer and a large pizza? A large pizza can feed a family of four. Mik does well, he's good at what he does, works hard at it and makes the most of marketing and connections, but it's hard to do. For every Mik I'd guess there are a lot of people who tried to be Mik and failed. My advice, start part time, work from home, no overhead, have a job that pays the bills and if you become good enough, have the right connections you can possibly become a full time pro. Remember, you're going to have a huge overhead, insurance, workers comp, usually no personal health insurance worth a darn because you can't afford it, equipment repair, replacement, etc. Going from part time to full time has a lot of risks. Bottom line, I think you still can be a pro, but it is very hard to do and be successful. Almost all the successful pros I know also teach and sell products on the side. In fact many make more from their workshops than they do from their photo business.

[@rasminmanocha9255]

I feel I could relate to a lot of things you said, great video Mik!

[@MikMilman]

Happy you got something out of it!

[@keliusher-holmes2165]

Thankyou for this. ❤

[@hopeforthefuturesg]

Great breakdown mik!

[@jennanadigoo785]

EXCELLENT.

[@DiviPhotos]

Cool