By Zack Schnepf
When I was starting out in photography, I loved hearing how professional photographers got their start, so I thought I would share my own story. I did not set out to become a professional photographer, I picked it up as a hobby, got some lucky breaks, and then worked extremely hard to adapt to the changing face of photography. This is the story of that journey.
The Early Years
Sometime in 2002 while finishing my degree in multimedia, I decided to get my first digital point and shoot camera. The little Olympus was around 3 mega pixels, and was a lot of fun to play with. I was using it mainly for some of my school projects, but started experimenting with long exposures and some other more advanced techniques. I was already teaching Photoshop, which at the time was primarily a graphic design tool. I was excited to be working digitally from capture to print, and was already experimenting with blending exposures and compositing.
I quickly reached the limit of this camera’s capability. I started researching my options for a more professional camera and saw that Canon was releasing the 10D, it was everything I wanted at the time and it could shoot in Raw format, which was very new at the time. As soon as I got my hands on the 10D I went off the deep end. I had just graduated from college and was working as a videographer/video editor and thought photography would just be a fun hobby. It soon took over my life, I picked up a whole studio setup, and started to experiment with landscape photography.
At this point I was experimenting with every type of photography that caught my interest, but I found landscape photography to be the most challenging and rewarding. I have always been into the outdoors, and was frustrated that I did not have the skills to capture some of the amazing natural wonders I was seeing. I did a lot of research on landscape specific techniques, and started planning lots of trips to national parks and other wilderness areas. I learned very quickly, and had tons of fun in the process. It was one of the most amazing times in my life.
During this first year with my 10D I started experimenting with the idea of making some money with photography. I had a full studio setup in my house, and a very competent camera as well as skills in Photoshop. I was able to start landing jobs right away through various contacts. I was doing product photography for Savoy Glass Studio, and some local artists. I was also lucky enough to meet with an artist rep, she loved my work and asked to represent me. This was at a time when stock photography was more viable, and over the next few years she was able to land a couple of big clients for me including Nike, and HP. This early success convinced me it was possible to make a living doing photography.
I did pretty well over the next few years, but I was still doing freelance videography, graphic design, and web design as well. In 2004 I decided to try to focus on nothing but photography, I made the mistake of doing wedding photography to make ends meet and long story short, it burned me out over the course of one season. I didn’t even want to pick up my camera for 6 months after that. I didn’t enjoy wedding photography the way I enjoyed landscape photography. I know some photographers who love shooting weddings, but it was not for me. I learned a good lesson, if I couldn’t make a living doing the kind of photography I enjoyed then I was better off doing something else.
The Transitional Years
Over the next few years I decided to focus on landscape photography, I worked very hard to develop my skills in the field and in Photoshop. I just had to figure out how to make money at it. Stock photography was drying up as well, the pressure was on to find different ways of making a living in photography. Marketing myself is not one of my strengths, but I did what gorilla marketing I could. I entered contests, sent images to magazines, and developed a strong web presence. These efforts started to bare fruit, I won some big contests, and was published in some of the biggest photography magazines from 2006-2009. Stock photography continued it’s rapid decline, and all but died for me. I had to find new income streams.
Developing multiple income streams was the only strategy that I could see that would be viable in the future. I worked hard over the next few years to develop these different income streams. In 2008, With the help of Mike Moats I started applying to juried fine art fairs. This was a daunting task, and involved some serious investment in equipment, printers and materials. I was pretty successful my first year and continue to do a select number of shows each year. I also transitioned away from traditional stock photography and started working with a few micro stock agencies. In the first year I made more with micro stock than traditional stock. That being said, I still wasn’t making much with stock. In 2008 I also started to teach workshops. I started slow, only offering one on one and small group workshops in the field and in Photoshop. As I gained experience and confidence I started offering more workshops and continue to do so each year. In the past few years I’ve also teamed up with my Photo Cascadia team mates. We offer combined workshops and also collaborate on a number of other projects as well.
Currently
I have developed other small income streams as well over the years, and continue to try to think up ways to adapt to the ever changing world of nature photography. I still do shows each summer, teach field workshops on my own and with my fellow Photo Cascadia members, teach online Photoshop workshops year round, submit stock photography, make magazine submissions, and occasionally get lucky breaks like people contacting me with unsolicited gigs. It all adds up, and has to be run like any other business, but one that I enjoy very much. It’s a good fit for me, because I like a lot of variety. I wouldn’t enjoy any aspect of what I do if I had to do it all the time, but since my responsibilities vary I never get burned out on any one thing. Most of the successful landscape photographers I know these have adopted similar models. Each of us has our niche, but we all have pretty diverse business models. If one segment starts to fail, we focus on other areas. It will be interesting to see how photography changes over the next 10 years, but the photographers who are successful will be the ones who can adapt to the ever changing market.
Location: Bend, OR
Website: www.zschnepf.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/zschnepf77
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zackschnepf/
Zack is an award winning photographer specializing in fine art landscape photography and post processing. “Art is in my blood. My father is a well known poster artist and painter. My mom was a painter, and print maker and my brother is an art director at Facebook. Art is a way of life for my family, and I will hopefully pass it on to my children as well.”
“The love of nature is also something that my family and I are passionate about. I’ve been hiking, biking, rock climbing and backpacking since I was little. From an early age, I learned to appreciate the beauty in nature.”
Recent Comments