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How To Make Money from Photography – Tough Love From Heisler

Oct 28, 2013 by JP Danko 7 Comments

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Ever wanted to know what exactly it takes to get hired as a professional photographer? 

Here is some tough love from one of the best in the biz, Gregory Heisler:

The business is about relationships…People aren’t hiring a photographer, they’re hiring a person…What it really comes down to is some guy saying try Schmeisler, he’s really good.

If you do nothing else today for your photography business, watch this video!

UPDATE: Sorry everyone – it looks like the privacy settings on the original video were changed and it is no longer available.  I’ll give you a rough synopsis after the break.

Synopsis of the Video

In the video, Heisler basically explains how he learned well into his career that photographers are hired because of who they are and not for their work.  He goes on to make the point that in general, photographers put all this effort into their protfolio and their career, but in the end it just comes down to a guy who knows a guy (with a pretty funny NYC accent thrown in).

Right now, you can still watch the rest of the videos in the series here.

Advice We Don’t Want To Hear

I have no idea why as a group (myself included) we photographers have such a hard time with the concept of building and maintaining real world relationships as a tool for making money.

I suspect that it might have to do with the quiet, introverted artistic nature of many photographers. 

But at the same time, we (again, myself included) spend an enormous amount of time speculating over the next piece of must have gear, nit-picking each others work online and raging about the latest photography “scandal” (see: Adobe Creative Cloud…Jasmine Star and Doug Gordon…Bad Olympic Portraits…Nikon vs. Canon…iPhones…the list goes on.)

How Has A Personal Relationship Helped Your Business?

Leave a comment below and let us know how a real world personal relationship has helped your photography business.

Oh – and there are four videos in this series with Heisler.  You can watch the rest here.

About the Author

JP Danko is a commercial photographer based in Toronto, Canada. JP
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water,
or use a camel as a light stand.

To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.

JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: getting hired, gregory heisler, make money from photography

About JP Danko

JP Danko is a commercial photographer based in Toronto, Canada. JP
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.

To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.

JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.

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