Photography Questions I Often Get Asked

I frequently get DMs, emails, and messages from people asking different questions about my photography journey when it comes to working as a photographer and videographer inside of performing arts. This is a list of some of the most frequent questions that people have when they talk to me. Hopefully this provides some answers to people who might be wondering about similar things!

Jack 📸

What were the classes that you found most helpful for photography and conducting business as a photographer?

I dropped out of college after 3 full time semesters. Partly because my dad started having bad health issues, but also because I didn't feel like the value of the information I was receiving in school was exclusive enough that I couldn't learn it myself, or that the college courses were necessary to the success I wanted to have. I stayed enrolled so that I could do marching band, but went into working full time. I never took any college classes for business or photography. While in school I was pursuing Communication Arts Radio/ TV/ Film but never made it to any of the production/ hands on style classes. 

I love learning and deeply support education, it just wasn't the path for me. There are certainly ways to use college to learn how to be a creative, be a photographer, and learn how to conduct business. However, it's important to meter the expectations of college information. Rarely do college classes have professors in the media space that are 1-3 years fresh out of the industry. Many of them got their start in production and then transitioned to academia. Photography and media is one of the most rapidly evolving sectors in society and you need to weigh the value you assign to being taught fundamentals and information that no longer has practical relevance today. There is CERTAINLY an argument to be had about learning principles and basics in a controlled environment. However, in the creative world, that truly only gets you so far. YouTube university in this day and age is invaluable, and with photography being such a hot profession, there are countless resources that exist with the same information through channels other than college. 

If your University offers photojournalism, media production, journalism, or any similar degree, I would say that any hands on or production based class has the potential to provide a foundation of knowledge for the learning photographer. 

Similarly, while of course very important, the business side of photography is most commonly operated as a sole proprietor or one man show. Most college business programs and courses are more so geared towards corporate business, venture capital, investing, and a career in the business of business, not a career of owning a business. If your university offers entrepreneurship courses or has resources around starting and operating LLCs, those could be helpful. 

Perhaps the most valuable thing you can do right now without taking any extra classes would be to connect with professors and faculty in the University who are photographers. Try to find a mentor or someone who can point and guide you through the process. Someone who has been in your shoes and knows where to go will be infinitely more valuable in the short term vs trying to pull a relevantly valuable nugget of wisdom out of an entire semester of college once every few lectures. 

How do you decide what to charge, and in a scenario where an organization does not have the money to pay you fully, what do you do?

Completely depends on a few factors! I consider myself a full time photographer & videographer who has a relative amount of success and notoriety in a few niche areas. That being said, I still regularly do work for under what I would like, sometimes even for free. 

I find that most of the time if the budget doesn't meet expectations, it's one of two things: client is under-educated about what they're looking for or the budget is just simply too small for what they're looking for. Rarely do I come across people blatantly trying to 'save a buck' simply by weasling less money out of me.

If you're met with this situation, I'd ask a few questions:

1) Why is there a value discrepancy? Do they not see the value in my work or do I think my work is worth more than the deliverable that I'm providing?

2) Is the 'value' to me worth not making 100% of what I want? Oftentimes the answer is yes. Exposure is a horrible term, don't work for exposure. But you can work to make a relationship, you can work to prove a concept, and you can work to get your foot in the door. Those are all very valid reasons to work for less than you want or for free. Many many many people in this space, myself included, have stories about how working for free lead to way more work and money than just charging 100% of your rate the first time would have yielded. 

3) What's the impact of losing the gig? If it's a random lead and a one time gig, that's a different internal conversation than a recurring client who is far more valuable to you than losing a few hundred dollars on one job. 

Knowing what to charge comes with time and experience. You sort of just develop a feel for it. There's no 'base rate' because everything is different. Every industry is different etc. Most of the time you can't ask the client what their budget is, so you guess. You either come in too low or too high and you work from there. 

For band and performing arts in general, it is very difficult to find sustainable work that compensates well. For example, DCI is a hugely popular pinnacle activity within marching and pageantry. Most of the corps are non-profit. The average pay for a photographer for the SUMMER (80ish days of 12-14 hour days) is $3,000-$5,000. Most high school band programs are public schools. Very very few programs have a media budget and if they do, you'll often deplete it for an entire year after one shoot or event. It's not impossible to find work, but compared to tech or real estate or commercial work, performing arts is very very tricky.

How did you get into shooting for bands?

Brought my camera to a few concerts and did a few photo shoots of different band stuff completely for free to build up a portfolio of work that would get me hired some day. I didn't know when that opportunity would arise but that was how I started. I purposely set out to create a hyper targeted portfolio for exactly what I wanted to do. After Covid, different drum corps were looking for new staff because of high turnover. I had my portfolio ready to go and I got the gig

What was your inspiration for doing photography professionally, and what led you to pursue it?

I grew up around my dad who owned his own business- it was a Sound & Video rental and production company. Exposed to that side of the industry at a very young age so I always sort of knew it existed and had an understanding of how it all worked. I had been in music for 15 years playing trumpet but knew I didn't want to pursue performance or education. I knew I didn't want to turn my hobby into a chore to practice enough to become a pro player and I didn't have the heart for teaching. This was sort of just a very logical step between knowing about the industry and being able to very easily combine things I liked and had some experience doing.

In scenarios where you didn't feel like you had adequate experience or equipment, what did you do?

I try to minimize this situation as much as possible. I work a lot and for years before doing media full time, I worked multiple jobs. I worked enough to afford good gear from the start and worked more to afford exactly what I wanted very quickly. I don't necessarily recommend this approach, you can start with anything and have success with anything. The reason I bought pro stuff right away was because I didn't want to give myself the excuse that I couldn't do something or that something could be better because I didn't have the right gear. I wanted to put 100% of the responsibility and accountability on me and my ability as to whether or not something went well. I learned a lot, I practiced a lot, and I made myself feel prepared. 

That being said, there will always be moments of feeling underprepared or wishing you had something else. You can't really change any of that in the moment so you just have to resort to what you do have and what you do know in those moments. The beauty of photography is that no one knows what you're doing except you. No one knows what you missed, what you wanted to get, and what you wish you had. They only get to see and only get to know what you show them. That comes with a very big price- if you take work that is very binary in terms of what you're asked to do, the margin for error is far less. I wouldn't recommend anyones first gig be for a sold out stadium of 50,000 fans. You want to start small so that you can gain the confidence and have the right tools for the job. But, in the case that you do run into trouble, get creative, use what you know, and make something out of what it is. The worst thing you can do is not make.

Do you find photography fulfilling, and why?

Definitely! However, this one is completely dependent on where you derive fulfillment. My whole goal is to make content that makes performers feel validated, special, seen, and important. I'm lucky to have the opportunity to get to do this on a regular basis, so I do get much fulfillment. However, if someone finds fulfillment out of fame or luxurious living or low working hours, they might not have the same answer as I do. 

What does your typical editing process look like? Do you only use global edits and batch editing, or do you touch up individual photos?

For the last 5 years, I cull, edit the first select, copy that edit to the next photo and make edits as necessary. I will continue pasting edits until I reach a new lighting situation or completely different environment. Then I will start a new edit and repeat the process. I go for a relatively similar look in my edits which makes this process work well for me.

What is/are a few things that you wish you figured out how to do sooner/learned earlier?

1) Taking control of a shoot or subject instead of letting it just sort of unfold

2) Be confident that your decisions are correct and good in the face of question

As someone who is looking at doing photography, what would be some advice you could give me/ or wish someone had told you?

Be prepared to work, make friends, don't forget why you do it, and take a moment at every shoot to just put the camera down and look at what you're doing with your eyes to enjoy the moment.