Please keep me posted on your successes and adventures! I’d love to hear how your art and business grow in 2012. Thank you for your readership!

Please keep me posted on your adventure into professional photography!

RE: Daune’s naming conundrum . . . what if she changed the spelling of her name to “Daun” and use that as her professional name? The “dawn” pronunciation would be more apparent and less likely to read as “Duane”, and the unusual spelling will catch people’s eyes and make it more likely to stick in their minds— a sort of guerilla psychological marketing tactic.

I can see how the Daune-Duane thing could make things a bit hard. You could go with D. Smith Photography, or if you have a middle initial, D. X. Smith Photography. You could also get a DBA and use Dawn’s Photography, or a play off of Dawn in some creative fashion. Truly, the name of your business has a minuscule long-term effect on your brand – it’s just a name – so don’t sweat it, and just go with something that speaks to you. Try J.P. Winklebottom’s Philanthropic Photography – it’s all just fun and games.

Without a doubt, not knowing what you’re doing is nothing to fear. Everyone starts there. Everyone can grow beyond it. And always, if you have people asking you to do photos for them and even offering you money to do so, you’re already creating a salable level of art. We artists are insatiable, we always are our harshest critics and we always see art that we love so much more than our own. But that’s how great artists become great artists – that need to improve with every shoot. It’s also how great businesses grow, as well – have as much a need to serve your clientele with a fantastic photography experience as you have a burning desire to better yourself as an artist.

You’ll reap great rewards in this adventure, financial, creative, and social. Enjoy – and thank you for your readership! Please do keep me posted on your decisions and how they turn out!

You’re entirely right Darby, every shoot is an opportunity to practice what you know, to do just a few specific things better than your last shoot, and try something new. You only get better each time, so each client always gets the best of you. It’s a win-win for all involved.

Thank you for your kind words! I truly appreciate your readership. Please do keep us posted on your adventures in professional photography!

Awesome work on the contributions, really gave us upcoming photographers that much of needed advice, otherwise not shared by others.

I enjoy reading such insightful tips, priceless mate.

Have a good one!

Hans Andersen

Dance studios, martial arts academies, daycare classes and similar are all great ways to break into the group/school/team and individual photo market. It also gives you some great face time with, and a natural introduction to, a new set of potential family clients.

Re: background stands and lights: when I do location T&I shoots that don’t offer their own nice background naturally, I’ll take my portable studio setup. This consists of a portable background stand (I use a cheap Interfit setup from Amazon), a 9-foot roll of seamless paper, some clips to keep the paper from unrolling itself, a couple of weights to keep the unrolled paper on the floor from curling up on itself, and one or two lights.

For lights I love AlienBees. My most basic setup is just two B800 strobes on stands, one with a big ol’ 5-foot rectangular softbox, one with a medium-sized umbrella. This gives me an easy way to do nice, attractive, soft light on one, a few, or many subjects. Depending on how much space you have to work with, you may have to shoot a wider than you want and crop or Photoshop out the edges of your studio setup for the big groups.

The last shoot of this kind I did was for a little girls’ athletic academy for cheer and dance. Around the same number of people you mentioned, including two coaches. I used this exact setup with white seamless and the parents were thrilled – said their girls looked like supermodels. Print and file sales weren’t amazing, honestly, but it was a great intro to all the parents whose girls I shot. Landed some good family shoots and repeat clients that proved the real lucrative result of the T&I shoot.

AlienBees might be a bit pricey if you only plan to use them once in a while. You might look at a bargain-priced set of strobes, a hotlight setup, or renting lights from a fellow photog for these shoots. You might even could get away with a single strobe, but you’ll have to get creative and artsy in your lighting to pull it off. Having that extra light does make it twice as easy to get good lookin’ photos.

Best of luck on your shoot! Feel free to ask any questions I didn’t answer, and let me know how the shoot turns out for you. I’m sure others in the same situation you’re in would love to read about your experience as well.

Thank you again!

I have a quick question, I putting together a bid for a dance studio. I have a small studio, but I am doing this on location. I will be doing groups of dancers as well as singles. Groyps around 12 girls, not side by side but posed in stacks. Does that make sense..lol I have my own photo lingo…lol..I need to buy some equipment. What size backdrop stand do you recommend. Also lights. I really dont use lights in my studio, because I edited them to the look I want, but with this job I wont have enough time with each photo as with a family or senior.. Any suggestions? Thanks, Ginger