Tips for Startup or Budding Photographers to Get into the Loop Tricks for the photographer to experiment and dabble in new ideas without having to expend money and time

By Tejpal Nagi

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"Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is." — Anonymous

A decision to culminate passion to a profession is the first step to a fulfilling career and life itself. Being behind the camera is a mind opening experience and to entail it a career choice and undergoing its marvels every day is a coveted feeling which is reserved to those who are ready to inculcate a bit of a risqué in their lives and toil hard to make this unconventional parameter, their everyday adventure. Being a photographer-entrepreneur or commencing with a photography startup though has no definitive set of rules, it does one good if the agenda is approached in a result-oriented plan.

Talent Trumps Money

When asked about a good image, it is often the camera that gets the credit of filming that awesome shoot. But, who is handling that camera? This is where the pure & raw talent of the photographer comes in. Passion blended with exceptional knowledge is the perfect recipe for the success of art and photography is no different. Yes, the monetary element is essential, but talent leads fame and fame leads money."After all, the magic lies in the hand of conjurer rather than the wand.

Pick the Contemporary

Yes, it is imperative to understand the importance of the predecessor but being stuck in the old realm is not helpful, especially in the constantly updating field of photography. We shall always remain indebted to traditional photography, but the new digital revolution is highly effective and efficient, making it easier to develop accurate images. This often leaves the photographer with time to experiment and dabble in new ideas without having to expend money and time. Furthermore, memory cards instead of films not only save on the space but capital investment as well, thanks it to its reusability. The most important thing for a photographer is to have his work known and with platforms like Instagram and many others, it is easier than before to create a niche for oneself on a larger platform. Digital photography complies with the functionality of these platforms and makes it easier to put the work out to display at the click of a button.

Experience Matters

Amidst the constant dogma of education and experience, things always tilted in favour of education. However, things have changed today, and there is a drastic shift in requirements, especially from photographers. Someone with three years of field experience is sure to have the upper hand than a novice with the 3-year degree in the relevant field. Clients today understand the importance of experience in the creative sector of photography and most job specs state reference to any required educational and qualifications as merely "beneficial' rather than essential. A 3-year study-only degree does n't, so apprenticeships are starting to become much more commonplace within this sector, along with other workplace learnings. However, it can be genuinely deemed valuable if there curtails a right combination of both theoretical knowledge and practical understanding.

Take Calculated Risks

Mistakes are part and parcel of life, but sometimes, some errors can result in a hindrance, a setback or worse, career suicide. By keeping the basics covered, a photographer can essentially reinforce his work and focus more on creativity rather than the operations. Some of the mistakes that photographers often end up doing are

• Not Reading the Camera Manual: This is like negating the ABCs and pursuing dreams to write a novel. By understand the functioning of the camera, photographers can arm themselves with an end to end knowledge about its working and tweak it to take better images. There is a reason why companies expend money in printing these manuals.

• Using the Same Lens: Winters require jackets and summers need lose cotton clothes. Adaptability is the nature of human beings and amateur photographers have seemed to forgo this valuable nugget of information. By staying content with one lens will degrade the quality of images and render the effort useless. Different scenes require a different lens, and if one wants to grow in photography, they have learned to experiment with a different lens.

• Not Backing up the Pictures: We live in the age of threatened data privacy. It only makes sense to safeguard data which makes it imperative for photographers to have backup files of their projects. Platforms like Google Drive and DropBox provide an excellent platform to back up files safely and effectively.

• Not Brushing up on the Essentials: Several photographers tend to overlook small but important matters of learning and skills. By not taking the composition & lighting seriously and merely relying on "point & click,' the images are at the immediate danger of being lacklustre. There are several blogs and online tutorials that help photographers fix their composition and impart lessons how to tune the lighting in the image for a better result.

• Being Lazy: Yes, we are in the digital times, and as mentioned before, digital cameras are so much better at effectively creating stunning images. However, many tend to use this as an excuse to miss out on the slightest of details, one of them being, relying solely on auto/program mode. There is no way one can grow their photography skill if you tweak settings are not properly maintained.

Photography is an art that can be mastered with tons of practice and lots of experimentation. By staying true to the niche and not succumbing to the comparison, photographers can open diverse avenues that will enable them to shoot outstanding images every time they step out with their camera.

Tejpal Nagi

Photographer and an CEO at AWAKEN-The Titan Within.

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