[...]Interview with David Giral, Montreal Photographer | LIGHTING ESSENTIALS For Photographers[...]…

The first question if thinking about going pro should not be whether you would like taking images 7/24, but whether you are truly ready to run your own business.

The good thing is that those that had prior careers often had a chance to develop these skills and the ability to answer that question more accurately then someone just out of school.

I appreciate it so much.

For me, I see it as switching from being an employee in a firm to being in charge of my own business and my financial reality.

I’ve switched because I felt I had reached my threshold as an employee so the last year as an IT consultant, I’ve worked my ass off to develop my network, new skills, a decent portrait portfolio (before that Lighting Essentials workshop, I had done 2 portfolio shoots). To be honest, when I bought first my digital camera in 2004, I had in mind of eventually switching to photography full time.

I’ve heard that story many times from people who switched to photography full time because they liked the artistic side and it’d be fun and then realized that in the end this artistic side is only 20-30% of the time you spend and the rest is the business.

When I switched to full time, I knew the key elements for being a photographer were:
- to be able to handle the business side (processes, negotiation, billing, pricing): this also means not contacting big firms as long as I don’t feel I am able to make the perfect pitch to them)
- to be able to market myself and figure out my niches
- to be able to have revenues coming from various sources for more stability
- to be efficient (having worked in test automation for 5 years really helps as creating actions is key to have the most efficient workflow)
- knowing I could satisfy my clients needs EVERY single time

There are a LOT of talented photographers out there… what makes the difference between successful and unsuccessful ones is their ability to market themselves… and deliver.

Excellent interview. It’s interesting that I have a similar background to you, David! I majored in GeoPhysics but got my degree in Computer Science and have been an IT Consultant (and employee) for 25 years! I recently got back into photography and find your story inspirational!

Do you see any parallels between IT Consulting & Photography as a business, especially in people skills?

Also, I love Montréal! I did some work there in 2001 for Emergis and loved it! Hope to get back to see the GP one of these days.

Danté

And I will be doing a rather on-going series with a friend of mine, Jan Klier who gave up a terribly sought after career with a huge company to make the jump – starting this Monday.

We will look back at his last year and what he has done to get him to this point, and then do a monthly checkin and checkup with him. This will be accompanied by audio and images.

What I was asking for in my comment (which doesn’t appear in the thread) was more detail on HOW photographers negotiate these successful transitions. You’ve offered insightful posts in the past about photographers who are NOT ready to “go pro” (let’s call that Point A) and this profile, for example, gives us a good view of someone who HAS successfully “gone pro” (let’s call that Point B.)

I guess I have an ongoing interest in hearing more detail about how photographers successfully navigate the journey FROM Point A to Point B… and I suspect a lot of other readers might be likewise interested.

That’s all. Sorry if the original comment sounded snarky. In my other life I get paid to be snarky on a per-snark basis, so it’s hard to get out of the habit.

I stated: “…So today we aren’t going to worry about that $400 wedding (with CD and proofs) that happened yesterday, or the IT guy who shoots for the local ice-cream parlor for trade (Mmmm – Rocky Road). Who cares anyway.”

Yes, I dismissed him because he is shooting for ice cream. I don’t care about that… and in the context of the previous post I was also referring to him in the context that OTHER people worry about him. I do not care about that stuff in relationship to it ‘destroying professional photography” as others seem to be so concerned about.

“And the difference is…?”

You are kidding, right?

The difference is that David is now a professional and has been steadily building a career. I do not see ANY correlation between ‘shooting weekend gigs’ for fun and building a career. Even if it happens post transition, the career choice is the point of the interview.

I am profiling someone who shot what he shot and built a career.

What in my statement about the ice cream shooter indicated anything about his career choices, how and why he was doing it, what plans he had for the ice cream shots, whether he was planning on moving into food shooting or even that it was somehow wrong for him to do that. I perfectly stated that it didn’t matter.

Quality of work.
Discipline.
Marketing.
Meeting Challenges.
Business Sense.

You seem to indicate that I was somehow disparaging to the IT guy shooting ice cream stores for ice cream. I was not… read it again. I don’t care about that stuff.

But when someone breaks from that and starts to build a career in photography – and is successful in that transition – that is interesting.

Guy shooting ice cream is an IT guy shooting for trade. Nope, not going to do an interview with him.
Guy who used to shoot ice cream parlors for trade, and now is shooting food for magazines… yeah, him I would interview.

Are you telling me you see no difference there?