SKIPPING THE LINE TO A CAREER IN PHOTOGRAPHY

SKIPPING THE LINE!

PROJECT 52 CAN HELP JUMPSTART YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY CAREER

We hear all the time about how it is wrong to skip the line, that you have to ‘pay your dues’ and struggle mightily to get started in an art career.

And some of that is true.

It isn’t an easy choice when we look at other options.

But it was the only option for me.

Working in a cubicle was a non-starter, and I didn’t have a ‘head for numbers’ as they say. 

I had no interest in mechanics, or ‘business’, or working anything with regular hours… and a boss.

Arrgh… I hate ‘bosses’.

So I was a musician, then an art director, then a photographer, then a designer, then a Creative Director for a major ad agency (mine), then back to art directing, designing, and photographing on my own.

I mentioned I hate bosses – I also hate being one. 

We won dozens of awards, but I found myself wandering halls in a suit instead of working with my hands to make stuff… photographs, art, design.

And in most everything I have ever done, I skipped the line.

I didn’t go to ‘art school’, or learn how to ‘be a designer’, or work my way up from junior art director to Creative Director / agency owner.

I just crammed a bunch of knowledge into actionable and measurable things that I executed on.

My motto at the time was “Yeah, I can do that.” 

And I executed on that motto.

Again and again.

Now I run Project 52 PRO for aspiring commercial photographers.

Because I want to help you skip the line.

I want to cram a couple of years of ‘being in the business’ into a single year of working with deliberate attention to what you MUST KNOW, how you must perform, and how to execute on that performance to generate work.

My goal is to have you WORKING by the end of the workshop.

[Early registration for the members of this list is OPEN NOW: Use this link to register. Call me with questions if you have any. 602 814 1468]

Most of you have already gained a ton of experience in the thing we call “life” and that will help you as we enter into the world of a life in art.

Here is Eleanor Delaney, a current student, telling you about Project 52 Pro: 

If you are reading this review do yourself a favor and enroll in this year-long class.

If you are looking for a business-focused mentor combined with a weekly structure to build your skills then Project 52 Pro is right up your alley.

I’m 16 weeks into the 52 week class and the best way I can describe the experience is to say before joining P 52 it felt like I was in a rowboat bobbing around in the water and shortly after the class started it felt like Don had given me a couple of oars and helped me start to move my boat in a deliberate direction.  Also for the first time, I felt like I wasn’t along at sea, I was now part of a flotilla, my fellow classmates surrounded me and they too had set a solid course for a successful journey.  

There are many reasons for you to sign up for this class but here are the top 3 

1. Its the ONLY PLACE you will get focused, real-life, commercial photography business advice, mentorship and a systematic goal structure
2. In addition to the weekly class webinars, you will also join the P52 FACEBOOK GROUP and here you will triple the power of the class.  You can post a work in progress class assignment and get Don’s and others feedback as to how to improve.  You can ask questions about how to create a specific look, fast track research into DIY solutions and perspective equipment purchases and generally fell the support and camaraderie of others.
3. POSITIVITY, learning a new skill and starting business can be daunting, what we read online can make us feel hopeless, but this guy, Don, he will blast away any negativity that you may have accumulated and help you focus on building solutions.

— Eleanor Delaney

Thanks, Eleanor.

(Eleanor just finished a jewelry catalog, and today is shooting a portrait for a trade publication. And she has only been shooting commercial work for 24 weeks.)

You will meet her and a lot of other talented photographers in our FB group (private and worth the price of admission all on its own.)

Skipping the line means not having to try to figure out how to light a wine bottle, or struggle to do ‘drop-n-pops” on a clean white background. 

It also means knowing how to put an estimate together that makes sense to you – and your client – and looks like you are far more experienced than you may be… at 24 weeks.

And it means knowing how to create a shot that has your own accent on it, your own ‘take’ on it. I want you to develop YOUR style, not be a clone of me, or her, or that other guy with all the Instagram followers.

[Early registration for the members of this list is OPEN NOW: Use this link to register. Call me with questions if you have any. 602 814 1468]

YOU do YOU!

The class is a mix of the kind of work an entry-level photographer may get in almost any area in the world. We have a successful photographer who lives on a ranch in the middle of the Arizona desert south of Tucson. We have successful photographers in France, Portugal, UK, China, South Africa, Spain, several South American countries, Canada, and of course, the US.

We do food. We do product. We do environmental portraiture. We do OTR fashion. We do a bit of ‘industrial’. 

How would you know you whether or not you like a subject unless you take a few shots at it?

And that variety pays off.

“I’ve definitely done jobs post-P52 that I never would have considered before. I went into it as someone who’d mainly been working in the news wire service and travel assignment worlds, and came out of it with the knowledge to approach just about any type of commercial job. And in the small market I’m in, that’s meant that I’ve stayed in business while some of my rivals haven’t.

— Craig Ferguson, Taiwan

Staying in business means cash flow. Cash flow means knowing what to bid, how to bid it, and how to do it.

Specialization is important – but NOT as important as so many decry it to be.

That is 2005 talk – we are into 2020 and specialization may be good for a handful in NYC, but being able to do a couple of things pretty well is what drives cash flow through your business.

If you do food, being able to do a good shot of chefs, maitre’ds, sommeliers, waiters, restaurant owners and suppliers, spa attendants, baristas, and more can make you a stronger candidate than someone who ‘only’ shoots food.

Look, my hope and the focus of everything I do is to help you succeed.

I want you to get at least two levels above where you think you can be.

[Early registration for the members of this list is OPEN NOW: Use this link to register. Call me with questions if you have any. 602 814 1468]

I call it a system because systems work.

Not a ‘set of exercises’, or ‘how to shoot wine’ stuff, but a system that teaches you how to teach yourself by extrapolating all that you learn doing the real-world assignments.

And this is not a bunch of videos that you can have ‘access to 24/7’ to watch when you want, these are real live webinars where you can ask questions, get solid POSITIVE critique,* and get a chance to do it better.

We do record the webinars in case you miss one, or if you want to go back and rewatch a session to help cement your learning. Sometimes these videos go very long, with all sorts of fun sidetracks, but nonetheless, they are so powerful for learning more than just the assignment that we keep it very loose

SKIPPING THE LINE has another meaning as well.

As you know, this is a very small enrollment. I want to KNOW each and every one of you, interact with you, work with you to help YOU do what you need to do and I cannot do that if there are hundreds of students.

We keep it around 20 or so per class, and I only have two concurrent classes going on at any one time.

If you enroll today or tomorrow (OK, Sunday too) you also get access to “Find Photo Clients NOW” which is a very powerful system for finding photographers in YOUR area. It works.

Trust me on this – if you start that class, do what I want you to do, and keep at it even moderately aggressively you will have a client under your belt in less than a month.

I see it happen all the time.

So today, tomorrow and Sunday you can skip the line and get the FPCN workshop included.

Did I mention;
Early registration for the members of this list is OPEN NOW: Use this link to register. Call me with questions if you have any. 602 814 1468]

I did?

Good.

Hope to see you on the registration page and in class.

Thanks,

Don Giannatti

PS, this class is very good for anyone wanting to do this sort of photography as a side hustle. Many of our members have full-time jobs and still make great money working on the gigs they like to do on the side. It beats mowing lawns… just sayin’… 🙂