Attending college, studying your craft and hitting the streets with your camera is an excellent use of your time. I mean lets face it … if you suck at creating photos, learning how to talk to prospective clients is the least of your worries. But let us say that we have put in our time for study and our confidence in our ability is assured. Now how do we talk to folks and convince them to give us their money?

First off, let me just say that appearance speaks volumes. This should be a no-brainer, but it drives me up the wall when I see photographers who look like they just rolled out of bed. No matter how good you are, taking a little pride in your appearance — at least during meetings, people — will go a long way toward investing a sense of confidence in your clients. Think of these meetings as a job interview.

Being prepared is important. Now I’m not talking about preparing a speech or any crap like that. The sales pitch will come easily. I’m talking about finding out your client’s intentions and preparing for them. If your client specializes in metal fabrication tools, don’t bring a portfolio of your award-winning food photography. If your client is an engaged couple, bring samples of past weddings you have photographed and an example of the type of wedding album they can expect.

Know your rights as a photographer. If you are a freelancer or a small business owner, who will retain the copyright? How are your photos going to be used? How many times will they be used? You should be ready for these questions. Contracts are vital in protecting yourself and your work. Speak to a lawyer if you have the money, or just visit the library.

Now we get to the hardest part: pricing. This is very subjective. You will have to factor in the locale, job description, client, time invested, and basically there is no easy way to do this. First off, if you’re in the business of weddings and family portraiture, check with other photographers in your area and see what they are charging. This should only be a starting point. Vastly undercutting your competition does not help anyone, especially you. For other commercial jobs, look at your client and bid a little higher than you think they are willing to pay. Many times there is a set budget, but they won’t let you know that until you have undersold yourself because you’re too damn desperate for the job. Don’t forget that professional photography is a vital part of any business, whether for marketing or advertising purposes. It’s worth the money for a business to hire a professional, and in many cases, it’s worth a lot of money.

Factoring in travel and editing time is something many photographers forget about. Yes, it may only take a few hours to shoot the job, but how long will it take to edit and tone the images? How long will it take to travel to and from the job?

Bidding photography jobs is something that most colleges and schools don’t bother educating their students about because there are a lot of factors to be considered. Spend a little time researching before you walk into a situation before you find yourself loosing money and wasting time. We are not in this business to work for free, people. The world needs photos, and they are willing to pay for them.

Resources to peep:
Business and Legal Forms for Photographers by Tad Crawford

This is one of the reasons that journalism so enthralled me in college. Studying these old badasses made journalism seem like a most exciting undertaking. Add the fact that my images could end up in history books and you can see the appeal.

It was always hard for me starting out in the business to imagine a time when Robert Capa was assigned to cover the local county fair, or a ground breaking ceremony, or any other number of events that 99 percent of photojournalists are required to cover and find utterly mundane and ridiculous. Unfortunately, working for a newspaper, especially a small hyper-local publication, covering these assignments are a necessary evil.

As a reporter or a photographer working in a small community, you are charged with recording the history of your community. These small events may seem mundane and boring, but the people in your community want to read about them. They want to see photos of their smiling children and family. They eat it up. The annual little league tournament … forget about it. The papers will fly off the racks.

These assignments make up the fabric of the community. Daily life in a small community can seem ordinary, but that does not mean that the photos recording them have to be ordinary. There have been times when I’ve walked into an assignment feeling all kinds of indifference, only to walk out with an amazing photograph.

This is not always the norm, but it is just as easy to walk into a situation that you feel assured will result in a spectacular photograph, only find yourself searching frantically for a single good image. Constantly keeping a positive attitude in a cynical newsroom is virtually impossible, but keeping an open mind to the possibility of creating a keeper out of what feels like a throw-away situation is a bit more manageable.

I can’t say that every boring assignment will result in a wonderful photograph, or that you won’t fall into the trap of making a photographic cliche, but you may just surprise yourself and your editors. If you have photographed an event before, don’t make the same photograph you made the previous year. Try looking as a situation differently. Get lower, get higher, change your perspective and observe before you even click the shutter. You might just be updating your portfolio.

As a photojournalist, picking a brand of camera to use is not a particularly difficult decision. You have two options. If you plan to work for a newspaper, you’ll be shooting Nikon or Canon … guaranteed. If you’re a commercial photographer, more than likely you’ll be using your own equipment, so, whatever. Fashion photographers are probably using a combination of 35 mm and medium format, but I’d bet a dollar their 35 mm rig is Nikon or Canon.

Let me take you back to my early days of college, the days when I was first moving into my courses on photography, the days when I had no camera.

My first camera was a Canon Elan II, which I purchased in a kit with a medium telephoto lens and a little cash from my father. So, my first real camera was a Canon. I learned how to make photographs on that camera, and I carried it everywhere with me. There was a pretty good reason why I opted for Canon over Nikon. There was a beautiful young girl in my photo class, and take a guess what she shot with? That’s right, a Canon Elan II. No real science or thought in that decision. Pretty girl equals good camera. I was sold.

Now, I loved that camera and still own it. I was eventually able to buy another lens, which was a used 70-200 f/2.8 (which incidentally I dropped a week after purchase, popping the front element onto the sidewalk) and I loved that lens. I still have it today also. So I’ve already made my decision: Canon all the way. I was buying new gear, eventually working up to an EOS 3 (my last film camera) and new lenses, flashes. I had spent so much money before I had even graduated from college, there was really no turning back.

Fast forward to my first internship with The Hays Daily News, and suddenly I’m the only person shooting Canon. I still considered myself a student, but I was working on a real staff with terrific photographers on a REAL newspaper. This was not the Ball State Daily News. There were situations that begged for certain equipment, but I couldn’t use any of the staff gear so I was left saying, “well, if only …”

As I moved into the working world, I had a great rig with my first full-time job at a newspaper. I won’t go into details, but I will say it was Nikon. I was familiar with my Canon rig, but the transition wasn’t too difficult. I knew the fundamentals well, I just had to reverse the way everything on the camera functioned. The battery life of that camera was terrible, but the lenses were impeccable, and I loved shooting with it.

None of this crap really matters. I guess the point I’m trying to make is go with what feels right. If someone you trust tells you they shoot with Nikon and it’s great and wonderful and all the rest of it, go with Nikon. If the guy at the camera store shoots Canon and swears by it … and you trust him, go with Canon. Do you like Coke over Pepsi? Drink Coke.

In the past eight years, I’ve probably had a conversation about the “best” camera system a handful of times, but rarely with a working photographer. Every photographer has their favorite brand, but they also know that you go with what feels comfortable. Obviously, different systems will have different options, and knowing how to weigh those options most often comes with trial and error, repetition and everyday shooting. If your results are good, stick with it. Not counting a technical problem, if your results are bad, it probably isn’t the camera. The photographer makes the photograph, not the camera. Did Van Gogh create masterful landscapes and portraits, or did his paintbrush?

The truth of the matter is … who the hell cares. I shoot Canon because I like how it feels in my hand. I like the placement of the controls, and it feels familiar. What’s more important is shooting, shooting, shooting.