N-Photo

a s t here w i l l be ma ny photog rapher s v y i ng
for the same work. That said, you should
still ask yourself why you didn’t get it, and
consider altering your approach, portfolio
or ma rket i ng to g ive you r sel f a bet ter
chance next time.

It’s a changing world

From the way that we take, edit and share
images to the marketing and number of
competitors, the business of photography is
likely to change just as much over next few
years as it has over the previous ones.
Obviously the technology that we use has
been transformed over the past decade,
but this has also brought about a change
in the ways in which many freelance
photographers earn a living. Whether

you’re shoot i ng weddi ngs or cor porate

assignments, it’s becoming more common

that being just a stills photographer isn’t

enough, a s ma ny people w i l l wa nt or even

expect you to be able to shoot video as well.

The last few years have seen many

photographers make more money from

teaching and doing workshops than from

taking photos. There have also been many

changes in the way that photographers

market their work and services, moving

from relying largely on word-of-mouth

or traditional advertising to being more

dependent on the online world of websites

and social media. No-one has a crystal ball,

so we can’t tell you exactly how these

things will change in the future, but you

w i l l need to st ay on top of t hem to ma ke

su re t hat you st ay i n busi ness.

Professional indemnity

“The next insurance to consider is
professional indemnity insurance.
A good example of where this would
be useful is if you were to undertake
wedding photography and the bride
and groom felt the pictures you took
were substandard or you were
unable to produce them. They may
then issue legal proceedings against
you. Professional indemnity
insurance would cover the costs of
defending and/or settling the claim.
It is unlikely to be needed at events
where you would ‘sell’ photographs
afterwards to make money.”

GOING PRO

MONTH 11

FOR ALMOST A YEAR WE’VE

BEEN FOLLOWING GRAHAM

PARKER ON HIS JOURNEY

TO GOING PRO. THIS

MONTH, DISASTER!

Starting a business, any type of

business, is hard. Even when you

think you have everything planned,

little things crop up!

Little might be an understatement

as far as data goes. Using a 24MP

D7100 I create an incredible amount

of data, so storage is important. Just

before Christmas two partitions in

my Drobo S drive had a meltdown,

and I couldn’t access the data – my

archive – or add more to the drive.

The easiest way to fix this was to

reformat the partition... but that

would delete all the data. So there

I was with about six terabytes of

images which I couldn’t access, and

even if I could I had nowhere to copy

them to. Oh, and I was still working,

and creating loads more data!

This was going to cost me, but

hopefully only money and not all of

my data. I needed good recovery

software and more storage. The

recovery software that stood out

was Disk Warrior, and I bought a

new Drobo 5D with a Thunderbolt

connection. I had to get a bit of

help from their tech support, but

eventually I could see all of my data

(such a relief!).

My set up now is two Drobos:

the 5D holds all of the data that I

don’t need regularly, and the S holds

a mirror version of everything on the

5D. I use software called SuperDuper

to keep the back-up up to date. The

data that I use on a day-to-day basis

is stored on my iMac hard drive and

backed up to a Drobo.

The lesson learnt here is to back

up, back up and back up. And pro or

not, do it before you have to!

Clients are asking for more than just still

photography nowadays – they might also

want you to shoot video for them too

Cover for accidental damage to camera kit is the first insurance

most of us think of, but other types are actually more important Images: Fotolia

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com March 2016 111

GOING IT ALONE

NEXT MONTH: PHOTOGRAPHY JOBS