We all remember the first day we picked up a DSLR in store and thought, man am I doing the right thing here? Can I pull this off? I sure do! For me it has been about a year and a half since I started on my path to becoming an internationally published fashion photographer, and no… I didn’t start out that way! In fact I started out much like you probably did, dazed and confused. I didn’t know what kind of photographer I wanted to be.

I think we all start out in a similar condition, nobody goes home with a DSLR and is instantly a world renowned, published, photographer. I do admit though the night I came home with my DSLR I took a few snap shots and one of them went viral (http://higgsbosonboy.tumblr.com/post/12297294289/pure-elegance-apple) … Just luck I suppose.

When I started I did what many of us aspiring professionals do, I created a company name, and I began to market it. In my case the name was HIGGSBOSON | PHOTOGRAPHY. Up until now I had been using this name to market myself but little by little I began to outgrow the amateur name. I feel this is a key factor in the growth of any photographer, the transition from amateur to pro. When you begin your work as a photographer your goal is marketing your images, this is the main reason most aspiring photographers come up with lil artsy names such as the one i mentioned. Your work isn’t good enough to attract people to you on its own, this is something subconscious… during these beginning stages it is all about the images, and creating a fan base for the images. This is phase one of the journey.

I feel that I have now reached phase two on my path. It is time to market myself as a photographer and move away from marketing solemnly my images, at this point my images speak for themselves and they could go off on their own with out Scott Leonard and that there is a problem.

As a photographer you must keep in mind that photography is 10% photographs, 70% Marketing, and 20% character building. Let the character building begin!

The point of changing your company name from a cute little logo to your real name is to move your viewers focus away from just your images, they don’t know who you are… “This Boson guy creates good images.” Your viewers do not know your name, they only see the images and move on. This is not what you want, you want them to have a name attached to what they view. You want the conversation to be “Have you seen Scott Leonard’s photographic work, can we book this guy?” You do not want it to be “These photographs look amazing, some guy who calls himself higgsboson made them, I wonder what he means by higgsboson. Is that his last name?

This is the main reason pro photographers all use their name or a sudo name for their companies. This is the natural progression of things, at some point you drop your crutches and begin to walk as a confident photographer who is ready to be taken seriously. I mean how serious do you think you will be taken by a big company such as Prada or Guess if you are using a cute little name?

And by cute name I mean “Anything | Photography”, to be honest their isnt even a reason to have the word photography in the title… they already know you are a photographer they are looking at your portfolio by now! It is time you concentrate on building a celebrity image for yourself, and because it is that time, I present to you… Scott Leonard!

Enjoy!

http://www.scott-leonard.net

Scott Leonard's Thoughts

Posts tagged with growth

Marketing yourself - Building Confidence in your Brand