With this article, I am starting a series of articles that you will find quite useful. I shall be looking at various businesses where I will share with you a starter pack for each business. By ‘starter pack’ I am basically referring to what you need to get into that business. To kick-start this series I will look at the photography business which is the focus of this article. Fun fact, do you know where the term photography originates from? It comes from two Greek terms namely, photos and graphics. They mean light and drawing respectively.
Why Photography?
The photography industry is a multi-billion dollar global industry. Generally, due to the increased demand for content creation, photography is now quite lucrative. The beauty of the business is that it is something you can actually enjoy whilst making money. Most professional photographers attest to how they started this business just as a hobby. Did you know that the most expensive photograph ever sold was sold for US$6.5 million? This goes to show you that photography can turn out to be a big break. Let us now look at what the business starter pack for this business includes.
Photo Studio
It is a given that there will be times where you will take photos outdoors. However, there will be notable times where you have to take photos in a professional studio environment. The great thing about this is that you can even start by renting a space. To go along with that and even for outdoor photoshoots you might need different types of props. The type of props you need will be informed by your area of specialization. For instance, let us suppose you mainly do birthday photoshoots. You will have to invest in getting props that are suitable for such shoots. These could be banners or balloons inscribed with birthday words or messages. It could even be birthday themed sets and the like – the possibilities are endless.
Smart Mobile Devices
You will need to have a desktop computer, a laptop, or a tablet – you can even have all three. These will be crucial for many things. Some of the core aspects I am talking about here are editing, storage, communication, and online presence. Obviously, in this day and age, you will need to have a website and to be on social media sites. Thus such devices will enable easy handling of a website and social media accounts.
Software And Apps
Photography also involves lots of editing and various handling-related issues. These are processes that will need certain dedicated software or apps for that. Examples of such software are Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator.
Cameras
This is one of the key items to have for a photography business. There are so many different types of cameras, so much that I can write several articles just detailing the various types. The decisions for which cameras to buy are mainly informed by the particular specifications you will be looking for. You will also need a high-end smartphone camera here. The thing is some smartphone cameras are quite good – even better than some actual cameras. Having such a phone camera will prove handy on so many occasions when shooting photos.
Lenses
Arguably one of the most sensitive and expensive set of equipment you will need in this business. Lenses can actually cost as much as or more than a camera. Along with these, you must also have flashes.
Lighting Equipment
In principle, natural light is recommended for the best photographs. However, it is not always the case that sufficient natural light is available. For the most part, artificial lighting will be needed to take great photos. Here we are referring to items such as speed lights, reflectors, backdrops, and light stands, just to mention a few.
Storage
External hard drives will be required along with memory cards. Caution must be exercised when it comes to memory cards because they can lead to serious losses especially if they are not authentic. Another wise thing will be to open a Google Drive account or on any cloud storage platform e.g. Box or Dropbox. It would be a disaster to lose photos taken during a one-off shoot. Re-creating the same shots, in the event the photos have been lost, is not as easy as it sounds.
Power
Powerful batteries will be needed and even UPS systems where possible. Sets of batteries will have to be several to cater for incidentals where batteries just unexpectedly fail. (In fact, it is highly recommended that you have several sets of certain items (e.g. lenses, memory cards, and so on) to avoid being stuck).
In some cases you might be better off having a photo printer – in fact, you should. You will also need items such as tripods, camera bags, a vehicle (most preferable though you can explore having a reliable means of transport to get wherever you needed at any time). These are basically the items that constitute your photography business starter pack. You need not necessarily break your back to have all these items at once. You can always start small and gradually acquire them till you are fully set.
