Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I am a photo hobbyist. I get the impression that many/most people here are professionals. This makes me wonder how people make a go of it living in such an expensive city like Toronto. You have my respect.

But such thoughts always give rise to questions that I hope you can answer. Obviously with the advent of the internet with social networking sites like online galleries/bulletin boards it is easier to get your work out there.

How did professional photographers get their work noticed in order to attract clients in the days PRIOR to the internet? I can't imagine it required renting store front property and displaying one's work in a window display. What other methods did you old film guys use?

In the book I am reading on business of photography I found a lot of advices on using self-promotion as well as hired agents or other people knowledgeable in business and promotion. Self-promotion is about setting up portfolios, creating lists of potential clients, art directors etc. With hired professionals, they are the ones doing all this for you, you just pay them

Mind you, I am not a professional

dunno if they're still published now what with the internet and all but there used to be creative source books on different creatives like illustration, design, photography, etc... shooters would buy a page and put a few examples of their work, and contact details. I have a few in my studio.

I'm no pro, but am getting really serious with photography and would like to get some gigs out of it. I think one way to get noticed is to start taking your camera everywhere you go ie. parties. I've started doing this and take my camera to church, family gatherings etc. up to the point they start asking me for copies of the photos I've taken. Then by word of mouth you get known for taking photos. It's kind of expensive sometimes when some of my friends would ask for printed copies or photos be burned to CDs, but it's worth it in the long run.

On a flip side of the question,
How does a startup get noticed in a sea of many many photographers ?

Most of the people here are NOT professional photographers. There are only a couple here who make their whole income from photography, and only one that posts regularly still.

Photography used to have a bigger budget for magazines and newspapers historically. Advertising departments used to have a huge photography budget, but things have changed and many places have even had to cut their own in-house photography. The exceptions being some high-fashion magazines who can still afford the multi-million dollar Annie Liebovitz shoots.

Are you talking about selling your photos as art?

There are many different ways to get started but to me this seems to be the way you're asking.

From what I've seen most people that want to make money out of this get into wedding photography.

It depends on which photographic discipline you are talking about (commercial, fine art, wedding/portraiture, stock, etc.), but in every case that I can think of, photographers have generally NOT given up "the old way" of marketing and promoting themselves. But the Internet and social media have offered new ways of getting the word out.

It's a double-edged sword... sure, I can upload a photo and have hundreds or thousands (if not more) of people see it within a very short period of time. It costs me barely nothing to do that, and very little in terms of time and effort. But that applies to everyone else too! I read a statistic recently that assuming there is no increase in the rate people post photos online, Facebook will gain 30 BILLION new images this year alone. It will actually be more than that, since the pace is accelerating.

So how do you make sure your work is noticed? You go back to the tried 'n true methods: advertising, word of mouth, networking, schmoozing, mounting a gallery showing, getting published, getting reviewed, getting involved in enthusiast as well as professional organizations, studying with a mentor, working with and helping out other professionals, etc. There is no magic bullet.

Do you have to get on Idol show to get discovered ?

No. The show you're talking about is called "The Shot."

What are we refering to with the term "Back in the old days"..... a term like that makes me think 1850's

the old days = 2001 or before, apparently.

geez... I must be an old fart at 37 years old then.