Of the marketing campaigns, social feeds, and websites you love there’s usually a common theme: great photography.
With the rise of the gig economy (which simply means a move from the traditional economy to one that favours flexible and temporary jobs), small and large businesses alike are looking towards contract work with creatives rather than an ongoing position. It may be a scary concept, but rather than having all your eggs in one basket, it’s a change that offers opportunity.
Versatile career options
Of photography work, weddings and engagement shoots are where many freelancers make their money. And if same sex marriage gets legalised there’ll be a lot more of them around.
But there’s so much more to photography work than catching memorable moments. Businesses are wanting to fine tune their social media feeds with quality imagery, magazines have opted for freelance photography work for a variety of projects and there’ll always be the need for hiring photographers for large scale event coverage (think expos, festivals, competitions etc).
Something as simple as visiting a local café weekly and doing a photo shoot with customers in the venue, the staff and products becomes part and parcel of what you can offer as a freelancing creative. Imagery is what speaks to people and without good quality ones a business is unlikely to reach its full potential.
If going full time with photography isn’t your thing, the nature of the work enables you to keep a part-time (or at times even full-time job) while following your creative passions in a side business.
Phones only get you so far
While there is app after app that promises quality photo editing and with the improvement of megapixels for phone cameras with each new model, there’s still a noticeable different between an image captured on a DSLR camera and one that isn’t.
It’s not an easy transition from iPhone to DSLR, and that’s why many small business owners, freelancing creatives and hobbyists are turning their attention to photography courses. Understanding how to control and target your focus and working with light are two elements to all good photography courses and paramount in learning how to take good photos.
According to an in-depth study by Moz, up to 60% of a business’ web traffic can come solely from an image alone. So it’s easy to understand why businesses are either training themselves or hiring freelancers to improve the images on their sites.
Everything’s online
Honing in on the points mentioned above, it will be rare to find a business or event that doesn’t have a Facebook, Instagram and website – all of which need quality content updated regularly. And there’s only so far stock images can take you before you start to see the same images from business to business.
As businesses transition more an more to digital – including print publications – it’s further opening the chances to pursue a creative business that you enjoy. All that’s left for you to do is apply for a creative course in photography.
Oxygen College offers a two-year full time Professional Photography Program, with the second year focusing more on industry knowledge and business experience.