Today I’m pleased to FINALLY be sharing the last reader feature in the work-at-home series I launched in early August. I thought I would be done last week until a reader left a comment saying, “I loved this series, but was hoping to see a photographer share their story.” Given the popularity of this career choice, I thought it was worth including. So I contacted my amazingly talented friend Devon and asked if she would share. Here is her story.
What I Do: Photographer
For How Long: officially…for about 18 months. Unofficially 10+ years!!
How Many Hours Per Week: 20-25 hours
Income Earned: It will vary from month to month ~ depending on the season. On lower months maybe $400, on a very busy month (including weddings) the income could be $3000! Much of my income will depend on how hard I’ve worked the previous months booking appointments.
How and why did you start your work-at-home position?
I got started after getting burned out of my counseling job. I loved following photographers, and had done some “second shooting” with a friend of mine. When I finally took the plunge into photography I was scared out of my mind but knew that if I ever wanted to pursue it I would have to get over the fear and learn how to run a small business.
What exactly do you do in this position?
About 20% of my job is actually getting behind the camera and capturing amazing images. The rest of my time is spent at the computer editing, returning emails, networking through facebook, twitter and my blog. I quickly learned that if I wanted to get paid to have this job I would have to create the buzz and generate the work. As funny as it sounds I needed to go out and FIND the clients! I found out very quickly that being proactive is going to bring the business. This was so different from counseling where I had a boss and a front office that told me what my schedule was going to be!
What do you need to get started?
Starting up a small business took a fair amount of time and focus. One thing I know about myself is that I couldn’t just stop and start when I was working. I needed to have focused time devoted to making this thing work out. I also developed the business side, I had a business plan, great accounting and license. These helped not only on the legal side of things, but also helped me get into the mindset of “I am a small business owner”. I needed to take myself seriously if anyone else was going to as well.
What excites you about this position?
I get to be creative! Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of boring or stressful parts of this job, but even on the worst days I still feel like I am living my dream by doing this job. There are so many aspects of this job that allow me to use my counseling background to help people get more comfortable with me…and with my camera.
What is challenging about this position?
Beating discouragement. Hands down. As a photographer I am constantly looking at other peoples work and lining my own talents and abilities up to theirs. There is always be someone with better photos, more business, a cooler website than me. But in reality, if I allow myself to constantly be discouraged by other photographers I will never get any better at my craft.
The other difficulty…time management (gulp…). Sometimes I just gotta bite the bullet and keep on task. If I allow myself to take too many images without having the time to retouch I can get REALLY far behind. This becomes stressful as I try to have a quick turnaround.
What do you need to make it in this position?
I know it might be a contradiction…but confidence and humility go hand in hand here. You must have the confidence to get behind the camera, tell people what to do to make a great image and the vision to mold your canvas into the most flattering and breathtaking image ever. Humility comes in handy as you should never stop learning. I don’t want to be a carbon copy of everyone else’s photos, but I want to have the vision and creativity to blaze my own way.
How can you learn more?
A lot of people ask if I went to school to study photography…but in all honesty photography is personal taste. There are so many different “styles” to choose from. I learned that it is a lot like defining your counseling style…everyone is going to be a little different. There really is no one way that photography can be learned, but it is acquired the more you do it. The more you shoot the better you get at it, your eye gets refined and begins to see things you didn’t pick up on at first. I use Google Reader to keep up on other photographers blogs to get ideas for posing and lighting. I have about 5 or 6 different “muses.”
Final Thoughts from Devon
I am a photographer
I don’t just shoot photographs, I stop time
I search for those moments that make a statement
And I want that statement to be powerful.
A Saturday back in May Shaun (my husband) and I were walking through the farmers market and we ran into another teacher from Shaun’s school. I was introduced and we were chatting for a couple minutes when thus co-workers wife remembered that I was a “professional” photographer. I ,oh so humbly, replied that I was working on it and would like to be a professional photographer one day. We had a little laugh, wrapped up our pleasantries and moved along to purchase our farmers market flowers.
Later Shaun, from what seemed to be out of the blue, turned to me and stated boldly…
“Devon, you ARE a professional photographer,you have to give yourself more credit.”
Gulp. I know what Shaun said is true.
www.devonmichellephotography.com
devon at devonmichellephotography.com
Don’t forget: when you book your photo shoot with Devon, mention you found her through The Coupon Project for a $25 discount!!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I think Devon touched on the most important part of being successful in a work-from-home business without actually saying it: support.
What Shaun did was vital. Not only was he showing Devon that he believed in her and supported her, he encouraged her to believe in herself.
I’m hoping one day to be a writer/speaker. I hesitate to call myself a writer because I don’t have the degree/experience/insert excuse here. My husband calls me on this all the time. He encourages me to own my calling…to not be ashamed of having a dream & reaching for it. Because no matter how good your product, no matter how solid your business plan, if you don’t believe I yourself and have others who do too you won’t make it.
Working from home is hard work and it’s easy to get discouraged. We all need those people in our life who keep us from quitting & tell us it’s all worth it.
Great series, Angela! It was so inspiring.
Support DOES matter. My husband is the one that was on me to get my business license four years ago. I still remember him driving me down and holding our 3-month old son while I got it set up at the business licensing office.
If you don’t have a supportive spouse, what can you do? Perhaps find a friend or family member that believes in you. Have them hold you accountable to taking those first steps! You CAN do this, people!
Yay!! Thank you both for this!
What a nice surprise to come home to! I was confused at first, thinking this was ‘over’, and then read that you added it specially. This was very nice of you to do! 
Thanks again!
It was a great suggestion. Thank you!!