"How did you get your start in the photography business?"

My start in this business actually goes back to a childhood love for art. Somewhere in the process of high school graduation I extinguished that passion out of a supposed need to "grow up." Oil painting, drawing, photography...I had my iron in a number of fires.

Fast forward seven years...I'm slaving away-uh-working for a bank and tolerating 40 hours/week of my life. That year, my wife at the time left and took our two boys with her. I was devastated. Everything I knew was changing...and it was good as time as ever to change my career. I knew I'd developed some-what of an eye for photography and decided to go for it after being inspired by a friend. I bought a camera, some glass and started shooting.

The first lead I received arrived via a contact while I was still in banking. The job? Photograph a Quinceanera. I'm not hispanic, nor did I grow up around Hispanic culture, so I honestly had no idea what photographs they were expecting from this party. I just photographed it the only way I knew how. When it came time to show them the proofs from the party, I didn't have online proofing software, projection or anything else that resembled a professional shop...I had a 20" iMac G5. And yes, ladies and gentleman, that is me knocking on the door with my 20" iMac G5 box in my hands asking, "So, where's your nearest outlet?"

I boot up my "portable" Mac and show off my first ever paid job via the "professional" slideshow feature. [silence ensues...what would follow would completely blindside me] Utter dissatisfaction. They couldn't have been more displeased and certainly weren't keeping it to themselves.

What followed was a series of battering doubts and questions that knocked the breath out of me because our art is often close to our heart. I eventually got over it and realized my first important lesson in this business: Never accept a job with the wrong type of client. Every year I turn down dozens of jobs because of this first experience. From there, I kept believing in my ability and moving forward to where I am today...and there is still much further to go.

Brandon asks,

"I noticed that you don't watermark your images that you display on your website or blog? Do you copyright all the images that you post or are just not worried about it? I just started a photoblog and I've been going I've back and forth on the issue."

There are a slew of reasons I don't watermark my images on my website or blog. Watermarks are an eyesore, distracting, annoying (when repeated on image after after image after image) and archaic. I don't copyright my images nor am I worried about it. There are so many other talented photographers, why steal from me? If you are starting out in this business, worrying about others stealing your images online should be the least of your worries. Figure out how to start turning a profit.

If you guys have questions, feel free to send them to fred@fredegan.com and it could be answered on Business Socks.