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My Vision of Photography Entrepreneurship

My personal vision for the future of photography entrepreneurship:

  1. Less social media; more focus on blogging (your own website, your own self-hosted WordPress.org blog), with your OWN DOMAIN.
  2. More open source tools
  3. Less concern about gear and equipment; more focus on photography books, publications, magazines, PDF files, and insights on photography philosophy and composition.
  4. More focus on personal photography — photography as a form of self-enlargement, of self-expression, of self-aggrandizement, or self-augmentation, instead of photography as a numbers game or contest.
  5. Photography as a sociological approach on the world — how you interact with strangers, and how you vision yourself!
  6. A less nerdy and technical future for photography — a more artistic one.

If you share your photos online, you’re a photography entrepreneur

How do you know whether you’re a photography entrepreneur or not? My simple suggestion:

If you like sharing your photos with others, and if you publish/share your photos on the internet, you’re a photography entrepreneur.

Also, if you have ambitions to augment your fame, to share your photos more widely, get a larger (and/or stronger following), you’re a photography entrepreneur.

Why pursue entrepreneurship?

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To me, it is just fun! I believe if you desire to maximize your enjoyment from photography, don’t just focus on making good photos — also focus on spreading yourself, spreading your name, spreading your fame, and letting others know about your photos! To become a master marketer, to become more self-confident in yourself and your photos, and to build your own photo platform (as I did with this blog and arsbeta.com).

How to get started

  1. Register your own website/domain (you can use 1and1.com or bluehost.com), install wordpress.org, and register your own domain (ideally your first name and last name.com)
  2. Start blogging about yourself, your photos, and anything on your mind
  3. Start a YouTube channel by uploading photos to your YouTube account (just open up YouTube.com and look at the “Create” or “upload” button in the top-right corner). Record videos on your phone, your digital camera, or your webcam. Don’t try to make it professional. Make it simple, straight-forward, honest, fun, and casual. And my philosophy — just get it 80% ‘good enough’ and hit publish!
  4. Cross-pollinate your own ideas in photography with other domains in life you’re interested in. For example, street photography and sociology, photography and philosophy, cognitive science and photography, computer science and photography, etc.
  5. Never stop striving to pave new sources of knowledge, insight, and share them with others!

ERIC


Entrepreneurship 101