That sounds like I'm going to get all philosophical, huh?
Ever since the beginning ... of my hobby turned professional business, I've heard the words,
"Find your Niche."
Niche.
Watchu mean my "niche?"
I'm a photographer.
That's my niche ... bitch.
LOL
Sorry had to.
But seriously, all the successful photographers - or at least whom I viewed as successful, were telling me to pick a niche and stick to it.
Meaning, pick a genre to photograph and nothing more.
Because my background is in photojournalism and thats really wear my heart lays --
I chose to tell people I specialize in events.
I normally get the "oh ..."
Meaning, they don't have an "event" to photograph, they want portraits so I'm not the one for them.
This is where I play catch up and follow with, "But I like to call myself a lifestyle photographer because I don't like posing families. I mean, what three year old is going to sit perfectly still in front of my lens for an hour session? I let you guys be ... well YOU. We have fun on our sessions and nothing really is 'posed' per say, we will definitely have fun and you'll get great family portraits out of it."
Phew. Saved right?
Well, sorta. I book the client, we have fun, they love their pictures, it gets posted on my Facebook page or Blog and that's that.
I recently put an ad together for my Facebook cover and realized ... I photograph pretty much everything ...
(Watch in HD on YouTube)
But those "portraits" aren't my niche are they?
Or when I wanna get creative and I ask for a volunteer model and we get creative. I now have a beautiful portrait of a model and now headshots are being asked for by other models.
What about the vendor that asked me to photograph their products? Heck yeah. I'll support another small business.
Or the client who has been coming to me for all their life's moments? Their engagement, their wedding, their newborn ....
ERRRRRRRRRRR?! What?! (those were tire screech marks if you couldn't tell)
I do NOT do newborn. But for them, I decided to ... and I put my own spin to it. "
Lifestyle Newborn"
And they loved it.
I tried boudoir for Valentines Day ... nope, not my niche ... but I tried it.
Basically, what I'm alluding to is that my niche isn't a niche at all. It's about me trying.
It's my business, I get to run it how I want.
I can say yes to one session and no to another. If I wanna give it a try, I'll give it a try.
Does this work for everyone? No ... but it appears to work for me.
But I am a photojournalistic, lifestyle photographer who loves natural light and capturing moments as they happen. That's my niche.
But let's get one thing straight, if you want boudoir or posed newborn images ... I am NOT the photographer for you. But I will point you in the right direction to someone WAY better at those niche's than I!
;)
Run your business how you see fit, girlfriend.
After all, you are the Girl Boss.
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