Product Description

Displaying the same wit and charm that made her Creative Techniques for Photographing Children a commercial success, Vik Orenstein shoots straight with photographers on what it takes to build a successful photo business. She combines big-picture thinking with a soft touch to deliver sound, practical advice on such core topics as developing a marketing plan, building a clientele, networking and maintaining creative fulfillment.

The guide is a major asset for: - Amateurs seeking a friendly overview of the business - Established photographers delving into a new niche - Freelancers interested in selling stock - Photographers starting their own studio

At 320 pages, the book's simultaneous deep and broad treatment makes it an excellent companion to the business-focused introduction found in Photographer's Market. Vik also covers such important specialties as wedding, commercial and nature photography in individual chapters and frequently complements her own advice with that of industry experts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35573 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Vik Orenstein owns KidCapers Portraits, which she started from scratch fifteen years ago, and three Tiny Acorn Studios. Combined, they now gross more than $2 million per year. In 2004, Vik is launching a seminar on the business of photography, sponsored by Betterphoto.com. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Customer Reviews

Did an editor even proofread this book?
While the subjects covered in this book aren't exhaustive by any means, I was more bothered by the lack of proper editing. Blatant misspellings ("fiftenn-plus years in the business"), missing quotation marks, incorrect punctuation, and bad grammar make this book difficult to take seriously.

Subject-wise, the author just doesn't go into enough detail to make this book worth reading. She brings up important subjects, but doesn't explain or define the terms. For example, in chapter nine, the author discusses protecting copyrights. She advises not to "give away the intellectual property farm," but doesn't explain how photographers are giving away their copyrights. Perhaps she assumed that a photographer would already know what he or she needed to know about copyrights before reading this book. She would be wrong. After reading a chapter, I have to resort to looking up information online to fill in the gaps.

I don't recommend this book. Please don't use it for a class. It was a waste of my money.

A concise guide to the business of photography
As a professional photographer I found this book to be very useful in the early stages of starting my business. After spending much time doing all the things I thought I should be doing (and not getting very far!), I read this book and realized that being a professional photographer was going to mean much more than just being good at photography.

Like many businesses, professional photography requires skills in marketing, selling, advertising and dealing with people. This book introduces all these concepts and more, together with a lot of interesting case-studies of people who have switched to photography from other careers, and how they met the challenges of doing that.

Professional photography can be very rewarding and is an excellent business to be in - but make sure you get off on the right footing by realizing that 90% of it is knowing how to run a business. This book is an excellent way to start.

Studio Photographers ONLY
Apparently, and according to this author, the only business you should open as a photographer is a studio. Everything else is pointless.

That being the case, she should have made that clear in the title.

The money I spent on this book was absolutely wasted, and I won't buy anything else without reading the reviews first.

Totally useless.