Biggest Challenges for New Photographers Attempting to Gain Recognition

Making a name for yourself in photography now a days is unbelievably, incredibly, "nodoubtaboutit" difficult. Some of the biggest challenges that photographers face as they enter the world of using photography for either income or simply sharing their work online can easily kill confidence. Here are some of the top challenges that we face as photographers attempting to find a way through the competitive world of photography. Before I start I want to clarify that I am not just talking about those who do photography full-time. Without further ado, lets go...

1. Being Lost Among Low Quality Work/Differentiating Yourself from Other Beginners

This first piece is broken into two parts. First: The internet has made it INCREDIBLY EASY to publish you work. Websites, blogs, social media, online photography contests....its all there. Because of this it is all too common for excellent photography to be lost in a massive jumble of bad photography. That may seem a little harsh, yet we have all seen those sites and blogs dedicated to someone's photography that you would not describe as "quality".

Second: The ease of accessibility of quality cameras. Just today, as I was walking across the Washington Avenue Bridge on the University of Minnesota campus, I snapped a photo of a pretty sunset with my iPhone 5s that turned out quite nice. Obviously camera phones have a loooong way to go to compete with a D-SLR system, yet in terms of the size of the optics and processing system it is incredible the quality images that can be captured. That makes for a lot more people call themselves photographers and attempt to promote their work.

2. Basic Supply/Demand

Photography is a form of art, so therefore, when economic times get tough one of the first things to be eliminated from one's budget is the unnecessary lavishes of life...predominantly, excess art and entertainment. For example, imagine if the internet was a physical gallery. You walk into an enormous room with millions of "photographers" all trying to convince you that their work is special...wow. Talk about an overwhelmed customer!

3. True Competition with Professional, Experienced Visual Artists

Of course, last and certainly not least is pure, honest, competition. You may be trying to sell prints and another talented photographer can show up and steal the crowd with their beautiful work.  This is most likely the most difficult thing to deal with as a photography business, as it does sum up all of the above things into one category. Separating yourself from all of the noise is unbelievably hard, because it requires you to be better at more than just photography. You have to have a way with people, business, and many other things in order to "make it." 

In Conclusion...

Trying to build a name for yourself in photography isn't easy but can be very rewarding. The challenges that we encounter helps us improve our skills as photographers which is what it is all about. Keep going, work hard, and make sure to stay motivated and have the patience that it takes to endure the storm. Growing a following is very fun, and the challenges that come along the way are mere distractions.

Naturally Growing Your Instagram Account Will Get you Real Followers the Fastest: Here are the 3 Reasons Why!

As photographers we are always looking for creative ways to expand our online presence and get our photos exposed to more people. Instagram is currently the powerhouse of social media photo sharing and is still growing at a ridiculous pace...which creates both a blessing and a curse. Tens of millions of photographers publish their work on Instagram every day creating an extremely saturated market.

With competition so high and the desire to grow ones network, many photographers find themselves looking for any sort of way to grow their following. There are all sorts of "tips" and "tricks" that one can use, with everything from following thousands of people in hopes that a handful of them will follow you back to  randomly liking and commenting on strangers photos. Some third party sites even allow you to purchase followers, though almost 100% of these followers are bots and not real people and will therefore never interact with your account. However, I will explain that these methods simply do not pay off in the long run.


So here are the 3 reasons why allowing your Instagram account following to grow naturally is the best way to do it...by far!

1. You Want Interaction, Not Numbers - Do you want real people or computers looking at your photos?

If very few people are liking and commenting on your photos, then there is no reason to have a bunch of followers. It is pointless. While it may be sexy to have "100k" or some other bloated number under the "Followers" area on your Instagram profile, social media success comes down to how people interact with their followers and vice versa. There are many options of gaining "trash" followers (accounts that will never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, like, comment, or interact with your account in any way). I briefly touched on these earlier, and I stand by what I said. When you follow a bunch of people or like thousands of images or  - *facepalm* - buy followers, you are going to get trash followers over 95% of the time. What is the point of having a social media site if no real people see your content?

2. You Don't Look Desperate or Fake - Keep You "Following" Number in Check

Let's say that you visit a random Instagram account and see that this person followers some 5,000 and has around 1,800 followers. What does that look like to you? Does that add credibility to their account or does it take away from it? It obviously takes away. But why? Because it makes the account look cheap, lazy and desperate. Even if the gap was closer, say, following 5,000 and has 4,000 followers if would still look bad. Heck, if you have 5,400 followers but have to follow 5,000 other people to get to that point that probably means that your content isn't very good or that your connections aren't that strong. That is exactly what others will be thinking too when they see bloated "following" numbers when compared to your "followers" number.

3. You and Your Content Look Credible - Have your Current Followers want to Keep Following you!

Above all, you need to remember that people are smart and seeing an account with 75 active followers with 150 total followers will always be more attractive than 20 active followers with 3,000 total followers! Remember: its not the size of your following that matters, its about what you do with it (yes, I just said that). When you start gaining followers (yes, it will be slow at first) make sure to interact with them and make them feel appreciated. Comment on their photos, respond to EVERY SINGLE comment that is left on any of your photos and make sure to push yourself to create excellent content. You may be surprised at how much value these interactions have, especially when compared to the dull reality that "trash" followers are worthless.

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So unless you simply want a bunch of trash followers to make yourself feel good by having a big "Followers" number, stay patient and honestly interact with others. Engage with other users and your account will blossom with followers that actually care about you and your content. After all, isn't that what you want?