Momtographer to pretty darn good income photographer

Hi! I'm Jessica. I'm a Beaufort family, wedding, maternity, anything photographer. This is my first "real" blog post over here in my fancy business website. I have a personal blog but I haven't used it in a while, and I warn you it is not PG. But I promise this area will be!   When I first started this business, I always wanted to share as I learned things. I wanted to help other people who had in interest in photography turn it into a money making business. I didn't believe in taking two years to get "good". I didn't want to make excuses like "I'm a mom, I don't have time" or "My husband's job requires him to be gone all the time", so I didn't make those excuses. I have had, in my opinion, a really fast success, and I really REALLY believe anyone else can too. I had no plans of being a photographer until 12 months ago. Literally one year ago this week, I took a picture and I was proud of it, and it just kind of hit me that playing with the buttons on my camera and having no idea what any of them meant, but getting it RIGHT after 80 takes, felt good. It was this picture:  I shared it on my Facebook page for all of my friends to see and I was SO proud of it. Got a little watermark and everything. Looking back there are about 15 things wrong, but that picture was my lightbulb. It was because I didn't have my camera on auto, I didn't let it guess for me, I did everything I could to get it right, and I had no idea what I was doing, but it was FUN. And from there, every night once I put my then 11 month old to bed, I would stay up until 4 in the morning. I lived on Youtube. I was too embarrassed to ask questions in photography Facebook groups because I had NO idea what common words meant yet, let alone how to do certain things. For the next couple of months, I Youtube'd every night. I Youtube'd things like "What is ISO", "what is the difference between a 50 1.8 and a 50 1.4", "Using manual mode", "Best entry level equipment" and I watched all night long. One video would lead to another video recommendation, which would lead to a blog post, which would lead to a photographer's website, which would lead to me looking at work that I wanted to produce. But instead I was getting images that weren't great.I knew I could go about this a couple of different ways. I could start up a business Facebook page now, while I'm pretty crappy, make some money, and slowly upgrade my equipment and slowly learn through trial and error and eventually be better. OR I could do it the right way. Here's the right way. (I am always right on my blog).I could practice every day. Learn every day. Read Understanding Exposure. Pour myself into Creative Live. Look at the work of people better than me. Ask myself what makes it better. Ask myself how mine is different. Work hard. Understand manual mode on my camera, and understand which situations call for which settings that I will manually input into my camera. Get away from a kit lens. And do all of this without being a business. Here's why.When you jump in and are "My name photography", and you cannot product clear consistent work that you are proud of, you are not on manual mode truly understanding how your camera works, you are using kit equipment, you are charging little to nothing, and you have a business page and are marketing yourself as a business, giving all of your digital files away, it is a very hard road to climb out of this. You're now that photographer that charges dirt cheap prices and doesn't really know what she's doing, and hundreds of people are watching you. No one wants this! Your friends tell you you're great because 1) They don't have an eye for this and 2) They love you. People only need one impression of your photography and you don't want it to be "I'm learning, I have no idea what I'm doing yet." You don't want to be getting booked because you're the cheapest in town. You want to be getting booked because your work is great. Don't open yourself up to income until you are ready. There is no point in charging $20 for a session (which I did for a month), be good enough to at least come in charging $100 so you can upgrade your equipment sooner. I am now $400 for a session and a disc of all digital files. I have been that price since December, and the bookings have not stopped. They haven't even lessened. The biggest challenger of your self worth and your value is YOU, so if you come into your business confident because you took the time to be ready, and know you are worth something, and not just someone figuring it out as they go along, this will reflect.After my January 2013 lightbulb picture moment, I kept to myself for four months learning every day until I felt pretty confident in what I was doing. I felt confident in my camera, it's features, the exposure triangle, and once I felt good I went in business in May. Facebook was my only source of a portfolio and a client base. Since May, I have almost 1,500 fans on that page, I have a pricing guide that doesn't mess around, and no one is treating me like a new clueless girl. I'm telling you this because ANYONE can do this. I truly believe that. I understand photography is an art, but it is also a formula. It's a science, it's a set of rules that are just going to work when you have the right pieces and understand them.The big piece of advice I want to give in this blog post is to not jump in to a business until you know you don't suck. You don't have to love every session, and you will always be your worst critic, but there will be a time when your peers who are good (not your family and your friends) will kind of let you know 'hey you don't suck now'. If you can really understand why you need to be at this shutter speed, or that aperture, or this ISO, or that kelvin white balance, and you really get it all, jump in! But don't do it on auto, and don't do it for $20 sessions, you don't want to watch hundreds of people label you as a bad photographer or have people book you because you're cheap as dirt. Waiting is worth it, I promise! Getting off of your kit lens will be a huge help for anyone. Buying a 50mm prime, or a 35mm prime, will be wonderful as you learn.I did this fast, and if I did it fast, anyone can do it fast. It just takes a hell of a lot of time and practice. Don't make excuses, study it like you're back in college, and don't be afraid to spend some money. I was in debt thousands, but I knew it wouldn't last forever, and it didn't! You have to spend money to make money, so if you want to have a journey of your own, take it slow with your business, take it fast with your education, and don't be afraid to drop some dollars on some nice equipment. It DOES make a difference, although it's how we use it that really matters.I hope to post in here weekly, I am not a know it all by any means but I'd like to share my lessons learned, my editing process, some inside scoop on real business costs and a breakdown of that, just a good solid peak in. This has been a wonderful journey so far and I am loving every second!