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My name is Sven Schomburg and I work as a photographer. I set up my warehouse about 9 years ago in Hamburg and specialized in people photography, more precisely wedding and liestyle photography. You don’t become a good photographer overnight! About 8 years ago my better half commented that we should buy a reflex camera so that we could take good photos in the case of a child (I mean child, of course). I have to say, however, that we actually always took pictures, or rather, we took pictures. Yes, now it was there, the entry-level camera (seen this way today) from Mediamarkt, waiting to be used. You can probably already imagine what I photographed. Exactly, everything that came in front of the lens and still nice in A mode. Although I was a bit surprised what the camera was doing in the other sub-modes, I didn’t think about it any further. 🙂 Photography as I do it today was out of the question. A picture only emerges in your head … … and then the camera will help you implement it. Cool phrase, right? I picked it up somewhere, but there’s something to it. After a few tours with my camera at the time, now don’t think that I already had people in front of the cam, it was clear to me that I would rather have to read to get out of this A mode. Now I’m not the biggest bookworm either, but the internet also has its right to exist. So I set off with knowledge from books and tutorials that I had freely obtained from YouTube or had bought in the meantime. My path went through architecture, macro and, for a short time, HDR photography. Until at some point I felt the interest to take photos of people. I slowly felt my way to this topic. It was clear that it was often the girl next door who was allowed to pose in front of my camera or, at the very beginning, my wife. In addition to my camera with kit lens at the time, more photo stuff was slowly but surely added. Everything was in many books and the tutorials also contributed something. In all honesty, I have to tell you that I’m a bit tech-savvy, but for a long time not as much as it was back then when it was said “the photo was taken with the photo equipment, so I have to have it”. From every shoot with the girl next door I got better and so the thought matured in me that I had to show my pictures to the people out there in order to get confirmation for my great photo work. So I signed up for many forums and proudly posted the great work I believed at the time. When I look back on it today, I keep getting a smile on my face. But I can tell you, that’s just part of development. My development also includes the basement, which is still full of tripods, flashes and light shapers. 😉I looked for role models or let’s just say I became a fan of the great photographers in the world. I’m still a fan today, but the direction of photography has changed over time. One of my activities was and still is today, if I can manage it, attending various network meetings. At that time, I took Emilia with me to such a photographer’s meeting, as already described, my better half and what can I say, I got her hooked on photography. Not nearly as much as I am today, but even then it was easier to buy new photo equipment because you had or have an ally on your side. The first job as a wedding photographer But don’t think that the sun was always shining for me, because there was often enough rain. Probably like any of you too. Okay, I now had people in front of the camera, but how did wedding photography come about? She actually came to us somehow. Why “us” now? Quite simply- Emilia also became very active photographically over time. So one day a colleague of my wife asked if we could take some photos at her wedding. I tell you, my pants were pretty full. Wrong, because the pictures were actually well received. So we were also approached by friends and acquaintances. Official registration as a photographer In 2015 it was time to seriously think about a business, which I then put into practice. The way to the Chamber of Crafts was clear and I’ll tell you first when I had the trade license in hand, I thought I was the hero. The world would just wait for a photographer like me. 😉Puff pie, because now the work really started. I knew I wanted to photograph weddings, but the people around didn’t know about me. Or just do the test and google for wedding photographers! Exactly, there are a dime a dozen. Over time I worked on my personality, on my photography style and of course on the processing of the pictures. Over time we also had offspring and Emilia is currently no longer accompanying me to weddings, but when it comes to decisions, be it in the selection of images or other business-related decisions, she is by my side, which I do very much you guess. Because it doesn’t work at all without the support of the family. Expect headwinds One and two words at the end, if you still want to hear them. Be aware that nobody gives you anything, but it’s better that way. It only makes you stronger and richer in experience. Also be aware that the way will be stony, but you have the right tools with you to clear the stones out of the way. I also had times when I wanted to throw all my photo stuff in the bin. Luckily I didn’t. My tip to you Go out and take pictures if you aren’t already. In order to redeem your ticket for your journey into photography as a business, you have to forego a lot, but at some point you will be rewarded if you allow it. So, your journey can begin or is already underway. I’ll see you on the train.

Essentially, it is apparently not the commercial and photographic basics that I have learned in seminars, webinars or training courses that define my professional success as a photographer, but rather things like courage, empathy, humor, openness and honesty towards my customers, but also to myself. A daring theory? Then read for yourself: You can’t make money with art “You can’t make money with art,” my father always said. It is therefore not surprising that I made many career decisions out of common sense, even though my creativity has always been my greatest talent since my early childhood. Instead, in a confused zigzag course, compromises were made in favor of supposed expectations. After graduating from high school and community service (in nursing) I worked as a nurse, qualified art therapist and pedagogue, legal assistant and shop manager at E-Plus / Base. I also learned classical and analogue photography and development. But what I lacked during this time was the courage to trust my talents and assert myself on a professional level. So while I was waiting for my place at university, I first became a nurse. The gratitude of the patients back then did my self-esteem very good. What is my artistic subject? During our studies, lecturers asked us what our very own artistic topic is. I replied “love”, but at the time I could never define it more precisely and didn’t really know why this was actually my topic. I was a member of an artist community that has successfully created video sculptures. At some point we were asked to film and photograph fashion shows. Then the first request for a wedding arose. So I became a part-time photographer, but it was all very … well, improvised! My main salary and a lot of responsibility was always in outpatient nursing, even when I was studying and immediately afterwards. But unfortunately I overdid it there in health terms. An occupational illness became chronic. Over the decades there were also two superiors who kindly took me aside and said something like: “You are doing a great job here, but why do you not earn your money with what you do best?” My answer was: “With what? With clever shit? ”. Because I was always an employee who could hardly endure internal “malaise” and was concerned about things that were more the boss’s business. Maybe you can also say that I wasn’t challenged enough? My physical limits The chronic illness has repeatedly pushed me to my physical limits in the various professions mentioned above and ultimately to make and implement a clear decision. With the help of the job center and their credit of 5,000.00 €, I put everything on one card and thus became a full-time photographer. And because this amount was not enough front and rear, I have previously written Michael Omori Kirchner and asked: “Can you make with a Canon 1100 D really as a professional freelance photographer?” . In the comments of this article was very controversial with lively discussion. Founding as a photographer Before the foundation, I was allowed to attend the business academy and the tenor there was always: “He who is different from everyone else is successful” “Be competitive on prices” (which I mistakenly interpreted as “cheap”). Positioning and business plan So I developed the “unique selling points”: Mobile photo studio for baby and nude photography, no package prices but a transparent hourly flat rate, and photo retouching (my passion). So I wrote my business plan which I now think, “how the hell, could it ever be waved through?” The answer is simple: every successful “waved through” customer looks good to your client, the job center. Customer acquisition The acquisition of the private customers just mentioned turned out to be very difficult, but without ever having a wedding photo in the portfolio, such a request came after a few months. I accepted the job because I already had some experience from the part-time phase. I photographed this job with the 1100 D without a back-up camera and with a bad feeling! At that time I calculated the hour at € 129.00 and only for the time on site. I thought that I couldn’t argue the time it took to post-process photos and so I photographed the first weddings for about 39 € an hour! At the turn of the year, I kept increasing the hourly flat rate. Nevertheless, there was not enough money left and my self-esteem towards my customers did not improve, even though they were very satisfied. Feedback from customers I could never really accept compliments from customers. Until this came: “If it seems that someone was born just to be a photographer and if it seems that this someone became a photographer just to photograph your wedding, then it’s Helge Peters! Thank you for an unforgettable shoot with lots of fun, creativity, spontaneity, emotions and fantastic results. You hit the proverbial nail on the head. “ That changed my thinking, because everything I had done in my life so far boiled down to helping other people, making others laugh, making them happy and having to do with the topic of love and care. So that I am a wedding photographer is very consistent. As I often hear from customers, they quickly feel that they have known me forever. Entertainment qualities I think I have also trained the responsible qualities in my social professions. My sense of humor is innate. My picture style lives from the fact that my customers feel good, relax and have fun. So my entertainer qualities are very useful to me. Self-esteem So I had to face the following: A lack of self-esteem has been trained for many years and over the years it actually develops a benefit for those affected: You always have an excuse: not to face challenges, to take responsibility for decisions and to assert yourself! Prices I determine my worth (my self-esteem on a professional level) myself, through my prices! Where do I really see myself in the market when I look at and compare my products? Actually in the upper quarter of the price range on the market and not at the lower end! I then adapted myself to the market in some points instead of having to be convulsively different everywhere. For example, instead of the hourly flat rate, I developed wedding package prices and factored in the photo post-processing. Photo editing is paid extra, I put my portfolio together from the customer’s point of view (emotional, special moments instead of artistically valuable photos). And despite a price increase of approx. 300% compared to the prices for a new establishment, customers still tell me: “I would have liked to have paid more!” How can that be? But through the current marketing, I increasingly have my dream customers who appreciate my value and are happy to reward them! Discussions with the job center I also no longer shied away from dealing with the job center and obtained investment permits for operating resources, because I was able to credibly demonstrate to those with the right self-esteem a realistic period for an end to the support from the job center, but also the investments that were simply necessary. From supplicant to businessman, so to speak. If you enjoy the support of the job center, you cannot freely manage the money you have earned, because this is of course always primarily intended to reduce or repay your salary. Here it is important to persevere, because you work your 8-10 hours a day for about 180 € more per month, but with the big goal of living without support. From small business owner to businessman But not only the end of the salary, but also the last year as a small business owner felt good. The changes made led to an increase in orders of over 100% in the areas of prom and weddings last year. In addition to these two areas, business and kindergarten photography are my main sources of income. Nude and baby photography hardly play a role economically. Since last year I have been able to hire other photographers in order to be able to implement the requests (double bookings for graduation balls and weddings).   Align the supply with the needs of the market But I also had to part with some things that gave me personal security: I no longer focused on my “beloved” photo editing, but geared marketing to the needs and “needs” of the customers. I gradually gave up the very good Google ranking of the homepage at fotograf.de and created pages for the individual photographic topics with their own domain. From now on I created the portfolio from the customer’s point of view (emotional pictures with special monuments instead of the artistically valuable photos). Personality as a photographer Of course, a decent SEO, acquired commercial skills as well as cooperation and exchange with other photographers are part of my success, but my personal experience is: if you are stuck in your self-employment, if you have already tried a lot, you may be with you Your person, with your personal characteristics somewhere in the way. No workshop, webinar, no management consultant can teach you that. Therefore and because feedback from my customers mainly praises my “soft skills”, I come to my statement at the beginning of the article. Well, just because it was like that for me doesn’t have to apply to everyone, does it? After all, not everyone has the same roof damage as I do😉 But maybe we can finally agree on the following: Just as important as the basics, which we can learn in workshops, training courses or YouTube videos from me, are the soft skills and a successful photographer requires a lot more, than being able to take pictures.

A little over 20 years ago I took a photo (on film). It was out of focus, blurred and too dark. It was the photo of my life. A photo that I could never repeat. A moment that was gone forever. It was the photo of my two boys the morning they were born. My name is Andreas Bender and I swore at the time that this would never happen to me again. In April 2012 I quit my job at the bank. Since then I have been working as a freelance photographer. Today I’m 50. I learn something new every day and keep developing. I read books that many years ago I labeled hocus-pocus and money-making. I listen to podcasts from successful people and spend a lot of money on seminars. personality I’ve managed to change my personality in the past 5 years. I approach people. I inspire my customers. When I was at the style pirate’s masterclass in October 2013, he said to me, “You have to infect your customers!” I had no idea how that should work. Today I get the majority of my jobs through recommendations and keep reading the word “enthusiastic” in my customer feedback. I used to hide behind my camera, but now I work on my visibility. My photographic focus is about 2/3 business photography and about 1/3 wedding reports. Wedding photography At weddings it is very important to me that the chemistry with the bride and groom is right. I’m usually there for 10 to 12 hours (even longer), in the slipstream of both of them. That just has to fit! I must also feel like taking pictures of the wedding. The bridal couple must also like my photographic style. Yes, I afford myself the luxury and choose my bridal couples. Why am i doing this Because I enjoy photographing weddings. Weddings are the emotional opposite of business assignments. A wedding in itself is usually very emotional. There is also a party and always delicious food? But a wedding reportage is also very exhausting. 12 hours without a break, always looking for the next best moment. Always energized. Play as the animator for the group photos and have your head full of ideas at the bridal couple shoot. I know too many colleagues who no longer photograph weddings because they just had too many before. I never want to wake up on a Saturday with the thought, “Oh dear, another wedding today.” I’m having too much fun with it for that. I would miss all the beautiful moments: The bride and groom standing in front of my notebook with tears in their eyes during my little slide show of the best photos of the day. The mother of the bride who falls around my neck after the slide show and gives me a big kiss on the cheek. The bride who told me she was crying on the bed because there wasn’t enough budget to book me until her fiancé shifted and topped it up. The emotional picture transfer and the great feedback from my great bridal couples. I choose my customers But there is another point that I want to exaggerate here. Suppose I let the location or whoever mediate me in an all-inclusive package. I see the bride and groom for the first time 10 minutes before the wedding and after 2 minutes I know the bride is a bitch. Or I notice that the bridegroom doesn’t like me. Then it can be played over for a certain time, but not 12 hours. Then at the end of the day I have a different result. Photos of a groom who doesn’t feel like it. Photos of a bride who just looks annoyed. In the end it falls back on me because I get paid for the photos and have to deliver. Whether the build is a bitch or not. In the end it is said that the photographer was a mistake. I will never experience that because I choose my couples. Because I want to be able to provide my bridal couple with the most beautiful wedding photos, the most wonderful memories that I can make for them. That is my goal! Business photography In business photography I portray managing directors and employees. I take photos of people in conversation situations and while working on machines. I depict the business premises in a visually appealing way. Basically, I create almost all of the photos that a company needs in flyers or the image brochure. I also document events. When photographing people, it is important to me that I can take time for them. There is not Heidi Klum in front of me, who is there at the push of a button because she hasn’t done anything else for years. There are employees in front of me who are not necessarily there voluntarily, but because the boss has ordered it. How often do I hear from them that they would rather go to the dentist than have me photographed them. Or “You can’t take nice photos of me.” “Ameisenscheisseeeeeeeee” doesn’t help me any further. I need some time paired with warmth, empathy and appreciation. And when exactly these people see their pictures on the notebook and an “Oh, these are beautiful photos” escapes them. Then I did it again! These are the moments that I love so much in business photography. Make people feel good and you will get a good picture back The same applies to situational motifs in conversational situations or at work. I also let a worker at a machine first explain to me what exactly she is doing and am interested in what she is doing. Then I build up the picture and set the light. During this time, the worker is pampered by my make-up artist and can relax a little. That is also part of it. There is someone who makes sure that the “model” looks good. The agency, the model and the customer can intervene at any time on the notebook if they have suggestions for improvement. And best of all, nobody can come after he wouldn’t like the picture. My values But the same applies here: the customer has to suit me. I have my values ​​and that’s what I stand for. I can no longer be bent. My demands on my work are high. If the customer only needs cheap snapshots, he is not my customer. On the one hand because this type of photography does not meet my requirements. Not fulfilling me and leaving me dissatisfied in the end. On the other hand, these photos will be seen by my next potential customer, who may also ask who took the photos. “Oh, the Bender … no, I’d rather ask someone else.” If the client thinks that it is enough to drag the employee out of the office after an unpleasant conversation with a dissatisfied customer, to “shoot him” in front of the white wall and to stick them back into the office, then that is not my understanding of appreciation To employees. They won’t be the pictures I want to take either. That I stand for. Which the customer saw on my homepage, which is why he contacted me and ultimately booked me. These will be different photos. And who was it in the end? Yes, the photographer was no good, they say. Even though I might need the job right now, I don’t want it because it will come back to me negatively at some point. I have great customers. Customers who are enthusiastic about me, my way and my photos. Customers who give me great feedback. Sometimes directly from the management, where I find out afterwards from the secretary that she has never seen the boss write such a thank you email himself. Is that cool!

Street photography is a controversial topic in Germany. There are certainly more popular genres in Germany and most of them prefer to focus on portrait or landscape photography. For me street photography is the most complicated photographic field. Therefore, photographers who are actually not interested in street photography can also benefit from trying it out. It trains the eye, takes you mentally and forces you to work well even under pressure. How exactly you can benefit from it and what the challenges are in street photography, you will find out in this article. What is street photography First I would like to briefly describe street photography, as there are often different ideas. For some, every image that is created in public is already a street image and others describe very stringent criteria that must be met. To make it easy for me there are only two criteria that a street scene must meet. It must have been made in public. This does not necessarily mean on the street, but public buildings are also included or other events. It must be candid. In order to have a “real” documentary character, the image must not be posed or influenced. These two criteria are also used to describe the tasks of street photography. Street photography documents public life at a certain point in time and reflects the zeitgeist. With the help of street photography, for example, the lifestyle of the 50s in New York can be modeled and good street photography enables the viewer to immerse himself directly in this time. Photographers like Vivian Maier, Garry Winogrand or Joel Meyerowitz have captured the stories of their cities and with the help of street photography we can still experience them. Fears in Street Photography Now I would like to address the real challenges and why not only street photographers benefit from this type of photography. Street photography requires that the photographer leave his comfort zone and be open in dealing with people. Photographing strangers and public situations sounds unusual at first. When we think about it, we ask ourselves how other people would react to us, whether we would have to reckon with confrontations and whether we could even overcome ourselves to photograph freely. A wedding photographer who has to photograph a wedding party of perhaps 100 people and who is the focus of attention there has to overcome a similar situation. As a street photographer, it can also quickly happen that not everyone is positive. You have to be able to react confidently to these situations. You have to be able to overcome your own fears and apprehensions if you want to hold on to the unconstrained life. It should also be mentioned that these fears are largely unfounded and that we convince ourselves of the greatest fears. In my years as a street photographer, there was only one exact time that I was asked to delete a picture, there were no other incidents. People even react more positively than expected. It can therefore be said that anyone who is still a little unsure about using the camera in public should try street photography. composition Street photography is a very fast discipline. Unlike in a studio, where we can prepare the pictures very specifically and precisely, in street photography everything has to happen very quickly. We see a situation that is interesting for us and then we have to capture it directly. There is no second chance to get this exact picture again. The composition must therefore be created almost automatically in a few seconds. Is the background restless? Are there any disturbing details in the picture? Does the picture follow the simplest rules of composition? All these things have to be considered and implemented within a very short time. After a while, this no longer happens consciously, but instinctively changes into the camera and the photographic gaze. In addition, apart from this time pressure, the road is a real challenge when it comes to composition. The street is not a sterile studio, but there are always new stumbling blocks that can “destroy” a good picture. Be it overhead lines of trams that sometimes run unfavorably across the picture, or that people are depicted who should actually no longer be in the picture. Creative solutions are needed for these difficulties. New angles and settings have to be found within a short period of time that still get the best out of the existing situation. Street photography therefore forces us to adapt to new situations and unfamiliar environments within a very short time. Tell stories Ideally, a picture should tell a story and trigger emotions. Stories can either be told in a fairly abstract way or more directly. Be it because as a photographer you connect certain associations with the image and its content or because you want to awaken these in the viewer. Similar to the composition, the story also has to be designed within a very short time so that it is understandable for the viewer. The public is mostly a chaotic place where it is difficult to tell an isolated story. That is why many people find it difficult to take interesting pictures, especially at the beginning. They are usually too far removed from what is actually happening and absorb far too many irrelevant details that distract from the core and only confuse the viewer. Patience and frustration Even if the previous challenges are mastered regularly and are actually no longer a problem, street photography is still unpredictable. As street photographers, we have no control over whether something interesting happens to us today, or whether we are just unlucky and the weather doesn’t really play along and we can’t take a picture. Every street photographer experiences this frustration and there are times better and sometimes worse months, but it is also important to learn to deal with these lows. To motivate yourself again and to take photos, even if you may not have the best feeling of going outside, is also one of the challenges you have to master as a street photographer. All of these experiences as a street photographer can also be useful for other photography disciplines. Whether as a wedding photographer who needs the necessary courage to assert himself at the wedding, or the architecture photographer who gets nervous when other people watch him photograph the buildings.