Hey guys, welcome back to the College Hustle. I'm Annie Mayfield and I am a senior at
Gonzaga University and my side hustle is photography. I'm usually the one behind
the camera, but I made an exception just this once for you. I started the side
hustle about three years ago and it's something that I've always been
passionate about. I've always loved photography, and even back when I was 12
years old I worked as a little assistant for my friend's dad. I didn't do much, I
wasn't even really taking pictures, I was just running around helping him set up
for shoots and stuff like that but I've always dreamed of being a photographer
and when I was in college I figured I could use photography a passion of mine
to actually make some money and help pay for my own college. So with that in mind
I started researching and looking at other photographers and really started
out by creating an Instagram page and that's really what started it all. I
still had connections back to the high school and so I asked a few people that
I knew and people who had a lot of followers on their Instagram to come and
do some free shoots with me just so I could build a portfolio. So I really
started off with mostly just senior photos but people were requesting me to
do events and even a wedding which was super stressful! I would recommend if
you're starting out just stick with senior photos, but the wedding was super fun,
and I just said yes to everything that came my way because I wanted to learn as
much as I could and really whatever people ask of you you can research and
find out how to do it. But senior photos were great and my startup cost was only
about $800 because the camera is a big expense but I made that back within a
month of starting the side hustle. And since then I have had about, I'd say over
50 shoots and this is something that I really only do on my breaks since I am a
student I focus on that while I'm at school. But whenever I'm back home, so for
summer winter break even the weekends I post on my Instagram. Let people know
that I'm home, and usually I will get a few requests
for some shoots and I've even had people who are repeat customers, because while
we're on these shoots I try to provide a really fun experience and make people really
comfortable because it can be hard. It's hard to be in front of the camera,
especially if it's not something you're used to and so if you are light hearted
and kind of making a few jokes and know how to position them it can be something
that actually turns into a really fun experience and something people might
consider doing again or bringing their families for Christmas cards. I even just
did a bar mitzvah which was super fun and so there's a lot of opportunity for
things that you can photograph. The camera that I use is a 6d Canon camera.
The body was about six hundred dollars and I waited for Black Friday to buy it.
So if it's about that time of year when you're watching this video I'd recommend
doing that as well. The lenses that I use are a 50 millimeter f-stop 1.8 and that
one's really small. Tt doesn't zoom in, and I use that mainly for events and if I'm just
trying to get big group shots. And then I also have a 75 to 300 millimeter lens
and that one is an f-stop four to five point six. That one's really great and
really focused. I use that for all my family shoots and senior photos. You
don't have to have these exact lenses or this exact body. You can really start
with I mean maybe it's something you already own or something that catches
your eye. I know Costco has a package I think it's only 500 to 600 dollars and
it provides you two lenses, batteries, memory card, and the body of the camera.
And so you know do four or five shoots and you can make your money back with
that. Something we haven't talked about is pricing and this is something that
can be kind of tricky. What I did was look at all the photographer's in my
area cuz this is an area where there is a lot of competition. I found that the
professionals were usually charging about five to six hundred even up to 800
to a thousand per shoot. I knew I was nowhere near that level and I was
starting to break into this market and so I looked at some of the photographers
who hadn't been around for as long. They were charging about 200 and so I decided
as part of my tactic was to charge below everyone that I saw and something that
was still worth it for me, so I charged 125 for a one-hour shoot and it could be
anywhere in 30 about a 30 minute drive around me and they could bring two to
three different outfits. You know really whatever the client wanted I tried to be
accommodating too and I would spend about an hour editing and one hour at
the shoot maybe a little bit of drive time so to me it was still worth it to
be making $125. if I travel from out of state like from college to come home for
a weekend and do it I tend to up my prices and include travel fees and for
events I charge a hundred dollars per hour. And so this is something that's
worked for me maybe if I continue on with this in the
future I might up my prices but for now this has been great and I find that I
really draw in a crowd of people who aren't wanting to spend 600 dollars for
senior photos. Now to talk a little bit about editing, something that is a great
tool for editing is Adobe Lightroom and if you're a student, which I assume you
are watching this, you can get this for $20 per month and this allows you to do
all sorts of cool editing tricks. You can edit people out of the backgrounds and
you know change brightness whatever else you want to do or even have presets
and make every photo look really in sync with the others. The way that I give
these photos to the clients is I put them all on a Google Drive folder and I
email that to them. This really keeps the quality high and it allows them to put
it on their computers and do whatever they want with it.
This is something that definitely was a lot of work if you're wanting to get
started. The beginning is the hardest and I would just encourage you to stick with
it if it's something that you are interested in and especially hoping to make
money from. Just put the work in at the beginning and it'll pay off in the end. I
mean by now most of my business is spread through word of mouth and all I
do is receive a text and respond to it and make a plan. So I really hope that
this video helped you, and thank you so much to The College Hustle for having me
today. Once again, I'm Annie Mayfield and you
can find me on instagram at Annie Mayfield photography. Please reach out if
you have any questions and I'd love to answer them. Make sure to LIKE and
subscribe!