Photography/Career Tip: Focus and Stick to What You Are Good At

There are a lot of routes you can go with photography.  There is nature photography, family photography, studio portraits, street photography, travel, architecture, weddings, events . . . the list goes on and on!

Ever been to a restaurant and you are overwhelmed by the menu because they offer hundreds of dishes?  It’s pretty much a given that the food is only going to be ok at best.  If you are craving a corn dog, chances are it will taste better from a place that only sells corn dogs compared to a restaurant that sells corn dogs plus a bunch of other dishes.  The narrower your focus, the better you become at that one thing.

Btw, I love corn dogs!

Specialize and stick to what you are good at.  I’m good at working with people, exploring, and I have an intuitive instinct for candid moments.  Destination wedding photography suits me perfectly, not to mention that I love the heck out of it.  Now if you ask me to shoot architecture or something in studio, you might be asking for some disastrous results.  That requires looking at lines, reflectivity, working with strobes . . . Ack!  Not my thing. 

Focusing creates space for you to do the work that you love and attract more ideal clients in that area.  Unless you really need to take a project for financial reasons, I wouldn’t invest too much time into something that you don’t want to do in the long run.

For those who are looking to hire a photographer, really look at their portfolio and see what they are good at before inquiring.  That will most likely give you the best results.