Top 7 Photography Mistakes When Going Pro

I went full-time as a pro photographer about 12 years ago and learned important lessons along the way. Here are the top 7 mistakes that I and other pro photographers have made that you can avoid. Below are links mentioned in the video.
Online courses to learn Real Estate Photography:
LearnRE.NathanCool.com
Learn Professional Exterior Photography:
ProExteriors.NathanCool.com
Learn Professional Interior Photography:
ProInteriors.NathanCool.com
Expert Editing for Interior Photography:
ExpertEditing.NathanCool.com
Videography for Real Estate:
ProVideo.NathanCool.com
My books on real estate photography:
amzn.to/4bwFsIz

[@Archontasil]

These are the things I've learned as well from 7 years of photography 😅. Especially the referrals and choosing clients wisely part. Somehow it's comforting to know I'm not the only one who do that, in this era of "market yourself! Go hustle!", I'm happy that I barely need to do any marketing

[@cribbsprojects]

As always, great advice. Applicable to more than just photography actually... Love the business side as much as the art skills.

[@FernandoSalcidoSanCarlos]

I´ve been on real estate photography for almost 5 years, same as you I always try to learn something new. I recently double my price and was scared that wasnt going to get any jobs, it went the other way, people are now hiring me for being the best on my area and being the cheapest. That was always my goal, I was to thank you Nathan for your teaching and advices.

[@terrykellyphotography6171]

You may be happy to know I didn't get the Laowa 10mm 2.8 yet. I did get the Nikkor Z 14-30 f4 and it is excellent.

[@photosbyernesto9621]

Great advice; thanks!

[@terrykellyphotography6171]

Hello Nathan, thank you for another great video. I only do photos and use the Z9. At the age of 71, I’m not interested in learning video or drones. It works for me as I shoot for a property management company, they only use photos. I use the 16-35 f mount lens, sometimes I need to go wider. The Z 14-24 is too expensive for me. I'm going to try the Laowa Z mount 10mm zero D, in crop mode it will be 15.3mm. I'll let you know if this setup works for real estate. I shoot wildlife that's the reason for the Z9.

[@LeoDodier]

Thank you, Nathan, great video, but particularly thank you for taking the time and helping getting us started down the right path.

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Thank you for that!

[@TheCaboChannelMexico]

So many truisms in this video. As someone of a similar age some business decisions come with experience but the biggest, single mistake I made in REP was not understanding that ultimately, I am shooting for people not brokerages. Yes, it can be good to be associated with large, successful firms but I have had great clients move either to join another brokerage or to become an independent themselves. It took me a couple of years early in my career to do that and my client retention is around 90%. Thanks for a great video produced (with experience) by someone who actually works in the game.

[@hgrgrnd1206]

Hi Nathan. Do you think as a photographer it’s important to specialize? This is my first year pursuing real estate and architectural clients. I have some pretty cool projects coming up, and I got those through referral. However my website is food and portraiture. I don’t want to give that up, but also want to go down this new trajectory. Should I just build a completely separate website for this Genre? Thanks for the great videos 🙌

[@NathanCoolPhoto]

Realtors and other RE clients don't care about your other genres. They want RE photos. So yes, specialize. This is something I talk about in my book on business techniques for real estate photography, here's a link if you'd like to check that out: amzn.to/4c1JpVR

[@jeffreyrosenberg7765]

Let me know if you need a NY based alliance.