Despite the struggle of working with clients who don’t have a lot of money or don’t value their work, freelance photographers at BYU-Hawaii shared how their work is rewarding when they see its results.
Sheyanna Lyn Petrovich, a senior from Oregon majoring in social work, said, “The most rewarding thing is delivering an album to a client and then being so excited about it. Messages from clients and their reviews on my page saying how much they loved my work means everything to me! It reinforces my desire to keep shooting and capturing art.”
Vivian Choi, an alumna from Hong Kong, shared. “I really like it when my clients become my Facebook friends. They post the pictures and then tag me.”
Wanting to start her own business, Milani Ho Ip, a sophomore from Hong Kong majoring in graphic design and marketing, decided to do freelance work after coming back from her mission. “However, it’s hard to price here. Students are poor, but at the same time I don’t want to undervalue myself.”
One time, a friend Ho Ip took photos for paid her $1 dollar after the photo shoot. “I told them that even if it’s $1 dollar, I got to charge. I don’t want to do free work. They literally gave me $1 dollar afterwards.
“As a photographer, I really want to educate people about the value of this whole thing or the values of any artistic skills. People seem to underestimate them.”
Ho Ip said she feels people think taking pictures is easy because photographers just have to grab a camera and shoot, but she disagrees. “It takes lots of skills. It takes effort and consideration and it’s really to capture the moment. It’s a creation process.”
Petrovich shared, “People don’t understand how much it costs to get the equipment and how much time goes into editing photos. You definitely get what you pay for.”
For those wanting to start a photography business, Choi advised, “If you want other people to respect you and your work, you first need to respect yourself. It is a hard process. If you just want to build your portfolio, you can get your friends and do it for free.”
Choi became a freelance photographer after discovering the Photography Chapter at World Fest in 2015. “The chapter was different from other chapters, so I found it to be interesting. I even borrowed a camera from my roommate because I didn’t have one back then.”
After participating in chapter activities, Choi finally decided to start her own business. “Somehow in 2015, I just took pictures for friends. Sometimes they paid me, and sometimes they just took me out for dinner. I officially decided to take pictures for clients in 2016.”
Being able to be understand and receive emotional support are what’s important to the freelance photographers interviewed. Petrovich said, “I am getting a lot of positive support. My husband has always encouraged me to pursue [photography], and my friends were always willing to just be my models so that I could practice. Honestly, I couldn’t have done this without people being willing to let me constantly practice and try things out on them.”
Writer: Vic Zhong Mongan