My good friend Edwin Firminger is a commercial photographer based out of the United Kingdom. I wanted to bring him onboard this project because first of all his images are stunning. Secondly because Edwin has a very unique way that everyone should follow on how he has gotten to where he is! In this article he goes over the most important thing you can do as a photographer! Check out his post, and most importantly check out his website http://www.eddfirm.info 

Hi everyone,

My name is Edwin Firminger and I'm a recovering Photographer.

My work is mainly beauty based with a bit editorial and fashion thrown in. A lot of it tends towards the dramatic either because of the content or the lighting and processing I use.

The reason I started this article like the beginning of an AA meeting is because of the message I have for all you guys just starting out.

You need to practice...

You need to practice a LOT...

Don't for one minute think that because you have photoshop and two million presets in Lightroom that you can just take any old picture and sort it all out later. Yeah, sometimes that might work. Most of the time though your going to end up with a lacklustre, boring, over worked piece of crap. Every one of your Facebook and Flickr friends will love it. Don't for one minute think that makes it good - friends and family wont dis your work. Thats the way of the world.

With everyone having access to good quality camera phones and cheap dslr's nowadays it seems that everybody is now a photographer. Yes, having a camera, by definition, makes you a photographer. It just doesn't make you a good one.
What makes you a good one is practice.
There really is no substitute. None.

Every shoot I do is practice for the next one. I try new lighting techniques, I experiment with different modifiers and I learn and keep learning.
Last year I had a shoot every night. It played havoc with my home life and I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you're single but going back through my work for this period and you can actually see the improvements to my lighting and composition. Even if your already at the stage where paid work is flooding in (and lucky you!) you still need to keep sharp. That new guy doing amazing things on an iphone is just around the corner and he wants your work. And he will get it if you don't keep one step ahead.

This is where the truly dedicated photographers shine. They try new stuff, they shoot personal work, they have friends model so they can try new lights. Practice, practice, practice and keep learning. Don't sit back and expect to stay pulling in work. You need to keep pushing the boundaries of what you can do.

For me, just like an alcoholic, I had to stop. Well, not stop. I slowed down. You have to balance home life with the shoots to make photography work as a job. Now I shoot three to five nights a week on personal stuff and portfolio. It keeps me learning and keeps me pushing my limits and ideas.
The next thing I feel it is important to share is how to get noticed.
In the bad old days you had very few ways of getting yourself noticed. The telephone directory and the local paper were your best bets (not including word of mouth of course) to get people to your door and paying for your services.

That's all changed with the constant advance of the internet into our everyday lives.

Nowadays you have to grasp every form of social media as if its a life raft.
Do you have a .com, a .net, a .info?

If you don't get one. Its cheap to register a domain and once its done thats all yours until you stop paying for it and the lease expires. Do a search online and you will find many domain registration services (I used goDaddy.com but do your own research on who to use and who is cheapest). The next job is to go find a hosting company that can either host a site of your own design or can design one for you. Theres a number of companies offering pre made off the shelf portfolio and e-commerce sites. Once again a quick search of Google will get you all the information you require to find a reputable, affordable solution. If you just want a quick launchpad page then flavors.me do a no frills page for free or for just a little more they let you customise and use your own domain name.
Now you have a site, you need to promote it. A good way to start is with the people you already know.

Use Twitter and Facebook. Both of these are invaluable ways to get your work out there. Theres no reason not to link your site and business on either of these systems as there are so many users that might come into contact with your message. Friends, friends of friends ad infinitum. I think you get the message.

I have found Facebook in particular to be amazing for boosting my visibility. When I first started I couldn't get models for lighting practice. Its one of the hardest things. Its not a problem if you shoot landscapes or macro or items shots for companies, but if, like me you shoot people then tracking down a ready supply of models is a must. You can go the financed route and pay for professional models (modelmayhem.com and purestorm.com are a good way to find these AND some free ones!) but that can get expensive very quickly.

The way I used Facebook was to shoot with my friends and put only the best shots in albums on Facebook and shared that to my Facebook feed. As people tagged them they became more and more visible to people. This snowballed over time till I got to the point where I could put a Facebook message up asking for models and people started to reply. After a while models started adding me. Now I have a Facebook friends list that is mainly models (and a very understanding wife!) so if I need someone quickly for a shoot it now takes me literally five minutes after asking on Facebook for someone to reply and the space is filled.

Facebook also offers fan pages. Embrace this option, make a page, its free after all. You can then add your best shots to this and use it as another form of promotion. Put your rates up on there, tell people what you do. Promote promote promote!

Another option on the net is flickr.com I'm pretty sure most people will be aware of it but its worth getting a pro account on there. At the time of writing this is about £25 a year. The advantage to this is unlimited upload space and the ability to save your work at full size jpg. Why is this an advantage? Well if you fail to backup your best shots or god forbid you have multiple hard disk failures then at least theres one copy you can still get back! Thats an invaluable thing in this day of digital storage where everything is all ones and zeros.

Ok I'm just about done here i think.

Here's the mantra you need to keep saying......

Practice practice practice!

Promote promote promote!

Have fun with it and remember to try new things!

http://www.eddfirm.info