9 Activities That You Should Be Doing Every Day as a Fashion Photographer
I remember when I was first starting out as a full time fashion photographer, I would get to my desk every morning and feel a bit sense of overwhelm: “What should I actually be doing with my time every day?!” It was like there was almost so much that I could or should be doing with my time every day, that I just didn’t know what to prioritise or start with. However, over time I’ve figured out what’s important, and now I’ve got a set of activities that I do pretty every day. Sure, things fluctuate: one shoot days I don’t really get any of this done. And then there will be some days when I’m at my desk but I’m too busy with editing to have any time to do anything else.
This list is more of a guide that you can come to if you ever sit down at your desk one morning and think: “What now?!” I hope that it helps.
Getting inspired: I’ve put this first, because it’s probably the one which gets push aside the most, but I believe is the most important. How on earth can we expect to be creative, and produce creative, innovating, beautiful imagery for our clients if we feel uninspired? I make it a point to spend some time every day getting inspired. It doesn’t need to take long, and it can come from the most random of places. Most of the time it’s about being mindful, and keeping your eyes and mind open to what you see in your day. I often get inspired by the walks I take my dog on, or the way the light falls in the morning in my bedroom. Sometimes it'll be more obvious, like an image I see, or a new movie I watch. Whatever it may be, try to fill yourself up with inspiration every day. Your work will thank you for it.
Taking some kind of photograph: When I was at uni, they used to encourage us to take photos every day. I used to feel this weird, rebellious “how is that even possible” attitude to that recommendation. I now realise that that was just me resisting my teachers, and being a bit immature. Taking a photo every day doesn’t have to mean making a fashion shoot every single day. That would be insanity. But it does mean actively looking for beautiful images in your day to day. This is so important for training your brain to see things in a new way. I carry my iPhone with me everywhere I go (don’t we all?!), and I make a point of taking a photo of SOMETHING, anything, every day. It can be the way my dog is lying in his bed which I think is cute, a pretty flower I see… anything. But actively taking images daily should be something you strive to do.
Reaching out to someone new: If you’ve been here for long, you’ll know by now that I recommend every one should pitch themselves to their dream clients. It’s the number one way to speed things up for your career, and I don’t believe it’s very effective to sit around, hoping and waiting that they’ll magically email you and ask you to come and shoot their next campaign. So I try to make it a point of mine to email someone new every day about my work. If you’d like to learn more about pitching, my online course “Pitching With Confidence” which is a step by step guide on how to go from never having pitched in your life, to pitching effectively every day, is back in October! In the mean time, grab my free pitching template here to get a head start.
Checking your junk email folder: This is really basic, but please, please, please check your junk mail folder every day! I didn’t for years, and missed out on so many opportunities!
Check your accounts: Money is scary, and for many of us, that can mean that we’d rather live in denial than actually know what’s going on inside of our bank accounts. I used to be like that, too scary to open up my online banking app, because I didn’t want to know how much (or lets be real, how little) money there was in there. I’ve done a lot of work on my money mindset over the years, and now I make a point of being hyper aware of what my money situation is every day. Check your accounts people! It’s much better to know what your financial situation is and be able to deal with it, than it is to try and ignore it.
Promote your business in some way: This will feel like an obvious one, but let me ask you this: are you ACTUALLY doing it? Do you take time to post to social media daily? Do you share your work with someone new every day? Do you go out of your way to make sure that people know who you are, and what it is that you do? Because if you don’t, you’re missing out. I know for a fact that successful photographers are people who promote themselves (yes, you heard, self promo, which I know can feel icky and scary!), they do it daily. I’ve millions of blog posts on marketing yourself as a fashion photographer (ok maybe not millions… but lots!), so head to the blog tab on here and have a browse. Read up on a new strategy you may not have tried before, and give it a go.
Read Industry News: Sometimes when I speak to aspiring fashion photographers, and ask them what they think of recent industry news, I can tell that they have no idea what I’m talking about. Of course, you can’t be expected to know EVERYTHING about ALL of the news in the industry, because it’s a big industry. But you should be making an effort to stay on top of what’s happening in the fashion industry as much as possible. I make a point of checking Business Of Fashion every day (I actually get their daily newsletter!) so that I always feel like I’ve got an idea of what’s happening in the fashion world.
Learn Something New: We should never stop learning and never assume that we know it all. I certainly don’t! I make a point to try and learn something new daily, whether that’s about photography, the history of photography, the history of fashion, or business… I try to learn every single day.
Work on your Mindset: Mindset is going to be what I end this blog post with, because in my opinion, everything you do above this point would be totally irrelevant if you didn’t spend time working on your own mindset. I didn’t realise how important this was myself until recently. The truth is that unless we believe we can be successful, uncover what limiting beliefs we have, and overcome them through personal development work… we’ll get no where. Mindset work is the hardest of all, and I’m absolutely still figuring this stuff out myself as well. But if you do one thing every day, make it to try and work on your mindset about both your work and life. It will benefit you more than you can ever imagine.
