How to Intentionally Build a Fashion Photography Portfolio

My week has been nice and quiet this week, which is a good thing because I'm shooting for three days back to back this weekend. No weekend for me!

As you read this I'll be getting ready for a client shoot, and then tomorrow and Monday, I'm shooting personal projects. I haven't shot any personal work in WEEKS, and I'm so excited about doing something just for fun.

With that in mind, I wanted to chat today about why it’s so important to invest time in building your portfolio.

It might seem obvious, but your portfolio is the backbone of your career. You could be the best “pitcher” in the world, know everything there is to know about sales and marketing, and be REALLY good at networking… but if your portfolio isn't strong enough, you're just not going to get booked for jobs.

I'm not suggesting that you need to be shooting every day of the week though. I used to think that in order to progress and book clients, I needed to shoot as much as I could. This ended up being counterintuitive because although I was shooting, the work I was shooting wasn't always planned out, it wasn't always my strongest, and I ended up burning myself out, without really doing much for my career.

I was just wasting time and money.

The key is to be intentional. To plan your portfolio shoots. To make them all truly your best work, and most importantly, make sure that you're filling any gaps that are in your work. Create images that excite you, and fill you with joy, but that also will appeal to the dream clients that you'd love to work with.

If you'd like to learn more about building an intentional portfolio that is going to fulfil you, but also get you hired, I'm working on something new at the moment that I can't wait to share. Let's just say it begins with C and ends with E ;)