Photography Wrapped: A Deep Dive on my 2023 as a Fashion Photographer
I've spent today doing a deep dive, reflecting and analysing how 2023 went for me as a photographer, and the data is in.
Consider this my “Photography Wrapped!"
This year, I worked with a total of 26 different clients.
I did a total of 38 shoots.
7 out of the 26 clients were magazines. The remaining 19 were all commercial brands.
Out of those 26 clients, 30% of them were returning clients from 2022, and the remaining 70% were all new clients that I had never worked with until this year.
I'm so happy to see that retention rate being so high, because I LOVE working with the same clients over and over again.
It's much easier to keep a client than it is to get a new one… but thankfully, I've also had lots of new clients this year!
Believe it or not, this was the year that I actually spent the least amount of my time pitching. I've reached a place as a photographer where I'm lucky to have lots of returning clients (as you can see), and a lot of people discovering me as well.
With that being said, 53% of my shoots STILL CAME FROM PITCHES that I sent this year.
Even though I'm doing really well, pitching remains such a crucial part of my business, and I'm not going to stop, ever.
In fact, 2024 is the year where I start to pitch myself to Europe more. I've primarily stuck to pitching only in the UK until now… and that's all about to change.
And finally, 20% of my shoots this year were for personal projects, and the remaining 80% were all paid jobs for clients.
That feels like a nice balance to me!
This has been so interesting for me to dive into, and reflect on how much I've achieved as a photographer this year.
It's been good to do before getting my head into goal setting for next year.
I recently shared another blog post with my goals for 2024, but here's a taste of I'm aiming for:
maintain my client retention, or even increase it from this year
create one big personal project per quarter
pitch to EU countries, particularly France and Switzerland, as I speak fluent French, so it makes sense!
I'd recommend going back through your year, looking at what you've achieved and celebrating that! Then sit down, and ask yourself how you'd like your 2024 to look.
Has this been interesting? Let me know!
