Ahoj!
This is Zdenka.
So you bought a camera and, you know, roughly
how to use it, and you are all eager to start making money with it.
Well, the first few years will be a bit rough.
You will make tons of mistakes.
Some of them will be very silly.
Others might be more serious.
They might actually cost your career if you're going to make the wrong choice.
My journey started in 2006
and it's year 2022
and I've certainly made my share of mistakes.
This video is brought to you by Zyro.
And if you are new here,
Welcome.
My name is Zdenka Darula and this channel is all about photography
and video, creative camera challenges and hidden giveaways.
So if that's something you're into, consider subscribing.
I don't even know where to start.
The list is long.
OK, so when I started shooting, I started making money by uploading photos
to microstock and doing real estate virtual tours.
Later on, I started doing modeling portfolios and lots of glamor makeovers,
and then much, much, much later I started shooting weddings.
OK, let's talk gear.
As a newbie
you have a limited amount of money, so you blow all of it
on a camera body and then you realize you actually need lenses.
You need two lenses or three to get you know range of focal lengths.
You want to cover it all.
So to fill the gap you go and you find the best deal,
you're buying the cheapest lenses out there possible
and you start using them and then you realize that the quality is no good.
The photos kind of look dull.
There's not much really color to it.
It's not really sharp.
It's just not looking great.
And you start using them in the dark.
You have a trouble
because those lenses are slow because the aperture starts at F/4.5.
So you try to sell them.
But nobody wants to buy it
because people are smarter than you.
They know that these lenses are no good.
So you end up selling them for a third of price
you bought them for.
And congratulations,
you just wasted your money on a gear
you cannot even use.
That is exactly what I did when I was starting out.
After that,
I invested my money in two high quality lenses, which, believe it or not,
I was using for seven years nothing else and I was making money.
Those lenses brought the investment back multiple times.
Don't spend money on cheap gear.
You're going to waste your money.
Another one.
So you shoot for a few months.
And just because you get lucky and one of your photos
ends up on a magazine cover, you think you know it all.
And your friend who is a model, calls you
and she says, Hey, I've got a gig for you, a paid client.
I work for this magazine quite often, and they want me to shoot this ad.
I actually want you to be that shooter.
So you're like, OK, you invite her over to your studio,
which is in a basement because you're starting out,
are shooting out of the home and you're using these cheap lights.
Those lights are good.
So you do the whole shoot she leaves.
You get on a computer, you look at the photos
and you absolutely freak out.
All the photos are a bit blurry.
They're out of focus.
You have no idea why it happened.
You had no idea what you'd change in a camera
because you don't know what half of the settings are doing.
You don't even know what's in the menu and how to use it properly.
So you think actually it's not that bad and you try to camouflage it
in a Photoshop and you submit it to the magazine.
And the magazine obviously says those photos are garbage.
You need to reshoot it all for free and the model as well.
Well,
the model doesn't want to reshoot it for free,
and she doesn't even want to talk to you because she simply doesn't
work with amateurs.
That was me.
You know, when you buy a camera,
there is this little book included.
It's called the manual.
All it takes is to read the manual through to understand
what all those settings mean in the camera and know what you are doing.
Or you can get yourself on YouTube.
There are people like this
which make tutorials, and they teach you how to use the gear.
Before you accept a paid gig,
make sure you know how to use your gear.
Learn all the settings.
Let's be honest, how many times did you show up to a shoot
and
you forgot that thingy on a tripod.
The one which is connecting, you know, the camera.
How many times did you forget that?
Or better,
how many times a day showed up at the shoot and you forgot memory card?
Or you forgot a battery?
Those are the classic ones.
Everybody forgets that at least once during their career.
Well, it could be worse.
So I live in Oshawa, which is an hour from Toronto, and I was shooting
wedding in Toronto.
So I got there after an hour drive to Old Mills.
Old Mills is one of the darkest places you can shoot weddings at,
and they have church, which is pitch black.
So I opened my bag.
I was about to start
shooting, getting ready photos, and I realized that I don't have a flash.
The flashes at home.
Well, I called my husband immediately, get here right now.
I need the flash right now.
It's an hour drive.
Luckily, the neighbors were just going to Toronto,
so they were kind enough to bring it to me, they gave it to me outside.
Nobody really noticed.
I had a second shooter there as well,
and I told her to just cover me, just shoot those things,
and I shot whatever I was able to shoot.
I didn't even have the second flash.
I didn't even own a second flash at the time I was still starting out.
I didn't have money to have backup equipment.
I was risking my reputation because I thought I checked everything last night.
I didn't bother rechecking in the morning.
All of it could have been avoided if I had a gear list
and I checked everything twice before I left.
Gear list is a must.
Don't check only once.
Check twice if you are going to a paid shoot.
It's year 2022 and it's all about the social media.
In the past it was about social media too, but
I really sucked at social media.
I used to post only one photo, maybe from a shoot the final photo.
I didn't even tag the model or nobody because
I thought it was not really appropriate if I don't ask.
And I was missing out on the biggest marketing tool.
All I had to do is post one or two best photos from the shoot.
Whole bunch of behind the scenes photos.
Maybe funny video behind the scenes.
Maybe some tips and tricks for clients.
Show
my personality a little bit more on social media.
Well, my friend Paul Buceta he's absolutely the king
in the social media and all that, he nailed it
back then.
He created so many funny stories
and so many funny videos of us, and he was posting it everywhere.
He was tagging everybody involved.
He was using the appropriate hashtags locally so people actually could find him.
Girls were literally throwing at him to get all the bookings.
All it takes is to show your personality a little bit more.
People are sometimes
afraid to book a photographer because they are afraid of the person.
If I showed my personality a little bit more, they would say, Hey,
this chick is not actually that bad.
I might book with her instead of the other person
because I don't even know how the person looks like.
And because it's year 2022
and all the social media are changing non stop
They're changing actually,
the content and algorithm, many photographers which used Instagram
as their portfolio realized they cannot use it as a portfolio.
I used to have just a profile
just devoted as a portfolio, and I took it down.
At this time, you need to have your own website.
A space which will be yours.
Nobody will change the algorithm.
Nobody will change what you can post there.
Place where you will showcase your work.
You will show everything.
This is for your clients, for everybody to see.
This is your business card.
And because his year 2022, the inflation is skyrocketing.
We are looking for a cheap option, the cheapest possible,
and we are looking for simple solutions, something
which is simply very easy to use because we don't have a time,
we have to actually do stuff on social media.
Zyro is a website service.
I am planning on switching to myself.
What really caught my eye is the fact that it is the most affordable option
on the market, and it's very simple to use.
Just drag and drop style.
There are hundreds of design templates to choose from.
You can create your own if you prefer.
If you need help with anything,
Yes, they have 24-7 customer service and you are actually going to be talking
to a person.
What is important for me, for example, is the fact that the website is loading fast
and they have an online store feature which allows you
to sell on Facebook, Instagram and even Amazon.
You can create a vlog and customize SEO, which makes you being found
in search engines.
All Zyro are website plans have a 30 days money back guarantee.
If you change your mind, you cancel the subscription,
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Thank you very much Zyro for sponsoring today's video.
Money, money, money.
Let's talk about money for some more.
How many times
my friend Sam tells me,
you are not charging enough, you are under charging.
See, I told you you are not charging enough.
Oh, he is still after me till this day.
What I'm going to say does not only apply to photographers
and videographers.
It does apply also to creators.
I was struggling how to price sponsorships, for example.
Not anymore.
When you ask other YouTubers,
they are not going to give you a straight answer.
They are not going to give you a straight
step by step
plan or tutorial how to get to the price.
They will just kind of walk around it.
Well, this is straight to the point answer.
Calculate how many hours will take you to finish the whole shoot, including editing.
That will be your hourly
wage.
Now this is going to be very different
depending on where you live in the world, how much money you need for living.
If you are a newbie, you're not going to charge much per hour.
If you are someone who won awards or you are in demand, you are getting busier
than you can charge a little bit more.
This is just your personal hourly wage.
Add to it.
You need to calculate all expenses you are going to have.
Do you have to drive somewhere?
Gas, car usage.
What gear will you be using?
You need to include usage of the gear as it gets used and value goes down.
You will need to replace it or fix it eventually.
Is there an exclusivity?
Is it for private or commercial purpose?
Are you going to use my work as an advertisement on social media?
What other expenses do I have as a photographer or creator?
Online advertisement, government fees, insurance.
Divide all of this per day and then count all those amounts together.
This is how much you need to charge per day, and that used to be my mistake.
I was only thinking about my hourly wage.
I may be added the gas expenses and stuff like that, but
I didn't even think about all the other expenses I had.
OK, fun one.
I had some free time, so
I accepted an offer from a photographer
I know.
He's a senior wedding photographer and to second shoot for him at wedding.
So I'm like, OK, I'll take it.
I have nothing to do, so I'll shoot for you.
Well, we shot the wedding in Kitchener, which is like two hours from here.
When we got there, I was a second shooter.
It was his wedding, so I was relying
with everything on him, on the instructions and all that.
And back then I was simply using lots Google Maps and navigation system.
I got used to it.
I trusted way too much.
Well, we shot at getting the ready photos in a hotel.
We were already tight with time to get to the church,
so I jumped to the car and I was driving to the church.
The navigation system was always taking me to the downtown, however downtown
was closed for construction.
So I was taking all these crazy detours .
Of course, I was stressed.
I didn't know where I was going, and the navigation system wasn't
helping me because it didn't recognize that the whole downtown was closed.
I got to the church.
The ceremony was already starting.
Luckily, I caught the bride coming to the altar
and the senior photographer was not even there.
A few minutes later, I got a text message.
I have no clue where I am.
I parked somewhere, I am on my foot.
Just shoot.
I'll get there.
My face said it all.
This is on my wedding.
I don't want all this stress.
I don't want to first shoot.
I'm just a second shooter, this is not my wedding.
Bottom line,
when you are shooting something like this, an event, don't rely on Google Maps.
Don't rely on navigation system.
Actually do yourself a favor.
Do the research the day before.
If there is no closure or some massive construction going on.
Avoid all this stress.
All it took was to look online the day before, this
all of it could have been avoided.
If I didn't get there on time, it could have been disaster because
we would not have any photos of the bride actually coming to the ceremony.
Maybe it would not even have part of the ceremony photographed
and there was no video.
So yeah, give yourself a favor
and just check everything before you go somewhere.
This one goes hand in hand.
Always make sure you sign model release slash contract
and always make sure you meet everyone in person prior to a shoot.
I photograph
I think by now over 300 models.
A lot of them were photographed for stock, for my portfolio, for clients.
I paid a lot of the those models and I invested so much time
by editing, retouching the photos.
Pretty much most of the photos from the sets.
Well, once in a while I received an email.
Hey, I changed my mind.
Hey, I started dating new boyfriend.
I got married.
I have this new job and I want you to take off
all the images and never ever show them again.
If you have signed model release or contract,
then he can make a deal because somebody needs to compensate you.
If you're going to lose your investments, sure,
you want to take her image down if that makes her uncomfortable, but
maybe some money back or something like that.
You need to make a deal.
Also, if the images get stolen or used inappropriately
or the model sells them behind your back.
I've experienced all that.
Bottom line.
Meet everybody in person.
If you have a bad vibe about someone, you can always say no.
Meet everybody in person before you invite them to your studio.
Last money's coming from me to you.
From deep within
because I don't want the same thing
happen to anybody.
It was
the biggest mistake of my life, which literally canceled my career,
which shifted my whole career.
Something which is not talked about.
And once it happened, then I heard
very similar stories from all kinds of different sides.
And I was shocked how common this is between photographers.
It's just not talked about.
I know for sure that I'm not going to be shooting weddings anymore.
I know for sure I'm not going to be shooting models with flashes anymore.
I can't work with flashes anymore.
And that's not my choice.
I would love to keep shooting models.
I'm going to be shooting only one wedding this year,
one exceptional wedding.
I'm not going to be using flash there.
It's Rachel.
It's a daughter of my close friends, Bruce and Sandra.
That's the exception I'm making this year.
Basically, what happened?
I got to the farm and I was taking photos of a family,
and every time the flash fired, it was like somebody is stabbing a knife
through my right eye to the middle of the brain.
The pain was so bad that I could not finish the shoot.
When I'm thinking of it now,
I actually was feeling similar pain a lot less already a year before that,
whenever the second shooter accidentally fired flash beside me.
I felt a little bit of a pain, but I didn't really pay attention to it.
Because I was always using a viewfinder and I was closing the left eye,
I was putting too much strain on my right eye,
and the flashes were just too much to handle that one eye
only.
I damaged my eye very bad.
I got to the point that I almost went blind.
No need to say sorry in the comments or anything like that.
Please don't.
I'm very happy to be here on YouTube.
It was a great career shift.
I'm super happy to be here.
I think it was meant to be, it is good.
So my biggest mistake in my life was not knowing that
when you shoot with a camera and you're using the viewfinder,
don't close the left eye, keep both eyes open.
Don't strain only one eye too much.
As much as you can
please use the screen.
Look at that instead.
Use only the viewfinder if you are shooting in a hard conditions,
like a very bright conditions
and you can't really see, you need to look through that.
If you can, don't always shoot with a flash.
I should have bought continuous light and use as much continuous
like this possible.
Only use flash when
you necessarily have to.
I should have shoot a lot more in natural light.
Those are important things to do because your eyes are the main tool
as a photographer.
Take care of your eyes.
Right now, things are under control.
Here and there
I feel a little bit of pain and I feel if I just
shut down the computer, I know that I need to take a mandatory break.
Otherwise, it's OK.
I will simply need to hire a video editor down the road and I know that.
Give me the thumbs up
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If you have any questions comments, leave them below and I'll see you,
my friends, in the next video.
Cau....
Ahoj...