Taking pictures for a living demands serious thought. You could have a Camera Obscura or a Nikon DSLRs, the best environment and the most gracious of subjects, but if you don’t know what you are doing….failure is at bay.
Let’s start by making a list of the personal inventory you should bring with you –and for starts, it does not include a camera.
1-Creativity
Not everybody is gifted at everything. A great author with all the vocabulary and grammatical knowledge will add her imagination to create a fictional story that sells by the millions. The same novelist may need a designer to arrange and decorate her office. A renowned chef could delight our eyes and make us dribble at the presentation of his culinary creations but may need the help of a writer to describe the menu.
Then, do you have creativity? There are many courses offered to improve what you already have and add to it. You will acquire ways to use your lateral thinking abilities as well as innovate on established rules.
2-Knowledge
Get yourself familiar with proved techniques and rules of good photography. A good start is a community centre or a technical college; even correspondence courses may be a good starting point.
Do not try to invent the computer…it was already created and it is not broken. In other words stick to the already proven.
3-Investing capital
Check that old camera that sits in your garage and donate it to a charity organization, they always find great uses for this kind of donations. Buy an easy to operate camera, once you are famous the manufacturers will throw at you many of their new products just for you to endorse them.
Nowadays everything is edited digitally and if your computer does not have a good memory, donated also together with the printer. You need a good RAM and lots of storage; a printer for pictures ONLY, and the best quality paper.
Stationary will talk very loud about your creativity and capabilities, do not try to save on those expenditures.
Professional apparel and basic etiquette will enhance a first impression when you market your services.