It’s Okay to Be the Exception and Not the Rule
A green iguana positions himself on a branch in the Gamboa region of Panama. I made both horizontal and vertical crops of this image before submitting it to my stock agency to increase the number of ways it can be used. Photo and story by: Annalise Kaylor
Earlier this week, I was a guest lecturer at a college in Atlanta, speaking to a couple of different visual art classes about two topics that need more of our attention: copyright law and perspective. As a photographer, copyright law is how I protect my work and knowing it intimately has both saved me tens of thousands of dollars in lost wages and recovered tens of thousands more from my stolen work over the years. It’s dry and menial to read, but fascinating once you understand your rights and your potential.
Perspective is equally as fascinating. From a creative point-of-view, changing our perspective offers myriad possibilities with our work. I approached this topic with the students both literally and conceptually. Just like moving around or approaching a subject from a different angle can help you communicate more effectively with your imagery, changing your position and exploring new sides of your business can be helpful, too.
Earlier this year, I was overwhelmed with trying to keep up with everything I was “supposed” to do in order to stay successful. I was still in a staff photography and video role for an NGO, and I didn’t want to leave the stability of that job until I was at a point that it would be a (more) seamless transition back to being fully self-employed again.
Working full-time in that role, plus joining Jared’s workshop business, plus launching Going Pro - well, “uff-da” as my people say. Overwhelmed is just the tip of the iceberg, and I know a lot of you are in a similar position to where I was, too.
Today, self-employed photographers are expected to wear many hats and assume many roles. Until we reach the point where it becomes more financially sensible to outsource the pain points in our work, we do it all from the photography to the bookkeeping to the marketing. And then there is the social media.
I spent almost two decades working in social media before I changed careers and went full-time with my photography work. It’s years and years later and the burnt-out version of me still loathes dealing with scheduling my posts and making sure I have all of my hashtags in order. Yet, it’s a necessary evil in my world and I can’t deny the power of social media for marketing and promoting my business.
Earlier this year, I decided to put some effort into growing my Instagram account. I had caught the attention of a few photo editors that way before, and it’s been a channel where I occasionally receive inquiries about buying prints. Prints, you may recall, are not a big part of my professional goals, so any time I get a sale that way, it’s income without much effort.
When I did my strategic planning for my business this year, Instagram seemed like the —dare I even type this, corporate overlord that I used to be—“low-hanging fruit” of my marketing world. After all, it’s a visuals-first platform and I had some success there in the past.
Slowly and steadily, I started posting more photography to my account. And then I stopped. I liked the growth of followers and the slight bump in engagement with my work, but when the hours available in the daily life of running a business began to tighten, it was an easy task to ignore. It was always easier to choose to edit photos or plan the next workshop. It was always easier to focus on tasks that felt tangible and real.
Social media channels are an easy place to get discouraged. They are, for better or worse, highlight reels shown from the world of someone else. It’s easy to forget that when you see other photographers with higher follower counts or more likes on their images. It’s easy to get discouraged or frustrated when things are happening as fast as they seem to be happening for everyone else.
And that’s when a shift in perspective can help.
There is plenty of room in the wildlife photography business for all of us. I had to accept that the only competition I was dealing with was myself and the insecure voice inside my head that liked to pipe up from time to time telling me that I wasn’t doing enough. Putting it that way, it didn’t seem impossible.
Head down, I made more regular social media posts and engaged with other wildlife photographers on Instagram. I told myself I would spend one hour a week on the channel, and I would make the time for it. And, it turns out, after about three months of doing just that, the needle started to move.
For me, it wasn’t about likes or follows - those are easily discarded metrics that do little but inflate our ego or convince some marketing folks that we have more influence in our niche than we really do. Years ago, I used to tell my agency clients, “A like or a follow isn’t much more than a glance at a headline on a tabloid in the line at the grocery store checkout. Sure it’ll grab you for two seconds, but you’ll never think about it again as soon as you take a step forward.”
Rather, I started focusing on engaging with other people and just being myself. Committed to my one hour per week of engaging with others, it wasn’t long before I tripled my followers and the number of people who regularly engage back with me. I started getting more requests for more prints. I got on the radar of a photo editor with whom I’ve been hoping to develop a relationship. I started answering wildlife photography questions for other people on Instagram, which showcased my experience and expertise in the niche while helping others along the way.
Tomorrow night? I speak to a group of about 500 women in photography as a result of that connection. Landing more photography-related speaking gigs is another professional focus for me, so landing my fifth one this year via social media? Yes, please!
Slowly and steadily, my efforts have started to literally pay off. Though I’m still below 10,000 followers (a number I hope to pass by the end of the year), Instagram itself reached out and offered to pay me to produce more content, especially videos. This was a totally unexpected monthly income stream for me, and while I’ve only just started working toward its full potential, I’m glad I am. More video was a key part of my plan anyway. While it’s not life-changing money, I’m hoping that by this time next year it’s enough to pay for that 600mm f/4 lens I’ve been eyeing.
This alone is an important lesson in perspective. If you look only at the outward-facing numbers as they are right now (8,419 at the time of writing), I’m hardly an “influencer” by any definition. But I’m engaged and rooted in my community there now, and that’s beginning to mean more.
I don’t have the 1.5 million followers of Christina Mittermeier (@mitty) or even the 417k followers of Daisy Gilardini (@daisygilardini). And you know what? I never will.
These accounts, the Mitties and Nicklens and Gilardinis, and the elites of the photography world are the exceptions. They aren’t the rules. They’re incredible photographers and they have those numbers not because they’ve mastered an algorithm. They have those numbers because their entire careers, they’ve put their noses to the grindstones and they’ve developed their body of work. They worked. They worked on their photography. They worked on their passion projects. They worked on developing relationships. They took a long way around. They dealt with the unsexy side of being self-employed. They made the most of the opportunities they were given. They. Just. Worked.
Most of us in this business will never attain that status. Because we’re working. So as we approach the end of this year, I encourage you to take a hard look at where your energy has been spent this year and start thinking about the possibilities for the year ahead.
Sometimes all it takes is a shift in perspective.