Celebrity photography is a fascinating career that is made through passion, hardwork and developing a clientele base. It is an aspect of photography business that deals with luxury photography and covering events and milestones of celebrities, businessmen, high net worth individuals and politicians.
It is also associated with taking lifestyle portraits, wedding photography and also videography. The name Kelechi Amadi-Obi, TY Bello, Bayo Omoboriowo, Tolani Alli, Wale Visual, Damilola Elliot to name a few are successful professionals in the photography world and have carved a niche for themselves in celebrity photography. Some of the names mentioned have become official photographer to the president and vice-president of Nigeria, an ex-president of Nigeria.
Celebrity photographers grow from being ordinary professional photographers and being consistent in developing their crafts, they become one that is courted by celebs.
To make a fortune from this career, one really needs to know his onions and develop your craft and find your niche. One can make money by selling your photographs to magazines and media outlets in need of it.
With the advent of technology, photography business has become highly competitive as an average individual has smart phones that have high pixel resolutions, but how many can maximize the usage?
The services of professional photographers are still in demand at events and festivities. To become a photographer, you must be accessible and your equipment ready to service your clients.
With different cameras ranging from N400,000 to millions, one needs to start somewhere and acquire one that can be utilized. The need for a studio cannot be over emphasized to process your shots.
According to Adewale Enikuemehin James known as Wale Visual, passion and honesty is an evitable virtue in making a career from photography. “celebrity photography involves creativity and you need to be able to use the technology at your disposal to take wonderful pictures that your clients would love and want to patronize you again and again and refer you to their friends. First be known for your work and others will fall in place as you grow in it”.
Celebrity photographers indeed make a fortune from their works and it cannot be pegged to a fee. In a month, a professional photographer can make a minimum of more than fifty thousand naira monthly from events based on negotiation skills, talk-less of a celeb photographer who travels often with the clients to cover their programs.
Celeb photographers in Europe and America are sometimes referred to as paparazzi that sometime stalks stars to take a rare shots of them.
According to Damilola Elliot, the CEO of Damell Photography, known to be the official of photographer of The Experience music concert, becoming a celebrity photographer demands that the person hones the craft and is very sociable. He listed five things a celebrity photographer or an aspiring one must imbibe to make a fortune from the career.
1. You need to a very sociable person, be constantly updated on the latest trends and happenings in the lives of the celebrities.
2. Ability to creatively think on your feet and have the right equipment to meet your requirements.
3. One can be an independent photographer who captured the images and uses them on their website, for exhibitions or sells to magazines or blogs. One can also be a paid staff of a magazine or blog whose job is to photograph the celebs for salary. It could also be a combination of both.
4. One needs to be very socialble and constantly improve their craft.
5. Your earnings are relative. From zero Naira to whatever price tag you put on your work.
