Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Bertman
Hi Alex, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
While in college I took a class called “social media marketing” where we had to create a fake business. I chose to be a photographer – this just meant that I went on hikes with friends and took photos while adventuring. We were required to start social media accounts to “market” our business by making posts. The friends would then share the posts I made with them in it. Roughly a month or two went by and I began getting asked to do small jobs for people which I was hesitant to do at first out of having low skill level. As I continued to take photos for people, I then continued to get asked to do more and more jobs which encouraged me to learn new skills, but also allowed me to reinvest the income into nicer equipment. The jobs I work range from corporate events, to family photos, or even wedding photos/videos.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The beginning of anything is the hardest. In regard to photography, there is a learning curve, equipment/financial challenge, and peer support challenge.
There are several buttons and settings on cameras that do different things which is intimidating at first, but once figured out, makes it easier to get the shot you want. I spent almost a full winter break watching youtube videos and reading my camera’s owner’s manual to learn all I could. I like to say that I earned a degree in photography from YouTube University, jokingly. Many people think you need to go to college for photography or attend actual classes, but most people I know who are full time photographers never did that. It’s all about how driven you are to educate and better yourself.
From an equipment/financial perspective, any piece of camera equipment is not cheap. My beginner camera was something like $800 dollars which is a good amount of money to just spend on what was only a hobby at the time. A number of people had negative remarks regarding spending that much money on a hobby while in college. However, that camera setup paid for itself and more, allowing me to reinvest in a better camera and create better work for my clients. As time has went on, I have continued to reinvest and now have 20-30k worth of camera gear that continues to pay for itself.
Many friends supported me and were positive, but it was also clear others did not think I would go anywhere with photography. Looking back to some of my original posts can be a bit embarrassing as they are nowhere near the quality I create today. I was anxious regarding posting things online that I thought were good at the time. I always had intentions of learning more and bettering myself, so I never thought of each post as simply my end goal skill level, but more of another step in the journey. It was intimidating to get started with not all peers not being supportive, but now the following I have as well as those I work with and support me make up for that 100 times over.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
For a full time job, I work as a physical therapist. However, during college I found myself interested in photography which became a part time job. While in college a quote on a wall read “Don’t let your schooling get in the way of your education,” which stood out to me. It gave me encouragement to not only look at college as a learning experience that ends in the classroom or at an internship. We are also responsible for initiating our own widespread growth and skill development. The more skills we are able to learn, the more we are able to help others. To answer the question, I am most proud of putting forth effort to teach myself new skills regardless of self doubt or limited peer support in the beginning for being different.
While beginning my photography business, I often listened to Andy Frisella’s podcast regarding business and entrepreneurship. He has often mentioned a quote from Theodore Roosevelt which reads “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again…” A lot less people support someone at the bottom, but once you start doing well, more people start supporting you even if they didn’t initially. I would say what sets me apart from others that also started their own photography business was that I was part of the small percent of people that started a business and continued to push myself to keep growing rather than give up. Failures were only learning experiences, not reasons to quit.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Calculated risk is good. The biggest risk I took was buying a camera and seeing where it would take me. The camera I bought was low level and cheap. Only after it paid itself off and generated more income to buy a nicer camera, did I buy a nicer camera. Even then, I did not jump up several models of cameras to the highest level, but instead only made small upgrades. At the same time, I was still attending college and ensured my classes we put first. Investors would recommend to spread your eggs into more than one basket. If I had only done photography, then in 2020 when the government decided to not allow anyone to leave their homes or have gatherings such as weddings, I wouldn’t have made it as a photographer as weddings are my main source of income. A risk that I debate currently is quitting my full time job to make photography my primary job.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abertmanphoto
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexbertmanphotography
