Jessica McKnight

Photographer

Jessica McKnight is a Photographer & Business Coach based in Southwest, Florida. She first fell in love with photography at the age of 12 and has maintained that passion ever since. Her studio is currently in downtown Punta Gorda, but she also often travels for her work. Her award-winning technique has earned her "Best of the Best" twice from the Tampa Bay Times. Her work has been featured in countless magazines & publications. Her studio offers boudoir, fashion, headshot/branding, commercial, event, senior portrait, family, children, and engagement/wedding sessions. Jessica McKnight also runs Brilliance Key, a photography coaching & mentoring business that provides one-on-one mentoring, 8-week mastermind groups, workshops, and photography retreats around the globe featuring some of the biggest names in the industry.

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Forum Comments (1)

How can I start a career as a photographer?
I think a lot of budding photographers think that if they get a website and a camera, and they take good pictures, people are going to come to them and they'll be busy. It takes much more than just having a camera and a website. A lot of photographers don't even have a website, they're only using Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. I think websites give a lot of credibility. They also hold a lot of information that social media can't, like your policies. Websites can help you sell—you can sell gift certificates, you can sell sessions, you can set appointments—there's just so much that a website does. It's almost like having a brick-and-mortar. I think that's important. I think learning marketing outside of social media is also important. Learn to collaborate and network within your community and make a place for yourself within your community so people refer you. I think that when people are learning photography, they should also be learning business.

If I could go back in time, give myself one piece of advice, I'd tell myself to get a mentor. That is because, while people can do it very cheaply, it takes them a long time to learn what works and what doesn't. People who are successful and are mentors, they've already been there. They've done that so they know the quickest path between A and B. You're saving yourself money by having a mentor because otherwise you're going to be wasting time and time is precious. It takes a lot of trial and error and time and money to buy little courses and things and try to piece business together. When you expand that out over years, that is way more money than if you were to just go get a mentor, do it right in the first place, get everything done, and have your business up and running in a shorter period.

If you're curious about where you should start investing your money in photography, I'd recommend a nice camera, but obviously, it doesn't have to be brand new. It just has to be a camera that allows you to change your lenses. Other equipment you'll need: something to clean your camera with, starting batteries, extra batteries, battery chargers, an external hard drive and cloud to download your images and save them in a safe spot, and a reliable computer.

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Co-authored Articles (12)

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