The thought of starting a food photography business brings lot of questions. How will I get clients? How should I charge them? How should I keep clients coming back? These questions can make or break your career as a food photographer. In this interview, Ron Goldman shares his experience as he started photography and got his first client.
Lets Welcome Ron Goldman
Ron Goldman has been photographing food for several years and has a huge list of clients many of them restaurants. Ron has been teaching food photography at Perfect Picture School of Photography. Perfect Picture School of Photography was founded by Bryan Peterson, author of a very popular photography book Understanding Exposure. You can also look at Ron’s portfolio by visiting Ron Goldman Photography
Here’s what ppsop.com says about Ron:
Ron Goldman is a photographer living in Washington State. Capturing the beauty of the Pacific Northwest in photographs has always been one of Ron’s passions. Whether outdoors with natural light or in his studio shooting with strobes, his strong sense of color comes through in all of his images.
Recent clients include Chef Magazine, Portland Menu Guide, Dealer Principal Magazine, Papa Haydn Restaurants and Microtrace Corporation. His stock images are represented by Super Stock, Acclaim Images, and Ad Stock Images.
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As part of this interview we ran our first contest with three winners. The total giveaway was close to $300. Thank you to Ron for helping us get these prizes.
Food Photography Business and Other Topics
In this interview Ron shares how he started into photography and many more things. Here’s what Ron shares:
- How Ron got his first paying job
- Ron’s advice for anyone who wants to get their first job
- When to sell licenses and when is it appropriate to sell rights
- What percentage of time Ron spends on marketing versus shooting photos
- How to make your one-time customers come back to you again and again
- Ron’s thoughts on pricing strategy
- How to deal with tough clients
- What to do if your photography vision is not matching with your customer
Deconstructing This Photo
We use Ron’s photo and understand how this photo was shot.
Ron Goldman Photography
Ron’s portfolio can be viewed here. Below are some photos by Ron.
Click a photo to enlarge.
Reader Questions and Ron’s Answers
- Is print portfolio required?
- How do you get to practice food photography if your friends are not interested in food?
- Few other questions..
- Remaining questions – Ron will be answering these questions in next couple of weeks. He won’t be answering all of them at once, but will get to the question listed on the contest page.
Links Discussed in this interview:
- Popular photography book Understanding Exposure
- Perfect Picture School of Photography
- Food Photography Class
Your Thoughts…
What questions do you have about starting a business of food photography? What are some important topics that you would like to learn more about?
All photos copyright property of Ron Goldman.
Hi Neil, thank you so much for providing us all these wonderful interviews.
He’s really amazing!
he captured all the details in that food sample and it’s like it was not a picture…it’s natural!
Perfect! That’s all I can say…