This week, we interview the beautiful entrepreneur, Alex Rumsey, about her journey through trying all sorts of photography types till she has settled on the kinds she enjoys most. She shares advice for freelancers who are just starting out, and has a ton of great resources to check out to further your photography skill set.
Welcome to Business Talk Sister Gawk!. I’m Bekkah! And I’m Ruthie and today we are going to interview our new friend Alex Rumsey about her photography. She was introduced to us by our friend Katie Allen who we did an episode with a little while back now. The name of this episode is – drumroll, please! *sad attempt at drum roll* I was expecting you to make a sound but you didn’t… Anyway!
Bekkah: Sorry about that!
Ruthie: “How to Become a Freelance Photographer”. Thank you so much for being here with us today *stutters over words like a noob* Oh good grief! Thank you so much for being here with us today, Alex. We’re so stoked to talk with you.
What Type of Photography Do You Do Currently?
Bekkah: Our first question for you is what do you do?
Alex: My main job that I do during the week is a real estate photographer and then on the side I do other freelance photography with portraits or weddings and or just my own fun, artistic projects.
Ruthie: Cool! Nice! That’s awesome! All right so the next question we have for you is why did you start doing that?
Alex: Mostly because I have always really enjoyed being creative and whether it was with drawing or leather work or painting I always thought it’d be fun to be an artist but I didn’t really know how I could afford to be an artist, basically. I did a lot of other jobs like PCA work and cleaning houses and then I was introduced to real estate photography and it actually provided a way to be a photographer and make a living and so I took that chance when I saw it.
Ruthie: Nice so you kind of had like the more artistic side and then this is like the practical where it enables you to get to do the artistic side as well so you’re getting to do kind of what you love on both sides. That’s really cool!
Alex: Yes, absolutely!
Ruthie: Okay so the next question and we’re going to kind of waterfall into a whole bunch of other questions, but how do you do it?
How Did You Get Started in Real Estate Photography?
Alex: How do I do the real estate photography?
Ruthie: Yeah! Let’s start with that.
Alex: I work with a company that I’m a subcontractor for. They provide me with addresses of houses I’m going to go to and agents I’m going to meet and then I go and take whatever package they ordered and then I upload those photos to an editor and then they get delivered to the real realtor. It’s a very straightforward and formulaic type of photography that’s pretty nice.
Ruthie: Nice! So it’s kind of like my math teacher used to always say “plug and chug math”. Like you just plug in a formula and then you just go for it. So it’s kind of like “plug and chug photography.”
Alex: For this type of photography, yes. It’s very much – you get this shot in this type of room and you stand over in this corner for this type of room and you have your tripod at a certain level every time. So, yes, it is very “chug and plug”. Not a whole lot of creativity in this aspect but because you’re always interacting with new people and going to new houses it keeps it interesting.
Ruthie: Cool!
How Did You Build Your Connections to Work in Photography as a Subcontractor?
Bekkah: I bet! I have so many questions about the interesting people but I’m not going to ask that right now because I know we’ll go down a rabbit hole. My question is how did you get connected within real estate and you thought yeah this is the opportunity I want to jump on? Then how have you used that as a platform for your other stuff as well?
Alex: As far as it being a platform it mostly allows me the freedom to be creative without having to make a huge income off of it. They don’t really have a lot to do with each other in my daily life except for the fact that it allows me, like I said the freedom to not have to make an income by selling art. So I can just do it for the pure love of it.
Bekkah: Limits your risk, right?
Alex: Yeah, yeah! That’s a really good way to put it. What was the first part of your question? I’m sorry.
Bekkah: No, that’s okay! The first part was, “How did you get involved in the real estate side and thought, ”Yeah this is what I want to do?”
Alex: Well, I actually moved down to Virginia with my then-husband at the time. We moved there for his job and I didn’t know what I was going to do. Back home I was doing house cleaning and I really didn’t want to keep doing that so I applied for a bunch of jobs and wasn’t really finding anything. Then our realtor actually suggested that I talk to her real estate photographer. I didn’t really know that was a thing, but I went and talked to him and he was just getting ready to expand his business. He was kind of doing all he could by himself and needed some help so he trained me on the job and that’s how I got started with it. Then when I moved back to Minnesota, I just happened to find another company that had a very similar model and style of real estate photography that I was able to interview with and it’s been a really good transition.
How Much Does It Cost to Start A Photography Business?
Ruthie: Yeah so when you first started out, how much did you invest in yourself and the equipment that you started off with like financially? Was it a big burden or was it just kind of – how much was it? *laughs at my own blundering and need to reiterate every question* What did that look like?
Alex: It was a really slow build. When I first decided I wanted to try and be a photographer I was like 16 and went on a mission’s trip with my cousin. He had a nice DSLR and I was like, “Oh, having control over aperture and shutter speed really makes a big difference!” So I bought just like a super starter, beginning model DSLR which was a Rebel. I want to say it was a Canon Rebel XSi, I think. Then just like one cheapo 50-millimeter lens. Then as I’ve learned more and branched out some my expenses – the first camera was probably like 500 or 800 dollars or something but now with all the equipment I have because I have a drone and a handful of lenses I’ve changed and upgraded my camera body several times, I probably have $5,000 worth of equipment or so.
Ruthie: Nice!
Alex: Which I think is kind of on the low end for a lot of photographers.
How to Get Into Drone Photography as a Business
Bekkah: Wow! Okay, I’m a little interested. I’m going to get off topic but I feel like it’s important. Tell us about this drone! I’ve heard a little bit about drones and all of that but I feel like there’s some licensing or whatever for commercial and I didn’t know what all that looks like and why did you decide that, “Yes, this is a good investment for my business?”
Alex: Yeah, well, I actually sat down with the owner of the company I work for and I was like, “I really like what I’m doing, but I really want to earn some more income. What can I do that would help me earn more when I do these real estate photos?” And at the time, it was kind of either invest in a drone so I could do the real estate photography or invest in what’s called a Matterport camera that does a 3-D scan of the interior of a home. Both would have been pretty expensive to buy the equipment but there’s more demand for aerial photography and so that’s the route I decided to go and, yes. To do commercial photography you have to be certified with the FAA to get a Part-107 drone license. You have to study for this test that’s a portion of that test that if someone were to become a pilot they have to do the same chunk and so a lot of the questions have absolutely nothing to do with flying a drone. They really don’t test you on flying a drone at all. You learn about weather patterns and you learn about airspace like flying over airports and what to do if you’re hyperventilating! It’s rather unrelated but –
Bekkah: How useful!
Alex: I know! That’s the qualifications they have you do and you have to renew that portion every two years. I am just about to have to renew so I have to start studying again because it’s a rather extensive test.
Bekkah: Yeah! Boom! Well, I am excited about that because that just tells us a lot about how you diversified your business to grow it and I love that because not a lot of people think about that. And I love that you also thought about the process of data and saying, “There’s more demand for this so this is what I’m going to do.”
Alex: Yeah and there is a really big demand for aerophotography and it’s really fun. One time I was photographing a – what was it? Not a charter school some sort of private school they wanted some promotional video so I was there for a whole day getting different shots of the school grounds. A whole classroom of first graders saw me flying the drone and I was a celebrity for five minutes because they’re like, “She’s flying the drone!!” and like gathered around as it landed and I felt like I was the Wizard of Oz landing among the munchkins.
*All Laugh* it was a beautiful moment.
How to Decide What Kind of Photography Business You Want to Have
Ruthie: That’s awesome! Wow! Okay, so you love flying drones and you had mentioned when you and I kind of talked on the phone that you would much rather be doing real estate photography versus wedding photography so can you speak to that a little bit as we kind of discuss diversification?
Alex: Primarily, I really like the schedule that real estate photography allows me because it’s during the weekday, during normal business hours. Whereas weddings are every weekend and you go into the evening. I really like having my weekends open so I can do stuff with people who also have normal jobs. That was my number one thing and I think that at least the type of wedding photography that I did a lot of was being a second shooter so I would be more the assistant photographer just because I don’t really care for the editing process. I go there and shoot with a photographer, give them my memory card, and then that’s kind of my job for the day. But you’re there from usually it’s from like 10 a.m. or noon until like 9 or 10 p.m. I might get paid anywhere from $300 to $500 for a day. But with real estate photography, if it’s a good day, I could make that same amount between like 9-5. I think it’s just an easier process and more lucrative.
What Kind of Tools Should a Photographer Have?
Bekkah: What kind of tools do you think would you say, “Yeah, these really have made it a lot easier for me, have increased my process speed and stuff.” Do you have any suggestions on that?
Alex: I think, obviously, having a laptop that can process your images quickly is huge. Investing in a good tripod is important for real estate photography. Also I think having, I mean, you do need a quality camera and lens but there are lots of arguments over whether Nikon or Canon are better. I shoot with a Fuji Mirrorless camera. It’s kind of personal preference really. I tend to go with what is most compact and light because I like to travel and so I want it to be easily packable. That’s kind of what I look for in something.
Ruthie: Good to know! So you’ve got all these different avenues that you kind of have been touching on over the years but you, Bekkah and I were – Well Bekkah and I were just geeking out beforehand. When we were talking with you and looking at your Instagram and looking at your website! I love how you touched at the beginning of on how you wanted to do kind of something more profitable with the real estate stuff so that it can fuel your passion of art. We are looking at your art and it is so cool! So talk about that a little bit? How did you decide? I mean like you said when you were younger you were kind of into that and like in your cousin kind of introduced you into some photography but how did you get into like the more – what did you call it?
How to Start Doing Conceptual Photography
Alex: Conceptual photography.
Ruthie: Yeah! Talk about that!
Alex: Yeah! Well, when I first got a camera and wanted to do photography I thought that, I was like, “Landscapes and animals. That’s the only thing I want to photograph.” But then I pretty quickly realized that shooting people is a lot of fun and actually Katie. We became friends around the time when I started learning how to use my camera so she was one of my number one models. I’d dress her up in like old bedsheets, basically, and we’d go into the woods and try and create some sort of fantasy effect. Which was fun and I learned a lot but then I got connected with a group of photographers and models. We would meet in a park and hang out and shoot each other and through them I heard about the term conceptual photography. Which, basically, you take a bunch of photos and manipulate those photos to create surreal images that oftentimes are either sort of fantasy or whimsical. Sometimes they’re dark and moody. Instead of paint or pencils you’re using your pixels as the medium that you’re moving around.
Bekkah: Yeah, so cool! Oh my goodness! If you guys have not checked out her website you need to do that. It’s called thatsoriginal.net. Oh my goodness! There’s such a variety of photos and I the Instagram! Oh! I’m loving it! And Ruthie and I were just dying right beforehand! We were like, “I didn’t even know this was here! This is amazing!
Alex: Thank you!
Bekkah: Because the whole concept of doing the pieces with helping people with their makeup and then doing that whole -like it literally looks like you are a designer and photographer for Game of Thrones! I’m like, “This is amazing!”
Ruthie: Or like the hunger games and stuff like that with all the cool you know the emperor. What is her name? Emperor or Something Something? In the hunger games.
Bekkah: Abernathy?
Ruthie: It’s something like that. They do all the cool makeup that’s what I was thinking, too, bekkah.
Bekkah: Yeah and I was like, “I need to do this with my entire family right now.” Also Instagram handle alex.rumsey.21 is her Instagram handle so definitely check that out. So tell us a little bit about that process of getting to this point where you’re like, “Yeah, I’m gonna do people’s makeup and hair,” or whatever and add that together for those staged kind of photos like that. What made you think “this is the route that I want to go with my art?”
Alex: I think it was a lot of trial and error. I tried so many different mediums. Drawing, painting, sewing, leather work, and then when I figured out that this type of photography existed it seemed like the perfect pairing of all the things I liked to do. I like to draw but I was never super good at it but I would sketch out an idea. I like to sew but I’m not very good at being technical so I would just use fabric and pin it on people because it doesn’t need to be real. It just kind of needs to look real enough for the moment and then I had a bunch of super gorgeous, willing friends who just let me play dress-up with them, and then I would give them an idea. Then we’d go out and shoot it. It’s just a really fun way to be creative with people and bring an image I have in my head to life in a really cool tangible way.
Ruthie: That is so cool.
Bekkah: You guys seriously need to check out her Instagram. It’s awesome. Oh! Okay so –
Ruthie: I looked it up! Wait! Pause! It’s Effie Trinket. That’s the name of the lady with the poofy hair on Hunger Games.
Bekkah: Oh, yeah.
Bekkah: That’s who I was thinking of. I don’t know where I came up with “emperor”.
Bekkah: We’re really, really struggling with our pop culture references today.
Ruthie: Good job.
What Are The Benefits of Working as a Subcontractor?
Bekkah: Okay, my question is what do you like about working for yourself? Why do you think you like that and what are its advantages?
Alex: My primary thing I really value is having freedom of my schedule. I’ve never had an office job where I go into an office every day and sit at a desk 9-5. But I think it would kill me. I really value being able to get up and move a lot and be active. Finding a job that allows me to do that is super important and then with being a subcontractor my schedule is my own. I don’t get vacation time which is a real bummer. I’ve never had vacation time in my life. It sounds like a big luxury but on the flip side if I don’t want to go to work on Monday I just block off my schedule and I can do whatever I want. If I want to pause in the middle of the day go meet up with my dad and have lunch with him I can do that. The freedom is super important to me.
Ruthie: That is awesome. What would you call yourself then? A freelancer, a subcontractor, a business owner? What would you label yourself as?
Alex: I think freelancer or subcontractor. I think they’re a little bit interchangeable. Freelancer because I do a variety of photography but I’m a subcontractor for the real estate portion if that makes sense.
Ruthie: Yeah. That makes sense.
Words of Wisdom for Every Freelance & Subcontracting Photographer
Bekkah: What else have you learned that you wouldn’t want anyone else to repeat? Do you have any of those moments?
Alex: Let’s see. I tried for a really long time to edit my photos using free programs online. I don’t think they exist anymore but there was picmonkey and picnic and –
Bekkah: Oh, I remember those.
Alex: Though they were nice, I think for once actually paying for the real deal and getting photoshop really brought my game up a big level. It was a ginormous learning curve but once I put the time into it, it made a really big difference. I would say invest the time and effort into learning a quality tool right away is going to help you look a lot more professional.
Can You Run a Photography Business From Your Home?
Ruthie: The next question that I’m gonna ask is can you run a photography business from your home?
Alex: *cat meows in agreement* Yes, definitely. For a while, I felt kind of bad that I didn’t have a studio space. Every once in a while someone would want to do a shoot with me like a boudoir session and I’d have to cordon off a portion of my house when I used to have a bedroom. It didn’t feel very professional and I didn’t really care for it so now I just kind of don’t do those types of shoots or an option would be to go rent a space for an afternoon. You could rent studios. You could rent if you’re doing a boudoir type thing you could rent a hotel room but otherwise, I just stick to doing shoots outside. I obviously can edit and process photos from my home or at a coffee shop or at a library so I think it’s the perfect business to do out of your house.
Ruthie: Wow, yeah! It sounds like this is a good position to be in for quarantine too like Bekkah was talking about earlier. There are just not that many fun things you can do right now. Just doing fun makeup and stuff and taking pictures of a family that just sounds so exciting. I mean, there are seven kids in our family so doing makeup for everybody would be quite the feat! You should really be on some sort of award show or something if you were able to wrangle everybody and do makeup for everyone in our family.
Alex: That would be quite a lot!
Do You Have to Have a License to Start a Photography Business?
Ruthie: Yeah okay but let’s talk a little bit more about the logistics of your photography business. Do you have to have a license to do this or is it just kind of like you can pick it up and go someday?
Alex: You can pick up and go with photography. If you’re going to have a website, obviously, you have to register the name and purchase a domain. Then to fly your drone commercially then you need a license for that but I don’t believe you need anything special to just take photos of people.
Ruthie: Okay.
Alex: Not that I’ve been told anyway.
Bekkah: Is it easy to run a photography business and a videography business together or do you, personally, think that these are two separate things because they’re different skill sets?
Alex: I think you could. I don’t do a ton of video other than with the drone work. I’ve started dabbling in more video with the real estate side of things. I think that they could pair together. You’ll need some different equipment like I just picked up a gimbal but other than that I think you could probably do both pretty easily.
Ruthie: What is a “gimbal”?
Alex: A gimbal is a – Well it kind of looks like a stick with two different arms on it that kind of counteract the balance of each other so that when you put your camera on it acts like do you know what a gyroscope is? It helps keep things still. It kind of does the same thing for your camera so that you can move around without it looking jerky.
Ruthie: Handy! That seems like it would be very convenient.
What Processes Help Increase Productivity as a Real Estate Photographer?
Bekkah: My question is when you do the real estate photos, what kind of processes did you put in place to make that go faster or streamline that for you. I mean obviously once you start doing it you get better at it but what are the kind of things that you learned that have really made it more effective for you?
Alex: If you have a quality mobile hotspot that can be something that’s really helpful because then you can upload your photos while in between jobs while they’re driving around. I don’t have a fast enough hotspot so before COVID happened I would stop at libraries a lot to process my work in between houses but I also got a plug-in for my car so I can plug my laptop in and keep it charged so that I can edit photos. Sorry, let me back up. I use my laptop a lot while I’m in the car and one of the things that I have to do because for the real estate I do HDR photography which takes five different exposures of the home photo and then merges them together and so there’s another program called Photomatix that runs that process. It’s a lot of time saving if I process those photos while I’m driving. I purchased something that I can plug my laptop into my car so that I can keep that charging while I’m driving around. Then if I stop at a coffee shop or a library I can upload those to the dropbox for the editors and that just helps things move along a lot more quickly.
Ruthie: Okay so when you say Photomatix is that like just for real estate photography or what does that word mean?
Alex: It’s a program for merging HDR photos. I think if you’re like – I know a lot of landscape photographers do HDR as well, but it’s very popular for real estate photographers because most of us either use a flash indoors or we do HDR photos.
Ruthie: Cool!
Bekkah: Wow! If you just met somebody maybe you were saying – you know like, “I started at 16 getting to know this kind of stuff.” Like anybody who’s just starting what would you recommend to them starting out? “This is what I learned. This is what I would have changed or definitely do these things.” Or if there are any other resources you would recommend them to check out.
Where to Get Started With Conceptual Photography
Alex: If it’s like fashion or editorial or conceptual photography that the person is interested in, I would tell them to watch so many youtube tutorials. One of my favorite people is a youtube channel called Phlearn. They have so many good editing tutorials with lightroom as well as photoshop. Oh! I’ve learned so much stuff from it and then also just getting around other photographers and models so that you can watch other people work. Learn about you know how to pose people how to adjust the settings on your camera. Once I joined that photography group that was just a bunch of people hanging out for fun, I learned so much. My photography got 10 times better I think after I watched them work.
How to Network With Other Artists and Photographers
Ruthie: And you just found these people on Facebook? Or how did you find this group?
Alex: There are quite a few groups on Facebook. Or you know there’s like meetup.com websites and stuff but I’m pretty sure I was trying to remember earlier today, I think I met the main person who headed off the group that I was a part of. I’m pretty sure I met her at a dog park.
Bekkah: Oh!
Alex: Or someone at the dog park told me, they’re like, “Oh! You’re a photographer! You need to talk to this person who’s also a photographer.” And I friended them on Facebook and then they had this meet up and I didn’t know anyone and I just went! And it was a great time!
Bekkah: Bold! Bold move!
Alex: Yes! I was so intimidated. Very outside of my comfort zone.
Ruthie: Way to be though! That’s awesome that’s really cool networking strategy. Just throw yourself out there.
Bekkah: In a safe way of a public environment.
Alex: Yes! Absolutely!
Ruthie: Strategic and bold!
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