Starting your documentary photography career

Taiwo Aina
3 min readApr 16, 2022

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June 12, 2020

YOU have all it takes, yes you! Let me share my story.

I started photography with my mobile phone camera. I took pictures of subjects I found interesting, flowers, sunset, name anything! I kept shooting. I did side businesses, I sold various items, designed graphics to save for my camera while still shooting with my phone. I created an Instagram page to share my photos. I was consistent with it. I borrowed a camera from friends at a point to go for personal photo walk.

To cut the story short, a benefactor who saw my drive paid for my camera purchase, it was a dream come true. Mind you, I shot with a phone for years before a digital camera came in.

Dear reader, with my story I’ve summarized what you need to start your documentary career into these three points.

1. Passion

2. A mobile phone

3. Consistency.

PASSION

You need to be passionate about photography before you can even begin the journey because that will be your fuel as you proceed. Can you do it for free? Does the photograph make you happy? Ask yourself? If yes, go for it! Don’t worry about money, with time you’ll make enough from it.

A MOBILE PHONE

A lot of photography enthusiasts ask big photographers the gear they use. It’s not always about the gear most times, it’s about your content i.e the story. All that you need is a medium to take and share your photos. Start with what you have, you have the best gear. It could be just a phone, a medium format camera, just anything you are good to go. I’ll be sharing editing apps on another blog post.

CONSISTENCY

Now that you’re passionate about photography and you have a mobile camera at hand, you need to be consistent. I’ll be listing some ways you can boost your consistency.

  1. Shoot daily. You’re training your eyes to see more.

2. Embrace social media. Have a well-arranged page. Be active on your social media platform.

3. Connect more with creatives, go to photography hangouts. This helped me a lot.

4. Don’t be silent about your craft! Let everyone know what you do. Let them know what you have and don’t have, they can help you.

5. Research. Read a lot of books, watch YouTube, search google. This will help you master your craft more.

In conclusion, there are many opportunities in phone photography itself, so don’t be discouraged to take joy in whatever you do. Keep shooting with that medium and one day you go blow!

Originally published at https://www.taiwoaina.com.

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Taiwo Aina
Taiwo Aina

Written by Taiwo Aina

Taiwo is a visual storyteller interested in human life daily experiences and the societal issues that affect them. Lagos, Nigeria. www.taiwoaina.com