Shooting for Success

For Patrick Tran, a thousand words just isn’t good enough.

In fact, words hardly hold a place at all in the world of photography. A fourth-year physiological science student, Tran is part of what he calls the “visual revolution,” a relatively new era that has given amateur Bruin artists a chance to push their photography from a hobby on campus into the professional world of Los Angeles.

“So many people are getting into photography,” Tran said. “The visual revolution, going from film to digital print, opens up things to amateurs ““ no one could just go into it as a business before because the investment was just too large. Technology has made it cheaper and more amateur-friendly.”

Covering everything from senior pictures to Spring Sing, Tran has taken advantage of the UCLA campus to capture whatever moments he can, joining the photography club and discussing possible business plans for the future. Despite his science-oriented major, Tran’s love for photography has united him alongside other amateur artists who plan on taking the professional world by storm. Fourth-year physiological science student Andy Trang, who works with Tran, plans to create a photography business before entering medical school.

“For everyone who wants to get into photography, now’s the time to do it. Every shot was 20 cents each back in the day ““ nowadays an entire shoot is just the cost of charging your battery,” Trang said.

This boom in technology has provided photographers such as Tran and Trang with resources that would have been impossible to acquire a decade ago. Blogs, memory cards and Internet marketing through sites such as Twitter have created boundless opportunities for aspiring artists to make a name for themselves.

“The thing about photography is you’re able to capture the essence of a moment, whatever it may be,” Trang said. “We’re planning on taking a year or two off before med school to focus on our business and get it up and actually running.”

That may be easier said than done, however. For many professional photographers, the road to success has been long and arduous because of economic strain and fierce competition. UCLA alumnus Gavin Holt has become a professional photographer, with jobs ranging from wedding pictures to sports and fashion. In the next two weeks he’ll be shooting photos for around 5,000 high school students, but it was far from easy getting to where he is today.

“I’ve always believed in pursuing passion, but the career you’re pursuing is being an entrepreneur, not a photographer,” Holt said. “Marketing hands down was the biggest challenge. The beautiful thing about photography is its low-entry cost, but it’s also highly competitive with a high turnover rate. You have to learn marketing and how to run a business, or you’re stuck and have no business coming through the front door.”

The intimidating atmosphere has done little, however, to stanch the hopes of determined amateur students on campus.

Despite his trepidations, fourth-year Design | Media Arts student Josh Walker has created his own photography business, which he intends to fully focus on after graduating this summer. Walker is attempting to ride the technological wave to marketing success with his own website, Twitter account, blog and Facebook profile for his business, bareallgoodness photography.

“For me, it’s about the fun, the essence of the moment, as opposed to the blah ‘set everyone up for a photo’ thing. I love the challenge of coming across a situation and trying to capture everything that’s out there. On my 18th birthday my parents bought me a Canon Rebel camera, and I just took it from there,” Walker said.

Walker’s marketing methods seem to be working ““ despite the difficulty of finding jobs in the L.A. area, he’s managed to do photos for weddings, funerals and various receptions.

The photography scene on campus is getting stronger as well. Fourth-year biochemistry student Michael Sun is vice president of the photography club at UCLA, and he estimates a large boom in numbers for next year, especially because the photography club is planning on working more closely with the other primary photo group on campus, the Film and Photography Society.

“We’ve had masses of people, and we predict that there’ll be a mass increase next year. I just feel that right now there’s a whole bunch of photographers on campus, so in the next few years, as these clubs become more publicized, they’ll be able to join and enjoy photography as much as I have,” Sun said.

Whether as amateurs first picking up the camera or as professional shooters making their own businesses, or whether an arts or science major, a new wave of people interested in photography seems to have taken hold at UCLA.

“With photography, you’re not taking an idea and making it, you’re taking the moments that happen by themselves,” Sun said. “We’re just permanently capturing them in history. I’m taking scenes that people would pass by normally, and freeze them. When I snap a photo, I make you think about the emotion of a single moment that people would take for granted and just let pass them by.”