Hi, everyone, my name is Uncle Jiang Ming.

A few days ago, a note I posted on Xiaohongshu about my side hustle went viral. The note has been read more than 300,000 times, and the number is still rising. The number of people who liked and saved it has also exceeded 10,000. People who consulted me

It’s almost over a thousand. I responded to every comment in the early days seriously, but then the number of people increased dramatically. Even if I didn’t eat, drink or sleep for three days and three nights, I still wouldn’t be able to reply, unless God gave me hundreds more hands.

Later, I simply stopped replying, and just told everyone that I would write notes later to explain in detail the various issues you asked.

From the people I consult, I find that they are generally novices, because many people simply don’t know what they can do, what they are suitable for, and what they cannot do. If no one can point out these direction issues and positioning issues, novices can only

It's a waste of time to fumble around on your own.

Of course, the greater possibility is that most people remain motionless. How life was before, will be the same now and in the future.

Today we’re going to talk about one of the most frequently asked side hustle questions: photography.

Back to the title, first of all, I am not a headline-grabbing person. I dare to write this because I have played photography myself, and I know that this path is completely feasible.

Photography classification The above is just a rough classification. It is not 100% rigorous, but it does not prevent you from understanding the photography category.

As shown in the picture, there are many subcategories of photography, some of which are not listed yet, such as architectural photography, outdoor photography, aerial photography, underwater photography, art photography, etc.

When you want to learn photography for the purpose of taking orders, you have to be clear about which direction you want to go, so that you can act in a targeted manner.

If the purpose is to make money by taking orders, I would first recommend wedding photography, children's photography, product photography, food photography, and event follow-up photography. These are all commercial in nature, more rigid needs, and there is always demand in the market. They are friendly to novices and have different sizes.

There are lists for you to choose from. Customers have high or low paying abilities. You can definitely practice with low-paying customers.

Other photography categories have a high starting point and slow results. If you are purely interested in it, you can understand and learn. What I share here is to start with the lowest cost and the least time, and then make money through photography orders. This method is suitable for novices with very little funds.

, the photography boss will probably despise me, no matter what, I will risk my life.

Buying Equipment Some people say that if you want to play photography, you will be poor for three generations. The key point is: Play. If you want to play, there is no cap on the cost of photography equipment.

But if you have an entrepreneurial mentality, learn the skill of photography with the purpose of taking orders and making money, and want to make a living from it, then you must have a budget and learn to spend small amounts of money to do big things.

Someone commented that it costs hundreds of thousands to learn photography. I replied below that 10,000 is enough. I want to correct it here. It doesn’t even cost 10,000. The actual cost of purchasing equipment can be so low that it will make you pee your pants.

Announce the answer first, 5,000 yuan is enough.

That’s right, that much money is enough. Let’s take food photography as an example: the camera is a Canon EOS 4000D with a single lens. The price on JD.com is 2688. If you can’t afford it, you can go to Xianyu and spend more than 1,000 to buy a second-hand camera and retouch the photos.

The computer I used was to spend 1,000 yuan on Taobao to buy a desktop assembled computer. It was more than enough to install PS and edit a picture of more than 20 MB.

When I opened a store before, I spent more than 1,000 to buy a desktop computer because I needed to issue invoices. Later, I found that it was expensive, wasteful, and had excessive performance.

Because last year I spent more than 300 on Taobao to buy a desktop computer, which can still issue invoices. I have been using it for a year and there is no problem at all.

The rest, such as photography lights, sulfuric acid paper, background boards, reflectors, and tripods, can all be done for less than 1,000.

If you want to go shopping, you can walk there wearing a pair of coconut shoes that cost more than 1,000 yuan, or you can wear a pair of flip-flops that cost 10 yuan.

But if you want people to pay attention to your clothes and understand trends, obviously 10 yuan flip-flops are not suitable.

You may need coconut shoes, Gucci, Equipment, vermodo and other clothes.

In the same way, some people have won numerous awards for their photography taken with a mobile phone.

Some people spend hundreds of thousands to buy a bunch of photography equipment, but they may not be able to take good photos.

Once you understand the essence and clarify the purpose, you will not be blocked from photography by expensive equipment.

The brands of shoes and clothes above are just examples. Don’t argue with me about whether they are fashionable or not.

Learning Photography The first step after buying a camera is to familiarize yourself with the camera's buttons and operation methods. You can refer to the manual directly, or search for various graphic and video tutorials online.

The most critical thing about a camera is to understand the three core elements of ISO, shutter, and aperture and their relationship with each other.

In this era of infinitely developed network information, apart from learning how to make RMB, you can find tutorials online for everything else. Musk even learned how to build rockets online. Of course, you may still need to buy the core technology.

The key point I want to emphasize is: whether you learn photography or other skills, as long as you are not stupid and have strong personal initiative, online tutorials are enough for you to learn.

For online self-study, I recommend you to make good use of Baidu, Zhihu, Bilibili, and Tuchong.