Guest Speaker 7: Sophie Traynor

Sophie Traynor is a freelance fashion, beauty, food and product photographer.

She talked through her career journey into full time freelancing. I liked how honest and open she was about the realities of the industry, how it’s not an easy career and takes years to perfect and get good work opportunities and build connections.

Working with a friend gets you into a good network to build contacts from and get work, which I thought was useful to know how she did that and made me consider how I collaborate with people I know. Despite being unpaid it’s good for building a portfolio and connections.

Useful advice Sophie gave us was “Nothing happens overnight” and “work for free, take risks, fake it till you make it”. She was very open about photo usage and pricing which most photographers don’t talk about and something you don’t get taught.

I found how honest and detailed she was about her career journey, her struggles and the advice she gave us regarding networking, pricing, the reality of freelancing and post-graduation realities. This was useful advice for me as it made me aware of the different ways of succeeding in a freelance career.

Sophie’s website: www.sophietraynor.com

Screenshot of Sophie’s website, Beauty section.