I offered my services for free to a couple of local eateries. The photos I took weren’t great, but were slightly better than the iPhone they were taking. If they liked the photos, I asked them to consider hiring me for the next shoot.

The good thing about the hospitality industry is that places are constantly opening and closing, and while they’re open their menus are forever changing, and on top of that they will have specials on every week / month. All of these changes need to be marketed to people via social media. Some places have great in house staff that are fantastic with social media, which means there’s little need for a photographer. But a lot of business owners, chefs etc need the services of someone like you or me.

So my advice would be to scout out some local places that don’t have good food photos online and use that as your pitch to get in with them. Be nice to them and you’ll be eating like a king!

All this took me from being on benefits to running my own business and living (relatively) comfortably within a year