Photography as business: “If you want to be a hobbyist photographer and go to air shows, that is fantastic, there’s nothing wrong with that. But the questions I get asked, how do you get published? How did you get access here? How did you do this?”
— Scott Dworkin, professional photographer
In our final segment of our interview with Scott Dworkin, we learned some home truths about the importance of professionalism and treating your photography as business. Read on for more.
Scott Dworkin, an aerial photographer and photojournalist near Los Angeles, turned his lifelong love of aviation and photography into a profession in 2010 after years of refining his craft in multiple photographic disciplines.Text below transcribed from a portion of an interview conducted by Betty of Cradoc fotoSoftware in August 2025 To view this and other interviews, please go to our Cradoc fotoSoftware YouTube Channel.
Treating Photography as Business
And I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again; you can love airplanes as much as the next person, but if you show up and you’re just ogling the airplane, oh, you know, “oh my God, oh my God, or I got access”, you know, you can’t. You have to think a little differently. And it always has been my takeaway is how, if you want to be a hobbyist photographer and go to air shows, that is fantastic, there’s nothing wrong with that. But the questions I get asked, how do you get published? How did you get access here? How did you do this?
Number one thing, you need to be a professional. You need to treat your photography as business first. Forget that there’s an airplane there. Doesn’t matter what’s in front of you, what you’re trying to get to. It’s business first, professionalism.
One of the pieces of treating photography as business that I felt was helpful was the software that you guys [Cradoc fotoSoftware] have. At first you didn’t have my categories necessarily in there. I was like, how do I figure it out? I was able through project to project to piece together through the various industries that you had in there, the various categories, the various price ranges. And then that coupled with calling some trusted colleagues in the aviation side of things, and again, not very few would share with me like, hey, what would you charge for this contract job? Or they want me to do a one day photo shoot for them.
Ultimately, what I’m doing and the people listening that use your software, it is commercial photography, right? The photojournalism side is one thing. They pay me to go do a story. But the contract work I do, the flight test stuff I do, or if a company hires me to go shoot, it’s shooting a product. So I did realize after, it took a while, but I’m like, well, this is just commercial photography. And that’s where the two things like your software, asking trusted colleagues, what would you charge? It clicked as to how to effectively use the software to be like, this is this. You could say automotive and it’d be the same. So you have categories where it’s not exact, but it’s like a cross-category. It’s business.
And this is the final point I always make to the people that reach out to me, is when you go out there and if you suck, that’s your one chance. If your pictures suck after that, you’re probably not going to get the next opportunity. So you still need to know what you’re doing around airplanes. You don’t want to get out, go out there either and get run over or sucked into an airplane propeller either. So that’s the other part, the other podcasts I’ve done, the interviews I’ve done are like safety is a huge thing for me. And the colleagues that work in flight tests with the one thing that’s been drilled into me is like, I don’t care how much I want to take a photo of an airplane doing whatever it’s doing. I need to come home and nothing is that important.
But there are people that I’ve seen now in this business that are doing things that some of us sit there and we look at the Instagram, you know, whatever they post the video and we’re like, you know, we know what’s happening there. And we’re like, how the hell did that happen? Like, that seems sketchy. If I get a call from my colleague in Kansas that has been doing this 30 years and he’s like, did you see this post? This is sketchy as heck. And I’m like, yep, I saw it too. And then I’ll get a call from another Navy photographer. It goes around real quick.
So, you have to know how to do your job. It’s just like anything else in sales or anything, you get one chance to help that customer. And if you’re not able to, they’re going to move on to someone else. I get that. But if you map it out that way to like, I’m confident in my skillset. I know when I get out there, I can do the job, but I need to know how to get to that point.
And that I will give credit to my dad in that respect, me being in business with him or things he’s taught me about sales and how to deal with people. The big thing he’s always told me, and he does it to this day is like, nobody is ever going to be pissed off if they ask you a question and you say, I don’t know, but I’ll get back to you by the end of the day with an answer, nobody is going to get pissed off. There might be one, and I apply that to everything, you know? And so even with the other being told no or getting through those gatekeepers, it’s like, how do I have this conversation so that I’m not a threat that you want to put the effort into helping me? You might have to do a little bit more work, but as long as you’re not saying no for the basic reason that I know is garbage, we can have that conversation. So, it’s treat your photography as business first. I think that’s my takeaway.
The Business of Photography- Tips From the Pros
Learning from those who’ve walked the path is always valuable. Check out this article: Ten Things I Wish I Had Known Before Becoming a Professional Photographer, which breaks down lessons in business strategy, gear choices, and sustaining creativity over the long haul. And for a related read on our blog – Tips from a Professional Photographer, some great tips from Jonathan Kingston for photographers who are starting out.
About Scott Dworkin
For Scott Dworkin, flight and photography have always gone hand in hand. Based near Los Angeles, he has spent his career capturing aviation from above—working with the U.S. Armed Forces, Department of Defense, and civilian aviation teams. His work has taken him from airbases across America to aeromedical missions in Afghanistan. One of a select few civilians to fly in high-performance military aircraft, Scott brings rare access and authenticity to his imagery. Trained and qualified as aircrew through Air Force and Navy programs, he continues to document the art and science of flight with precision and passion.
Website:https://www.mach91aerialphotography.com/about
Copyright: All images belong to Scott Dworkin used by Cradoc fotoSoftware with permission of the copyright holder. Use of images or content by any person or entity other than Cradoc fotoSoftware for any purposes is expressly prohibited.
See other great interview transcripts:
- Todd Bigelow
- Jonathan Kingston
- Julie Bidwell
- Steve Whittaker
- Scott Dworkin
