Jessica McKnight

Photographer

Jessica McKnight is a Photographer & Business Coach based in Southwest, Florida. She first fell in love with photography at the age of 12 and has maintained that passion ever since. Her studio is currently in downtown Punta Gorda, but she also often travels for her work. Her award-winning technique has earned her "Best of the Best" twice from the Tampa Bay Times. Her work has been featured in countless magazines & publications. Her studio offers boudoir, fashion, headshot/branding, commercial, event, senior portrait, family, children, and engagement/wedding sessions. Jessica McKnight also runs Brilliance Key, a photography coaching & mentoring business that provides one-on-one mentoring, 8-week mastermind groups, workshops, and photography retreats around the globe featuring some of the biggest names in the industry.

wikiHow's Editorial Process wikiHow partners with over 1000+ experts from a wide range of fields to ensure our content is accurate and based on well-established research and testimony. Content Managers conduct interviews and work closely with each expert to review information, answer reader questions, and add credible advice. Learn more about our editorial process and why millions of readers trust wikiHow.

Forum Comments (1)

How can I start a career as a photographer?
I think a lot of budding photographers think that if they get a website and a camera, and they take good pictures, people are going to come to them and they'll be busy. It takes much more than just having a camera and a website. A lot of photographers don't even have a website, they're only using Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. I think websites give a lot of credibility. They also hold a lot of information that social media can't, like your policies. Websites can help you sell—you can sell gift certificates, you can sell sessions, you can set appointments—there's just so much that a website does. It's almost like having a brick-and-mortar. I think that's important. I think learning marketing outside of social media is also important. Learn to collaborate and network within your community and make a place for yourself within your community so people refer you. I think that when people are learning photography, they should also be learning business.

If I could go back in time, give myself one piece of advice, I'd tell myself to get a mentor. That is because, while people can do it very cheaply, it takes them a long time to learn what works and what doesn't. People who are successful and are mentors, they've already been there. They've done that so they know the quickest path between A and B. You're saving yourself money by having a mentor because otherwise you're going to be wasting time and time is precious. It takes a lot of trial and error and time and money to buy little courses and things and try to piece business together. When you expand that out over years, that is way more money than if you were to just go get a mentor, do it right in the first place, get everything done, and have your business up and running in a shorter period.

If you're curious about where you should start investing your money in photography, I'd recommend a nice camera, but obviously, it doesn't have to be brand new. It just has to be a camera that allows you to change your lenses. Other equipment you'll need: something to clean your camera with, starting batteries, extra batteries, battery chargers, an external hard drive and cloud to download your images and save them in a safe spot, and a reliable computer.

Co-authored Articles (10)

How to Organize Photos in Google Photos: Quick Guide to Albums

Everything you need to know about organizing Google Photos This wikiHow guide will show you how to organize photos in Google Photos. You can use albums to keep your photos organized in Google Photos. Albums are like cont...

How to

Share Photos Online

Photographs are one of the best ways to keep memories long-term. Needless to say, this is why people photograph important life milestones. In today's society, digital photography is extremely prevalent, and people prefer...

How to

Add Sunlight in Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program that has been released in 12 versions by Adobe Systems. It is included as part of Adobe's Creative Suite, along with Illustrator, After Effects and other illustration, graphi...

How to

Print Pictures from Your Phone

This wikiHow teaches you how to print pictures from your smartphone using a Wi-Fi-connected printer. To print pictures from your phone, you need to have a Wi-Fi enabled printer connected to the same wireless network tha...

How to

Create a Flawless Filing System on Your Computer

This wikiHow teaches you how to organize your computer's files by creating a filing system out of folders.

How to

Find Digital Pictures on Your Computer

Memories are important to all of us. You may have hundreds of thousands of pictures stored on your computer to keep them safe and handy, but it becomes less handy when you have a hard time finding the pictures you are l...

2 Quick Ways to Flip or Mirror an Image in Adobe Photoshop

If you're a graphic artist, designer, publisher, or photographer, there may come a time when it suits your need to flip an image. Photoshop makes this incredibly easy, whether you're flipping the whole image or just a sm...

How to

Print Pictures from an iPhone

Your iPhone takes amazing photos, so it only makes since that you'd want to be able to print them from your home printer! If your printer is AirPrint-compatible, you'll be able to print directly to it from your iPhone as...

How to

Develop Black and White Film

Developing film is a less common practice since digital cameras, but you can still create beautiful black and white negatives in your own home. You can buy a developing kit online that has all the essential supplies and ...

How to

Open Multiple Images As Layers in Photoshop Using Bridge

This wikiHow teaches you how to import multiple different photos into one Photoshop project as a series of layers. While it is possible to do this from within Photoshop without using any additional software, some version...