In 2023, Janine Ellis’ new company The Business Academy shared our story.
Let’s start at the start
My first few months working professionally as a photographer in 2016.
Lessons I learned as a professional photographer
The #1 thing you need to succeed is a mindset of perseverance. You need to have a baseline level of passion for this because it is hard.
Becoming a professional photographer has taught me:
You need everything in writing, you are always safe when contracting for others when everything is in writing
The only socially awkward barriers you have are in your mind. When photographing, you could interact with 100s of different people at night, especially if you’re working at a festival or a gala. After working as a photographer, I realised I started complimenting strangers even when I wasn’t working!
Good business practices are everything and profoundly impact employees’ lives. Your reputation, your network and how you treat people is everything. I have had experiences where I have worked for other creatives who took advantage of me as a young, naive, 16-year-old contractor. When I decided to set up my own business. This has meant I have a very different ability to connect with people in my industry compared to other business owners known for taking advantage of their contractors.
It’s important to have a strong network as a photographer. You will succeed in this industry when you support your network instead of competing against others.
Why I wanted to start Cloud X Media
When I was 16-years-old, I had a confronting immersion into the event photography space. I worked for someone who profited off taking advantage and continues to profit off taking advantage of young and naive creatives.
I fell in love with event photography because I had the opportunity to go to parties, meet people, compliment people on what they were wearing and be in a space where I could make people feel incredible about how they looked.
I realised in hindsight that I wasn’t being taken care of. I would be sent as a young girl to parties that on several occasions were so dodgy they got shut down by the police. At the end of my school year, I was sent to one of the biggest parties in South-East Queensland where I’d work til midnight and sleep in a room with four other people on two double beds to find out later, I wouldn’t get paid for what I was promised because the amount wasn’t in writing, and I didn’t have a contract. To feel the effects of this immense abuse of power led me to understand the importance of creating a space where new creatives would be cared for.
This dream, this deeply personal project, that I called Hustle in my mind at the time, came to fruition five years later in 2021.
My favourite moments with Cloud X Media and as a photographer
In 2017, I watched Dan Flynn the founder of Thankyou. deliver a speech and got to meet him afterwards. When you work at these events, you get to meet some of the most inspiring people and learn from them.
Before CXM, in 2018 I went to a World Health Conference for Rabies in Kathmandu where I photographed their conference and events.
In 2018 I photographed events from Brisbane to Sydney to Melbourne to Auckland for CPA Australia as they introduced their Pride in Accounting events. While in Sydney, they hired out the venue, featured in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. Karen from Finance the drag queen performed, and it was a night to remember.
In 2018, I started working for I Heart Uni and would photograph parties across Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne with them
While photographing an event for the Sofitel as a collaboration with Dilmah, I got to go behind the scenes with their chef and celebrity chef Peter Kuruvita where they had a giant chocolate crocodile over a metre long out the back.
In 2019, I did my first international work trip for CPA Australia as they launched a Pride in Accounting event in 2019
In 2019, as the head photographer at UQ I collaborated in photographing my first big event as one of the organisers of photographers at their Great Court Party where they had sold 5000 tickets.
At the start of 2022, my mentor and I went to photograph a wedding in Toowoomba, and I photographed the happy couple on their first helicopter ride together before they arrived at their reception.
In 2022, my videographer and I went to Tangalooma to secretly photograph a proposal on Moreton Island for a couple arriving from Sydney on a cruise
In the same year, I photographed a private rehearsal for the Queensland Ballet and met the director Li Cunxin and spoke to him at the drinks afterwards. He wrote Mao’s Last Dancer, a book I can remember reading as a child and it was surreal to meet him.
In 2023, I photographed the CEO of the Suncorp Group as he gave back the keys to a family who had lost their house due to the floods. I’ve loved working for Suncorp Group because I get to learn every time I go to work.
In July of 2023, I went out to photograph the Big Red Bash for the Courier Mail and even my first big celebrities like Lizzo and J Balvin at Splendour in the Grass. While photographing the BRB, the photojournalist and I covered two weddings happening simultaneously on the beautiful desert sand - it was fabulous.
In the 12 months before I left for Europe in August of 2023, my team and I did over 150+ shoots where we went to weddings, engagement parties, birthdays, photographed proposals, celebrated milestones with our corporate clients, went to festivals, did photoshoots with drones - it was amazing.
In February of 2024 (this year), I photographed my first celebrity concert PINK at a stadium in the Gold Coast
How I started taking photos
When I was 10 years old, I was picked to go and do a photography class once a week at our school for a term. In all honesty, I think it was probably because I was a bit different.
Each week we learned about a different part of the camera - aperture, shutter speed, the rule of thirds, ISO etc. They told us to go and take photographs that focused on those lessons.
When I was 13, I was given some amazing advice by a Brisbane photographer and friend who told me to only shoot in manual mode. I think these are all still great beginner principles for anyone starting out as a photographer, shoot manual and just get obsessed with it - try everything. With this in mind, I photographed everything that interested me.
How I became a professional photographer:
When I was 16, I went to a party and met the head photographer at a popular event photography company. He told me I needed:
A full-frame camera (I was using a 600D and got a 5D MIII secondhand)
A wide-angle lens (I now use a 24mm 1.4 but you can start with anything from a 24 mm)
A flash - preferably one with ETTL function
A Gary Fong Diffuser (do they still make these?)
I went home that night VERY EXCITED and told my mum all about it. She was very kind and gave me a loan which took over a year to pay back - on the equivalent of less than minimum wage considering my costs and what the work involved.
