After leaving my friend's company, I immediately started a photography business and planned to take on Information Technology jobs from small companies as a side job.

Starting with taking pictures of their friends and events

Portfolios are very important for the beginning of a photographer's career, so I started taking some pre-wedding photos and friends' weddings. Since I had studied photography as a teenager, my friends were also very satisfied with my photographs.

Received support from friends in Indonesia

A good friend in Indonesia at that time knew that I was running a photography business, so he immediately contacted his good friend, an Indonesian artist who was on vacation with his family in Hong Kong. The artist was very helpful by allowing me to take photos of his family and helped me promote them on their social media. Then we became good friends, and every time they came to Hong Kong, they would definitely meet me.

After that, I also got to know some Indonesian artists, YouTubers, and celebrities, and did collaborations with them. They were also very kind and introduced me to their other friends to help develop my photography venture.

Other good friends in Indonesia also helped me to promote my photography services to their friends who had plans to visit Hong Kong or Macau. I also sometimes did photo sessions in several cities in Japan. With the help of friends in Japan, I got to know more good locations for photography outside of the usual tourist areas.

Meet many new friends in Indonesia, the Philippines, and other countries

With this photography business, I got to know many new friends from various cities in Indonesia. In addition, because of the help of several customers from the Philippines who helped promote my photography services on social media and their friends, the number of customers and friends from the Philippines also increased. This also allowed me to collaborate with YouTubers and celebrities from the Philippines.

Cooperate with photography companies from several countries

In addition, I also work with several photography companies from Indonesia, Singapore, Korea, the UK and the United States to provide services to their customers when visiting Hong Kong or Macau.

Losing all photography jobs at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic

The business went so well, thanks to God guiding and the support of friends, that I didn't have time at all to take on other side hustles.

At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began to attack several countries and cities in Asia, including Hong Kong, so for a few months I did not get a photography job at all. Then it occurred to me to start updating my photography business website and create several new websites to make it easier for my customers to find information about Hong Kong and, at the same time, realize my long-standing desire to provide Hong Kong information in Indonesian for Indonesians who work or live in Hong Kong.

Start doing photo shoots for various events and parties

A few months later, an Indonesian artist living in Hong Kong used my services to take photos at some of his events and introduce some of his Indonesian friends who live in Hong Kong. During this pandemic, they also supported me by introducing my services to their foreign friends who also live in Hong Kong.

Photography techniques are important, but establishing good relationships and communication with customers that make them feel comfortable and relaxed during the shoot is the most important thing to me. This is, in my opinion, the key to success for a photographer.

In the next article, I will tell you about the circumstances of the people I have mentioned in previous articles in the "About the Author" column.