The best way to market yourself would be to have a portfolio or showreel of as many different shots as you can gather. Why? There will come a day when your phone will ring and somebody will ask you to shoot something, let's say a flower opening for example. Nine times out of ten, they'll have seen your showreel and liked it (hence the call) but the client will need to know if you're capable of shooting a flower opening if it's not in your reel. If you've not shot one before at this point, I wouldn't advise you to lie but to simply turn the job down as this, in the long run will help keep your reputation if you did go ahead and without prior experience, it all went tits up. However, if you do have a short reel of flowers opening / growing then you can send them a link and you're more likely to get the job. You may have even shot it in a way that they've not thought of before!

Every shoot I undertake gets uploaded to Vimeo for future reference and to show to prospective clients. I'll do the shoot, upload the shots in a 'reel' as a password protected video and there they will stay until someone asks me the 'have you ever shot a ______ timelapse before' question. In most cases I have, or have shot something similar and I'll send them a link with a password.

It's important to have a niche in the television industry. Timelapse Specialist is niche enough in itself and you can go even further by specialising in Landscapes for example. Personally, I feel that you'll open yourself up to a lot more work if you can build and develop many areas of timelapse as you'll find it leads to newer and more fulfilling challenges!

I very often see people churning out the same old landscape shots and they're ten a penny. Beautiful as they are, I feel that people have become accustomed to just setting the camera down for thirty minutes and calling it a timelapse. Technically it is a timelapse and I personally shoot a fair amount of the '30 minute' shots but only as requested by clients. What I do enjoy seeing and producing myself are the shots with traditional timelapse techniques at their heart - shots that take a long time to make or are technically challenging - a 'true' time-lapse!

So go ahead - fill your portfolio with something different and I'll guarantee your phone won't stop ringing!

(Just as I was taking a break from typing, here's an interesting idea for you to timelapse!)

Establish Yourself!

Build a website, get your reel on it, and some background info. People who search for timelapse want to see what you can do so make sure your reel is on your front page! Youtube and Vimeo is awash with timelapse videos so having your own space will make it easier for clients to find you. Be sure to try and update your site as often as possible as well, even if it's just personal shoots you've been doing.