Expenses incurred prior to the business being "open for business" are start up expenses. It does not matter in what year the expenses were incurred either. It's not uncommon for a new business to have 3 years of startup expenses prior to opening. Startup expenses are claimed as such, in the first year the business is actually "open for business". You can claim and deduct a maximum of $5000 in startup expenses in that first year. Any remaining startup expenses are amortized (not capitalized) and deducted over the next 15 years.
The only things that are not startup expenses, would be assets. Assets are those structures (real estate) and equipment used on a recurring basis to produce income. Such expenses are listed as business assets in the Business Assets section and they get capitalized (not amortized) and deprecated over time. The number of years of depreciation depends on the class of the asset. For most photography equipment, it's 5 years. You'll be asked for when you purchased the equipment and it does't matter if it was 5 years before the business was open. Then you'll be asked when you placed that equipment "in service". The in service date can not be a date before you were "open for business". Depreciation on the asset starts on the in-service date.
