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Archive 2013 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...

  
 
artd
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


If you are considering a glamorous career in photography, please do bear in mind the following Public Service Announcement.

According to a recent ranking by CareerCast.com of best and worst jobs, "Photographer" ranks at #172, immediately after "Construction Worker" and just above "Seamstress/Tailor."

Even worse off is the job of "Photojournalist" which ranks #188...one step below "Dishwasher."



http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2013/04/23/reporter-beats-out-lumberjack-for-worst-job-of-2013/



May 01, 2013 at 01:18 PM
jefferies1
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


It is what you make of it. Considering they most likely asked the hundreds of want to be photographers ( got a camera and now listed as a pro) that are in every city I can see why the career path would be way down to list.


May 01, 2013 at 01:32 PM
trenchmonkey
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


Hmmm, I've been in construction (irrigation contractor) AND photography (both self employed) for 40 yrs.
While neither is particularly glamorous, I can still make $100+ an hour at either. Love both equally as well
but my back (knockin' on 65) prefers the burst to the trench, tho I can still outwork guys 1/2 my age.



May 01, 2013 at 01:52 PM
BenV
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


could be worse, you could be stuck doing something you don't want to do.


May 01, 2013 at 03:47 PM
Lunchb0x8
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


I have spoken to a few pros of late, and they all say the same thing, whatever type of photography you do as a pro, make sure you enjoy another type for your pastime, otherwise, your fun turns to work, even when you are not being paid.

I am aiming to improve my skills a fair bit, then get into portraiture and event photography, my passion lies with landscapes and the night sky, so the two may overlap, but I doubt it will make me feel like I am working when I go out to have fun.



May 01, 2013 at 05:13 PM
GoGo
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


Air traffic controller sound good, didn't Billie Bob do that?

Seriously though, after working 20+ years exclusively as a photographer the one piece of advise I can sincerely give is that you had better be a very good business man first and foremost!

Good luck,



May 03, 2013 at 11:25 AM
colinm
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


Lunchb0x8 wrote:
I have spoken to a few pros of late, and they all say the same thing, whatever type of photography you do as a pro, make sure you enjoy another type for your pastime, otherwise, your fun turns to work, even when you are not being paid.


I wouldn't take it that far myself, but definitely you always, always, always need to make time for personal work. You will burn out if every time you pick up the camera you're making somebody else's work.

You can absolutely do one thing as long as you make time to feed your interests and do it your way too.



May 03, 2013 at 01:44 PM
halie
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


Having been a professional dishwasher at the age of 15, I find this hard to believe. My experience was to be the first to work, the last to go home, the worst job, the lowest pay and the least respect of anyone in the restaurant. But at least I made $3.25 an hour.


May 05, 2013 at 10:02 AM
cineski
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


Photography is an amazingly glamorous career if you live in provided housing and have a bunch of friends and followers on Facebook


May 06, 2013 at 03:40 PM
warrenjrphotog
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


The problem is that a lot of photographers buy a camera and don't shoot/do what they enjoy.

I see a lot of new photographers that jump into wedding photography right away or stock photography and they do it namely for the money as it's blatantly obvious most of the time.

I mean, how many photographers actually *enjoy* shooting weddings.....I know that I probably wouldn't and I wouldn't shoot one even if I was being paid $5,000 to shoot one.

I shot one paid party on new years and sure the money was good but to me it's not about the money.

It's about doing what you enjoy and if you do it enough you will become a master at it and you will be the man or women people come to since you will be so good at what you enjoy shooting.

People will come after you to learn from (lectures) for your work (getting paid to do what you love) and your dedication, motivation, and perseverance will come naturally because you're doing what you actually enjoy.

An example would be me, I find studio portraiture to be boring because everyone pretty much shoots it and most studio photography to me lacks creativity and looks boring.

I'd rather shoot outdoor portraiture, develop my own unique look, shoot other types of photography that I enjoy, keep in touch with different people that need photos such as publishers, and shoot freelance photography where you can determine what you shoot for the most part WHILE enjoying what you shoot.

Honestly, there's a lot of photographers out there that are only in it for the money (IE, a ton of wedding photographers) and it's a real shame on their part.



May 07, 2013 at 10:39 PM
Lunchb0x8
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


I remember being told about a pro who shot weddings, and hated it.

His method to get out of the game and stop the calls coming in, was to raise his price.

He raised it from around $3000 a day to $6k and got a couple less calls that month.

He doubled it again to $12k and still got calls.

$24k-$48k he kept getting calls (from memory) only once he doubled it again to $96k did he stop getting calls, but in the space of 4 or so months, made a heck of a lot of money and had enough to set himself up to shoot what he loved without worrying about the bills for a bit.



May 08, 2013 at 07:33 PM
sorpa
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


halie wrote:
Having been a professional dishwasher at the age of 15, I find this hard to believe. My experience was to be the first to work, the last to go home, the worst job, the lowest pay and the least respect of anyone in the restaurant. But at least I made $3.25 an hour.


Love the irony



May 09, 2013 at 09:10 PM
Mescalamba
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


Who cares as long as its something you like and you dont starve to death (I know Im not too demanding).


May 09, 2013 at 09:44 PM
cineski
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


You're gonna care when you try to retire!

Mescalamba wrote:
Who cares as long as its something you like and you dont starve to death (I know Im not too demanding).




May 13, 2013 at 09:37 AM
warrenjrphotog
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


cineski wrote:
You're gonna care when you try to retire!



Instead of retiring ordain as a Buddhist Monk.

Problem solved .



May 13, 2013 at 01:58 PM
cineski
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


I'm going to make the wild assumption that you're new to photography? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but as someone who's been in it long enough to know that your points here don't pass my sniffer as someone who's been in the industry long at all. I'm also going to make the assumption that you want a career as a photographer.

1st, the reason you see so many photography teachers is because those photographers realized they can make vastly more money off the incredible influx of photographers (who will eventually put them out of business if they were just a competing photographer) than they can actually competing for the jobs that are being taken over by said influx of cheap photographers. For the most part it has nothing to do with some heroic thing you've imagined but I can tell you one thing, the busiest photographers I know have zero time for teaching and are mostly unknown by the forum/facebook/newbie photography community who laps up people like David Jay. These are the people making $12-15K per shoot (weddings in this case) and have it figured out. From a person who has a will to sustain their career, It has everything to do with making money (but you're correct that you must love what you shoot). And as for money being a motivator, if you want to have a sustainable career as an actual photographer, you must make money. There is no other way to do it or look at it unless you have a steady form of money coming from someplace else (and even then why would you short change yourself). Sure, there's a wonderful side effect that being a photographer is a wonderful thing to do but you seem confused in that you theorize that one must not be in it for the money.....in order to make money? That's truly a dichotomy that is more about being silver tongued and having an air that's different than what reality is. I'm not accusing you of doing that, but rather your expectations of what other photographers do is not meshing with reality. When I see a photographer who's not in it for the money, they don't charge enough which brings me to my next point:

While you absolutely must love what you photograph, if you're not also in it for the money and actually make good money, you won't sustain yourself as a photographer. It really is that simple. I can't tell you how many photographers I know in the past 2-3 years that have bitten the bullet because they think like you or because the market has been oversaturated with photographers who think like you. I can't tell you how many new photographers I hear speak like this now who charge basically cost for a job because they're doing it for the love of photography. What's the point of that when you'll be biting yourself in the butt at a later point but don't know it yet? What's love for photography when you can't sustain your photography? It's a fact that when a photographer is making good money, a few nice side effects happen. First, they will continue to be a sustained pro photographer. They're also able to be a better photographer because they're living comfortably and can partake much easier in doing personal projects because they have the resources to do it. I have a buddy who's extremely busy who's making under $20k/year in a city where you must make $60K/year to live like a college student. He's freaking out because everyone knows him as the cheap/free photographer who loves what he does. That doesn't do squat when reality hits and while he used to be the dazed idealist, the wakeup has hit hard for him. It's so unfortunate the new crop of photographers have this all too common mindset that to make money is evil, I'm actually finding this mindset extremely common in a certain age bracket (I have a feeling this has to do with indoctrination at school). I know you're going to take this as cheapening the ideals of what photography is to you. It's not. I'm extremely protective of photography and because I have more experience than you've had I realize what it takes to be sustainable and it starts with looking at reality. It's important to keep idealism but not so much that it makes you blind to reality.

warrenjrphotog wrote:
The problem is that a lot of photographers buy a camera and don't shoot/do what they enjoy.

I see a lot of new photographers that jump into wedding photography right away or stock photography and they do it namely for the money as it's blatantly obvious most of the time.

I mean, how many photographers actually *enjoy* shooting weddings.....I know that I probably wouldn't and I wouldn't shoot one even if I was being paid $5,000 to shoot one.

I shot one paid party on new years and sure the money was good but to me it's not about the money.

It's about doing
...Show more



May 14, 2013 at 11:52 AM
Nikon_14
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


cineski wrote:
It's so unfortunate the new crop of photographers have this all too common mindset that to make money is evil, I'm actually finding this mindset extremely common in a certain age bracket (I have a feeling this has to do with indoctrination at school).



While working in photography FT, I'm taking classes PT at a local university. My impression is that you are right- everyone is expected to work for free, and be perfectly happy with living in a tiny apartment driving a vehicle that resembles a golf cart.



May 14, 2013 at 08:39 PM
warrenjrphotog
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


cineski wrote:
I'm going to make the wild assumption that you're new to photography? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but as someone who's been in it long enough to know that your points here don't pass my sniffer as someone who's been in the industry long at all. I'm also going to make the assumption that you want a career as a photographer.

1st, the reason you see so many photography teachers is because those photographers realized they can make vastly more money off the incredible influx of photographers (who will eventually put them out of business if they were just a competing
...Show more

You have it backwards.

There is an INFLUX of photographers that are shooting just for the money.

Also, if you enjoy what you shoot naturally you will be really good at what you enjoy since you do it a lot and you will become great at it AND this will make you money since people will come to you for your photography.......

Also, how could I "bite the bullet" when I already have a business that does not revolve around photography that I make money at and I shoot what I want to shoot when I shoot photography.

I got caught up with the whole "gotta shoot weddings and boring studio shots" a while ago but since then have decided to shoot only what I love and I will continue to shoot only what I love since life is too short to worry about making more money than the next guy in the rat race.

Look at photographers such as Joel Grimes, and most of the guys on Kelby Training and you will realize that they shoot ONLY what they enjoy to shoot and they get paid good money shooting what they LOVE.

If you love something enough you will become a master at it meaning that you can teach lectures, people will buy your photographs or publishers, and you will be well known because you have developed your own unique style that is based around your personality that is highly developed and you're not a photographer that shoots stuff "just for the money".

Honestly, I fell asleep at my girlfriends last studio photoshoot. The guy just kept copying poses that he saw on his laptop for pinup photography and would shoot my girlfriend doing those poses in the studio and he shoots headshots & studio portraiture for a living but I would NEVER shoot something that I don't love for the money unless someone is willing to pay me an exorbitant amount of money.

I'd rather shoot what I see in my minds eye and enjoy doing it and have 10X more fun than the other photographers who's style can be seen all over the internet and shoot primarily for the money.

Also I was never "indoctrined" in school as I was home schooled all of my life.

You seem to think that I shoot photography for the money when I in fact do not.

I shoot photography for the love of it and it is a means to an end which for you unfortunately is not the case as you rely on shooting photography to pay the bills (not a bad thing) and rely on having more experience than the next man who shoots your style as well too but probably has more experience than you.



May 14, 2013 at 11:56 PM
cineski
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


So you're a hobbyist hanging out and giving advice in a pro photographer forum? Sounds like it wants to be more than a hobby.


May 15, 2013 at 11:05 AM
warrenjrphotog
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · To those considering a glamorous career in photography...


cineski wrote:
So you're a hobbyist hanging out and giving advice in a pro photographer forum? Sounds like it wants to be more than a hobby.


You don't need to make money to be a pro and there are plenty of non paid professional photographers in this part of the forum.

Not to mention for me photography is more than just a hobby but that does not mean I need to get paid.



May 15, 2013 at 12:29 PM
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