Lunatique
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 p.6 #12 · Is she Americas Next Top Model? | |
You're most welcome. Gotta help out the brothers, you know?
Don't feel too discouraged about the negative stuff though, there are many ways to make a living as a photographer. To make money at it and to become famous at it are two very different things. There are photographers here at FM that clear 6 figure earnings a year, and that is pretty damn good. But I bet you and I have never heard of them--and that's something you have to ask yourself. Can you live with the fact that you can most likely make a good living doing photography, but just not as a high profile "celebrity photographer" shooting for the big fashion mags?
Shooting Asians is a nice niche, but is there a market for it? Asian publications are few and far between and going to Asia would mean you'd have to change your lifestyle. Howard did that for a bit--he went back to Taiwan to check out the opportunities there, and he realized that in such a small place, there are too little jobs for too many photographers, and all the limited number of record companies, magazines, advertising..etc already had long-term relationships with selected photographers. He figured if he was going to spend the time and energy to break into an industry, he might as well spend it in NY. Hong Kong is the same way, and China is even worse, because the pay sucks and they don't wany anything that shows too much skin--it's still kinda "backwards" here. Japan's got a great photography industry, and have plenty of very talented photographers, but they are a very homogenized race, and foreigners are generally shunned. Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand..etc certainly cannot compete with the U.S. or Canada in terms of opportunities. I dunno, maybe try Europe?  !
I myself am considering making a career change to photography, and we'd be in the same shoes, both being Chinese, and loves shooting women (I shoot tons of Asian girls too--look at my signature for my photography). I tend to like more fine arts and fashion than straight glamour, and that would mean even less opportunities. I've been shooting only with a P&S for 3 years with crappy equipment, and I've squeezed as much I can out of it. Now I'm ready to upgrade to a professional system, and it's going to cost me an arm and a leg--maybe even a torso!
But anyway, I'll say this though, studying advertising is something that will be very helpful to photography, because they are directly connected in the marketplace. Just like a lot of photogs are also graphic designers too, and make a living combining the two. You can do that as well.
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And thanks for triggering such a great set of replies...!