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Photography Careers
Brett
Registered Users Posts: 218 Major grins
I plan on going to college once I'm done highschool for photography. I have my sights set on Georgian College in Barrie Ontario because it's strictly digital photography. What I wan't to know, is it possible to make a good living from photography. We have quite a few photographers and photography shops here so I'm assuming it is possible. I know it depends on several things like skill, knowledge, personality, training, location etc. But is it worth it? I love photography with a passion and would rather do something I love for less money then something I hate for more money.
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Not much help with a photography career myself, as I'm looking heavily at a big change up myself. I'll be watching this thread close, though.
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People make livings doing most anything. Some people make fantastic livings doing most anything. So yes, its possible. And if you have the drive it makes it all the more easier.
Doing something you love is a great thing. Doing something you hate is not, regardless the salary. However, I will leave you with some words my dad gave me. When he was young he wanted to go either into automotive or electronics. He liked them both. Electronics paid better. He went that route for two principal reasons: the pay was better, and he enjoyed cars as a hobby. In other words, he didn't want to work all day on cars, and then go home from work to work on cars as his hobby. The reason this worked out well for him was that it kept his life balanced, and he didn't hate electronics.
Its easy to say "I want to do what I love as opposed to what I hate". Anyone can say that, and its an obvious statement. The harder question becomes when things get gray. You can make more money at a different career that you like, but its not what you love. But the career you merely like gives you the opportunity to have a hobby in what you love. There is no harm in that.
A former sports shooter
Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
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My experience is, and I have watched the art world since the middle of the sixties, and my experience is that it can have much more to do with salesmanship, business skills, and intensity, drive, than it has to do with talent.
Yes, I have seen someone leave the high school photography place, open a studio, he makes a fortune per shoot. Some bigger fortunes than others.
He is from England, tall, dark, handsome, great people skills, probably in his early fifties now.
I see the photographers, young women, taking pictures of children on the beach. For that mornings work, they make thousands. But I have only seen them in the summer, Sat mornings, so it isn't all profit, they have to make thousands. And I am sure they have good people skills, a great children's portfolio, and a studio also set up for families and children.
And can you imagine how sick they get of taking the "same" shots over and over. They brought out on the beach a child or family every hour or so. Same thing over and over. But that is their bread and butter. One does need bread and butter. I wanted to be a photojournalist, don't know how boring that is, and I have not seen it work, so............. Someone else would have to tell you about that. But you can make money, if you have the people skills. That is the most important thing.
Look at Andy and Harry and the other successful people here. People not only like their photography, they have wonderful people skills. They may make a few enemies, but they aren't people they needed in the first place.
ginger (Read a book called Shutterbabe, it is not as the title would suggest, it is an autobiography of a photojournalist and the places she goes, what she goes through. She is just out of college when it starts.)
She is right that photography as a career is as much business, if not more, than it is skill in photography. My sales person at my local camera shop admitted to me months ago that his college education didn't focus at all on the business end. Marketing, promotion, negotiating contracts and prices, evaluating markets. Make sure your college photography degree touches on these subjects. Or take electives in them. Or learn those skills yourself, somewhere.
Don't expect to be self-employed in a business if you don't understand business skills. Its one of several good reasons why I keep the day job, and photograph on the side.
The other thing Ginger was right about is the possibility of boredom. In 2004 I photographed a shifter kart race in Austin, and I had a chance to talk with the Shifter Kart Illustrated photographer for 30 minutes. He said he used to photograph CART events, and one year in Montreal he told himself "I shot Michael Andretti, at this corner, in that car, with that sponsor and color scheme, and that car owner, last year. And the year before. And the year before that." He got bored. He said others like him felt the same way. So he switched to photographing different subjects. He fought his boredom by realizing it was happening and making a change.
A former sports shooter
Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
Best advice I can give you is go to college and take some business courses and practice with your photography. Heck, you may work in a different field but make some nice $$ to support your habit.
Richard