What do you wish you’d known when you started out? EPUK asked 10 photojournalists and magazine photographers. The answers are riveting.
“The last practical thing I wish I’d known is the extent you can get things paid for. When I went on my first press trip for a commissioned job the light went on! Since then I’ve started doing travel writing as it’s easier to secure a commission for that and then you scrounge your trip and offer the pix as well. The images then go to stock for extra cash.
And:
5. Practice staying awake for at least 48hrs straight doing the post-production clients don’t believe is necessary, or fixing computers so you can (also most weekends).
12. Stay abreast of new technology at all costs. Without a thorough understanding of the internet you won’t have a clue why the phone has stopped ringing, and it is the best knowledge-sharing and work-avoidance mechanism known to man.
But there’s a ton more good stuff in there. Essential reading for people starting as a career photographer.
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4 Comments
Interesting read. I’d got that it was a struggle though the way those pros tell it it’s almost beyond hope these days of ever making a living as a photographer. Transient perhaps at best.
There is no stopping the trend it seems of amateurs (as in remuneration rather than a measure of skill / quality) satisfying the market on the cheap if not for free.
In some ways (perhaps at a stretch I know) it reminds me of the decline of jobs for life and jobs for the sons of miners / ship builders etc in the same industries as their fathers and uncles.
Lamentable for many I’m sure but time moves on and opportunities and possibilities arise that would never have been considered before. Opportunities that are often better than what was there before.
Just so long as care is taken not to let the baby go with the bath water…
Yeah, and there are far too many photography students these days. It’s gone all fashionable: 80 new teenage ND students in this year at Newcastle alone, and goodness knows why. It’s the new meeja studies in trendyness, and by and large they are socially clueless.
I think the tendency amongst any established freelancers is to want to scare off the newly qualified opposition. They are right to do it, too. It’s probably as hard as acting as a profession, and hugely more expensive in kit terms.
I’m fed up of established professionals trying to warn me off photography as a career. More from the point of view that I’ve committed more than 2 years of my life to studying it apart from anything else. Of course it may well be that their hugely pessimistic view is realistic but as I seemed to have reached the end of my useful life in IT I had nothing to lose. I’m always amazed by the number of hugely mediochre photographers that seem to eek a living out of the profession so if you feel you have any talent at all its got to be worth a punt.
Going off on a tangent … I have to say that I much prefer the new look and feel of the blog. Apart from anything else its far more readable in MyFeedReader.
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of excellent content and discussion here. I don’t know how you get time to do anything else Brenda.
A slightly obsessive personality trait helps, I think. In both respects. ;)
So glad you like the new layout: I didn’t bother checking it in other browsers or readers, so it’s good to know that, Rob. I’m particularly pleased with the little 18% grey card.