Is photography your career or just a hobby?
Professionals reply to this thread:
>Your job category
>Your income
>How hard it is
>How long did it take for you to get there.
>Is it worth giving up your day job.
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>>2707295
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/go-pro.htm
>>2707297
Thank you very much, I've been looking for something like this.
>>2707295
>Your income
Be prepared to be shocked and/or lied to, honestly
>>2707299
I think most togs don't make more than 30.000$ a year, dunno what the answers will be though.
>>2707300
>togs
>>2707303
kek
>>2707300
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I make about $40k a year.
Not taking photos though, fuck no. That's my real job.
I make like $100 a year taking pics. Who gives a fuck. It's fun.
>>2707299
when people give income, are they giving their annual salary(revenue) or actual income?
>>2707307
>100$
I think I have my answer.
I teach high school but do photography on the side. Mostly portraits and weddings. I pulled in close to $15k last year just with photos and some video work. Not bad for simple word of mouth advertising and doing something fun
>>2707295
Hobby.
Don't do it as a job. Photography is an unqualified job, millions of hobbyists who are poor or tired with their job think about being a pro at some point (making wages generally as bad as a freelance transportation driver's, if not worse), and the amount of professional and decently paid photographers will only decrease with everyone able to so very cheaply ($5k or even less) basically professionally shoot photos. (Really, nowadays you can't extract much a ROI from the cost of having access to specialized gear anymore.)
I mentioned this in another thread but I have a kijiji ad that nets me a job every second weekend or so, a lot of jobs in the spring, slightly less in the fall and summer, dead in the winter.
Portfolios get me $80 for about an hours work out in the field, groups really depends on size, usually about $80-150 and events are such a wildcard it'd be hard to give an estimate.
If I could get more jobs per week I'd stop being a security guard on the daily, but the guard job is easy-peezy.
(All prices Canadian)
>>2707295
For me it's a hobby.
It's also an useful skill. I take work related documentation and product
photos on paid time because I can easily do it well enough.
But it's like 1% of my work time. Few hundred € worth.
Keep your day job.
Photography can be a well paying career if you get into the right field. I myself made about $75k last year and know plenty of guys who make $150k+.
Gotta love it though, its easy to make $100 here and there but pulling in real $$ takes some work.
>>2707331
>>2707315
Based on your answers, the conclusion is that:
Photography is just a hobby that you should fuel with your day job, buying tripods, reflectors, lens, etc etc are things that doesn't really pay off the money you spent, but you pay because you just love photography.
I should take pics on weekends and when I can and I should be something more like an office worker who has a camera/ an office worker who does photography rather than a photographer that has it as a job.
Mostly hobby.
Day job is working at a specialty photo store (basically sales + lab). Let's me try out (and even borrow) pretty much everything and the discounts are great.
Kind of hate shooting for other people so I rarely do it anymore, but it can be a nice bit of extra income.
>Your job category
Photography Student
Event photographer in the evening/weekends
>Your income
15Eur/h
Usually between 800-1000Eur a month, with is alright as a side job and considering I only really work on the weekends and I'm lucky enough to shoot shit that I like for the most part.
If you are in it for the money you'll have a bad time.
>How hard it is
It's basically partying with a camera. Once your local people know you and your stuff you'll get invited to festivals, other clubs and gigs in other towns.
Shooting is fun and easy, people are great to be around with, post production is slapping one preset over everything and fixing details.
>How long did it take for you to get there.
Around half a year, I got lucky and as always: I knew the right people. As always: "It's Not What You Know. It's Who You Know".
Standing out in the sea of photographers is hard, you have to be special to stand out, be able to market yourself exceptionally well and never sell yourself under value.
>Is it worth giving up your day job.
Yes. I don't have the feeling of killing myself anymore as I had before, don't life only for the weekends, don't work to be able to afford a car to drive to work with to be able to afford a car to drive to work with.
It came down to this when I made the decision to quit: I didn't really want to talk about my job, whenever somebody asked me what I did, I mumbled something about a 9-5 job and tried to change the subject. I'm actually proud to tell people what I do if I get asked nowadays.
>>2707501
Are you the pentax guy?
>>2707519
Nope
Right now I just finished interning for a pretty well known commercial photography studio and they've slowly started hiring me as a freelance PA. The pay is $250 a day. Everyone who is a full-time employee there makes pretty good money, ranging from 70k to six figure salaries. I really like the assisting job because I get to work with my hands a lot, setting up and striking sets. I'm definitely starting at the bottom, but I'm making connections here and there and hopefully will get picked up by a studio as a full time assistant so I can start making a decent salary. Actually being a photography at one of these studios is a really long pursuit. One of the three photographers at the studio I'm assisting at started as an intern like 12 years ago. It's all about who you know in this industry though, and you can get blacklisted pretty fast if you are shitty on set one day.
I'm using the money I'm making to save and buy more gear for myself so I can work on my photography/art more. I also majored in Applied Visual Arts/Photography in college so I'm all in trying to do photography full time. It's all I want to do.
>>2707510
How long have you been studying at uni?
>>2707519
There are many "pentax guys" on /p/, just saying
It's a medium to accomplish art.
>tfw photography is my career and not my hobby
>Your job category
Product Photography for a small cosmetics company
>Your income
55k
>How hard it is
Extremely easy, I work with designers and most of them are proficient in Illustrator - the catch is they cant use the pen tool for shit
>How long did it take for you to get there.
Sheer luck, the company had a Mark II and the person in charge of taking products didn't have enough time. My boss recommended me because I took a picture of him and his wife with his phone when we went out to dinner. From there I started taking product photos, then campaign photos, then model photos. Along the way I was given a budget to buy strobes, props, etc
>Is it worth giving up your day job.
I see product photography as a very niche field that you can be easily expanded into other marketing opportunities. The problem is that ceiling isn't high - 55k is already high for photographer but entry salary for IT/Programming, so you really have to be a star in everything photography and beyond to make $$$$.
also I never owned a camera or took a class. all my knowledge was found online (fstoppers, photigy, 4chan, reddit). i just happen to be extremely good in photoshop
