Studio488commercial
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It’s not all beaches and models, dreamy landscapes or celeb portraits. So I have had lots of conversations with people who are “into” photography, it’s their passion, hobby, in some cases a bit of an unhealthy obsession some would love to know the secret of making money whilest doing what they love, they dream of big studios, shoots, gear, published images and the like and that’s no bad thing, however here is my take on it from the other side.
I have eight staff including me, not one has an interest in photography, two have photography degrees, one a degree in film and television, I have come to the conclusion that working five days a week at the coal face so to speak can lead to your passion/hobby, call it what you will, being sucked dry and your interest simply disappears. Let’s face it If you stand on a conveyor packing digestive biscuits all day at some point your going to be sick of them.
That’s the staff, as owners (me and the wife) it’s even worse, almost most if not all of what we do is business related, it’s a full time job, we have an accountant, but we still need to do the vat and ensure everything is sorted for them, we have to product loads of invoices daily, health and safety, HR, building maintenance, marketing, customers, equipment maintenance, insurance, the list goes on.
Now I,am not saying it’s a bad thing, we do more than well out of the business, but it can ruin your hobby/passion, the studio is empty all weekend, 6500sq feet of fully equipped studio and no one in the team wants to use it, including me, None of the team ever wants to borrow any of the kit, we bought two AD200s for an internal project, they literally never left the boxes, I use my iPhone on holidays and don’t even take a camera anymore. (My other hobby of buying photography/studio stuff we don’t even need has stopped!!!).
We have all seen people with real passion, hire a small unit, kit it out, get all excited about what’s coming, and reality hits them hard, the costs, the lack of clients, the clients themselves! the none photography aspects and so on, then a few months down the line it’s all gone tits up.
So my advice for what it’s worth, is be carefull what you wish for, the grass is not always greener on the other side, sometimes it is, but it tastes a lot different, it needs mowing a lot more, it needs to be fed, and above all you have to keep It alive.
Follow your dreams, just make sure you do some research
I have eight staff including me, not one has an interest in photography, two have photography degrees, one a degree in film and television, I have come to the conclusion that working five days a week at the coal face so to speak can lead to your passion/hobby, call it what you will, being sucked dry and your interest simply disappears. Let’s face it If you stand on a conveyor packing digestive biscuits all day at some point your going to be sick of them.
That’s the staff, as owners (me and the wife) it’s even worse, almost most if not all of what we do is business related, it’s a full time job, we have an accountant, but we still need to do the vat and ensure everything is sorted for them, we have to product loads of invoices daily, health and safety, HR, building maintenance, marketing, customers, equipment maintenance, insurance, the list goes on.
Now I,am not saying it’s a bad thing, we do more than well out of the business, but it can ruin your hobby/passion, the studio is empty all weekend, 6500sq feet of fully equipped studio and no one in the team wants to use it, including me, None of the team ever wants to borrow any of the kit, we bought two AD200s for an internal project, they literally never left the boxes, I use my iPhone on holidays and don’t even take a camera anymore. (My other hobby of buying photography/studio stuff we don’t even need has stopped!!!).
We have all seen people with real passion, hire a small unit, kit it out, get all excited about what’s coming, and reality hits them hard, the costs, the lack of clients, the clients themselves! the none photography aspects and so on, then a few months down the line it’s all gone tits up.
So my advice for what it’s worth, is be carefull what you wish for, the grass is not always greener on the other side, sometimes it is, but it tastes a lot different, it needs mowing a lot more, it needs to be fed, and above all you have to keep It alive.
Follow your dreams, just make sure you do some research