hobbie to career ?

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kniveton

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Catherine
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I have always enjoyed photography and Im looking into university courses now .I would love to make a career out of this hobbie and have had plenty practise taking pictures for a band and friends (who look like models) my fear is that I'm not good enough , has anyone been through the same process and or can give me some advice ?
 
Don't bother with photography course. There are more photography graduates being churned out every year than available posts in the entire industry. Get your versatile academic education, first especially if you are going to pay for it, as you will from 2012. If you were going to be a doctor, solicitor, accountant, then a specific course will help you become one, but in subjective subjects like photography, it makes very little, if any at all, difference.

Keep practising photography while you study. And when you finish your degree, and you still feel that you want to be a photographer, then go for it. But to hedge all your bets into a vocational degree, adding a debt of nearly £40k? That's a tad risky, if you ask me.

Whatever you do, I'd seriously look at all options first. Good luck :)
 
Further to the above comment, try to do a business-related degree - this will help you if / when you set up on your own (most photographers are not directliy employed these days and work for thenselves).
 
I am 27 and have completed a HND and a full degree to become an engineer. The one thing I would recommend to anyone considering going to Uni is to find out whether you need a degree to work in your field. There are far too many people who are entering the workspace with general degrees in'Business Studies' or 'Media' degrees. These general degrees are, generally, not needed by employers. A lot of my friends who went to Uni to undertake degrees in non-cognative degrees, as mentioned above, are not using their degrees in their current employment. This means they have paid £1,000's for nothing.

In my opinion undertaking a degree in photography would not be beneficial as it is an art. Where as if you were studying a science you would require a degree to understand your work. To put it another way, no one cares whether Banksy has a degree in art or not, but you would bloody hope your phamacist has a degree before dispensing your medicine!

If you are seriously interested in photography as a career apply to studios as an apprentice and see whether they can pay for you to do a vocational course in photography. There would be far more experience to be learnt on the job than just solely in the classroom.
 
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To apply for these apprenticeships would you simply approach any studio are there helpful sites specific to this ?
 
I understand the difficulties at the moment however with my personality I can achieve academically (very well) it just takes a lot out of me, I just see it as an opportunity that i would regret. Would you recommend a joint honors degree as a less risky option for example i found a course in chester to study both photography and advertising ( another interest).?
 
I have read more sense about going to uni in this small tread, then I have seen for years elsewhere, and have to totally agree with both hairboy and DaveKing
 
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