Thoughts on Pursuing a Career in Photography

Hamptons International are currently advertising a staff position as a property photographer.
 
DG Phototraining said:
Interiors you say - if you are any good at them then there's a real opportunity to get some money coming in soon enough, a pal of mine has just started doing them from last October and is earning £300+ most weeks already.
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I don't want to sound rude or a prima dona but £300 a week is very poor money. Its not even good money for a day.
Thats only about £15K a year.
 
They will get someone fresh out of college happy to take that wage to get some experience.
 
riddell said:
I don't want to sound rude or a prima dona but £300 a week is very poor money. Its not even good money for a day.
Thats only about £15K a year.
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From absolutely ZERO to £300 per week for a totally new business venture in less than 4 months is pretty good going in my book, and its also up to the average annual wage where I live, so perhaps not that poor for many hundreds of thousands of people

Even if he only doubles that in the next 12 months he'll be on well over the annual for a skilled worker here

So yes, prima dona / prick is appropriate

Dave
 
DG Phototraining said:
From absolutely ZERO to £300 per week for a totally new business venture in less than 4 months is pretty good going in my book, and its also up to the average annual wage where I live, so perhaps not that poor for many hundreds of thousands of people.
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OK. So the big question is, Is he earning £300 doing a days work, because he can only get a days work at the moment. In which case not so bad to start with.

Or is he working a full week? In which case that is pretty much minimum wage.

Now, I'm not knocking people on minimum wage, but photography is a skilled job with lots of expenses. Running your own small business takes up additional time and you have no security of sickness or holiday pay etc.

Equipment fails. Something simple like a flashgun fails and that's wiped out his wages. I just spent £50 on 2 cables that failed.

The problem is if he is taking very low paid work he is destroying his own sector in his own area and will struggle to get those rates up.
 
realspeed said:
Nothing wrong in going self employed, the problem is in what kind of work that earns the money? I was lucky enough to be able to afford a run down boarding kennels and cattery with a mortgage. Finally after 25 years very long hours and horrendous amount of replacing/ rebuilding to it all produced a 6 figure turnover, when we sold. To give some idea we had 8 days off in those first 7 years
Anyone going it alone will tell you it takes around 7 years to get established and to be honest we nearly went under several times during that period. So you need enough money to sustain you while you build up your business and 200% determination to suceed, anything else then don't bother. Daydreaming earns nothing

It is not just what you want to do it is also knowing the business side of running your own business ie, advertising- book keeping (accountant)?- competition awareness- equipment and maintaining it- selling your product/service-transport costs - insurance -legal contracts- health insurance (you earn nothing in hospital) income tax- VAT?- no paid holidays- living costs -backup ie second shooter/staffing costs- the list is endless.

If you can get overcome those hurdles then your on your way to earning a bob or two. My wife and i managed it and now retired on investments and pensions

What made me go self employed was the thought of working hard to shove money into someone elses pocket instead of my own. Best move I ever made.
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Thanks @realspeed. Some great business advice in there :)
 
Tdes said:
Go for it, but spread your risk. I went self employed in 2016, doing design (graphic, 3d and technical). Had another job packing and shipping meat on the side (part time) to make ends meet as I started after a redundancy with no clients (literally not one).

Started building a client base doing design, mentioned I had a camera (canon 100d) and got some photo jobs, some products but mainly events. Ironically 4 of my regular clients have come from the meat packing job as they have offices near the warehouse, and I got talking to them. I have been all over the UK shooting pics, Budapest, Russia and have Shanghai on the horizon when we can open up again. I did not even think about offering photography when I started.

Learnt (and still learning) about videos, but now offer it as a service. It is a growing part of my business.

Three years in and I was earning more than my last employed job, I was able quit the meat packing (and still sleep at night).

Just coming up to five years and could not be happier. Covid has hit my work quite a lot as it was very event based, but the design side has ramped up and now doing a lot of live broadcasting as events can't happen, again a learning curve but keeps things interesting!

I think it is a balance between being brave and cautious, taking chances but risk aware, trying new things but still being able to deliver, and being adaptable. But most importantly, meeting the right people at the right time and creating the right impression (this was the hardest thing I have had to learn)! Come across as needy, cocky, over confident, under confident, too relaxed, unsure etc and you have lost them.

Copywriting is a great skill, no reason you can't have multiple streams of income. The holy grail is regular clients so there is no chasing new business all the time (you don't earn while looking for work). It used to be called jack of all trades, but now it is multi skilled!

It is a one way road though, I don't think I could go back to being employed again.

Good luck!!
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Thanks for your reply. Sounds like you've got a great business. It did enter my mind to pursue writing and photography. Maybe that's the way forward!
 
benc98 said:
Photography is quite ride ranging, different technical skills and marketing strategies can be required. Have you given anything thought to what your niche might be? Weddings, Portraits, Studio, Commercial, Advertising, Corporate head shots, interior, sports, the list can go on.
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I'm going to have a go at a few different disciplines and see where it takes me. Sport would be the dream, but I'm aware of the high cost of equipment and wouldn't know where to start in getting into it! That said, I'm definitely going to pursue sport photography as a hobby, whatever happens. I tried my hand at it once and loved it.

As I mentioned, I did plenty of interior photography before, so that could be a potential avenue and something to build on. Studio/fashion photography sounds fun, and I've got a white backdrop to practice.
 
darkroom12 said:
Don't even think about going down the route of wedding photography. I tried it for a year or so and whilst I made a bit of money it wasn't a wage I could exist on. Then there are all the add ons. You need good insurance against something going wrong, there are many, especially a mother in law who creates merry hell when you photograph the bride more than her. (I kid you not!). Or the bride who does not want to be photographed (I had two like that). Then getting delayed because I was held up after a lorry trashed my car. The stress can be horrendous. It may not be your fault but if there is a fast buck to be made they will try it on. I had several suits and whichever I wore had to be dry-cleaned after each wedding to clear away the smell of old perspiration.
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Hahaha! Thanks for posting. Reminds me of an ex-girlfriend. She was a wedding videographer and in one video the bride basically hated every shot she was in. It's not like my ex could change the woman's face. I don't think she got paid.
 
I know of one lady who is a successful travel writer & photographer..... AFAIK widely published in high end magazines and it was always the whole article where both words & photography matters.

I wonder, are there opportunities with interior photography to do what I might describe as 'narrative articles' i.e. not just the pictures?
 
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DG Phototraining said:
Interiors you say - if you are any good at them then there's a real opportunity to get some money coming in soon enough, a pal of mine has just started doing them from last October and is earning £300+ most weeks already. If you can add on related work, such as floorplans, drone shots etc. then you'll do even better

And I know these comments go against advice from others above - but...

I've never bothered with a Business Plan, nor do I personally know anyone who ever has, primarily as to create one you have to make assumptions a year or more in advance (based on nothing you know about or can anticipate) and things are so fluid its quickly all b****x

Weddings are easy to get into and easy to shoot. It's not easy to get to the point of shooting dozens a year though, so adding interiors to Weddings (as I know two do successfully) could be a route to get started on. Some find them stressful, if you think you would then don't do them

Of course it really comes down to what you need to make to pay the bills, and what you'd really like to make to pay for a 'life' - whatever yours is. If that's £20,000 pa needed then that's pretty easy, if you need £40,000+ then that becomes much harder quickly

If you can Copywrite enough to cover your basic living costs then I'd suggest you do that, then you can work on your photography business too without the stress of it having to fund the basics

Good luck

Dave
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Thanks Dave, I appreciate your advice. Interiors could certainly be an option. That was the best part of my job! There are a few things I need to learn to go from being intermediate to pro, but I've got something to build on at least. And as you say with the extras it could be the niche I'm looking for.
 
Box Brownie said:
I know of one lady who is a successful travel writer & photographer..... AFAIK widely published in high end magazines and it was always the whole article where both words & photography matters.
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Now that sounds like fun! I bet it's tough but worth the effort. Thanks for the suggestion :)
 
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