10 reasons NOT to become a professional photographer

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sooyeshun

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http://www.junshien.com/?p=1231



10 reasons NOT to become a professional photographer

1. Running a photography business has little to do with photography. If you think you should go pro just because you love photography and friends say good things about your pictures, think again. Being a photography professional has little to do with actual photography. Sure, you’ll shoot your weddings on the weekends, and there’s always editing to do. But ever consider how much of your life you’re going to end up devoting to emails, contracts, client meetings, advertising, troubleshooting, networking, researching? You are the human resources, IT, admin, marketing, sales, and accounting departments all wrapped up in one. And those responsibilities can be a rather significant part of your job. How much experience have you had running a business?

2. You can earn more working full time at Starbucks. It is true that there are some ridiculously rich wedding photographers out there–they live in mansions, drive Ferraris, live a rock star lifestyle. But according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2008 the average professional photographer earned $26,170. If you worked full time at Starbucks, you would be making about $35k/year. You’ve also heard about their awesome benefits, right? The truth is, many among the new generation of professional photographers are able to do what they do because they still living at home, or have a S.O. or spouse who is working full time helping to pay most of the bills. Do you ever plan on raising a family or buying a home? Good luck with that on your $26k income!

3. Your workweek is almost twice as long as the average person’s. When you have a full load, expect to be working at least 60-80 hours per week. Do you know who else works long hours like that? Doctors and lawyers. Guess how much they make?

4. Weekends are work days. Ask any wedding photographer, and they’ll tell you about all the birthdays, parties, baby showers, movies, (friends’) weddings, graduations, dinners, and trips they have missed out on. When the rest of the world is out relaxing and sleeping in and hanging out and having fun, you’ll be waking up at 7 in the morning to shoot someone else’s happy day.

5. You get to pay for your own health insurance. Forget about company benefits. As a professional photographer, you get no health insurance, no 401k, no paid vacation, no sick days, no paternity/maternity leave, no subsidized higher education, nada.

6. You get to pay for your own equipment! You thought camera equipment as a novice was expensive? Wait till you get to the pro level! And add in equipment insurance, business insurance, workshops, laptop upgrades, desktop upgrades, program upgrades, studio rental (unless you work from home), album and print samples, etc. Sure, they’re all business write-offs. But they’re also all money out of your pocket.

7. It’s easy to book jobs if you’re only charging $2-3k/wedding. If you’re excited because an engaged friend of yours is willing to pay you $2500 to shoot their wedding, and you think that this is a sign you should go pro, keep in mind that booking at $2-3k is a piece of cake for any half-decent photographer. The question is, how much do you need in order to earn a living? Do you realistically think you can one day stop budgeting like a college student if you only charge $2500? According to a recent CNN report, the average federal government employee earns about $116k/year in wages and benefits. They generally don’t get fired even if incompetent, clock out everyday at 5pm, and are entitled to hefty pensions when they retire at 55. How much do you want to be compensated for your 80 hour weeks? $50k without health benefits? $60k with no P.T.O.? Then you need to be booking at a minimum 15-20 weddings/year, and charging at least $4-5k each. How many years do you think it’ll take you to ramp up from charging $2k to charging 2.5x that amount? Most do not think about how difficult it is to scale up.

8. The immigrants weekend warriors are coming to take over your job! These people work during the day as accountants, engineers, IT professionals, etc, and during the weekend, they shoot weddings. Because they already have a stable income, most of them are content charging $2k/wedding. (You’re probably currently one of these yourself.) But if you want to make this a full-time job, how do you expect to compete against an exponentially growing number of people who are delivering a service virtually for free?

9. Most people cannot tell the difference between great and average photography. I don’t think I really need to explain this point, right? But here is the significance of this statement: if the average couple cannot see the difference between your work and Uncle Bob’s weekend shooting, why should they pay you more? To them, your prices are just overinflated. Not only are weekend warriors and novice photographers competing with price–they are also competing with perceived quality. Such is the nature of the industry you are thinking about making a career of.

10. Most never make it. Of the photographers I know who started out around the same time I did, the majority of them are either still struggling to make ends meet, or are seeking another career path. And every week, countless “established” photography studios are going out of business. Most likely, you’d just end up becoming another statistic.




Wasn’t quite the rosy picture you expected, huh? I know that many of us photographers often give off the sense that ours is a glamorous lifestyle. We travel to exotic locations, do what we love, are part of the happiest days of people’s lives, are among beautiful people, get to be our own boss. But that’s only one side of the coin. There’s a good reason why we don’t talk about all these other things. I urge you–before making plans to turn your interest into a career, count your costs. If being a professional photographer was as fun and easy as most people think it is, then everybody would try to become one. Which, I suppose, would explain the sudden glut in the supply of wedding photographers–along with the subsequent (albeit smaller) exodus from the industry. However difficult you think it is to become a successful wedding photographer–it’s likely even harder than that, and there are many things I have also left off this list. Is any of this giving you pause yet?

Or after reading all that, are you even more resolute in becoming a professional wedding photographer? Then perhaps–just perhaps–you have what it takes. If you have been following my blog and facebook for awhile, then you know how much I freaking love my job! And trust me, the benefits faaaar outweigh the drawbacks–at least in my experience. Drop by next week for the real answer to “What should I do to become a professional photographer?”

p.s. If you would like an automatic reminder, go ahead and add yourself to the email list at the top right corner. Or you can also subscribe to my blog on your RSS reader.

p.p.s. Looks like this entry is getting reposted around the web. Feel free to chime in anytime! Would love to hear what you have to say. :)
 
What a load of :schtum: - the fact that it only concentrates on wedding photography is a reason for all photographers no to bother becoming professional!. :lol:
 
Most people in most trades/occupations will tell you not to bother as you can't make much money in it.


Steve.
 
What utter crap! 2 points...

a) Not everyone wants to be an American Wedding Photographer.

b) Welcome to the world... life is difficult for most people, get used to it.

EDIT: I'll qualify my leading outburst and say that those are not reasons not to become a pro photographer, as said they can be applied to being self employed in any industry.
 
Some points are ok, but seem more aimed at being self-employed than being a photographer
 
I don't think its a load of tosh - sorry most of the points are realistic, but use american figures. It does apply to most self empolyeed jobs not just photography

Hugh
 
boyfalldown said:
I don't think its a load of tosh - sorry most of the points are realistic, but use american figures. It does apply to most self empolyeed jobs not just photography

Hugh
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Its a load of old tosh in the respect that it puts people down before they've even begun! Its not inspirational at all. If these guides were given out at school for example none of us would be working at all!
Yes the points are realistic but its not a reason to not become a pro.
 
Not really sure what it has to do with photography. Most of the disadvantages and pitfalls mentioned are part and parcel of being self employed.
 
maybe the american style its written in can be read as putting people down, but its also realistic - I don't see why every guide to self employment should be inspirational?. The title sums up the points its raising well arguements not to become a pro - I could equally wtite a list of 10 points for becoming a pro/self empoleyed that is inspirational and sum up the good points well
 
What a negative B@stard ! If you are into photography it's because you love doing it .Earning a low wage or even a little income from it part time is a BONUS !
 
oh well, i never think of getting pay from photography. I always offer free shoot to people i know.

If i need to generate money, the last thing is that getting from photography. Selling my pictures will do.

Do for living, no. Will just kill my hobby.
 
dinners said:
Not really sure what it has to do with photography. Most of the disadvantages and pitfalls mentioned are part and parcel of being self employed.
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I was thinking exactly the same thing, I'm a self employed IT engineer/consultant its great working for yourself it has lots of benefits that I feel far outway the cons. The post above just shows the bad sides of self employment.

The main reason for people saying stuff like that are that they don't really want anyone else starting up in their proffesion, I do a bit of car detailing on the side for freinds I often think about takeing that up as a job but there is a lot of difference doing somthing for a living than doing it as a hobby, the main thing is you loose all the enjoyment of it I used to love working with PC's fixing them getting that little bit more performance out of what you have etc but now I do it day in day out the 6th pc of the week with the same virus or spyware you just want to throw it out the window.
 
squizza said:
Its a load of old tosh in the respect that it puts people down before they've even begun! Its not inspirational at all. If these guides were given out at school for example none of us would be working at all!
Yes the points are realistic but its not a reason to not become a pro.
Click to expand...

I don't think it puts people down at all but it does highlight the potential issues with self employment.
Quite a lot of what has been said can be applied to various industries.
I've been self employed twice, worked more or less 7 days a week with both businesses.
It was never easy and harder at the beginning while building up a customer base.
I did eventually make good money from both but it was a lot of hard work but in the end, I decided that I also wanted a life so I sold them both and returned to being an employee.
Many people start up a business without researching it properly and lose a lot of money because they went into the idea blind.
My first business was within the pet industry and the profit margins were very good but nowadays, they are a lot lower.
My second business was in IT and again, this was in the days when the margins were very good.

I would love to make a full time living from photography but the profitable areas are fashion, portaits and weddings and I have absolutley no interest in these subjects.
Any other subject is more difficult to make a living from and I admire those who have broken into wildlife, landscape and street photography.
I don't think the point of the article is to put people off the idea of turning pro but it will certainly give them food for thought.
 
Ah so0 what you are saying here is that YOU are one of the reasons not to be a pro - because you wll shoot for free and take away their work?
 
Excellent list.

The fact that it could apply to self-employment in general is a plus. Far too many people seem to think that making money or turning professional in photography is in some way exclusively linked to taking good pictures.
 
I think the main point is that in order to be a succesful pro you need to be able to combine a creative mind with a business mind and that's not something many people can do easily.
 
I think that list was meant to sieve through the people that just think they want to become pro, and leave those that have read these points and are still dedicated.
 
sooyeshun said:
Do for living, no. Will just kill my hobby.
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I agree with this.
When I ran my IT business I lost all interest in it as a hobby.
I believe there was also a thread were some of the Pros said that they had lost interest in photography as a hobby.
 
Some of the responses to the post go to show, "nobody likes hearing the truth" as it's often not what you want to hear.

Having tried to go down the self-employed Pro route, I can safely say there's alot of truth in the comments made in that US weighted article...

Yes most are generic and not purely photography relevant, but there's some valid points in there.

I don't know of many other industries where there's so many people yearning to get to the simillar position of a) having work published and b) earning a living from it.

You only have to look at the thread count on TP to see how many people have a vested interest in the industry. I bet armycareers.co.uk or teachersrus.com or goodhonestpoliticians.gov.org doesn't get the traffic photography websites do.

I'm a real advocate for saying it how it is. I don't see any point in saying "Go for it, have a go, get stuck in.....etc" without letting people know the pitfalls too that I may have found through my own experience. That wouldn't be fair or right in my view.

So articles like that, however cynical they sound, have a rightful place I feel. At least when people go headstrong into it and fail they can't say they weren't warned.
 
AndyB said:
I think the main point is that in order to be a succesful pro you need to be able to combine a creative mind with a business mind and that's not something many people can do easily.
Click to expand...

+1 :clap:

We all should.

There's always risk in businesses. I think the 10 reasons are good to know if we are going into the business.
 
I think the writer is just trying to curb the amount of competition he is getting in wedding photography by painting a grim picture of the whole business.

It has been mentioned already but this just shows the negative points, if you just hear one side of the story it will remain biased. I am sure that everyone on here knows the positive aspects of photography, that's why you pick up your camera.

Having recently started selling a few of my shots, the feeling that gives you that someone firstly wants a picture that you have taken and secondly wants to pay for it outweighs a lot of negatives involved.
 
I think it's quite fair to point out the bad bits and the author does say there are good bits to come.

If there is anyone who actually thinks that a pro would put this out to stop other people trying to turn pro they are living in cloud cuckoo land! People will do what people do and as has been said so often, it's up to the pro's to make sure they keep up their own standards and not worry about people coming into the industry.

It's not a landscape inhabited by people swanning around in Ferraris snapping the great and the good, it actually paints a very realistic picture. There IS no such thing as sick leave, you get a colleague to cover for you if you are ill and you lose the revenue. There is no sugar coating it. You want paternity leave? Fine, don't work, don't get paid.

As some have said, this goes for all self employment but at the same time I have seen plenty of threads on here along the lines of "My mum wants me out from under her feet, I think I'll become a pro" and "I hate my job, I think I'll become a pro"

You do need proper business planning. Jeff Ascough wrote on his blog recently that people seem to think it's a quick fix, it's taken him 20 years to build what he now has and it took 5 years to have a sustainable business.

I think it's perfectly valid to point these facts out and if you are prepared for the landscape and you still want to undertake the journey at least you are likely to do it being better equipped.
 
AliB said:
If there is anyone who actually thinks that a pro would put this out to stop other people trying to turn pro they are living in cloud cuckoo land!
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What I said was more a tongue in cheek comment. I realise that what is mentioned is factual and it is nice to get the negative perspective as many people, i'm sure will go in to these things with rose tinted specs but it's not all bad!!
 
horrocks said:
I think I might move to the States and try to get a job as a Federal Government Employee....

....$116k annual AVERAGE!!!! Wonder what the good ones are getting....
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I read somewhere (within the last year) that the average employed US citizen has around $4 - $5,000 'disposable' income per month. Which is over 4-5 times more than in the UK. This was in an article about the economy and was explaining how massive the US internal economy is.

Just imagine; there is just over 300,000,000 people in the US. If half of those have the average disposable income that's a whole shed load of dosh being spent (or saved) each month.
 
Actually it sits quite well with where I am at the moment.

I'm still at the dreaming/research stage, trying to justify a possible £5k outlay and more if I include a bit of training. This weekend I went to an organised social event in Amsterdam, with one eye wide open for the event photographer.

It turned out that the Event Photographer was a guy with a £200 bridge camera taking snaps. It raised an uncomfortable truth. In this day and age, many people would prefer snaps for free than paying £10 per head for a quality set.

I'm not letting all this put me off just yet, but IMHO the Cons deserve as much an airing as the Pros.
 
I really do think some of the points are bang on. How many times have you read a thread asking how to get into the photography business because friends and family have said their photos are good, only to realise the stark reality that it’s not as simple as they thought.
 
ajdesq said:
Actually it sits quite well with where I am at the moment.

I'm still at the dreaming/research stage, trying to justify a possible £5k outlay and more if I include a bit of training. This weekend I went to an organised social event in Amsterdam, with one eye wide open for the event photographer.

It turned out that the Event Photographer was a guy with a £200 bridge camera taking snaps. It raised an uncomfortable truth. In this day and age, many people would prefer snaps for free than paying £10 per head for a quality set.
.
Click to expand...


I know a photographer who is making a reasonable (she's happy) living shooting for a few websites and clothing catalogues. She uses a Canon bridge camera. Her customers seem happy with her work and the shots I've seen on the web and in the magazines look perfectly OK.

However, although she is a competent photographer, a very large (and important) element of her business is her sparkling personality. She, and the way she is with people is what gets the clients for her. She is massively creative and has a personality to match.

So it is possible to be a successful pro with almost any equipment, but regardless of the gear you carry, you do need all the other attributes too to be success.
 
Great to know, cheers Badger :thumbs:

You've raised a point I didn't consider. So much to think about... :thinking:
 
a pro togger acquaintance of mine said there are more photographers in london now than are needed for the jobs across the whole of europe.

decent list, however, I would suggest a poll
those who think it's crap - who are pro self employed toggers
those who think it's crap - who are amateurs
:)
 
I think the points are realistic but just not written in a very nice manner (i know that was the intention).

Makes me so glad I no longer want to be self employed.

I think maybe the person is very scared about his possition in the industry. Maybe righly so. It might well turn out that there will be very few pro photographers left in 10 years time as the amatures of today will have perfected their skills and offer pictures for much less cost to the client.
 
I think the points are all quite valid, although stated in a deliberately controversial way.

None of it is untrue is it?

The point about Starbucks is actually something similar to my acid test of any kind of activity - I call it "The McDonalds test" - "could I earn more money working in McD's for the same number of hours as this is taking me?", if yes then no interested in doing it *just for the money*.

Of course money isn't everything to me, so if someone wants me to shoot something interesting, I'll do it regardless, but if someone wants me to spend 6 hours shooting and processing pics of something neither challenging nor even fun to look at for a pittance, then no thanks, I'll pass. Some other sucker can get ten quid for 6 hours work.
 
It's easy being a pro....

I'm currently sending my team of biatches out to press the shutter on my camera, as a work experience hottie feeds me grapes from a bowl made from david bailey's eyelids. I will then step into my Ferrari to drive down the hall to my Porsche, which will be driven by a semi-clad, buxom beauty and will take me to a shoot where I will be showered with cheques for a million dollars ;)

Oh, and I work a 10-minute week.....







... I wish!! The reality is that I'll probably be stuck on the M25 tomorrow for several hours, before I have to stand in a lake in cold, leaky waders eating an overpriced Ginsters sausage roll from a service station, taking photos of someone catching stinky carp for several hours. My flask will have lost all its heat-retaining powers, I'll probably get a speeding ticket and my gear will get ruined. Oh, and I'll get home about 8pm after a14-hour day.

The life of a pro.... I wouldn't change it for the world :)
 
As has already been said, most of the negative points can be applied to anyone running their own business and every tradesman I have ever spoken to have said theirs is not the job it's cracked up to be.

However, he does end saying he loves his job which is good...how many of us can genuinly say that??
 
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