Do professional togs still enjoy photography as a hobby?

If I had to lug my gear around with me all day the only thing that would get snapped is my back :eek: Those printing presses are damn heavy ya know :D
 
I'm two years young in terms of being in business as a photographer, I do nearly as many personal projects as I do commissions and paid work. I need to have both or one starts to suffer.

I'm at the stage were I'm starting to shoot the way that I love to with paid work, but the personal projects tend to satisfy the creative urges much more. I really can't see that diminishing, just growing really.

Despite that I'm full time, I think I maybe a little old fashioned as I believe that craftsmanship, distinction, wisdom and consistency are just a few aspects that make a pro. Earning an income alone is not good enough IMO.

I aspire to becoming a pro but that isn't the main goal, I want to continue having fun, learn new tech and apply the progress to both personal and commissioned projects.
 
DiddyDave said:
If you love seeing loads of happy people having a great time & being paid to photograph them - then that is NOT what I'd call bread & butter work, and there are at least 3 Pros in here saying the 'spark' hasn't dimmed at all

I know a few people who's sole photographic aim in life if photographing tits and that often neatly describes them too :D But that's not about photography really is it, it's about sexual frustration - at least in the 'tits' I know anyway :lol:

DD
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From what I've read a lot of photographers have to do some level of portraiture or wedding work to earn the bulk of their money. If I'm wrong I'll appologise but that is the very definition of 'bread and butter'. The level of enjoyment has nothing to do with it.

Whilst I have no doubt there are people who haven't lost the spark it's human nature to grow tired of the things we do over and over again. Especially if the work you're having to accept isn't what you enjoy. So someone who loves wildlife photography may not enjoy having to constanly accept weddings to pay his bills.

With regards my FHM comment I was mearly trying to be light hearted. I'd have no more interest in photographing 'tits' all day than I would their faces. It's not an area of photography which makes me want to pickup my camera.
 
fabs said:
I really couldn't physically lug my gear around al day, it would really take the enjoyment out of it.
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Me too mate, without help I simply couldn't do it on my jack with the more heavy duty stuff.
 
Well, if Full Time is judged by hours then I am a full time photographer, yet I still do the day job right now, yes my bookkeeper is gradually pulling her hair out !

I love taking photographs, simple really, paid or unpaid I view life through my limited lenses and adore sometimes taking my camera out to the pub, no flash, just a fast prime and taking images, or the bikes, or the dog, or whatever else takes my fancy, I can apply the knowledge to paid work and it keeps the flame burning for me !
 
matty said:
I think if i did it all day and then had to lug loads of stuff around in the evening i wouldnt find it fun, it would become boring..chefs dont like to cook all the time
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You just take out the equipment you need. I can happily cover a wedding with one body with a 24-105 and another with a 70-200. I don't want to be distracted by having to change lenses or worry about where I have left the camera bag although I do have an empty one over my shoulder, its a billingham that I bought new in 1984, its our silver wedding anniversary this year :D:D:D. These days its home to my flask and sannie :D:D.oh and a flash in case God does not give me enough light.

Ginger - for a pro nature photographer to do weddings to earn a living would be dreadful unless he was good at weddings. Good Pro Photographers are not just good at taking photographs, they are passionate about taking them. I live, eat and sleep photography.

Last week I made a grown man cry with one of my photographs...and not by the price :D:D:D. He stood there with his other half and the photograph I had created for them had captured the love and feelings they had for each other so much he started to blubber. How can experiences like that ever make you get bored of what you are doing?

stew
 
Either I'm missing the point here or others are :thinking: - so to reiterate...

I, like I dare say most other Pros I know, love what I do and I love shooting someone's Wedding, I also love shooting their kids' portraits - it's all about enjoying myself as I watch others doing the same and I'm recording that (often artistically for my own pleasure too)

If I didn't need money, I'd still shoot Weddings & kids portraits - THAT IS MY HOBBY - I just happen to get paid for it too

Only an idiot would shoot Weddings to supplement their real passion as I doubt they'd do it well at all

So please - all you non-Pros - stop assuming we're not having fun & the time of our lives in what most call 'work' - we are having a ball - if YOU are not able to imagine yourself earning a living from your hobby and enjoying it, then that's YOUR problem not ours. YOU just haven't found an aspect of your photography that you love enough & that could pay you

Whatever you love shooting be that motorsport (boring to me) bugs (boring) tits (boring) wildlife (boring) etc. then surely if you could do that for a living you'd be even happier? I know, from our discussions, that the likes of Joe Cornish love shooting landscapes and he gets paid to do so - so he's also loving it

The key is that so long as your subject matter is one you love shooting it is NOT boring, creatively dull or destroying your hobby

May I respectfully suggest that all you who assume being a Pro is 'work' and wrong for you then you are right - you should not be a Pro - but please don't assume that all Pros want to be Firemen, Bin-men, Doctors etc. but fell into photography as we can't do what we want - this IS what we want and it makes us very happy indeed :):):)

DD

Oh - and if that seemed like a mini-rant - it was :D
 
DiddyDave said:
Either I'm missing the point here or others are :thinking: - so to reiterate...

I, like I dare say most other Pros I know, love what I do and I love shooting someone's Wedding, I also love shooting their kids' portraits - it's all about enjoying myself as I watch others doing the same and I'm recording that (often artistically for my own pleasure too)

If I didn't need money, I'd still shoot Weddings & kids portraits - THAT IS MY HOBBY - I just happen to get paid for it too

Only an idiot would shoot Weddings to supplement their real passion as I doubt they'd do it well at all

So please - all you non-Pros - stop assuming we're not having fun & the time of our lives in what most call 'work' - we are having a ball - if YOU are not able to imagine yourself earning a living from your hobby and enjoying it, then that's YOUR problem not ours. YOU just haven't found an aspect of your photography that you love enough & that could pay you

Whatever you love shooting be that motorsport (boring to me) bugs (boring) tits (boring) wildlife (boring) etc. then surely if you could do that for a living you'd be even happier? I know, from our discussions, that the likes of Joe Cornish love shooting landscapes and he gets paid to do so - so he's also loving it

The key is that so long as your subject matter is one you love shooting it is NOT boring, creatively dull or destroying your hobby

May I respectfully suggest that all you who assume being a Pro is 'work' and wrong for you then you are right - you should not be a Pro - but please don't assume that all Pros want to be Firemen, Bin-men, Doctors etc. but fell into photography as we can't do what we want - this IS what we want and it makes us very happy indeed :):):)

DD

Oh - and if that seemed like a mini-rant - it was :D
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Alot of what your saying here Dave I find most agreeable and also quite inspiring.

There are more elements in the mix for me though personally and that there is the work I love to do but can't do it the way I love to do it most.

Time, clients budgets, and clients requirements 'sometimes' must come first with certain work and that is not necessarily the result which I find most satisfying.

I'm in no position to turn work down based on the premise that I can't have total control, neither would I want to.
I'm recognised as a portraits chap who gets the job done in a different way to the other alternatives but I still wouldn't impose my want as I'm working to a requirement in some cases.

I'm a little confused when I hear folk say 'The clients happy, so I too, am happy' and it's left at that.
There is work I love and then there is work that I like, it's all fun and I enjoy it all but sometimes I walk away unsatisfied while the client is over joyed.

Your right though, this will never destroy my hobby, it re-enforces it and makes me want to get out there and be more satisfied creatively.
 
artona said:
Last week I made a grown man cry with one of my photographs...and not by the price :D:D:D.
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Love it, lol

I'm in no position to turn work down based on the premise that I can't have total control, neither would I want to.
I'm recognised as a portraits chap who gets the job done in a different way to the other alternatives but I still wouldn't impose my want as I'm working to a requirement in some cases.

I'm a little confused when I hear folk say 'The clients happy, so I too, am happy' and it's left at that.
There is work I love and then there is work that I like, it's all fun and I enjoy it all but sometimes I walk away unsatisfied while the client is over joyed.
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This is pretty much what I was trying to get across. By having to shoot what pays rather than what you want this could take some of the fun out of it. If this isn't the case in your situation great, but I doubt that's the situation for everyone.
 
You can't put us all in the same pidgeon hole. there are many jobs in pro photography - we're not all the same. I think I might get bored doing kids portrais all day long - every day - or even weddings. I get lots of variety in what I do - and as I said above - I get to go places - meet people - and see things that wouldn't happen if I wasn't being paid to take pics. Love it!
 
I did two and a half years of wedding and portrait photography and that was enough, I hated it in the end. I've tried making a living at other forms of photography with some success but ended up hating taking pictures with the result that I didn't pick a camera up for over four years. Now the photos are just for me, I shoot what and when I want and only I have to like the finished image. I've regained my hobby again and love it.
 
OneTen said:
I did two and a half years of wedding and portrait photography and that was enough, I hated it in the end. I've tried making a living at other forms of photography with some success but ended up hating taking pictures with the result that I didn't pick a camera up for over four years. Now the photos are just for me, I shoot what and when I want and only I have to like the finished image. I've regained my hobby again and love it.
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There you go - just not cut out to be a Pro photographer

As a hobby then, do you, or would you like to shoot Weddings & Portraits for free?

DD
 
Phillip Mac said:
35 years as an advertising photographer was enough but now I've retrieved my hobby and teaching others free of charge. If there is anything I can add to this site please let me know.
http://www.mccordall.com/photography/lessons/
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I think with that linky you already have Phillip... thankyou for that... :thumbs:

Just a quick look shows a very generous and informative site if I may say... ;) ...I have bookmarked for later... :naughty:


What was/is your motivation and is the site the result of ending your protog career or something you started before you finished... :thinking: ...if you get my drift... :suspect:





:p
 
DiddyDave said:
May I respectfully suggest that all you who assume being a Pro is 'work' and wrong for you then you are right - you should not be a Pro - but please don't assume that all Pros want to be Firemen, Bin-men, Doctors etc. but fell into photography as we can't do what we want - this IS what we want and it makes us very happy indeed :):):)

DD

Oh - and if that seemed like a mini-rant - it was :D
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I don't really understand why you are ranting - everyone is different and just because it's worked like that for you doesn't mean it's worked like that for everyone else. There seems to be a good mix of pro's here saying a lot of different things - I don't think you can speak for all of them. Most seem to love their job which is great, but for some it seems to be enjoying photograpy in a different way to a hobbyist. Nothing wrong with that is there?
 
DiddyDave said:
There you go - just not cut out to be a Pro photographer



DD
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You don't need to love it to be it.
I'm an electrician first and foremost, I don't love it, does that make me not cut out to be one..
I would imagine very few people love what they do, and get paid to do it.

Maybe its about control, having to do or shoot the same thing day in day out without having a choice, familiarity breeds contempt.
Maybe peeps love making money more than they love their occupation, I dunno..
It just seems kinda sad when a photographer can't muster up any enthusiasm to shoot for themselves any more.
Can I muster up enough enthusiasm to wire a plug for myself..:lol:, I dunno, its not quite the same thing..:)
 
Daysleeper40 said:
I don't really understand why you are ranting - everyone is different and just because it's worked like that for you doesn't mean it's worked like that for everyone else. There seems to be a good mix of pro's here saying a lot of different things - I don't think you can speak for all of them. Most seem to love their job which is great, but for some it seems to be enjoying photograpy in a different way to a hobbyist. Nothing wrong with that is there?
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Not just in this thread but in past ones too there has been the ongoing presumption that turning Pro somehow 'spoils' your love of photography - yet for most I know, and certainly such as AliB & Artona here, the opposite is true - turning Pro has ADDED to their love of their photography by allowing them to do it more

Joxby - the tog in question loves photography - turned Pro - hated it - stopped being a Pro - and now loves photography again; that's nothing like your description of being an electrician mate soz

DD
 
lol @David's rant.

I always, always say that any time I spend with a camera is NEVER wasted. Give me a day off and I'll go and raid my partner's statue collection and start shooting his Batman figures with different lighting. I was working with two flashes, gels and off camera flash. Then I switched them all off and just lit it with a torch, using a combination of shutter speed and aperture to blacken the rest of the frame.

But the thing is that an hour spent just messing about can easily transfer to a shoot I'm doing next month in quite a dramatic location. Substitute Batman for a Bride and the torch for a video light or a flash and I can transfer the lessons learned by messing about.

So I often find that the lines between what I like to do personally and what I get paid to do are very blurred and not at all black and white.

Again, take wide angle work, I have a shoot at work next week and it's architectural, but I want to add some context to it by including people, so I want to try to do some David Beckstead inspired shots. So from wedding/fashion to architecture in a single leap. :)

Like David and Artona I just love having a camera in my hand and if I'm not shooting it I'm reading about it. :)
 
DiddyDave said:
There you go - just not cut out to be a Pro photographer
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Absolutely. Being a countryside warden is the ideal job for me, it just took me a while to find it.

DiddyDave said:
As a hobby then, do you, or would you like to shoot Weddings & Portraits for free?
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No, it's the process of taking pictures to please someone else that I don't like, regardless of whether it's paid or not.

I would have no problem if someone wanted to pay me to use one of my pictures, but they're hardly going to come knocking on my door and I'm certainly not going to go looking either.
 
OneTen said:
No, it's the process of taking pictures to please someone else that I don't like, regardless of whether it's paid or not.
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Oh dear :( - that pretty much sums up the exact opposite of my own view

Glad you found your vocation and rekindled your love of your personal photography :thumbs:

DD
 
I started the site after a heart op 4 weeks ago while convalesing, if anyone needs help or advice (there's thirty five years of experience in there somewhere) don't hesitate to contact me through messages, as the site for the moment doesn't have a contact page yet.
http://www.mccordall.com/photography/lessons/
Can anyone tell me what tog stands for 'tired old grumpbucket "?
 
Diddy Dave? I like your outlook.

Oneinten? you get the job remit from a client and use your skill and your vision/ideas to make look great! Has nowt to do with pleasing someone else. you do you best and the customer is pleased with your effort and knowledge.

But if its a hobby then cool.

I have been paid for a hobby for 20 years. It's the best thing in the world and it's a bloody good earner.

So much so that I afford to do my private (hobby) work by hiring models using C.G.I software to create the arty farty stuff I like to do.

The general Commercial stuff pays for that.

It's swings and roundabouts!!!
 
Daryl said:
Oneinten? you get the job remit from a client and use your skill and your vision/ideas to make look great! Has nowt to do with pleasing someone else. you do you best and the customer is pleased with your effort and knowledge.
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I'm sorry but that just sounds contradictory.

What I said is based on my view of my experiences, nobody else's and I wouldn't expect others to agree. What I found is that I don't like having a client, receiving a remit, working to a remit or pleasing a customer, that's why I don't do it any more. I think I always produced work of a high standard and customers were delighted with what they received and with the way I handled the day. I just didn't get anything from it myself.
 
Had an enjoyable day off from earning a living today. Visited the Robin Hood show at Newark with wife, daughter and of course the canon 1D.

Thoroughly enjoyed shooting for fun and here are two of my favourites

640C9923web.jpg


640C9980web.jpg


:):):):):):)

stew
 
DiddyDave said:
Joxby - the tog in question loves photography - turned Pro - hated it - stopped being a Pro - and now loves photography again; that's nothing like your description of being an electrician mate soz

DD
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I was addressing the point that you don't have to love it to do it.
We all gotta earn a crust somehow, not liking what you do doesn't necessarily mean you can't be successful financially at it.
To say they can't cut it being a pro is a bit tight, maybe they can't cut it at shooting weddings, and to be fair, I couldn't blame them for that.
I suppose peeps want to shoot what they want, when they want, I can't imagine ever wanting to shoot a wedding.....ever, but then the thought of shooting Argos sets for all eternity will have many running for the hills too.


OneTen said:
No, it's the process of taking pictures to please someone else that I don't like, regardless of whether it's paid or not.
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DiddyDave said:
Oh dear :( - that pretty much sums up the exact opposite of my own view


DD
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Well, that's an interesting thought, is this where the two schools go their separate ways ?
 
Very interesting to see so many views about why professional photography holds such appeal.

As a salaried togger I obviously have a very different job to say, a wedding togger, who has some say in which jobs they want to attend. I have no say, which is why my original post is more geared towards the reality of what it's like to be out every day doing a wide variety of jobs. If I were portrait togger then maybe I'd feel different but as it stands, I have to say that the people who love every minute of being a pro, then you are very, very, very lucky and I hope that feeling lasts...
 
specialman said:
Very interesting to see so many views about why professional photography holds such appeal.

As a salaried togger I obviously have a very different job to say, a wedding togger, who has some say in which jobs they want to attend. I have no say, which is why my original post is more geared towards the reality of what it's like to be out every day doing a wide variety of jobs. If I were portrait togger then maybe I'd feel different but as it stands, I have to say that the people who love every minute of being a pro, then you are very, very, very lucky and I hope that feeling lasts...
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where do you work?

stew
 
are you shooting photographs or commisioning them

stew
 
I worked for local and national newspapers and then PR companies 20 years ago. We sometimes had a few disagreements then with upstart reporters trying to tell me what to shoot :D:D

It must be far worse now since after all everyone is a photographer arn't they ;);)

stew
 
I have it pretty good actually - some of the editors shoot their own stuff (I can only be in so many places at one time :)) but some think you can magic a great shot out of thin air... ;)
 
Hi All,

What an interesting thread!

Just to set the records straight I am a hobby photographer.

It took me a long time trying different hobbys and many £'s later I found that photography was the one for me.

I do have a little understanding of work and life experience and am somewhat surprised that some of you are professional photographers and don't love your work!

At the end of the day if you don't like what you do for a living then you really should be planning to do something else. The old saying of we are only here once, enjoy it, is so very important.

I can honestly say that whatever job I have done in my life has been a pleasure and an enjoyable experience. I would not of had it any other way. Oh of course there are times when you have to take a job because money is sadly important, but you must then look at doing what YOU want to do as soon as possible, not what your bank balance wants!

Somehow I cannot imagine getting bored with photography and still managing to take good professional pictures. I just does not gel with me. It would appear that the likes of DiddyDave and Artona seem to have the right balance.

Oh well I will get my coat! Got my luverlly work to go to :lol:

Have a nice day:wave:

Best regards

Chris
 
artona said:
The biggest mistake is to shoot what others want you to. Then you are no more than a shutter presser :gag::gag:
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That's me done for then!! :D :D

I've just re-read through my posts (among others) and I think i've come across as one of those paid photographers who is grumpy, disassociated with the passion of photography and basically doesn't enjoy it anymore - that's not the case.

Just to reiterate, I love my job because it is based around photography but because I do it full-time doesn't mean every minute is enjoyable. You have to have the sour to appreciate the sweet –*I'm sure shooting on the Derbyshire Derwent for grayling the other month will offset those crappy, dark snowy days in February when I wish I was in bed :)

I've just shelled out on a Tamron 17-50mm (got a bargain, can't tell the missus!!:) ) and I'm thinking I can do a few things with that, so I'm looking forward to getting back to work next week after my paternity period and getting stuck in to give editors even more than they could expect.:)
 
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