jhob
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Thought I'd make my first proper post on these forums a meaty one, so here goes...
At the end of 2005 I took a career break from my IT job and went away travelling around the world with my partner. While away I realised my desire to not continue in an IT career and that I would like to make my passion, photography, my job. I'm a strong believer in following your heart and so now that I am back in the UK that is what I intend to do.
Now there's a lot of different branches of photography and I have done a lot of soul searching to decide which I would like to go into and came up with a rough plan which is as follows:
Short term: get into whatever branch I can and earn money from photography from wherever it comes. The theory here being that as any professional area will be new to me there will be plenty of stuff for me to learn and even less interesting branches will still hold a lot of interest because it is new to me. As I gain more contacts and don't need to spread myself around quite so many different areas I can specialise and drop those areas of less interest to me. This will also be a good chance for me to learn what I enjoy the most rather than viewing it all through rose tinted spectacles and thinking how wonderful it might be.
I have decided that I am initially going to pursue wedding photography as I think I would really enjoy it as I most enjoy photography when I am in the zone and can just snap away looking for compositions and interest. I'm also pretty good with people and I think this would suit me well. I am taking the photos for the weddings of two friends later this year which should provide me with some good experience and a portfolio to move forwards with. I have contacted a few wedding photographers to ask to work as an assistant on a few shoots to gain experience but haven't yet had any luck, most seem to prefer to work alone, as would I. It is also pretty lucrative which has attaractions although I should add that I am not going into photography to make millions, I'm doing it because I love it.
I am also intending to list the cream of the photos from my travels with stock agencies and make some sales there. I would also like to gain some experience in event, studio and product photography and see how I enjoy them.
I would like exhibit some of my photos locally too and I also plan on writing some articles for photography magazines about certain parts of my travels, particularly the voluntary work I did in Madagascar.
Medium term: I did some work experience at a local paper for a week as a photo journalist and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the aspect of having a loose brief and then seeing what you can make from the situation that you're given, however this was for a very small paper and I'm less sure that I would want to work for a big paper which appears to be very pressurised. I'm not quite so certain as I used to be but I do think a career in photojournalism would suit me well.
Long term: I term it 'artistic photography' for want of a better moniker. What I would most like is to have a name for myself and earn my keep through exhibitions, print sales and commissions from arts councils. That's the current dream and one that I don't expect to attain any time soon, but it is a goal none-the-less. I would also love to be a travel photographer, something that I do have experience in but that I also imagine would be very hard to get into, not that I'm scared of a challenge mind!
Other ideas that I can do alongside are postcards of local photography and calendars and the like.
Part of my problem is that I have a rather broad interest in many areas of photography and don't feel that I'm ready to make a specialisation, which from what I've read is one way to increase your chances of succeeding.
I am currently doing a bit of IT contracting, that will provide me with an income while I work on the photography side of things, hopefully I would be able to do IT work part time to take the pressure off needing to earn money from photography. I do think that if I just relied on photography for an income at first then I would fail and I also think I'd begin to enjoy photography less as there would be too much pressure in needing to make money from it.
Erm, and so the point of this message. I'm not really sure there is one. If anyone has some sage, or even unsage, words of advise I'd love to hear them. I guess I'm just using this forum as a sounding board for my ideas and would be interested to hear what people think of my plans, how realistic they are and their general thoughts are.
So, responses please!
At the end of 2005 I took a career break from my IT job and went away travelling around the world with my partner. While away I realised my desire to not continue in an IT career and that I would like to make my passion, photography, my job. I'm a strong believer in following your heart and so now that I am back in the UK that is what I intend to do.
Now there's a lot of different branches of photography and I have done a lot of soul searching to decide which I would like to go into and came up with a rough plan which is as follows:
Short term: get into whatever branch I can and earn money from photography from wherever it comes. The theory here being that as any professional area will be new to me there will be plenty of stuff for me to learn and even less interesting branches will still hold a lot of interest because it is new to me. As I gain more contacts and don't need to spread myself around quite so many different areas I can specialise and drop those areas of less interest to me. This will also be a good chance for me to learn what I enjoy the most rather than viewing it all through rose tinted spectacles and thinking how wonderful it might be.
I have decided that I am initially going to pursue wedding photography as I think I would really enjoy it as I most enjoy photography when I am in the zone and can just snap away looking for compositions and interest. I'm also pretty good with people and I think this would suit me well. I am taking the photos for the weddings of two friends later this year which should provide me with some good experience and a portfolio to move forwards with. I have contacted a few wedding photographers to ask to work as an assistant on a few shoots to gain experience but haven't yet had any luck, most seem to prefer to work alone, as would I. It is also pretty lucrative which has attaractions although I should add that I am not going into photography to make millions, I'm doing it because I love it.
I am also intending to list the cream of the photos from my travels with stock agencies and make some sales there. I would also like to gain some experience in event, studio and product photography and see how I enjoy them.
I would like exhibit some of my photos locally too and I also plan on writing some articles for photography magazines about certain parts of my travels, particularly the voluntary work I did in Madagascar.
Medium term: I did some work experience at a local paper for a week as a photo journalist and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the aspect of having a loose brief and then seeing what you can make from the situation that you're given, however this was for a very small paper and I'm less sure that I would want to work for a big paper which appears to be very pressurised. I'm not quite so certain as I used to be but I do think a career in photojournalism would suit me well.
Long term: I term it 'artistic photography' for want of a better moniker. What I would most like is to have a name for myself and earn my keep through exhibitions, print sales and commissions from arts councils. That's the current dream and one that I don't expect to attain any time soon, but it is a goal none-the-less. I would also love to be a travel photographer, something that I do have experience in but that I also imagine would be very hard to get into, not that I'm scared of a challenge mind!
Other ideas that I can do alongside are postcards of local photography and calendars and the like.
Part of my problem is that I have a rather broad interest in many areas of photography and don't feel that I'm ready to make a specialisation, which from what I've read is one way to increase your chances of succeeding.
I am currently doing a bit of IT contracting, that will provide me with an income while I work on the photography side of things, hopefully I would be able to do IT work part time to take the pressure off needing to earn money from photography. I do think that if I just relied on photography for an income at first then I would fail and I also think I'd begin to enjoy photography less as there would be too much pressure in needing to make money from it.
Erm, and so the point of this message. I'm not really sure there is one. If anyone has some sage, or even unsage, words of advise I'd love to hear them. I guess I'm just using this forum as a sounding board for my ideas and would be interested to hear what people think of my plans, how realistic they are and their general thoughts are.
So, responses please!
