You must read this, before you start your career in PHOTOGRAPHY.

Many of us must have seen some movies in which hero or heroine is shown as a person who sacrifices his/her career to do photography/videography and travels around the world, living dream life. After watching that, we always wish to have the life, in which we do what we love and also earn decent amount of money from that. At that time I always remember some lines heard or read many times now-a-days, such as ‘Follow your passion and the success will follow you’, ‘Your job will not make memories, your hobbies will’, ‘Do what you like. Otherwise you will be forced to like what you do.’, etc. etc. Even though it looks easy and cheesy, it isn’t that simple. 😅

Can we have career by following our passion? This question is very hard to answer. In case of choosing Photography as a career, the question is more confusing. Because the point is, today when every home has a person having a camera, can we do photography as a business and earn from that? 🤔

As a matter of fact, many people can’t differentiate between photography as their hobby and photography as their career. This difference must be clearly understood. Hobby means one can spare time for that thing up to a certain limit. But if you are thinking about something as a fulltime career, then you must dive into the subject completely and must be ready to do whatever it takes to make it work. 😃

Another difference worth considering is, ‘I like to take beautiful photos’ and ‘I can take beautiful photos’. One has to know what applies accurately to him/her. Because there are more people who ‘love to sing’ and less people who ‘can sing’. Doing business not only means you should be able to take great photos, but also people should love it. Then only money will come to you. 💸🤑

This was the hobby part. But if one decides to do photography as a business, then following plus and minus points should be considered beforehand. 

Plus points

1) Satisfaction and joy of work:- Doing what you love, is the best feeling ever. 

2) No Boring work:- As we do what we love, work never gets boring. Or there is no any disappointment that comes from doing the work forcefully.

3) New experience every time:- Unlike job, we meet new people and get new experience with every work.

4) Opportunity to travel:- Regarding work, photographer/videographer gets the opportunity to travel to  various new places. 

5) Availability of various options:- Photography being very diverse field in today’s world, anybody can find a work as per his/her liking. 

6) Never ending demand:- In today’s changing world even if the type of medium changes (hard copy to digital formats), the need of photographer/videographer will remain there forever. 

7) Opportunity to earn:- Once the basics of photography are clear, by specializing in certain area, anybody can find his/her niche and own that. After that, money inflow will automatically follow. 

Minus points

1. Very expensive:- Photography is certainly not a cheap thing to do. Because one has to spend money on various equipments like camera, different lenses, flash, light modifiers, backdrops, filters, tripod, memory cards, cleaning kit, hard disk, etc. Everybody need not have all of these, but to grow a business and make it profitable, 90% of these items are necessary. 

2. Patience:- Photography business is covered under Service industry. Thus sometimes you will get your money, long time after you have done the work. So, be prepared for that. 

3. Uncertain cash flow:- Many work types in photography field are of seasonal type. So in other times, one may need to find other income source.

4. Variable costs:- The payment for our work changes as per the work type, market condition, client and so on. So financial planning becomes difficult in some cases. 

5. Changing with time:- Like all other fields, photography field is also changing rapidly. The technology, client needs, market scenarios, etc. are changing so rapidly, that you have to make up for those demands and that speed. 

6. Uncertain work timing:- As per client requirement, photoshoots may start early in the morning and end up in late night. Also it can extend the decided time slot due to many reasons. In this case, one has to be flexible regarding time. Also many times one may have to deal with the works, which need to be completed on urgent basis or within certain said deadline.

7. Flexibility in work:- Art is a completely subjective thing. Your work can be hailed by one customer or disliked by another customer. You must be able to give client the results, as he/she wants it. Not as per your convenience. 

8. Good customer base:- Any well-known photographer will agree that, the best advertisement happens through our work. People are happy to tell others about you, if they find your service worthy. That’s why, always make sure you have good communication with people around you and try to increase it.

9. Saturation in this field:- Now-a-days many immature people are coming in photography industry, with the mere motive of earning money. There is nothing wrong in that. But they haven’t invested their time or money to come to that position, so they start doing work for much less money. Unlike these people, professional photographer has invested his/her time and money to achieve this position. That’s why they have higher rates. Due to this situation, client may compare rates of both and may fall for cheaper rates. But after that, they don’t get exactly what they wanted and they have lost their money and the professional photographer has lost his/her work. Both get hampered by one wrong decision. So you must be able to justify your rates, to survive in the race.

    In short, photography business is neither easy nor difficult. So, one has to think on all these points before taking the decision. Now everyone should be able to differentiate,

‘What is photography for me: a hobby or a career?’

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Next post:- Mobile vs. Camera - Which one's better ?

Keep smiling & keep clicking.

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