i've been kind of sick of my dead end tech job and constantly worrying about layoffs and doing pretty unrewarding work for a living, i look around and see photographers making decent money to take photographs for a living, which seems like a heavenly career to me, i assume i am not the only one on earth who wants to be a photographer for a living and am unsure of just how difficult it would be to get paid for taking photo's.
and yes i realize there's a million different avenues you could take to get paid for taking photo's, basically i'd do anything so long as i could get paid for taking photo's, my only concern is getting by doing it (i currently make about $45k a year in the tech field, if i could make this much taking photo's i'd be all over it no matter what it was).
my question is how to get from where i am now (27, been in the tech field for 7 years now, taking photo's on the side as a hobby) to where i want to be which is taking photo's for a living.
naturally i'd assume i have to assemble a pretty kick ass portfolio, which i'm not worried about and am getting working on pronto, i'm wondering how much having a degree in photography would help me. i would want to go to art school (possibly art institute of boston where my fiance went or mass art) and learn it as fully as i can from an academic standpoint (and sharpen my photoshop skills, etc.), however working full time in the tech field it would be rather difficult to swing a school schedule, but again i can possibly find a way to make it work and i do want it bad enough to sacrifice for it, my only conern is the likelyhood of finding employment in this field.
is getting photo jobs essentially based entirely on your portfolio?
should i just be an all purpose wedding/fashion/journalism/any job i can get my hands on photographer to increase my chances of getting paid, or should i stick to "mastering" one area of photography to make myself more valuable?
is it better to be a freelance photographer and take anything that comes along or to try to get a more secure position like say a photographer for a newspaper or magazine or something?
i figured there were a decent ammount of pro's here who would know these things. thanks,
jason
and yes i realize there's a million different avenues you could take to get paid for taking photo's, basically i'd do anything so long as i could get paid for taking photo's, my only concern is getting by doing it (i currently make about $45k a year in the tech field, if i could make this much taking photo's i'd be all over it no matter what it was).
my question is how to get from where i am now (27, been in the tech field for 7 years now, taking photo's on the side as a hobby) to where i want to be which is taking photo's for a living.
naturally i'd assume i have to assemble a pretty kick ass portfolio, which i'm not worried about and am getting working on pronto, i'm wondering how much having a degree in photography would help me. i would want to go to art school (possibly art institute of boston where my fiance went or mass art) and learn it as fully as i can from an academic standpoint (and sharpen my photoshop skills, etc.), however working full time in the tech field it would be rather difficult to swing a school schedule, but again i can possibly find a way to make it work and i do want it bad enough to sacrifice for it, my only conern is the likelyhood of finding employment in this field.
is getting photo jobs essentially based entirely on your portfolio?
should i just be an all purpose wedding/fashion/journalism/any job i can get my hands on photographer to increase my chances of getting paid, or should i stick to "mastering" one area of photography to make myself more valuable?
is it better to be a freelance photographer and take anything that comes along or to try to get a more secure position like say a photographer for a newspaper or magazine or something?
i figured there were a decent ammount of pro's here who would know these things. thanks,
jason