Why so many want to be Pro?

[manaheim]

BTW, I happen to do something, that was once entirely a hobby, for a living... IT. I once had the same philosophy/concern... I was a business major at college and basically took some IT courses for fun. When asked by my Pascal professor why I wasn't an IT major, I explained that "I didn't want to ruin my hobby."

About a week later the entire IT staff at the college dragged me into a room for an intervention.

I switched my career plans over to IT and have never looked back... even through some pretty horrifically bad times in IT. Simple fact is you generally do extremely well at anything you love (or is it you tend to love things you do extremely well...? Either way...). You could pick a worse career than doing something you love.

Certainly, you can get bogged down in the heinous things that surround the thing you love, but the truth is that the heinous things exist regardless of what your chosen career is. At least if you love what you do, you're not slinging dog crap as a line worker at Bob's Dog Crap and Chicken Manure Canning Factory and surrounded by heinousness... you're getting paid to do what you love, frequently get to ask yourself "OMG... they're paying me to do this???!!!", have a running justification (cough... excuse... cough) to buy all the toys you want... oh and are surrounded by heinousness.

When you get right down to it... work sucks, but you're going to be doing it for 8-10 hours a day for the rest of your life... May as well make it a bit better by doing something you truly enjoy.

Just my take.

 

[Overread]

I suppose the difference for many (especailly with something like photography which does not run to set hours of work like many jobs) is that people take on way too much early on in a bid to be successful. The end result being that they end up working long evenings, weekends and more to get the job to work - removing all their free time and preventing them from shooting (or doing anything else) for themselves.

 

[Village Idiot]

Making $1500 for 8 hours of work beats making $184 for 8 hours of work.

 

[Overread]

Making $1500 for 8 hours of work beats making $184 for 8 hours of work.

I would rather work down the local wildlife park for $23 an hour than shift papers for $187 an hour. Least if I had to keep the job for the long term the former would give me a better sense of achivement at the end of the day than shifting paperwork. Short term earning high wages would probably win out but I would not look to be keeping the job for life - just not rewarding.

Of course I am not 100% sure of the worth of $ in the US reletive to living costs - so that value might be too low for average living.
Also note that I am treating the wildlife job as something more than just being the mucker out of cages all the time

 

[ksmattfish]

I think people want to be pro photogs because they think it's a fun and exciting job. At least more fun and exciting than their current job. It's like wanting to be a fire fighter, race car driver, model, or whatever cranks them up. The media portrayal of the pro photog is jet-setting paparazzi, hip mom kid photographers, and super stars in art and fashion (by the way, look into the bios of the super stars of art, and notice how many of them are trust fund kids). The reality is much more Rodney Dangerfield in Easy Money.

I'm a full time photographer and I enjoy what I do, but I occasionally covet my friends' high paying IT jobs with the good benefits, and wish I could go back to being an amateur photographer. They want to be my assistant so someday they can quit their jobs and be "creatives". They say creatives; I say starving artists! The grass is always greener.... Whenever my job gets me down I go hangout downtown on Monday morning, and watch other people trudge off to work.

"Let me here call attention to one of the most universally popular mistakes that have to do with photography - that of classing supposedly excellent work as professional, and using the term amateur to convey the idea of immature productions and to excuse atrociously poor photographs. As a matter of fact nearly all the greatest work is being, and has always been done, by those who are following photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial reasons. As the name implies, an amateur is one who works for love; and viewed in this light the incorrectness of the popular classification is readily apparent." -Alfred Stieglitz

 

[Mystwalker]

I was wondering why so many people with a camera feel that they can go all the way to being a Pro Photographer (pro by definition in this case meaning a person earning an income off their photography).

I wanted to deduct my equipment as "business expense."

Accountant told me I can only deduct from money I earn from photography.

Have never earned a penny from photography, and never intended to ... back to the drawing board. Maybe I need to run for congress and have this "tax law" changed?

 

[uplander]

I got back into photography a few years ago after a nearly 30 years hiatus. A friend was upgrading and sold me his 10D for cheap because I was wanting to take pics of our field trial dogs in action and it just wasn't feasable with a point and shoot.

The bug took hold again and I was quickly dumping significant sums of money into it. Everyone loved my photos, wanted prints asked me to shoot for them and such. Everyone I knew was telling to start selling myself. I didn't want to, I didn't think I was really that good.

A fellow field trialer who happens to be a Pro photog with an established studio(17 years and 6 more photographers under him) in Minneapolis who does commercial work, product shots for catalogs and print ads. I finally asked him if he would look at and critique my work and be brutal honest.

He was, he spent a good hour going through my work and told me what was good and what wasn't and why. Then he said I had the "eye" and should consider doing some shows.

This is getting long winded but back to the OP's ? I really don't want to be a Pro but that doesn't mean I can't make money at it does it? It will never be my full time job. I found a niche in doing outdoor portraits of pets and their owners ( dogs, horses and such)and presentation portraits of field trial dogs along with my love for wildlife photography.

I started doing some art shows and have been approached to do a gallery show at a small local gallery. Does this make me a "Pro"? I don't think so. It helps fund my hobby and is an ego boost to think someone likes my work enough to pay for it. it is one thing to have someone say they like your work but another all together to be compensated for it. It is the ultimate compliment.

Just my two cents worth.

 

[Village Idiot]

I would rather work down the local wildlife park for $23 an hour than shift papers for $187 an hour. Least if I had to keep the job for the long term the former would give me a better sense of achivement at the end of the day than shifting paperwork. Short term earning high wages would probably win out but I would not look to be keeping the job for life - just not rewarding.

Of course I am not 100% sure of the worth of $ in the US reletive to living costs - so that value might be too low for average living.
Also note that I am treating the wildlife job as something more than just being the mucker out of cages all the time

I'd rather make $1500 for shaving the back hair off of Bill Clinton's grandmother rather than making $23 for photographing a pro football game.

I <3 money. Me =/= Ethically or morally "correct"

But then again, experience can be a real kicker and I could be making $4500 off of shooting a wedding for 4 hours and the 4 hours is takes to do processing a year from now. 10 weddings, 80 hours total, $45,000. That's getting close to what I make in a year working 8 hour days 52 weeks out of the month.

 

[Alex_B]

some people think photography is easy money ... which it is not with those people i know doing it pro or semi-pro.


and sometimes i am happy that I am not a pro, and that is when I take images I want to take ... the way I want to take them

 

[abraxas]

I'd rather make $1500 for shaving the back hair off of Bill Clinton's grandmother rather than making $23 for photographing a pro football game.

I <3 money. Me =/= Ethically or morally "correct"

But then again, experience can be a real kicker and I could be making $4500 off of shooting a wedding for 4 hours and the 4 hours is takes to do processing a year from now. 10 weddings, 80 hours total, $45,000. That's getting close to what I make in a year working 8 hour days 52 weeks out of the month.

Idiot,

Now that just sounds bitter on so many levels. Possibly you could reiterate your little rebus/algorythm without the political statement? I'm having a terrible time understanding exactly what it is you're trying to say.

 

[Village Idiot]

Idiot,

Now that just sounds bitter on so many levels. Possibly you could reiterate your little rebus/algorythm without the political statement? I'm having a terrible time understanding exactly what it is you're trying to say.

Would George Bush's grandmother make you happier? How about Santa Claus? No? Don't believe in the guy? Jesus Christ's grandmother's back? Joe the Plumber's? Martina Mcbride's? Pick one. I don't care. What ever makes you feel safe and happy.

You can make some of the people happy some of the time, but I'm really not one to worry about that...

<3? I didn't think less than three'ing something was that obscure...and especially not equal to. =/=. I forget that not everyone that can figure out how to use the internet is literate in other languages besides their native tongue.

I'm sure the majority of people here understand it.

 

[Village Idiot]

some people think photography is easy money ... which it is not with those people i know doing it pro or semi-pro.


and sometimes i am happy that I am not a pro, and that is when I take images I want to take ... the way I want to take them

The best thing about working for yourself is that you're not required to work for anyone else.

A lot of times photographers are hired for their vision and their take on things. Right now, I'm working with a client on a book. She came to me and said, I want a book for my girlfriend for Christmas based on a story that I want you to help me create and photographs that I want you to take.

Even doing portraits and shoots, I get a lot of creative freedom. I'll ask models if there's anyting in particular that they are looking for, because I'll help them do those shots, but then I'll also let loose with what I have in mind. Some times it works, some times it doesn't. It's still fun having the opportunity to do it and having the option to walk away when some one starts telling you how to do your job in your profession.

 

[abraxas]

Would George Bush's grandmother make you happier? How about Santa Claus? No? Don't believe in the guy? Jesus Christ's grandmother's back? Joe the Plumber's? Martina Mcbride's? Pick one. I don't care. What ever makes you feel safe and happy.

You can make some of the people happy some of the time, but I'm really not one to worry about that...

<3? I didn't think less than three'ing something was that obscure...and especially not equal to. =/=. I forget that not everyone that can figure out how to use the internet is literate in other languages besides their native tongue.

I'm sure the majority of people here understand it.

Idiot,

Let me help you out here;

You would rather do something distasteful for a lot of money than something you enjoy for a little, because of your love of money?

Don't take it so hard. I was just asking.

 

[Chiller]

Would George Bush's grandmother make you happier? How about Santa Claus? No? Don't believe in the guy? Jesus Christ's grandmother's back? Joe the Plumber's? Martina Mcbride's? Pick one. I don't care. What ever makes you feel safe and happy.

You can make some of the people happy some of the time, but I'm really not one to worry about that...

<3? I didn't think less than three'ing something was that obscure...and especially not equal to. =/=. I forget that not everyone that can figure out how to use the internet is literate in other languages besides their native tongue.

I'm sure the majority of people here understand it.

I know Im dumb as a tree, and now Im more confused then a teenage boy, buying condoms for the first time. :lmao:

 

[PatrickHMS]

I know Im dumb as a tree, and now Im more confused then a teenage boy, buying condoms for the first time. :lmao:

Chill,

See that other dumb tree right beside you?

...that's me. Makes two of us. Three's a crowd.