Giving Up

[chuasam]

Have any of the pros here ever thought of giving up professional photography or have already given up and just doing this as a Hobby?

What did you transition into? Why did you go?

 

[ac12]

I gave up before I even started.
While I was in high school, I had discussions with several pros. They told me about the non-glamorous side of the business, that as a high school student I did not see. These discussion led me to decide that as much as I liked taking pictures, the business of photography was not for me.
So I went to college and into accounting then computers, and photography remained a hobby.

 

[Philmar]

i'm not very good at saving - for that reason I never chose photography as a profession. I hear the pension plan sucks.

 

[ac12]

i'm not very good at saving - for that reason I never chose photography as a profession. I hear the pension plan sucks.

Yup, you are on your own, with just an IRA, and whatever investments you can make.

What is as bad as the pension plan is the health insurance.
In the US, individual health insurance is EXPENSIVE. Many times more than the group insurance rate that I paid as an employee.

 

[Gary A.]

I give it up. I had a decent salary with beenies. As a news photog, after about 15 years things/assignments started getting painfully repetitive. I also felt it was time to get a 'real job' with 'real working hours' and a 'real life' with a wife, kids, pets ... et cetera. It was time for 'me' to grow up and settle down.

 

[tirediron]

Do you mean a hobby (part-time) business, or hobby as in just doing what you want, when you want pro bono? It's very difficult to make a decent, full-time living at photography. There are a few who manage, mostly in the wedding genre, and I think every large city probably still has one "real" studio - is Fowle still operating in Vancouver? Aside from that, if you don't have another source of income, you're really going to have to develop a taste for Ramen!