Losing the passion

JasonRE · May 3, 2016

HELP.........HELP..............HELP

I am a 35 year old male who has been doing photography for 5 years now. Yes, I discovered it very late in life, which is about right. I've finally found what I wanted to do with my life. Easy? Not so much. The major problem is currently happening, and it's scaring me.

I have been a draftsman for the past 10 years, and after finding photography, I have wanted to learn about it, study it, learn new techniques, etc. After being laid off from my job 2 Fridays ago, things aren't looking up.

I thought that after that, my drive would go through the roof. I would be able to spend more time learning, and perfecting my craft. Not so much. After realizing that sports photography isn't the easiest job to get as a photographer, I decided to switch gears. The problem lies here. I have never shot any flash photography, never worked with anything outside of Lightroom, and don't have any schooling under my belt.

A lot of the jobs out there are marketing jobs, where you have to basically create your setup, use flash..........again, NOTHING I have done before.

It's scaring the hell out of me to get out of this sports comfort zone. I don't have the money for school, and I have a wife and child at home. There are just so many people doing photography and that are WAY better than me, that it's hard to figure out where to turn from here. This in turn is making me lose my passion for photography.

I don't know what to do. Stick with sports and keep 'hoping' that something will pop up? I don't have years to master flash to compete with people getting these marketing photographer jobs. Nobody is in real need for a photojournalist any longer either.

I don't even have the enthusiasm to pick up my cameras and go shoot random things like I used to.

Watchful · May 3, 2016

Do what you love, if that's not photography, so what. Do something else. If you want to stay in art some way, open a gallery, do restorations, or find another niche you like.
Life is too short to do something you don't really enjoy.

JacaRanda · May 3, 2016

I would suggest finding something else to do to make money. Learn photography at your own pace as a hobby only.

Designer · May 3, 2016

JasonRE said:
.. sports photography isn't the easiest job to get as a photographer, ..

Earning a living at photography isn't the easiest thing to do even for photogs who have the experience. I suggest finding another type of job for your income and practice sports photography on the side.

gsgary · May 3, 2016

I don't know where you live but in the UK the building trade is booming so you wouldn't have trouble getting another draftmans job, forget about making enough money out of photography to support a wife and family

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waday · May 3, 2016

I agree with everyone else.

There may be a way to use your experience to do something that satisfies your creative side while not totally jumping careers. Or, if anything, just increase your time spent with your hobby. Learn to use flash while using your wife and child as subjects.

chuasam · May 7, 2016

The easiest way to make a living doing photography is to inherit a fortune first.
It's not an easy road to go.
I bought myself a small P&S camera to carry around and document my life.
I take pictures of my dinosaur *LOL*

Sometimes, you gotta find what you love and just photograph that.

Overread · May 7, 2016

Sadly with dependants and a lack of experience and understanding now is not the time to try and push into a new unknown area to get a job. I would strongly advise finding regular work or something within your current experiences to get work to pay the bills and such and then look to learning more about your photography alongside.

Otherwise you're going to burn yourself out and your family too trying to follow a dream. By all means follow the dream; but do it with some financial security.

Overread · May 7, 2016

On the photography front -

Light Science and Magic - 4th edition. A go-to reference book to get started with lighting. The Lighting 101 blog is also a good site for advice and also budget setups that can be cheaply made whilst delivering decent quality (some might not be the sort you'd roll up to a client with but certainly good enough to build a portfolio with).

Stick at the sports and treat it seriously; at best it might be a small side earner. Most I know shooting sports or similar are doing it either as a side to a regular job or as only one part of their photography (often offering weddings nad other services alongside). Some do it all the time of course; they tend to be VERY good and often free to travel so they can attend various national events and not be stricky limited only to local areas.