Photography Careers....

[Robin]

I agree with everyone else, photography in general does not assure a steady income because photographers by nature are generally self employed and the industry is considered very competitive. The only thing I can think of is that some magazines or newspapers will hire in house photographers but gaining this position can be difficult and you may spend years doing freelancing first. Freelancing is also very common with magazines and newspaper so there's still no assurance there.

The only other thing I can think of is if you became a photography teacher. High schools, colleges/universities, art or photography schools employ full time photography teachers. But you may be required to obtain certain teaching degrees for some of these positions. Plus, my guess would be that there are more photographers willing to teach and have a steady income than there are positions to fill.

As for graphic design, this may offer a little more stablity but not much. I know large companies often employ in house design teams but again, it's a very competitive field and therefore is not necessarily as secure as someone in your position might want. And just as many graphic designers are also self employed.

I hate to say it but any kind of art-based field is not going to offer as much job security as you're probably looking for. As much as you may like art-based careers because lets face it, they are more interesting and exciting than sitting in an office all day, I think you're looking in the wrong areas and you need to look outside of anything art-based.

I don't blame you if you're trying to avoid sitting in an office all day but here's some fields which aren't art based but won't chain you to a desk and don't usually involve being self-employed.

If you like kids/people: Teaching, nursing, physical therapist
If you like animals: Vet tech/nurse, SPCA, zookeeper or zoologist
If you like the outdoors: Park ranger

 

[John_Olexa]

I just checked out the New York Institute of Photography website. Has anyone here used this program? Something about it sounds too good to be true. I'd love to hear more if anyone can speak about it.

Yes I did it. It was very good! it's even better now because of digital. Didn't have it yet when I took it.

Kacey, Later on once you get a grasp on photography, another thing to look at is shooting with a stock agency. Now you won't get rich from it but it can be good extra income after a few years. It's hard to start though! You will need at least 200 good images to start and can take a few years to start selling images. The good thing is you get to shoot a lot. They do all the work but take a cut of the money . Most go 50/50
average price to clients range anywhere from $100 -$1000! the fun part is find a subject you like to shoot. Most agencies like you to summit new images every so often.

I shoot for Getty Images. I specialize in weather. I just got a royalty check the other day from 2 lightning images Getty sold over seas. Both images were shot back in 1998!!

I just want to point out that shooting stock is just as competitive as anything else. When I first started I chose weather for 2 reasons.1: I like it! and 2: as a plus not many were shooting it at that time. Nowadays :er: everybody is a storm chaser :er::er: LOL.

I just wanted to give another option. You can do a google search on how to shoot for a stock agency. Theres a lot of pros & cons to it just like everything else. But it is something you can look into down the road.

John

 

[cofphoto]

My name isn't Mike, and I support this message. ~

Photography careers are quickly going the way of the dinosaur, mainly due to three factors IMO. First, anyone can walk into Costco, spend $800 on a DSLR and call themselves a Photographer even though they don't know a thing about photography. Second, nearly every digital camera these days comes with some version of Photoshop, whereas it used to cost $$$$ to buy it. Lastly, if you ask me the general public's acceptance of subpar photography has grown by leaps and bounds due to the first to factors.

The result is that more and more people are becoming Photographers, and less and less people are willing to pay what we would call "fair" pricing for high quality photographs. For example, more and more people are unwilling to pay $5,000 for a high quality Wedding Photographer because one of the Bridesmaids has a new DSLR and says "I'll just shoot it for free and give you the CD". The end result of course is that they spend $4,000 on flowers and $3,000 on a dress - and end up with nothing but crappy photos to remember their wedding day.

In the end, it's not impossible to make a living at portrait photography. But it's getting harder by the day. BUT, it's not that difficult to make a decent side living out of it.

 

[icassell]

I just checked out the New York Institute of Photography website. Has anyone here used this program? Something about it sounds too good to be true. I'd love to hear more if anyone can speak about it.

A good friend at work did it. She's an amateur, but wanted to improve her skills, which it did significantly. She was very pleased. I don't know how good it would be for training for a pro career.