The Coffee House

[rexbobcat]

I got my first "real" job offer today. It's basically at the opposite side of the career spectrum from photography but it gives me a stable schedule that is easier to plan around.

It's helped to quell some of my existential panic. Yay. I guess.

 

[DanOstergren25]

I got my first "real" job offer today. It's basically at the opposite side of the career spectrum from photography but it gives me a stable schedule that is easier to plan around.

It's helped to quell some of my existential panic. Yay. I guess.

Real jobs never work well for me. When I work full time, I have zero energy for photography. I miss editing and magazine submission deadlines, and eventually I just stop shooting.

 

[jcdeboever]

Out to seize the botanical world. No work, just pure artistic fun. No customers, calling, no sales closing, just blissful captured moments in time. Sun not even up yet.

 

[limr29 2]

I got my first "real" job offer today. It's basically at the opposite side of the career spectrum from photography but it gives me a stable schedule that is easier to plan around.

It's helped to quell some of my existential panic. Yay. I guess.

Real jobs never work well for me. When I work full time, I have zero energy for photography. I miss editing and magazine submission deadlines, and eventually I just stop shooting.

Congrats, Rex!! There are always trade-offs and having that "real" job will be great some days and will suck rocks other days. I've lived most of my adult life with very little employment stability and I know what it's like to finally get something more permanent - how that is both a relief but also a little stifling at the same time. I hope it works out for you!

Dan - I'm the opposite, at least with writing. When my paid work involves a lot of writing and editing, I have no energy left over for my own work. But when my days are spent doing something entirely different, I feel like I have more creative energy that gets pent up and needs to get out, and so I find myself much more likely to write or work on some pictures after work.

 

[Gary A.]

I got my first "real" job offer today. It's basically at the opposite side of the career spectrum from photography but it gives me a stable schedule that is easier to plan around.

It's helped to quell some of my existential panic. Yay. I guess.

I hope it all works out. Sometimes, having limited time for photography, will enhance the experience and makes you appreciate photography even more.

 

[Gary A.]

I got my first "real" job offer today. It's basically at the opposite side of the career spectrum from photography but it gives me a stable schedule that is easier to plan around.

It's helped to quell some of my existential panic. Yay. I guess.

Real jobs never work well for me. When I work full time, I have zero energy for photography. I miss editing and magazine submission deadlines, and eventually I just stop shooting.

When I was working full time in photography, I didn't touch a camera on vacation.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Jon I've been RIF'd. Sorry you're having to go thru that. I ended up at a job where I stayed for 20 years! sometimes things seem to work out the way it was meant to be.

Gary that seems to be the case in my experience; I've been to kids' homes and seen kids in day cares and both can be good or not so much depending on what's going on in a home or preschool environment.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Smokey I've done some of that too, working at home instead of going to the office first, or more so after home visits, and it got old... a little of that can be convenient but then gets harder to feel like you're getting a break

 

[smoke665]

feel like you're getting a break

Having separation is essential for the mind to switch between work time and personal time. At least it was for me.

 

[Gary A.]

While Gary has an office. He rarely goes in. He much prefers working from home. As Gary is an owner, working after hours from home is routine ... so a physical separation between work and home isn't a reality. Even when Gary was shooting news, he was on-call 24/7.

 

[smoke665]

Gary is an owner, working after hours from home is routine

Owned my own businesses as well. Started out at 22, the last 25+ yrs, my days consisted of getting to the office between 6 & 6:30 and lucky to leave by 7. Saturdays I took off early mid afternoon. Operated coast to coast with employees and customers scattered through 4 time zones. I had to have a stress free zone to shut it off so the mind could rebuild. Still own passive investments in other enterprises without day to day time requirement, so working for home, road wherever isn't such a problem.

 

[Gary A.]

Gary is an owner, working after hours from home is routine

Owned my own businesses as well. Started out at 22, the last 25+ yrs, my days consisted of getting to the office between 6 & 6:30 and lucky to leave by 7. Saturdays I took off early mid afternoon. Operated coast to coast with employees and customers scattered through 4 time zones. I had to have a stress free zone to shut it off so the mind could rebuild. Still own passive investments in other enterprises without day to day time requirement, so working for home, road wherever isn't such a problem.

Owners make less per hour than the employees.

 

[jcdeboever]

Play ball

 

[Gary A.]

The Boys of Summer.

 

[rexbobcat]

I got my first "real" job offer today. It's basically at the opposite side of the career spectrum from photography but it gives me a stable schedule that is easier to plan around.

It's helped to quell some of my existential panic. Yay. I guess.

Real jobs never work well for me. When I work full time, I have zero energy for photography. I miss editing and magazine submission deadlines, and eventually I just stop shooting.

I love photography...

But I'm just tired of being a martyr for art.
I'm tired of having no money to go do things worth photographing.
I'm tired of having to tell my family I can't come see them because I can't afford a $250 plane ticket or 3 days of driving.
I'm tired of not having steady photography work and having to tell people I placate middle-aged adult tantrums all day (part-time retail).
I'm tired of lying to my parents about how successful I've been.

I can always come back to photography. It's a pretty open-ended career. But, I'm a very anxious person for whom luck doesn't generally favor. It has taken me two years to get an interview where they didn't ask, "Okay, so you've done a lot of photography. Can't you do anything else?"

I'm terrified of waking up at 40, poor, bored, with 15 years of what is essentially seen as an employment gap. I'm much too neurotic to handle that possibility.

The "starving artist" trope is only appealing if you are making progress, which you have. I've been spinning my wheels for the past two years.

After hitting a breaking point, this is basically me right now: