Thinking of a stress free career in photography....think again

[imagemaker46]

I don't know if any of you saw that being a photojournalist has been listed as the 4th most stressful career to have.

The top five:

Commercial Airline Pilot
Public Relations officer
Corporate Executive
Photojournalist
Newscaster

While I know that working as a professional photographer is more stressful than a lot of people believe it is, I find it difficult to believe that the first responders(police, fire, EMT) have less stressful jobs.

Some areas of photography are definately more stressful than others, and out of the top five it is also the lowest paying, with an average of just over $40k, while the top 3 are all well over 100k.

 

[RauschPhotography]

Ahh, well... I'm going to school for mass communication with an emphasis in human resources/public relations. Photojournalism doesn't sound so bad, after all. :er:

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I was wondering what happened to him.

 

[usayit]

You are confusing photojournalist with photographer....

Not to say that professional photographer (of different types) are laid back stress-free jobs.... but the "journalism" portion of job is the stressor much more so than the "photo" portion. Probably for the similar reasons that "newscaster" is on the list.

 

[mwcfarms]

Maybe this is in light of a couple of fabulous photojournalists losing their lives in the last week.

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2011...t-today-in-libya-doing-what-they-loved-to-do/

just a blog I follow.

 

[Overread]

I dislike all these newsgroups and websites who are determined to put things into lists (like the one above) just because they can't actually find something worthwhile to put on their pages. I mean come on who came up with that list - what criteria and research did they do? Heck chances are they didn't do much at all and just pulled up a rough top 10 from anywhere based on current events and their lifestyle (I mean I don't see any real stressy jobs in there like doctors or army or teaching!)

 

[LarissaPhotography]

I think they should have business owner on that list. I know it's generic, but that's where I hear a lot of stress complaints from photographers - on the business side of things.

 

[Studio7Four]

Just to play Devil's Advocate, I can to some extent believe that photojournalist is on the list. A common thread among those top five is that they have to handle unknown situations for which they have likely not been trained. That training is what sets them apart from first responders, or the military, for example. They are put in situations which would be extremely stressful to an Average Joe, but they have training to fall back on which prepares them to better handle the situation. A photojournalist might have to cover a riot (and the better results come from being among the rioters, not shooting from blocks away with a monster zoom), but without the training (and gear) that riot police have, or he might be an embedded war correspondent without the benefit of full military training. Sure, these are extreme examples and not every photojournalist will be placed in such situations, but by definition they have to be where the action is.

 

[usayit]

Not all photojournalists are war photographers.

I'm with Overread... read the list with a grain of salt.

 

[imagemaker46]

Those that don't believe being a professional photographer is not stressful has never been in the situations i've worked in. There's more to it than than just pushing a button and taking pictures of flowers or landscapes, sunsets and cute kids. I've lost friends in this business, and a lot of it has to do with stress. Hard to put something down unless you've doing the job 24/7

 

[Arch]

Those that don't believe being a professional photographer is not stressful has never been in the situations i've worked in. There's more to it than than just pushing a button and taking pictures of flowers or landscapes, sunsets and cute kids. I've lost friends in this business, and a lot of it has to do with stress. Hard to put something down unless you've doing the job 24/7

Any more trolling comments like this and you will quickly find yourself banned.
As someone mentioned it is the journalism that makes that job stressful and appear on the list. I know dozens of professional photographers in all types of fields who are very happy unstressed people. Please control your assumptions of other people on here please.