What it’s Really Like to Be a Photographer
I’m writing this for every person who has asked me what it’s like to be a professional photographer. Apparently, thanks to affordable pro cameras and Instagram, being a photographer is today’s hottest new dream job. You and your workmate and your wife’s best friend’s brother all want to be a photographer. And I get it. It sounds fun. Why wouldn’t you want to chuck your boring 9–5 desk job to travel the world, camera in hand, taking pictures and getting paid loads of money?
Except that, well, it doesn’t really go down like that. I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from pursuing their dreams here, but if you’re actually serious about doing it, you need to know what it’s actually like out there. The long version is here in this book I wrote. The short version is below:
Reality #1: You’re not actually shooting 100% of the time. It’s actually about 80% office work, 20% shooting. I, and most working photographers I know, spend most of our time in our offices, working on marketing and promotion, planning and storyboarding our next shoots, managing finances and invoicing, and working on our portfolio. Most of my time is spent running my business (because that’s what it is).
Reality #2: It’s not actually glamorous. If you have aspirations of gallivanting around the world, shooting on tropical beaches flanked by bikini-clad supermodels, go be a rapper. Being a working photographer is different. Sure, you get to travel a ton — I’ve been to all seven continents, and that’s just last year. But it’s work: scouting locations, wrangling equipment, and working with clients and difficult subjects swearing at you in a foreign language. All while you’re severely jet lagged.
Reality #3: You’ll get rejected. A lot. Probably more than any other occupation. When I was interviewing a photo editor for my book, he said: “I’m always looking for that one photo in a portfolio off of which I won’t hire someone.” There are about a thousand times more photographers than there are jobs. That’s being conservative. Your ego is bound to be shattered regularly. The sooner you learn how to embrace rejection, not take it personal and just keep it moving, the better.
Reality #4: You’ll be broke for a while. I don’t know any working photographer who hasn’t struggled to make ends meet, who hasn’t chased up unpaid invoices, or who hasn’t eaten instant ramen 3x a day in between paychecks. Many photographers have had to support themselves assisting or doing digital tech work in the beginning, while trying to find their own shooting gigs. Brokeness is a photographer’s rite of passage. (For what it’s worth, I wrote a whole chapter in my book on how not to be a broke photographer).
Reality #5: You’ll have to operate outside your comfort zone. Always. From putting yourself out there to get work, to cold calling clients, to networking and meeting people (never gets any less awkward), to attending face-to-face portfolio reviews, to the actual crazy shoot itself. You’ll need to do stuff that scares that shit out of you. This is especially hard to do, but not impossible, if you’re shy. Sure, you need to “put yourself out there” in most industries, too. But by very nature of the job, photographers’ work is out in the world to be judged and critiqued.
Reality #6. It’s the best job in the world. The high you get when you do shoot? Worth all the marketing and paperwork and networking. When you get that good money for taking pictures and doing what you love? Worth every rejection, worth all the critique, worth all the above and then some. Just don’t spend it all at once.
Still want to be a photographer? My book, “What They Didn’t Teach You in Photo School,” is a guide for emerging photographers and available at Barnes & Noble and Urban Outfitters.
