PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

I started in professional photography in 1959-- got into the Civil Service as 'photographer grade' at £7-15-0d a week (£7.75 new pence).Then it was all darkroom work and a 65 mile round trip every day to Chessington, Surrey from East Ham--- wore me out. Saw an ad for 'outdoor photographers 'at £15 a week -- well, it was 'School Photography' and I didn't get £15 a week --- I had to go round schools trying to book them for the 'regular' photographer to do ( HE probably got £15 a week !) I ended up having to buy a Car at £420, Austin A35 ,and in the end only got £6 a week -- worse than the Civil Service! Next came job with local studio in Barking who did all the press photos for the 'Barking Advertiser' -- they got 7/6d a photo reproduced-- again, mostly darkroom work as I could save their terrible films and did all the press reprint orders ( they got 4/6d for a 7x5" print).Then they promised me a 'manager's job' in their new branch in Canning Town-- well, it was NOT TRUE! All lies-- but I was introduced to PENTAX as one of the partners had been in the RAF in Singapore and brought back these weird cameras--Asahi Pentax H2 and K that nobody had heard of.
I left Breda Studios in Barking having done some Press work and after a lot of trouble got a job at University College London doing Scientific work-- they would not take me on at first as they said "I had done too much" -- well, they took on somebody with the gift of the gab who didn't know one end of a microscope from another,and re-advertised it in the BJ where I saw it again and asked why I had not been given a chance as I had Advanced Level Chemistry, Zoololgy, O Level Botany, French, Eng. Lang, Eng.Lit etc and had been in the Army for three years doing Scientific work and knew all about microscopes etc.... they took me on at £12 a week. After 8 years there I had to leave to keep an eye on what was happening in my house with ex-wife No.1 and left at £27 a week.I started as a Freelance with the promise of a few weddings and press work from local newspapers at 1 Guinea ( £1-1-0d) a picture. I have now LOST all my freelance work -- there is NO 'Brentwood Gazette' in Brentwood, the Brentwood Argus went broke in 1980 after 10 years with them as Freelance, the Brentwood Recorder has been closed, there is NO 'Romford Recorder' in Romford any more, the Yellow Advertiser has NO budget for any Freelancers so doesn't pay, the local council gets the girl from the office with a Nikon Coolpix to do all the Council work, the estate agents take their own photos, there is NO PR work any more,all the local Operatic and Theatrical Societies get their own members to do Front of House and show photos, etc etc so I rely on my Pension,most of it taken up in £1428 a year Council Tax ! You will NOT earn much in Photography now-- the MOST I ever Grossed doing 7 days a week,up to 2am getting out wedding prints and press prints was £16,000 before tax. Now I don't earn enough to PAY any Tax !

Trying. Slow start, but I need to eat and pay bills and it is hard to make up the salary of a software engineer with a new start in the photo business. But I'm making some extra money for new gear at the moment, so I'm happy.

I think any field of photography will be vastly easier than the business side. If you cannot handle the business side, making a living off photography may not be your line of work.


I'm starting to think I do not have the business mind for it. But I'm still having fun at it so we'll have to see how it goes.
Sadly, I think staying part time at it will eventually result in failure. I'll either go back to being a hobbyist-only or have to bite the bullet to go full time and suffer on lower pay for quite a while.

Quite agree
Certainly where I live, in a very "arty" city it is almost impossible to get any work unless you put in some serious marketing efforts. There's just so many people doing photo-related work!

I'd certainly make more money in teaching photography and Photoshop than in weddings/portraits etc (and there's no way I can stand the stress! :lol

Matt

Lots of opinions.

Although I enjoy photography I would agree and think it almost impossible these days to make a living from soley taking photos. One thing that does grind on me is when someone looks at my photos and says 'you could make money from them' ! I then direct them to a link on the web which has a thousand photos just like mine and hundreds better than mine.

To get ahead in photography business wise I think you would probably have to cover a base that isn't already widely covered. And then you'd need lots of work and lots of luck to make a decent living from it.

Interesting, thanks guys.

DERYN

well i am waiting for "multi-billionaire weekly" to phone and ask me to become their travel photographer, depending on the package i may accept.
until then nursey says she loves my photos

Very interesting story Peter.... really good read.

I remember a book by George Nicholls a leading advertising photographer who I met once in the 70's called "Picture if You Can" which for him summed up the difference between amateur and professional photography. The amateur could picture when he felt like, when the weather was good etc. whereas the pro had to produce the goods whether he felt like it or not, even when the weather was bad. He left photography and went into engineering shortly after the book was published. There was another top fashion photographer in the 70's and I'm talking of someone in the top handful in the country, who just packed in one day and went driving long distance wagons to the middle east, pulling up when he felt like to take some photographs.... can't remember his name.

I'm quite happy taking snaps if I want, when I want and where I want. I also only take them to please me, which means they don't have to be of a very high standard.

shim

Have just had a photo session with a proffessional covering a business function I had arranged. A nice guy happy to talk about most things, and worked well posing my guest`s, odd thing though when I tried to talk about photography to him he just did`nt seem interested. Had a Eos 1ds mkiii with grip and a portable battery unit, did most of his shots single handed; held a wireless flash in his other hand. will be interesting to see the results.

Davex.

Just like me Shim, a happy snapper.and just pleased with that.

I enjoy it purely as a hobby. It can very occasionally be useful in some work I do, but not very often.

It would be my dream job however I have few obstacles. I'm not that good, can't afford the kit and I need to feed a struggling musician (my wife). I made my last hobby into my job (IT) now I would rather be planting trees, I would hate that to happen to my photography

That's exactly how it's panned out for me (and I love it! ). I started off (6 years ago) selling Limited Edition Prints of my nature photos, and could make some good money at it, but the last couple of years has seen the market (for me at least) dry up. Luckily I was already running workshops, and for the last year or so have been offering 1-2-1 tuition, and the tuition side has easily taken over from the sales side.

The beauty of it for me too, is that I do the tuition (either a workshop or 1-2-1) and that's it, no after sales hassle like getting prints done, mounting them, them getting lost in the post etc.

I'm semi-professional, I work part time for Essex Wildlife Trust which pays the bills, and everything else is a nice bonus on top. And I absolutely love doing it too, meeting different people, helping them get the most from their cameras and their hobby. Yes, there are many more people these days getting half-decent photos from their shiny new DSLRs, and they're my market.

Could I earn a living from photography alone? Probably, but I'd have to be much more aggressive in my marketing and business, almost certainly do more portraits (I did some at a bellydance hafla the other night and it was great fun, but I wouldn't want to do it week-in, week-out). As it is I have an enjoyable job, which brings in enough money, and is largely stress free!

Dan

I do end up taking photos (and teaching it a bit) as part of my job. Archaeological sites are heavily recorded photographically and lots of the finds are photographed too. The photos are, one the whole, mind-numbingly dull ("here is a patch of dark brown soil overlying a patch of light brown soil with bits in it..."). Also, archaeology has a tradition of having illustrated lectures. At 30 pictures a lecture x 20 lectures x 8 or 9 courses...

On-site, my biggest bugbear is that because everyone with a P&S thinks they are David Bailey they ignore my instructions. For example: "always set the shot up with the camera on a tripod..." Soon as my back is turned, back to hand-held snaps. Somehow they think I won't notice and then are surprised when I shout at them about it... (How did I know? The feet of the "photographer" sticking into the edge of the frame is usually a clue!)

What I was trying to say is "no", I'd rather carry on enjoying being an amateur.

Cheers, Kris.

PeteKD seemed to manage to become a (semi) professional wedding photographer. Not least thanks to the patience and good advice of everyone here. Then he changed brands.

Having tried taking photos for a particular assignment I concluded I didn't enjoy it - the pressure of producing photos that were different and original of a subject I couldn't relate to actually stopped me taking any photos. So no I'll stick to it being a fun thing to do when and where I want to do it, with subjects that interest me. Never sold a photo, or even tried to sell one, and I doubt I ever will, but that doesn't bother me.

I would love to be able to aford to work part time at the day job and then part time taking photos I just need to become a better photographer now

I can understand most peoples opinion. Photography is a fantastic hobby and for the most time it is relaxing. I certainly wouldn't like to be under pressure to produce a certain photo in a certain time frame with my shopping bill and utility bills relying on the results. I used to love fiddling with my old motorbike engine, taking it apart, putting it back together, BUT I certainly wouldn't like to do it everyday for a living.

DERYN