So, How You Doin'?

Apropos our discussions last week, a quick pulse-check. This doesn't even rise to the level of a survey, and that's okay. I'm just interested in hearing from some actual people.

If you work in photography, how's it going?

How are things for you? How's the market, how's work, how's income, how's the job, how's job satisfaction? No need to be literal, just peg it to how you feel overall. Don't speak for others or analyze the Universe, just speak for yourself.

Let's define "work as a photographer" as 1. Employed full-time in any photo-related field or earn your entire living in any photo-related field, or 2. Make at least 2/3rds of your present income taking pictures and selling them (in whatever way).

Let's rate on a 10 scale from –5 to +5, where 0 (zero) is "same as it ever was," "just cruising along," "same old same old"; the positive numbers are various shades of "things are good and/or getting better," and negative numbers are degrees of "things are bad and/or getting worse."

You can just give a number if you want. Adding how you work in photography might be helpful. You don't need to comment further unless you want to. (If you want to, be aware than the longer the comment, the less likely it is to be read.)

I'll start. I'm +3 or +4.

So how you doin'?

Mike

P.S. And just this time, no meta-comments or non-responsive comments, please. I might hold those back until later. Although I'll post them eventually.

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Bahi: "I'm a 0 financially but at least a +3 for job satisfaction. I work with some very interesting photographers on workflow, post-processing, print-making, colour management and other technical things. Some people say that teaching is a good way of learning your subject and that's true but looking constantly at other people's work has meant learning about photography in general and not just about the technical stuff. In particular, I get to see what distinguishes one photographer's outlook from another's and how true it is that belief in yourself and your work is everything. Teaching people the tools to quickly organise and edit their work means you get to see what photographers consider to be their hits and misses—definitely one of the highlights of the job and still, after a good few years at this, a great way to learn.

"I also get to meet some lovely people. Most photographers I work with see the world as their raw material and are interesting and insightful—they tend to be optimistic and successful (I guess they'd have to be otherwise they wouldn't be paying someone to help with this stuff).

"Plus, I get to file all the time I spend here at TOP under 'Professional Development'!"

Mike replies: Splendid.

Jim Hughes: "Sam Kirkland, a former employee of the Chicago Sun-Times, has done an interesting story for the Poynter Institute on what's become of the photojournalists the newspaper fired en masse last year.

"'One year ago today,' he writes, 'the Chicago Sun-Times eliminated its photo staff, laying off 28 full-time employees. Most of them have landed on their feet, according to email and phone interviews with many of the photographers. While they were sometimes hesitant to dwell on the layoffs, the former Sun-Times staffers filled me in on how their lives—and those of the photographers I couldn't reach—have changed since May 30, 2013....'

"Here's the full story. And be sure to read the comments that follow the article itself."

aaronL: "–2. Twenty years running a once busy portrait studio. Hanging on by a thread...."

Fiddlergene: "+5."

Tim: "–4. Left the industry almost completely after five years being fully self employed. Still shoot the occasional job for old clients but now mostly just shoot my kids and cats."

Bryan Geyer: "I'm retired (since 2002) from the photography trade now, and I can't speak specifically about 'work as a photographer,' but I can tell you this: The photography equipment business is in a tailspin. This past year has been a major disappointment for virtually every equipment manufacturer, large and small, with progressively shrinking sales and scant evidence of improvement. I can't recall any period of such severe and widespread recession since the very early 1970s. The entire trade is in a funk."

[Bryan is the retired founder of Really Right Stuff, the tripod accessories company. —Ed.]

Mike Plews: "In September I'll hit 40 years in the TV news business as a photographer. For me at least things feel like either a +1 or a +2. My business has seen a lot of change in the last five years. I see that as an opportunity to recharge my creative batteries. The changes in technology have occasionally left me breathless, and I mean that in a good way.

"Photography in all its forms has always been a tough racket. You have to be agile to make a living. I do notice that in the last few years personal work, which is all still photography, has been occupying a larger part of my 'thinking for pleasure' time."

Rob: "I think I'm at +4. I'm early in my career, and about to (hopefully) expand my business with the addition of a full-time studio space, dedicated to shooting and editing, in Lebanon, New Hampshire. I can see why newspaper and magazine journalists are worried, and to the extent that I aspire to editorial portraiture, I know I probably should be worried as well, but my tiny business is growing, and I'm excited. Hopefully I can continue the expansion without dominating the twittersphere or embracing crossover video mumbo jumbo."

Jay Pastelak: "In my personal work, probably 0 to +1. In my professional life as a professor in a private for-profit school that once had a vibrant photo program but is now struggling to attract students, it's a –4. Summer schedules came out last Friday afternoon. I'm OK but some of my full-time colleagues have found themselves reduced to one class (five is normal). Adjuncts are non-existent. Things were exceptionally grim in faculty offices yesterday."

Steve Wilkie: "I work in the film industry in Toronto as a set/gallery photographer. I'd give it a +1 currently."

Robert Harshman: "Last year and this year, on your scale, I'm at a +10 off the chart. Commercial work. In the last six weeks I've made what would have been a very good two years' income five years ago. Keeping my fingers crossed it will last 2–3 more."

Pete: "I shot stock for a big agency for 15 years, originally sailing around the Pacific on a yacht, then living in Australia. Income peaked 10 years ago and has declined ever since.

"I married a Thai photographer and moved to Thailand to reduce costs. So I'm about –3. My wife's wedding photography has taken off here and she is about +4. But she's a good photographer!"

pierre: "Full-time freelance since 1981. Income exclusively from shooting. Constant decrease in business since 2004, but 2012 has been excellent while 2013 has been the worst in twenty years. So far 2014 is even slower.

"I like to believe I have never been a better photographer as of now. The clients comment positively on my current assignments with more enthusiasm. And yet, they buy my services less and less. Go figure.

"Note: –3. Of course, I am worried."

Jack Foley: "I've been a staff photographer on daily newspapers for 35 years, and in my current job for the last 28 of them. I am a general assignment photographer, so my subjects are quite varied day to day. The way I approach the job of telling stories with a camera has not really changed that much. But, the tools and the business have changed greatly. For me, working in color came in the early '90s and digital took over in the early 2000s. Both were welcome improvements. The newspaper business, with print circulations in decline, has become as much a web presence as it is a print presence.

"For me, in its current state, more of my pictures are published, but I fear fewer people see them. Embarrassing as it is to reveal it, I haven't had a noticeable raise in pay in more than two decades. I still love the work though, and hope to last long enough to retire five to ten years from now. So, on the business end, the number would be –3, and the personal satisfaction number would be around 4. Short answer: Guess I'm doin' okay, Mike. Thanks for asking."

Ken Bennett: "+4. I'm the sole staff photographer at a University, where I've been working for 17+ years, after ten years as a freelance news photographer in another state. [Readers might remember that we published Ken's portrait of Maya Angelou a few days ago. —Ed.] I work with a terrific team of writers and designers who love my work, and I get great assignments.

"I had a major promotion last year, I'm doing the best work of my career, and my position provides excellent benefits and most of my gear. Although many people in higher education are facing cutbacks and layoffs, our office has been expanding over the last few years (because we really needed it.) Of course it's not all unicorns and rainbows, and there's a fair amount of the 'headshots and banquets' common to any staffer, but overall my personal situation is great. I feel for Kirk (in the Comments Section)—'To sum up: Sucky time to be an aging photographer with the inertia of old school practices sitting heavily on one's shoulders like a dead albatross'—and I see that among my freelance colleagues in this area. But you asked about our personal situations, so I thought you might want a positive outlook to provide some balance. :-) "

Agdemesaphoto: "I'm a 26 year old currently working as a fashion photographer's assistant here in the Philippines. It's creatively a +3 since I used to shoot documentary, journalism, and street for my own projects. It is a –4 financially. I worry about my day to day. I only get an allowance and food. I rarely have time to do my own shoots or find other sources of income. My equipment is not as fancy and my computer is an ailing five-year-old machine that is having a hard time editing files. I frankly don't know where I could get the capital to get better equipment. I may get connections and networks with my work but it's nothing if I don't have money for food. It's never about the money for me but I sure wish I don't need to worry about it."

kirk: "Mike, one more point. I think there is some aspect of context and relativity to peoples' perception of the market. If you ran a great business in the 1990s it was entirely possible to pull out $150,000 to $200,000 of profit in a good years. That's what many in the business saw as their target or benchmark. People who have entered the business after the 'digital revolution' may look at $60K to $80K in profit and think they are doing a dynamite business. I think a lot depends on when and how you entered the business. The understanding of success in the biz seems to be, to a big extent, relative to expectations."

Tom Hassler: "Financially, –2. Everything else, +5. I made a very nice living doing advertising and corporate photography from the late '70s until about 2008. As the economy tanked (and the photo biz turned into a low-paying, high-stress crap shoot) I re-focused my career entirely. It was a scrape for a while, but in hindsight, it was the best possible time for a major change. Now I teach and run workshops, and more importantly, I love my life in photography again."

Jore Puusa: "I'm a 62-year-old photojournalist from Finland. I've been in the industry from 1977. First 15 years I covered war and crisis for AP, UPI, DPA and AFP etc. Those years were good and photography was the very main point of my living. Good pictures paid good money and I felt I was a part of making the world better.

"Then at about 1985 things started to go worse. Several publishers gave small compact cameras to editors and the deadly trend has continued. Editors take now most of the pictures or amateurs deliver pics for free. We pros are set aside, I have been unemployed for three years now. I taught photojournalism three years—from 2008 till 2011—and during that time all my earlier clients chose an inexpensive young wannabe photog or free amateurs and now I'm finished and waiting for pension. The substance or visual quality means nothing and print looks terrible. Nobody cares because those who have a degree in economy are in charge in papers—not journalists any more. Circulations go down about 10% per year. The final death shakes are here and all will be finished maybe in 10 years from now. This is so sad and when print dies, fascism starts to raise its ugly head. Jore Puusa, teacher of photojournalism, Helsinki, Finland."

Kenneth Wajda: "+1. I'm a former staff photojournalist for a daily newspaper and now work as a freelance commercial photographer. I say +1, but I balance my shooting stills work with video production and editing. So, it's doing okay, but it's never easy. And there are still many people looking to get work for little or no pay. They'll say, 'unfortunately, we don't have a budget'—I just got that from a major Boulder magazine group. I said it's not like not having a budget is something that happened to you, that you're the victim of. You're the one who decided you could run a magazine while not bothering to budget anything for photography, because you don't respect photographers or think they should be paid for their work. I worry the younger generation won't appreciate or even recognize what good photography is."

Almostinfamous: "Overall –1. I do commercial and wedding photos in Hyderabad, India, and have been since 2009. It's a small market with not many agencies, and budgets have grown tighter and tighter the past few years due to political uncertainties. our state has recently split into two due to longstanding issues so if not for the clarity that brought, I'd be at –2 and looking anxiously to move to a bigger city."

Gordon Cahill: "+4 for me. I like technology so was early to go digital and early to reduce my printing. After 20+ years I'm still having a ball and making a good income. I've tried to keep my eye on what's going to happen rather than cling onto what I would like to happen, which has, so far, kept me out of trouble.

"My first 10 years was weddings. Then a few in commercial work. Then a break to go travel. Then another 10 in weddings and now back shooting mostly commercial although I will shoot 15 weddings and 25 portrait shoots this year as well. I've just invested in new cameras and I'm now looking at adding a drone to my kit. That alone might add another 500 per week. And I don't shoot video, just stills. Picked up another regular client this week. If this keeps up I might need to close the books. I do think there's been a real shift in the industry and I'm real glad I'm not a journalist in Australia. But with change come opportunities and I hope I grab a few of them on the way through. Bottom line is I only feel limited by how many hours there are in a day and how much energy I have to put into it."

Comments

[David Paterson]

I'm in your category 3, as a retired commercial/editorial photographer after a career of more than 30 years. I retired before the current difficulties really began (for photographers) but I hoped and intended that a significant part of my retirement income would come from photo-libraries, and I had built quite large holdings with several of the leading players.

Since 2000-2005 when I went through semi- into full retirement, my income from stock is around -4.5 on your scale.

[Jayson Merryfield]

I will define myself as a #3 – I am an accountant who operates a wedding & portrait business on the side. I make approx. 15% of my personal income from photography, and have no particular aspirations to significantly increase that percentage. If anything, as my primary career progresses and my age increases, I forsee an inevitable sunset on my career within the next 10 years, as I age out of the market for professional wedding photographers and find other, more pressing demands on my time. I have been self-defining myself as a professional photographer from the day I took my first paid wedding commission, which was in 2009, so this summer will be my 6th as a professional.

I would rate photography as a +1, personally. Business has been getting better for me as I acquire more of a reputation in my local market, and my efforts at marketing (such as they are) are generally succeeding, giving me a respectable rank on Google and reliable if slight daily web traffic on my site. I am still a basically small fish in a pretty big, diverse pond. I am generally attracting clients that fit my personality and my personal model of an ideal client, which makes me happy as a clam. I am as booked as I would like to be, approx. one per month, and my bookings aren’t overly last-minute, though they aren’t quite as in-advance as some other, more enviable/professional photographers in my area are (some of which are nearing capacity for the summer of 2015; I’ve yet to receive even an inquiry for next year). I think that speaks to the niche I’ve made myself comfortable in and marketed towards. Every year I have been busier than the season before, and every year I have been able to increase prices and not get a lot of haggling or client pushback. My photographic income is approx. 95% service-based and 5% product-based, something I have been making efforts to adjust. Selling product isn’t easy for me while some photographers I know of can make 30-50% of their income on product. Perhaps this is a client-niche issue, or maybe this is a sales issue. I’m torn as to which to ascribe it to.

I hope this is the sort of response you’re hoping for, Mike!

[Walter Glover]

How are things for you? — Commercial Photography = -4 Personal Photography = +4

How's the market, = -4

how's work, = -4

how's income, = -4

how's the job, = +5 (how does one quantify a passion?)

how's job satisfaction? = + 5 (when it happens)

I started my life-long career working in photography in 1965. It was a continuum of advancement and positive development and living pretty high on the hog.

In 2005, just as I made the switch to digital and the rest of the world made a seismic shift as paradigms changed, the commercial experience here in Sydney eroded rapidly. I still shoot whatever commercial assignments come my way. Just last Tuesday I shot two more covers and feature spreads for a magazine I have shot every cover for for 35 years. But by the end of the year that may well be gone also as the publisher prepares to retire. Fortunately I can pick up about 37 hours a week working as Administrator in a church but doing a cover shoot I earn in a day what it takes me a fortnight to earn in the Admin role. I just scrape by.

Walter

[ctein]

Getting so much better all the time.

Thank you, John Lennon.

[That was Paul, but point taken. John wrote the so-called middle eight, starting with "I used to be cruel to my woman / I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved." --Mike]

[Larry Steiner]

Pretty good: +1 or +2. We mostly print here. Large format printing is up and silver-halide small format is steady. One of our competitors closed 40 miles away, so this is a local thing, maybe not an industry wide thing. We get calls from folks looking for photographers at about the customary rate / 2-4 referrals per week.

[Colin Work]

Commissioned work +3 (eg. photo assignments for magazines)

Video +5 (as part of the above)

Stock sales -3

[Doug C]

+3
I have had a very odd specialty for the last 30+ years, panoramic work with a #10 Cirkut camera. Not much worry about competition. A thin field and I was usually better than them, partly because I had my own lab and was a better printer.
Sales are down, because I am trying to cut back (and have been for a while). And profits from each job are up.
It's easy to replicate what I have been doing with digital formats now, but not as easy as my competition thinks. Now as then you have to know stuff, esp. what works and what does not.

[ctein]

OK, seriously...

+4 to +5

pax / Ctein

[MarkB]

If you register yourself a +3 or +4, I'll assume that "writing/ talking about photography" counts as photo-related.

In that case, I'm +3 in terms of teaching and writing professionally about photo stuff, but maybe -1 in actually taking photographs for the other 50% (typical) of my income.

[David Boyce]

+2 - +3

[Bil Mitchell]

My job in photography seems to be keeping B&H solvent.
I appear to be making a bang-up success of it.

[David Stubbs]

Honestly can say +4. Not +5 because I feel I should leave head room for improvement. Have shot mainly food for 37 years, editorial and advertising.

[kirk]

Hi Mike, Here's how my business looks in 2014 in Austin, Texas. Everything fell off the map in 2008. Stayed bad until 2011 and then started a long, slow recovery. We're almost, but not quite, back to normal income. But the mix is different.

Some stuff, like company event photography, now gets crowdsourced by the major corporations and I'm pretty sure it's never coming back. We might get called in to photograph the very top end but...

The modus operandi at many ad agencies who used to assign original advertising photography is now to have little crews of in-house computer experts and to supply them with the comprehensive layouts and a budget for stock photos. They buy as many inexpensive stock photograph as they need to cobble together the visual concept and then spend days and days fixing it all in PhotoShop.

The benefit to the agency is that the time spent by their in-house people is generally billed at a fairly high retouching rate while the people who do the work are usually not well paid. A week of working on an ad "collage" may return $4000 net to the agency but it's a far greater profit than the mark-up (if the client even allows mark ups) on the external photography might have been. This is now the norm as far as I can see. Assignments are as rare on the ground as $100 bills.

I tend to get hired to shoot stuff in a certain style that I do well and I still get hired to do portraits and ad campaigns that require the participation of top executives. No one wants to screw up in those situations and go with the low bidder because it might be a job killer.

My take is that commercial photography as we know it is being replaced by commercial video. Photography has become so easy and, for the most part, client standards are so low that they are willing to default to iPhone images and what not instead of hiring a professional. In many instances I agree with them. What it means is that the way we practiced commercial photography, pre-2008, is now quickly dying and anyone who depends solely on income from photography either has an amazing (and hard to duplicate) style or they are watching their income dying a bit each quarter. I'm only speaking from my experiences as a regional shooter, not a national celeb. photographer.

As my income from assignment photography drops I work hard to find more things to replace the overall income. I've been very successful with the books. The blog returns some decent affiliate income. The Craftsy.com online video workshops are profitable. My writing seems to be the saving grace of the income stream. I even made some cash last year shilling cameras for a large technology company.

More and more I push myself to go after the video market only because it takes time and effort to do good projects and most clients understand the "black hole" of time it takes to create, shoot and edit a decent project and they are still willing to pay for that. More so because it's so easy to place the final product into inexpensive channels.

My future? Advantaged by some good equity and real estate investments in the 1980's and 1990's. And some good buys during the depths of the recent recession. We could both survive and put the kid through college even if I exited the market but it wouldn't be an "American Dream" level existence.

My most recent gamble is the upcoming publication of my first novel about an anxious corporate photographer who stumbles into a web of corporate espionage and intrigue while on assignment for a major client in Lisbon at the turn of this century. I have high hopes for it. And it is tangentially a product of my career in photography.

I'd say writing a novel about photography trumps having to teach workshops about photography every day of the week. And the income might be ongoing.

To sum up: Sucky time to be an aging photographer with the inertia of old school practices sitting heavily on one's shoulders like a dead albatross. The few times I am able to buck tradition and do things in a new way I see a glimpse of promise that there's still money to be made in the business. But it won't be in the field of selling wall prints to consumers. The only real game is business to business and my hope is that clients get bored dong the work themselves, in-house and default to the few remaining full time professionals.

My advice to people in the field? Diversify as quickly as you can and have multiple streams of income. And also remember that since clients are aiming the work at a much different medium than big, glossy magazines which required high production values, don't get wrapped up in thinking that you always have to have the very best of equipment. Most of the stuff we've bought in the last five years is---good enough.

[John Gillooly]

Commercial photographer in Boston:

Market seems to be strong and getting stronger.

Income/work flattened or only grew a bit for the three or so years of the recession. For the last 2-3 years, income and work has grown steadily.

Job satisfaction: Some clients are better than others in terms of appreciation of photography and willingness to spend money. When it's busy it's too busy - mentally and physically. Too busy most of the year to do much personal work - that is bittersweet.

John

[Roland]

+1 I do high quality product photography in a small European country.

[Jim Gill]

+3+, have one of the few full time jobs left (in Madison) and still learning and creating images I am proud of.

[Dan]

I'm at +2. I sell fine art photography to hospitality and healthcare markets, and things this year have definitely been improving. I think this mainly has to do with me getting my act together and improving my marketing efforts.

[Michael N. Meyer]

The commercial side of my photography is probably a +1. I'm bidding on jobs and winning enough of them. Revenue is up from the same time period last year. (Knock wood.)

There is much room for, and I would certainly like to see, improvement. (My wife would like to see vast improvement.)

I went out on my own in roughly 2008 so my baseline might not be as high as some a bit older than myself.

[Jason Hoss]

I work in a vertical photography business, i.e. lab and photographer packaged into one beast. I'm a traditionally trained/ educated photographer who found his calling in the lab. I specialize in volume photography (school pictures, sports team and individual, etc...). Our school pictures business would rate at a +4 but our sports segment would rate at a -2. So overall the business would be a +1, maybe a +2.

[Michael Steinbach]

Rebounding from the last three years. +4

[Hugh Smith]

4

[Tom Kwas]

Category 1.

-3 and heading towards -4

Don't see a reversal of fortune in the near future, or in any time to impact me; I'll be long gone, just trying to make it to social security!

[Crabby Umbo]

Read with Interest Kirk's information, have to say tho, he says: "...sucky time to be an aging photographer with the inertia of old school practices...etc."; but I say, if your idea of old school practices is having a viable business and working on high end, creative, and complicated photography for appreciative clients who are like partners to you...vs. new school practices, which is running around town shooting on the fly for very little money, and "half-assing" the creative because you're not getting paid for your time correctly...well, then, I'm perfectly happy to have been working with that old school albatross around my neck and very happy to be very close to retirement.

[Glenn Brown]

I rate myself at +8, I do corporate photography in Toronto and have great clients, best move was to reduce my prices after digital came in and switch to location service only, virtually no overhead except equipment. Sadly my competition was mad but for business photography is a commodity and price rules. The day it is a drudge to pick up a camera is the day i pack it in. I have 35 years in this now and 5 to retirement. I would have said 10 but I do not wish to pick up the camera at the weekend. GB.

[Robert Newcomb]

Robert -2 I work as a PR photographer at a University. Sometimes I (and others) think we'll be the last generation to make a "living" at being a photographer. So many cell phone cameras and folks who don't see well enough to understand that their photos are not very good - the acceptable level of quality is very low these days. Writers and editors who deal in words also think they're photographers.
42 years of experience, maybe I'm a little tired)

[Rob Brodman]

I'm running at a +2 I think. I'm a freelance commercial/editorial shooter for the past 13 years. I've done a lot of catalog work, e-commerce, periodical, and advertising. The bottom fell out in late 2007. Nothing came in for a year or so, burned through almost all of my savings and now it is back to about where it was pre-crash with a little bump and a fair amount of attention from the industry due to promotions and networking.

Can't think of another job I'd want to do.

[Roger Overall]

Transitioning from full-time commercial photographer to full-time visual creative — that is, I'm diversifying my income streams.

At this particular moment, photography is OK. I have a major comission to keep me sweet for a few months, along with some other assignments in recent weeks. But, that's after months of no photography work at all. So looking at a very short horizon, things are good. Business is up suddenly. +3. But that's a skewed data point. My feeling is earning a full/sustainable income from photography is something only a few people will manage. Who knows what will happen after this glut of work? Maybe it will continue; maybe it won't.

The growth area is video, which I've taught myself. Here there has been a marked up turn in business. Producing good video is easier than it once was, but still a hell of a lot harder than producing photography. For now, supply and demand aren't too far away from each other. That'll change as more video-capable people come into the market. Then the same mechanism will kick in that's hurt many photographers, I think: lots of people wanting a piece of a pie that can't sustain all of them. Right now though: +3.

From a creative perspective, this is an interesting time. Video is new, so it still pushes me and I haven't found my voice just yet. There is still a journey to travel. On the other hand, my photography has stalled. The enjoyment has seeped away a little. I used to know that I did meaningful work. Now I wonder. -1.

[Christopher Crawford]

Used to make enough to live selling prints and licensing photos. This year, I've sold nothing. I still get constant requests for free work from wealthy companies. Knew the world was heading this way years ago, so I went back to school and got my masters degree in literature and began teaching English at a local high school after I finished grad school in 2012.

I have been asked to teach art a couple of times. I always refuse. My students are not from wealthy families; most are inner-city kids whose families have very little.

Selling them dreams of a career in a field that has been systematically destroyed by those who feel that creative people do not deserve decent lives would be immoral. A lot of these kids are incredibly creative and intelligent, but no one wants to hear what they have to say. I love my students and it pains me that art and photography have become hobbies for the rich instead of honorable trades that allowed a creative and intelligent man or woman to earn a respectable living.

[Eli Burakian]

Don't know if you're still taking comments but…

I'm a 0. I feel fortunate to have a salaried job doing photography at a college, however I'm not doing the type of photography that I want. Why won't people pay me to take pretty photos of mountains and forests?!

(Rob, good to see you're on here. Good luck with the studio. Lookin' forward to getting some family portraiture of us and the new baby in the new studio!)

[Tom Kwas]

Christopher Crawford said it all. I have a few friends that teach photography in college, but they refuse to tell people it's a viable career. Out of all the staffs of creatives I managed over the years, it's usually the people that came out of a two year trade school teaching photography, that are, if not 'miffed', then sort of "at sea" when they find out the options are few and 95% of the work available is soul-crushing e-commerce photography for a wage not enough to repay their college loans. Two year colleges have to stop teaching photography like it's a viable money-making alternative to nursing or car repair.

[Ed Waring]

Just on the edge of category 2 - 1/3 to 1/2 my earnings come from photography. My bread and butter is documentary style photography of events and my main work is events/award ceremonies (20+ per year) and weddings (5-10 per year). There are a smattering of other jobs that come in as well - portraits, location documentation etc. The rest of my income is made by music (I play in a band and work as a recording engineer) and a tiny amount freelance business and IT consulting.

I'd give it a +2/+3. I don't advertise so all my work is from word of mouth and personal contacts and it's steadily increasing each year. I have one major client for the events and awards and as their business expands they're taking me with them. The weddings come in at a steady rate from personal recommendation. I'm super happy with it at the moment! My rates are just above industry average and I haven't had to drop them (although they have remained the same for the last 2 years) Given my 'portfolio' career I don't feel the pressure to increase the amount of business I get and I don't feel like I'm competing with anyone else for business to be honest. My style of working is unique enough that my clients struggle to find anyone who can replace me to their satisfaction if I can't do a job and I'm quite honestly having a blast with it. It's exactly the right amount of work for me at the moment and it's also exactly the work I enjoy.

I forget who I heard say this but someone once told me the following three rules of freelancing:

1) Produce awesome work
2) Be on time (produce the work on schedule, respond to communications quickly etc)
3) Be a pleasure to work with.

Assuming that the work you produce is of a standard (and being able to understand the standard your clients require is a very useful skill) most companies will be happy with someone who can hit any 2 of the above! And sometimes even just one! If you can hit all three then I think you have a super good chance of getting and keeping work.

I'd also stress the importance of trying to be unique in your genre. Repeating work and getting recommendations is generally about clients employing YOU. A lot of photography/video work is actually kind of generic. Anyone of a certain standard can produce similar work and hit the brief tbh! Clients need to see something in you that makes them prefer you. That could be your attitude and demeanour, it could be an edge or quality to the work, it could be an ability to read through a brief and deliver something surprises and delights them as well as hitting their requirements. In the work I do I often try and deliver shots that will make the client laugh so they look forward to seeing my photos after an event. And those shots are often way off brief but they're the shots that get shared round the office and that people miss when I'm not working.

I'm continually trying to make art in the way that HCB or Elliot Erwitt made art when doing commercial work. One day I'll get close (nowhere near 99% of the time!) but in this world where there is so much average work being done it's still possible to stand out by just doing work that has a lot of YOU in it and by finding joy in the work rather than it being just a job.

[Crabby Umbo]

Kirk again, in the featured comments section, hits the nail on the head. It wasn't unusual for photographers to gross 100,000 to 200,000 a year in the 80's-90's (hell, I did in the 80's), but now, people are lucky to make 60-80K (and my experience with most of my pals is more like 40-50K). Problem is, making that little self-employed is walking a dangerous line. After the expenses of running a business, 50K gross isn't enough in most markets to pay for long term retirement funds, health care, etc., unless you're relying on a spouse to bring home all that bacon (and until he or she gets tied of funding your folly, kicks you out of the house, and marries someone with a regular job and a decent paycheck with their own benefits, and has a great life).

Amazingly, film, Polaroid, and processing didn't take up that much of your gross in the olden days, it was mostly studio overhead and insurance; but today, constant computer upgrades, equipment upgrades, and technology changes eat up a huge sum. I know a retoucher that went into retirement because his computer upgrades one year were going to be more than he made the previous year. Add into this the uncompensated time spent, in most markets, for working on your digital files (which is why I farm that out and pass on the bills), and there doesn't seem to be much financial reason to be a photographer.

One one the basic tenets of small business, is never use you own capital to finance a job for yourself that someone else would just pay you to do. The problem with most photographers is that they never separate that money from job enjoyment, and in this day and age, you could end up living under a bridge if you don't.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

@ Rob Brodman: You show some excellent creative work on your site, Rob. Surviving in one of the toughest creative markets in the US, and among the most expensive, is no small feat.

[kirk]

Did I mention that I had just finished a novel about a corporate PHOTOGRAPHER shooting a trade show in Lisbon in 1999? A wonderful tale of intrigue and suspense, dappled with a realistic portrayal of commercial photography at the time?

[So you're not going to tell us what it's called? —Mike]

[Steve Jacob]

Perhaps I have no place commenting here as I make zero directly from photography except on rare occasions. But I felt it worth pointing out that many professions have to struggle with change and undercutting. Photography took longer than most.

I have worked in IT for 30 years. It's a wide field, but requires many specialisations. Many of those have their bright moments, when you can make monster day rates for a few years, but then the next big thing comes along and you are back level pegging with the rest of the noobs fresh out of your latest training course.

Welcome to the new world, but next time you complain about ads on your free iOS app, remember that the guy who wrote it needs to earn a living too.

[Tom]

I'm at about +1 financially compared with the last couple of years as we slowly recover from recession. After 30 years in this business my income overall is about 30% of what it was at its peak 10 years ago and I don't expect it ever to improve beyond 50%. I love this work but if I was ten years younger I'd have to get out. I hope to at least finish on a little bit of a crest before heading off into an impoverished retirement. It was the world's greatest job, but those days were 20+ years ago.