Quote o' the Day: Gordon Cahill

"I'm a full-time photographer. That means I spend nearly 10% of my time taking photographs."

—Gordon Cahill

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[Gordon commented on the "Diversions" post. Truer words.... This is a big shock for a lot of people when they first innocently "turn pro." —Ed.]

Posted by: Mike
(Thanks to Gordon)

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Comments

[MikeR]

I have thousands of images still on film that I want to cull, and scan in to work with. I have many thousands of digital images from 2001 onward to work with. I have a stalled project involving a number of glass negatives that I'll get back to eventually. Once I free myself from a time-consuming volunteer non-profit role I somehow stumbled and fumbled my way into, I need to get back to addressing my Lightroom catalog with a vengeance. There are prints to be made, and boxes of good paper beckoning. And it's all "photography." Frankly, I could lock up all my cameras and lenses and throw away the key, and still be working on "photography" for the rest of my life.

I guess my point is, maybe photography is not only about the camera.

[Phil Ledwith]

It's only when someone else points this out that you realise how true it is. Even when I did my degree no-one teaching the course really covered the 90% that really makes up what you do as a professional, and that was a course in commercial photography. I expect if you really thought about it you might not carry on, maybe....

[Richard Man]

This is from a troll commenter from our local paper's forum:

"Artists tend to be egoists. That is what it is, but why should they demand external support? Starving artists make better art. They don't need patrons...they need calluses and suffering. "

[louis mccullagh]

It is fun explaning to clients that your charges are for the 10% PLUS the other 90% as well.

[Ian Hunter]

As much as 10%? As a pro teacher, photographer and now picture framer I've never managed as much as that.

[Darlene Almeda]

The quote above can be applied to many types of businesses/professions, not just photography. In the end, it is all about running a business that provides a service or a product. This is why so many photographers fail in the business of photography; they are not good business people.

[kirk tuck]

figure out the businesses target demographic, compile and vet a mailing list, an e-mail list and a score of social marketing outlets, create mailable print materials for marketing, label, sort, mail, follow up, write blog posts, write solicitations for new work from existing clients, research new features or options to offer, call to arrange portfolio shows, take a break to deal with endless rejection, break over --- call some more, compute sales tax, compute federal taxes, send e-mail marketing, remove people from list who request unsubscribe, go to lame happy hour to meet possible new networking connections, have phone meetings with the small percentage of people that the marketing worked with. Eliminate most for "no budget" "all rights" "basic asshole" categories. Send estimates to whomever is left over. Negotiate. Send new estimate. Scout location. Phone meeting about wardrobe and props. Call to find if there are any freelance assistants still standing who can be hired. Go on job and actually shoot photographs. Return to office to unpack. Pay assistant. Convert images and globally color correct. Edit down to keepers. Make a web gallery of keepers and send to client. Phone meeting with client. Return to computer and make a separate web gallery for each executive photographed. Resend. Phone meeting with client to get selections and instructions about selections. Client uses URL address for each image on web gallery, go back into gallery and reconcile file numbers to URL numbers. Painstakingly retouch and color correct selected images. Prepare retouched images in several popular formats and upload to client. Phone meeting with client to explain how to download files from WeTransfer, Dropbox, etc. Phone meeting to explain why tiff files are big. Write invoice and add invoice to office accounting system. Phone meeting with client to explain why they must pay sales tax. Archive finished, retouched images to DVDs and big hard drive. Archive raw images to second HD. Phone meeting with client accounting department to explain to them why they must pay sales tax. Wait thirty days, resend invoice, follow up with phone calls. 60 days later deposit check and realize just how many hours of behind the scenes stuff you invested for a small payoff. Start drinking hard in the middle of the day and ruminating about why you chose a career in the arts? Sober up and start all over again on the next one.

[Steve Darr]

Redwall, by Brian Jacques, is a series of children's fantasy novels. It is the title of the first book of the series, published in 1986, as well as the name of the Abbey featured in the book and the name of an animated TV series based on three of the novels (Redwall, Mattimeo, and Martin the Warrior), which first aired in 1999. The books are primarily aimed at older children. There have been twenty-two novels and two picture books published. The twenty-second, and final, novel, The Rogue Crew, was posthumously released on May 3, 2011.[1]

[Jim Schley]

As a freelancer for a decade, yes I feel "free" in the sense that I can deflect my multiple clients for a morning for writing time, "my time," and yet when I do my quarterly tax deposit the main sensation I have is of having been skewered on that ol' free LANCE.