I’d like to walk you through a typical day in my life as a pro photographer. It starts early, checking and replying to emails, updating social media and sending out and chasing invoices for previous work.
Once that’s done and coffee has been consumed, I make sure my kit is ready and go shoot for the day. In between travel to locations, I’ll field phone calls (hands-free of course) to set-up and confirm jobs and probably chase payments again. When the shoot is finished, I’ll head home, process images, send them to the client, back up the images and yes. . . you guessed it, chase payments again. If there’s any time left, I may write a feature or try out this strange and rare thing people called sleep.
Contrary to this image, there's little time to stand around
When you think about, a pro photographer is no longer just someone with a keen eye who presses a shutter button every now and again. Photographers are also now admins, marketeers, location planners, retouchers, drivers, accountants and of course, debt collectors. You can also add in videographer/video editor on the days when I’m shooting motion instead of stills.
There’s no mistaking, today’s photographers need an insane skills set to make it in the business. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job - it’s taken me to some amazing places and I certainly wouldn’t swap it for a regular nine-to-five. But the amount of time spent physically holding a camera has definitely decreased over the years. Thankfully, technology has caught up and is the key to enabling me to juggle these various tasks. Virtually all these jobs can be done using my phone, and/or laptop, so I’m certainly not confined to my studio. What’s more, learning these skills has become easier too. Years ago, you’d need books or a college course to sort your tax and learn how to invoice. These days websites supply the knowledge and even templates to help you prep documents and contracts.
Technology has helped pro photographers keep pace with demand
Plus, there is a side to me that likes all these extra duties. Working with the Adobe suite has led me to explore and improve my skills in both InDesign and Illustrator, giving me a solid foundation for moving into design, should I wish to. As photographers, we never stop learning, but this learning shouldn’t just be restricted to mastering exposure and composition. As I mentioned, I love shooting video and photography skills converge seamlessly into capturing movies, opening up more creative avenues.
Trying to shoot video and stills at the same time is the ultimate in multi-tasking
Will this 'do more, with less time' situation change? No, I think I’ll need to broaden my skills set even further as competition in the industry intensifies. But this is also an opportunity to learn even more skills. Perhaps I’ll run more workshop, speak at more events or present more in front of the camera instead of being behind it. Either way, I’m excited by what lays ahead. So, do you think too much is being asked of photographers or is this just the new normal?
. digitalrev.com2017-6-16 03:00