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03/23/2007 12:13:08 AM · #1 |
So I'm getting my degree in IT, but I'm already far from enthusiastic about that field. I think I would be able to tolerate a full time job as an admin, but the work that's available to me now is much lower level, and although it mostly pays better than the job I currently have (at Office Max - just a week and a half more to go though, yay), I don't think it's what I want to do... Is that a trend or what...
I find photography a lot more interesting and enjoyable, and I'd like to give it a shot as a full time job, over the summer.
Now, I'm still not sure exactly what I want to focus on and market myself as.
I have hardly any experience with portraits, but I think I could produce results that they would be happy with, even if they're not on anywhere near the level of Librodo's stuff, for instance.
I think architecture would be interesting, but on the equipment side I don't know that I've got it covered enough to give the clients good enough results.
For weddings, I do have a reasonable setup for available light work. That's what I'm thinking of doing, even though I find wedding photos a little boring. I do shoot film now, but I think a lot of people find B&W work with a classic look to be attractive, and although wet printing everything would be a lot of work for me, I think I might be able to charge enough to make it worthwhile.
For sports or photojournalism - I doubt any of the papers would even keep listening to me after I told them I shoot with a Leica rangefinder and a film SLR... and I just plain can't afford a DSLR with a good set of lenses yet.
Any suggestions on an area that I haven't mentioned, or other thoughts?
I guess going back to digital wouldn't be the end of the world, but there's a lot of photographers in this town and I think most of them do shoot digital, so other than the demand for immediate proof prints, I thinking doing all film wouldn't be too bad. I might be able to get a color enlarger and film processor from a guy I know, and even shoot color print, but I don't know... |
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03/23/2007 03:14:25 AM · #2 |
Glad you're getting an IT degree. Depending on your financial responsibilities, you may need to rely on that for income while building up experience in the BUSINESS of photography. Read  Skip's posts and others as well about that aspect, because like many creative careers, when you are working for yourself, your time is spent MUCH more on the business side than the creative side. You can be the most talented artist of any kind, but wallow in abject poverty if you can't manage marketing, sales, accounting and taking out the trash.
Best of luck to you though! |
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03/23/2007 08:41:40 AM · #3 |
YOu need the tools to do the job - so if it's weddings or PJ or what have you, get the gear and then get the work.
It'll take you 3 to 5 years to make a living at it, unless you get lucky and that's on the rare side.
Problem with making a living is like Art said, 40% of your workday is spent on on-photo activities (marketing, sales, meeting with clients, accounting, etc).
So if you do 25 weddings a year and get $3000 per (both above average numbers BTW) that's $75 grand! BUT wait - 30% of that will be the materials you sell (prints, web galleries, albums, etc) leaving ou about $50 grand. My home based wedding/port biz is chewing thru $1200 a month in expenses (new gear, phone/internet/ advertising, etc) so now you're down to $36,000. Of that, since you self employed, the feds get tax, the social security (FICA) is doubled, so 30% in taxes is low, 40% high...again, 1/3.
So you make $24,000. Might sound like a lot to you now, but it's not a living wage.
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03/23/2007 01:56:26 PM · #4 |
Thanks for the replies. Yeah, 25 grand is crap, not very encouraging... heh
Anyway.. I'm thinking now, since I live within driving distance of so much awesome terrain and landscape opportunities, maybe I can get whatever will let me get the best high-res files and try to sell a bunch of landscape work as stock.
I don't know how that would work out, but it would let me make great prints also, so maybe I could sell those more regularly if I could get affiliated with some of the galleries or something here.
I still don't know if it would be more practical to go with digital and a tilt/shift lens and tripod setup for panaromics, or just large format film and a good scanner. I could blow through the space on the card with a bunch of variations on composition and stuff with digital, and maybe increase stock sales, but... a good 4x5 image scanned at 4000dpi would probably make the stock agencies pretty happy, and the buyers too.
Eventually I'd like to get into commercial contract work and stuff like that, like shooting for promotional publications and advertisements, but that is a long way off and I expect to have to work for a few years full time before I can start that. |
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03/23/2007 02:55:46 PM · #5 |
If you want to have fun at it, you have to shoot what you want to shoot. I've got two good friends that make a good living off photography and here is how they did it.
One is a company photographer for a very large company shooting events and what not. Makes a good living and loves his job. That would be just a matter of applying for and getting the right job.
The other started as a fine art print guy and now gets contract jobs to shoot this and that, makes money off stock, and has opened a photographer hang out where people can rent studio time, print their work, attend classes he puts on and even display in his gallery. he seems to be doing quite well. He got his start applying to art shows and fairs. He sold some prints, people picked up his card and called him for contract work... One thing led to another and now he's doing great and loving it. His advice is to hit the art shows as hard as you can.
Or take that IT job and keep photography as a hobby to escape your day job. That's the boring easy safe route, but doesn't sound like what you want.
Good luck on what ever you chose! |
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03/23/2007 03:04:36 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:
... Of that, since you self employed, the feds get tax, the social security (FICA) is doubled, so 30% in taxes is low, 40% high...again, 1/3.
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Not to quibble with your numbers (because I think you are posting a good lesson about how hard it is to live on photography), but nobody really pays the actual % tax in their bracket. I'm in the top tax bracket and paid, in actuality, somewhere between 10-15% of my income directly in tax.
But still, living on photography is not something you are going to set up in a summer. I'm starting to do gallery work and am hoping that it will produce $20,000 a year by the time I retire in 30 years...
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03/23/2007 03:42:50 PM · #7 |
| I don't need to make a living from it quite yet, I still live with my parents and if I can do something I enjoy and still make enough to save up a few grand to move out and still get some new equipment here and there in the next year I'll be happy. |
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04/15/2007 01:07:00 PM · #8 |
| Article on women starting photography businesses in today's NY Times (may require free registration). |
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04/15/2007 01:59:55 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by DrAchoo:
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:
... Of that, since you self employed, the feds get tax, the social security (FICA) is doubled, so 30% in taxes is low, 40% high...again, 1/3.
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Not to quibble with your numbers (because I think you are posting a good lesson about how hard it is to live on photography), but nobody really pays the actual % tax in their bracket. I'm in the top tax bracket and paid, in actuality, somewhere between 10-15% of my income directly in tax.
But still, living on photography is not something you are going to set up in a summer. I'm starting to do gallery work and am hoping that it will produce $20,000 a year by the time I retire in 30 years... |
I;m not sure the tax bracket dollar ranges. The common figure thrown out is 1/3 - my album rep and a wed photog (and a but of a cynic overall) talks 'shoot a wedding for $2400 and 1/3 comes off the top for taxes' - and that's not accurate. My latest booking was $2400 - and 550 of that is direct costs (assistant, albums, prints, etc) leaving $1850. Of that you have overhead...depends on what that is ($ wise) of course, but if it's $15,000 a year and you do 30 weddings, $500/wedding, so $1350. of that you get your personal deduction, etc. If you end up with $35,000 in personal income and have kids, med or mortgage deductions, etc you really only pay tax on maybe $20,000 - and I doubt the tax rate on $20,000 is 30% - 10-15% is probably more like it.
Two points: It's more tax than when you work for someone else, and a lot more bookkeeping too. And except for accountants, I don't think anyone likes to do bookkeeping!
Second one being it's easy to see 'Hmm..$2400 times 30 weddings, and I only work 8 hours for that $2400! Awesome!'
My reality: 23 hours DIRECTLY to a wedding, and then marketing, bookkeeping, bridal shows, etc. I spend a quite a few hours a week on this 'fun' stuff. Add in ordering products (prints, proof boxes, frames) unpacking the UPS stuff, burning back up CDs, fixing computers, cleaning the studio - all the mundane things - and as a one man show you get, umm, lonely I guess is the word, and it's not as much fun as you dream it to be - it's a job. But it's not work.
Message edited by author 2007-04-15 14:06:17.
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04/15/2007 02:58:09 PM · #10 |
| Whoa. Just saw this thread and I warn against the IT field. I basically got out of IT since it was so hard to find work between programming and development type jobs going overseas and a dearth of candidates for the the remaining jobs which amount to tech support aka I'll-be-there-in-5-minutes-to-unjam-your-printer. |
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