People have paid me money to take photographs since I was 18 years old. Today I shot photos of my son’s dog. I did it just for myself, for my own enjoyment, to keep my eyes and mind seeing.
For over 30 years, newspapers, magazines, corporate clients have said: Take a photograph of this. We’ll give you money.
That sounds like a dream-come-true to most amateur photographers. I’m constantly amazed at the numbers of people I meet who are attorneys or teachers or you-name-it, but they love photography. They’re smitten by the hocus-pocus of that little image-catching box, of sharing what they have seen and felt with others. Those folks almost always ask me the same question: “How can I make my living doing photography?”
And I nearly always answer: “Why the heck would you want to do that? Why take something that is enjoyable, that is your passion, and make it a job?”
When I was in college, a fellow student--older, wiser, and I think more experienced in the balancing act of combining art and commerce--said to me: “Keep photography fun.” Her admonishment (one of the best bits of advice I have even gotten) struck me at the time as very odd. I was a young Harry Potter and I had in my hands the magic box. How could this magic ever not be fun?
Well it’s not fun when one works for a newspaper and is assigned to photograph a grieving wife of a young soldier killed in war; it’s not fun when, day after day, your photographic subject is a killer or arsonist or drunk driver, being led by deputies down a courthouse hallway to a hearing. And it’s not fun when (newspaper job aside) one is freelancing for a company and the pay is really good but the assignment of the day is to photograph a self-important, fat, busy executive (you are granted 5 minutes to make the image) and oh, by the way, make the exec look dashing and dynamic and engaging or there are 100 other photographers the company could hire next time.
More often than not, however, the days were amazing: I have been assigned to photograph a retiree who volunteers time, helping teach illiterate adults to read, or an attorney who donates time giving legal advice to the homeless at a legal clinic. These days I am paid by wedding clients to document what might be the most emotional and momentous day of their lives; and I volunteer for a foundation that provides free photographs to families who have children with life-threatening diseases. Just the sheer, mind-boggling parade of humanity that has passed before me has been better than I could have ever hoped.
So my advice, based of 30 years of photography-as-a-job, is simple:
Get a dog. Take his picture. Keep it fun.
