When I meet people for the first time, and tell them that I am a commercial photographer by profession, their eyes often light up because they think that my occupation must be nothing but exciting and glamorous. The truth is, I really wish it was. It can often be a lot of hard work, both physical and mental and, after a long day\u2019s shoot, it can leave you feeling drained in every sense of the word. It can also be very rewarding, the feeling when working in a creative industry on projects where you are able to put your artistic expression in control of things. But as an assignment photographer you are often being paid to shoot photographs of subjects that you don\u2019t necessarily admire, nor will the shots always result in images that will have a lot of \u201cWOW\u2019 factor for your portfolio.<\/p>\n
But being a commercial photographer also has many interesting and positive sides to it. A lot of what I enjoy about it are the learned experiences, the photographic interactions, the shooting locations, and the fun and interesting people I meet along the way. However, there are also what I refer to as the naughty-nine challenges one has to deal with. These are the 9 less glamorous aspects of being a photographer that I have encountered:<\/p>\n
1 \u2013 Waiting For Models –<\/strong> I often find myself on photo shoots waiting for models to be made-up and dressed for a particular shot. This takes time and slows down my work flow and overall productivity on a shoot. An unfortunate downside, but one that often you can do little to avoid.<\/p>\n 2 \u2013 Long hours –<\/strong> Sometimes shoots can go on for a long time, well beyond what most would consider a normal work day. Often there is a lot to cover in a short period of time and this is part of what can leave you drained after a shoot. At times you also have multiple day shoots with tight schedules where a long shoot that ends late is followed by an early morning start again the next day leaving you little time to rest in between shooting days.<\/p>\n 3 \u2013 Bad Weather –<\/strong> When you are scheduled for an outdoor shoot you often find yourself praying to the weather gods. If you are relying on a beautiful sky or nice daylight for your shoot then the fastest way to ruin things is bad, rainy, overcast weather. Unfortunately something you can\u2019t control and often shoots that are on a schedule can\u2019t wait another few days for the weather to improve when you are at a location with a team of people and the costs are running up.<\/p>\n 4 \u2013 Hot Or Cold Locations –<\/strong> Together with the weather you often can encounter extremely hot or cold working conditions. Both indoors and outdoors depending on the country and location you are working in. So you could be working for hours in a location where you are physically uncomfortable. Dust and dirt at a location can also be difficult to work in and a detriment to your equipment especially if you are shooting in industrial factories.<\/p>\n 5 \u2013 Equipment Failures –<\/strong> Camera equipment failures, blown lights, etc are terrible and can bring a shoot to an unexpected grinding halt. Equipment failures can also be very costly to both you and a client on a shoot if you are in a location that is very far away from a place where you can get equipment either repaired or replaced in time to complete the shoot.<\/p>\n 6 \u2013 High Output-<\/strong> In order to stick to a budget, clients often try to double the normal output in a day. This can be stressful because you find yourself rushing to do more in a day than what may really be feasible. Meanwhile you are expected to maintain the same level of high quality output even when you don\u2019t have the time you really need to perfect the shots to your own high personal standards.<\/p>\n 7 \u2013 Changing Light –<\/strong> Often when you are shooting outdoors in natural light, the light can change very quickly. This can be a detriment to the shoot if you are relying on a certain type of natural lighting to be present when shooting. Sometimes you have to shoot fast and are not able to always cover all the shots you wanted if the light changes too drastically.<\/p>\n 8 \u2013 Transport Problems –<\/strong> If you travel by airplane for some jobs with heavy amounts of equipment like I do at times then you can run into problems with the airlines because of baggage limitations on both total weight and number of checked bags. Other times bags can go missing on arrival. If your equipment doesn\u2019t show up in time for a shoot then that can be a big problem. But if equipment gets lost completely then you could be out many thousands of dollars too unless you are fully insured. Equipment can also get damaged in transport. That can be costly and hinder the ability to complete the job. Then the customs department in some foreign countries can be difficult to deal with when you are bringing in large amounts of equipment for a shoot. Lastly, when traveling with a lot of equipment, ground transportation logistics can be a problem when trying to move around with lots of cases of equipment in a foreign location.<\/p>\n 9 \u2013 Other Conditions –<\/strong> Sometimes, some of the other conditions at a shooting location may not be the most enjoyable either. There are times when I had to shoot in unsanitary remote locations and where sleeping conditions and availability of food weren\u2019t great either.<\/p>\n So if you really are considering becoming a full time commercial photographer it is worth contemplating all of the above challenges and whether you are fully prepared to shoulder them or not. It is a package deal with no going into it just halfway. And, unfortunately, you can\u2019t pick and choose to just have the fun parts and not deal with the rest of it. Loving photography is one thing and that is great fun, but unfortunately there is a lot more to being a professional photographer than just taking beautiful photos. So it is worth thinking it through carefully before you decide to try and turn the artistic passion your really enjoy into a full time career that you may not enjoy as much as you thought you might.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I meet people for the first time, and tell them that I am a commercial photographer by profession, their eyes often light up because they think that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Being A Photographer Isn't Always As Glamorous As It May Seem http:\/\/wp.me\/p3PR2v-kH","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[336,489],"tags":[491,493,22,494,255,490,492],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aspects-of-photography","category-photographer-insight","tag-glamorous","tag-hours","tag-photographer","tag-portfolio","tag-shoot","tag-stress","tag-tired"],"yoast_head":"\n