Considerations of Pursuing Photography Careers

Photography Tips

Making a career out of something that we love doing is something that all of us dream about. It wouldn’t be wrong to assume that many of us reading this are either beginners or enthusiasts in photography and would love to make a living out of it. But in reality, there are a lot of challenges that come with pursuing photography–some predictable, but most unseen. For those of us who are set on making it as a professional photographer, today we have the seasoned professional Kyle McDougall sharing his experience in this matter. He also talks about the pros and cons in this line of work and the struggles that he’s had to face in his own career:

One of the major drawbacks of pursuing photography as a career that McDougall highlights is burnout. Like anything else, if we continue taking photos as a part of our routine job, we’ll grow sick of it. This will have an adverse effect on our productivity and the enthusiasm that we have for photography. So much so that you may eventually want to quit.

“What you love doing can very quickly become less enjoyable.”

Also, when you take up photography as a career, it’s not only photography that you’ll be doing. As a part of the business, you’ll need to take care of other aspects like marketing, finances, client hunting, and deadlines among other things. These factors can drag you down and potentially bring down the quality of your work. Be sure to be prepared by coming up with schedules and timelines for yourself.

Another important factor that McDougall highlights is the monetization aspect. Invest time to study about whether or not the genre that you specialize in has a good customer base. For instance, a wedding photographer will have a high chance of succeeding and sustaining themselves in the market compared to someone who likes taking photos of random pieces of architecture. Check if your business is viable and if people are willing to pay for it.

On the bright side, there are quite a good number of reasons why it’s worth taking up photography as a career. For starters, you get the flexibility of scheduling your work as per your own priority and convenience. And unlike working for others, the prospect for scalability is much higher. This is to say that the harder you work, the better the returns will be. Also, by exploring various photo or video-related services to provide to your clients, you can drastically generate more returns.

If you’ve been planning to take up photography as your primary source of income, we highly recommend that you watch the entire video. The insights and experiences that McDougall shares will definitely help you out in the journey ahead.