Hard road to success
But what many people don’t know is that behind the flashing lights and fancy passes, this is one tough business to crack. You not only need a lot of confidence but also some street smarts with a dash of sarcasm. In this kind of business, not only are you sometimes taking pictures of things you don’t like but you are also forced to grit your teeth and smile throughout the shoot, even when your models may be as thick as an elephant or if you have a prima donna client who pays you peanuts and thinks you are their personal slave for the day.
Like most careers, the bad is countered by the good. One of my favourite moments when I started out was being invited to Chill Out in the artists lounge, just chatting away with them. Moments like these are what make my job one of the best ever.
24/7 pressure
It’s all about networking. As Steven C. Price, a fellow photographer puts it, “Seeing the world through a camera lens and the amount of people you get to meet and see and the smiles and lives you and touch is the most rewarding part of being a freelance photographer”.
Steven is spot on because the simplest act of a little child thanking you after a photo shoot can do wonders for your day. What a lot of clients or individuals don’t understand is the unrelenting stress we get from work. We don’t have the 8-hours-shift type of job; we are basically open 24/7 and even though we do control most of our time and day, what a lot of people forget about is the time-consuming process of editing; editing does not just take an hour for a 100-image shoot.
Lessons of the game
Not every pricy-camera-toting person who points and shoots is a photographer, but they can be. 23 year-old eclectic independent graphic artist Ariya Behjat shares his insights on being a freelance photographer.
“In my opinion, there is no really good or bad photographer. However, in order for one to earn the title ‘photographer,’ they need to realize a few things: 1) I am the composer, not my camera; 2) post manipulation proves my imperfection; 3) this camera is a part of my arm; it is not a second nature; 4)
my subjects are not clients, they are my partners; and last but not least, 5) money is but a byproduct.”
Reality check
A lot of photographers I know who started out as a freelancer are quite the heavy into their field of choice now, and a lot of them would agree that in the long run sometimes you lose sight of your ground and your ego tends to guide you along instead. But then you get those moments of clarity which just jolt you back to earth and remind you that you are only human and nothing can last forever, except for your images.
I think the final word should belong to noted photographer David Alan Harvey: “Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like”.
