Is Photography a Good Career? This is the age of selling skills and showing creativity through your work. It could either be any special knowledge, any technical skill or art. Photography is one of the demanding skills of the modern world.
It is a versatile art that can be exhibited beautifully in many ways, at the same time it is a technical skill that needs training and experience to balance its both artistic and technical aspects. Hence holding a camera does not make everybody a good photographer.
People practice photography as a hobby but when love for a hobby grows to an increased extent, they opt for it as a profession, same is the case with photography.
Choosing any career must give a satisfying answer to this question, Can it provide adequate money for a living?’ It also depends on the selected photography niche. Considering the current scenario of the job market, choosing photography might not be a wise decision because of many factors.
However if someone loves it, instead of making it a full-time career, it can be taken as a part-time-employment. Let’s take a look at those factors.
Analyzing Market Demand
Away back, taking a photo was a difficult task but with the evolution of digital cameras and mobile phone cameras, it is not very hard.
The market is already overly saturated so earning recognition in this field needs a lot of hard work and dedication, otherwise one may not be able to stick to it. Beginner photographers have to compete with a constantly growing crowd to make their position.
Unstable Earnings
Picking a demanding niche in photography is very significant, instead of following your heart, as this is a field of unsteady income.
For beginners, catching regular clients is not a piece of cake and retained customers are not ready to pay much. People do not value your work and it is quite hard to find reliable customers. There could be weeks and months without earning a single penny.
Attracting and Retaining Customers
Gaining and retaining customers is a challenging task, one has to face. This is the era of digital photography with high demands from customers’ end.
You need to keep on learning new techniques and cover trending aspects to make a distinctive style that attracts customers’ pool. This can be done by reviewing renowned photographers’ work and adding your unique selling point.
Expensive Equipment Demand
Photography is a service-providing job but it demands a handsome amount of investment before taking a start. Expensive cameras, lights and many other accessories and tools are essentials for this profession thus arranging them for a beginner photographer or student might not be easy.
Moreover, there is always a risk of equipment breakage or spoilage, especially while outside photography where wind, rain, dust and other factors might damage them.
There should always be an arrangement of extra equipment of the same quality to avoid any unexpected delays. A photographer should keep his tools updated as well because lacking in latest equipment is equal to lagging.
The crux of all is that opting for photography as a primary source of income might not be a good decision because of the market conditions, unsteady earning issues, customer-related and other problems.
To earn a decent living in a photography career, one needs a lot of consistency, commitment and dedication because it is a challenging industry for beginners. Apart from making it your core profession, it can be practiced as a side business or part-time job.
Once you get stable and become successful, even then you need to be always introducing creativity to sustain in this hugely crowded industry.
