As promised, here is the link to my post on Rising Blackstar.
It’s for those considering turning professional. That’s just a fancy way of saying you want to do it full time to make a living.
It has nothing to do with owning and walking around with a “professional-looking camera.”
If equipment made it so, then all the rich folks with high-performance sports cars would be professional drivers, wouldn’t they?
If you have any comments, please leave them here as well after you read it.
Should Your Photography Remain a Hobby?
I’m very glad you told this story.
My nephew works as a sports writer at a newspaper in Indiana and recently my brother sent him a new camera. Why you might ask? (He’s the only one in the family not affected by the shutter bug) The newspaper laid off all but ONE of their photographers. If my nephew wants to include photos of his events he has to take them himself.
I can see the future where there will be virtually no staff photography positions. News outlets will rely more and more on freelancers and the Web to get their images. Even major bureaus: AP, NYT, WSJ are relying more and more on electronic communication and less on print. Luckily my nephew works in a smaller community where people still rely on the printed page to get their daily dose. Internet use in such rural communities is still rare but it’s growing by leaps and bounds. And with it’s advance wonderful as it is, we’re seeing the decline of the ways in which we traditionally get information.
For myself, my hobby will remain hobby. A few people have paid me for a some designs based upon my images, but nothing like being able to make a living at it. And I prefer it that way. For me my hobby is a relaxation and creative outlet to escape from a very stressful day job. I don’t want to interject stress into my hobby as well!
Thanks again for your writing!
Jude,
Thanks for sharing Jude.
When I left the newspaper 5 years ago, they had about 20 staff photographers. Today, they have 9.
A byproduct of digital is the mindset that anyone can take a good picture if they have enough memory cards. For the most part, if the picture is meant for ebay, that’s fine. But if it’s to illustrate something or to go with a story, then it will not be good enough.
I see a disturbing trend of mainstream print media using citizen journalists for pictures. The motivation is cost since their staff have been cut so severely.
That works until something happens when the credibility of the organization is called to question.
Here’s a great example when the Angeles Times used a picture from a dubious source on A-1!
They ended up running a correction.
Read my post on this: http://peterphun.com/blog/2008/07/19/is-a-mainstream-news-media-losing-too-many-good-people/