Before I started my wedding photography business, I did this photography thing for fun. I loved taking photos, I loved going to camera stores and just looking around. I loved editing, I loved taking photos, I loved sorting through photos.
It all becomes a little tricky when someone gives you money. It becomes really tricky when your passion becomes your job. Because money just makes things feel very different. When you volunteer you do it because, well, you want to volunteer. No one is going around forcing you to volunteer because well that's not volunteering. When someone pays you, there's a whole new level of expectation - and of course there is - they are paying you!
When you run a photography business, it's really easy, and sometimes necessary to take photos of things that well, you would not volunteer for. And that's okay because you're trading your skills for money. So what happens when your job is your hobby and your hobby is your job?
Well I found out the hard way. Because I started to hate photography. A few years ago I was almost ready to hang up my Nikon D750 (or it may have been my D610 at the time) and be done with the whole photography thing. Honestly, I was doing a lot of work that was making me feel CRAZY. And I no longer had much joy out of it. It was paying my bills and keeping me alive, which I was very grateful for. But all of a sudden I realized I had lost something that brought me a lot of joy.
I don't even know where I came across this, but it really changed things for me. I tried this new rule: FULL PRICE OR FREE.
No more discounts. You either do it for full price, or you gift it, and do it for free. I don't do discounts for my friends, I don't do a discount fee for my church. I do it for free, or I do it full price, or I don't do it at all.
And that rule was AMAZING. I no longer felt that obligation to give someone a 50% discount to shoot something I REALLY didn't want to photograph. Because when you do something like that, you're annoyed that your getting paid so little, and your annoyed that you're shooting it, so there is just a lot of being annoyed. But with "full price or free", you either get paid what you want to get paid, or you do it for free because you want to do it, and it brings a lot of joy. Speaking of my church, this past week I've been helping with a huge project, and I offered my time and skills for free. I was asked several times, "Are you sure? Are you sure you don't want to charge us?" And I said no, I'm doing it for free. Otherwise, it would strip all the joy away.
I don't tell you that because I'm some super giving person - no it was kind of selfish. Because it's been so fun. It's so fun to work on a project that you really believe in, and it's exciting to use your skills to make the world a better place. It takes me back to when I first got my camera in high school. I took photos of things because I wanted to take the photo. And you need that. I NEED THAT. I need passion projects that keep my head on straight. Projects that remind me of why I picked up a camera in the first place.
And I just finished a big passion project of mine. The whole process has been about 3 years in the making. I did a 365 project, where I took a photo every day for a year, and in working on this project there was an unexpected twist. I started shooting the city I live in, in a way that I didn't intentionally do, nor have I seen it done this way before. And it went from this half boring idea of a 365 project to a photo book idea. Well, half photo book, half pep-talk-essay kind of thing. It's called "How to Shoot (Toronto) Like an Artist". I'm really proud of it, the photos excite me. I also added a lot of words. So it's kind of like a mini book too. I just felt like the photos couldn't be there alone. I needed to tell the unexpected story of how the photographs came to be. So if you need a little pep talk, and a little inspiration, I think this book, or zine or whatever you call it might just do the trick.
And so that's how you keep yourself sane while being a photographer. You do things you want to do on the side. You do things for full price, free, or just say no.
Here's the book if your interested in a copy.
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