Expert: Don Wood - 9/8/2005

Question
Hello. My Name is Ashley. I currently have a project to do in my Photography class, concerning photography careers. We are supose to interview someone to ask them questions about thier career. Well, i would like to ask you a couple of questions, if u dont mind.

Your job description? Working description? Your salary range trends? Job outlook? Education & Training? Required/recommended skills and aptitudes? Equipment needed & price? 3 facts about your career? Why you choose this career? What advice would you give? And the hardest and funnist part?

Answer
I have a grand-daughter Ashley.
The more training you can get the better off you will be. What you learn in school, college, trade school will show your prospective employers that you are able to learn and are able to apply what you have learned to the work you're doing. There are many types of photographers, studio, wedding, portrait, commercial, travel, journalists, etc. All will have different standards of payment for the work you do. The same will go for what you will need in your equipment bag. The same with the price of the equipment you will get. You will get what you need. A camera that is used primarily for portraiture might not do for sports photography. If you go alone, you must be aware that there will be times of either feast or famine, either you have so much call for shooting that you can't get it done as timely as you'd like, other times you will sit around waiting and wondering if you'll ever get the money for the rent, food, etc. If you go alone, don't quit your day job, you will need it to pay your bills while you're getting established. This is a business of sentiment in most part. The slice of time when you take the Senior portrait, the wedding pictures, the parade, etc are all based on sentiment. In hard times when money is tight, this industry gets hit the hardest. When it comes to buying a picture service or buying food or gas, guess where the money will go.
Perhaps you'll get a job where someone else worries about getting the money, even then if they can't afford to have two photogs when they don't have enough for one to do, the one with the least seniority will get the boot.
Working with a difficult customer who thinks they know it all about photography is difficult. Photographing a cute kid at a wedding, being excited about it and the wedding couple won't buy it. Photographing a wedding couple in silhouette against the backdrop of a beautiful stained glass window and they say, I want to see my face.
You can understand the problem here, it is such a varied field that you can't break it down into what you'd like. You have to work with Studio photography and what they do, what they need, etc, or with Commercial, Sports, News, etc.
Hope I've helped somewhat. Please ask more defined questions. Salaries, pay, will vary all over the map depending on what your field is.
Thanks
Don