Photography is such an important part of the culture of a small town, but it is the most underpaid sector of the field. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to explain to a fellow photographer why it’s important to them that they have a professional photography salary. The fact is, there isn’t a lot of money in photography by any conventional measure.
The reason for that is that there are lots of people who can do photography for free. When I say free, I don’t mean free to the photographer or a client; I mean free to the photographer and his or her audience. A photographer’s salary should be determined by the artist’s creativity. Whether that creativity is captured in a still image, a full-frame film, a frame from a video, or a painting – the photographer’s salary should reflect that creativity.
I just want to put this out there, but I could not agree more with this statement from the New York Times. The question for the salary is how much time do you spend on your photography and how much is it worth? Do you spend too much time on it, and do you spend too little time on it? This is a great question for all of us and it is something I hope all of us can answer.
Photography is a creative endeavor and a lot of what we do is actually creative. For example, one of the most time-consuming aspects of creating art is taking a series of stills and putting them together into a full-frame image. We also spend a lot of time on the art of editing and post production because it requires a team of people.
For this reason, most people who work with their digital images make a lot of money from this, as well as the other creative endeavors. We all make a lot of money and I don’t mind telling you that it is incredibly difficult to make a living from a creative endeavor. It can be hard to find clients willing to pay for your art, and to be on the other end of that equation can be a huge headache.
Well that and there’s a lot of pressure to get your photos that are in perfect or “almost perfect” condition. This doesn’t always happen. And even if it does happen it can take a long time. A lot of the time the people involved in post production aren’t even the people who actually have to take the photos, they’re actually contractors working for the client.
A good example of this is when I was working on a project for a small, independent, boutique studio that dealt with print and advertising, etc. I spent a lot of time with the art director and some of the other artists on their projects, but we also spent a lot of time in the office. We would meet every two or three weeks to discuss projects, ideas, and how things were going. That was our office.
The studio was a small, independent, boutique company, and the art director was the one who really oversaw the day-to-day. He was responsible for the entire production, and every day was crucial. His job required him to spend a great deal of time in the office, which is why I was so shocked when I found out that they pay contractors such a high salary.
I’m not sure what a “commercial photography salary” is. I know that I’ve seen it on the internet. According to the web site, it is a salary paid to a photographer from the photographer’s home town, not a company paid out of his own pocket. Apparently, the salary is paid by a company based out of Phoenix, and since I don’t live in Phoenix, I’m completely unable to verify this information.
I guess it could be a small town that hired someone from the other side of the country to work at their company office so they could get the same job that they had in their own town.