A
Anonymous09/11/25, 23:23No.4467257Day Job Photographers
Anyone else here working a regular job/day job as a photographer? I've been working as a real estate photographer for a while and still do side jobs for things like corporate portraits/events, and I'm curious if anyone else on /p/ works in photography too.
29
Replies
A
Anon09/12/25, 00:32No.4467261
I do mostly weddings, but also adjacent stuff like engagement, family, boudoir, branding
First paid stuff was senior portraits and small concerts / events
A
Anon09/12/25, 05:14No.4467281
I have tried it but I discovered that I will lose my passion for photography if I keep doing this shit so I stopped doing it.
A
Anon09/25/25, 07:25No.4470477
> real estate photographer
are there any other photography jobs? this is the only one that comes to mind besides taking pictures of fashion models
A
Anon10/08/25, 23:34No.4473538
School photographer here
Oh yeah, you don't need me to confirm it but absolutely it sucks. But the facilitation involved in getting freelance clients is even worse for me.
That said, I'm glad I get to take portraits and I get to be semi-creative sometimes. I don't like nature/landscape/still-life photography as much, the human body and face are the most interesting possible photos to take for me.
I'm torn on the whole getting-to-work-with-kids thing. It keeps me young and can be very fun, but then of course, it can also be utterly infuriating, and you're always at the absolute bottom of the list of people the school cares about on any given day.
Also, I rarely think about photography outside of work. I love it and respect it, but I want to be a filmmaker really, so I almost never find myself taking photos for fun. Only at those fleeting times I really want to get serious about improving.
A
Anon10/12/25, 19:11No.4474334
It's been my job the past 15 or so years, over the past couple years though I've cut out the wedding work that I was becoming less and less fond of, and replaced it with more video work in the non-profit real estate / development space, and that's been going great. I'm procrastinating finishing an edit right now actually. But last year my income from videography crossed over to being more than my income from stills, so I'm chasing that growth because I think there's potential for a higher ceiling there. My stills work has gone from mainly corporate event capture, think conventions and conferences, to more headshots / portraiture and brand identity work, so more in the lifestyle space. I've been trying to level up my lighting capabilities and that's beginning to pay dividends.Number one thing is never get complacent, always focus on improving your skills and equipment. For a long time I didn't spend enough on my camera bodies, in part because I wasn't making that much, but I think it partially held me back because I was missing good shots because of poor autofocus and yadda yadda yadda. Getting a pro body meant there was no longer any excuse for blaming poor capture on bad technology. Now I have the best and only myself to blame. But legit the photos are better also and I have more time to focus on making good imagery.
A
Anon10/18/25, 21:41No.4475868
I think having it as a job is diminishing my enjoyment. Instead of loading up my gear on the weekend to drive around and see what I find, now it's just what I do every weekday and I'm pretty sick of it.
A
Anon10/19/25, 03:34No.4475928
I did, & it got boring AF. Then I pressed all my contemporaries to see what disciplines they were interested in personally outside of work. Only one actualky did photography at all outside of work, and she just shoots & prints large format macro shots of flowers. Yawn. Everyone, and I mean EVERY ONE, said if you want to pursue photo as an art, don’t do it professionally bc it absolutely kills your passion when it’s your day job. I followed their advice & do not regret it at all.