Can you still create images and work full time? I think you can. I have been doing it now for over three years and yes, it is exhausting but I still feel rewarded by making an effort to get out and create imagery. I have been in the photo business for 35 years and have been taking photos since my younger brother got a Polaroid camera for Christmas and I got a reel to reel tape recorder. When I saw that camera and the images he created, I knew that is what I wanted to do. So I would take his camera when he wasn't looking and shoot images I felt were interesting.
Working two jobs takes alot out of you and when you add in the hardest job you will ever have, raising a family, well, time management becomes so important in order to get everything accomplished. Success will come in little steps and small victories by being focused, disciplined and taking action.
Here are some things that help me:
- Shoot every week.
- Edit the images down to the very best
- Do post production on the images ie: cropping, color correcting and spotting.
- Caption and keyword your imagery. This is a must.
- Get them out to as many outlets as possible to make sales.
- Get a website of your own, I use PhotoShelter
- Have patience
- Have fun and don't get caught up in the newest and greatest. Don't take yourself too seriously. Just be yourself and enjoy family, friends and creating imagery you can be proud to share with others.
These are just a summary of what it takes. We all have our priorities. In the early 90s soon after the birth of our second child, my wife and I decided to sell our house and travel in an RV (our first child was grown and out of the house). I was lucky enough to have my wife's support and we traveled in that RV for ten years. We raised our second child in the motor home and she saw some of the great places this country has to offer. When we finally decided to settle back down in a house (she was turning thirteen and the RV was getting alittle crowded) our daughter mentioned one day that she wished we were back traveling! That made me grateful we had done what we did and took a chance and it paid off.
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