Working Photographers all started out experimenting with their cameras long before the thought of making money from it. After a while there is a realisation that just maybe this new passion and skill set could be used to bring in an income.
The initial buzz and excitement from creating photos for ourselves is then slowly taken over by the need to work for others, create for others and follow a brief. This is all part of being a working photographer and something we do all sign up for. Those initial early days of excitement and wonder at producing images to satisfy only yourself is lost somewhere in the transition from keen amateur to full time working pro.
Clients like you to follow a brief, but they also appreciate your own input and creative approach to an idea. That’s why for us photographers it is very important to keep up personal work and projects. This keeps our mind plugged into the creative purpose that we loved and enjoyed in the early days of our photographic discovery.
February sunrise, St Ives, Cambridgeshire
For me, I am lucky enough to be living in a beautiful part of Cambridgeshire and so get the opportunity to be taking photos of the landscape in and around St Ives. Just me, my camera and my ideas. Photos to satisfy the soul. No pressure. No deadlines.
In the past I decided to visit Nepal with my camera and specifically document the work of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology (TIO). In those early years they were working with The Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF), Australia. TIO’s key role is to help refine and adapt a practical, safe, and affordable technique of intraocular lens implant for cataract surgery in developing countries. It was an amazing experience to photograph at close quarters the help that was provided to the Nepalese people.
Exhibitions of my photos from this self-commissioned assignment helped to raise funds for the organisation.
I do think it is beneficial for those booking photographers to not only look at their business portfolio but to also search out the images they have taken for the pure joy of the medium. It may just give a broader view of the photographer and what they are capable of. It could just provide you with that something extra special you have been looking for.
Plane landing at Lord Howe Island
Man waiting for cataract operation, Kathmandu