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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Change is in the air
Hal Smith, Photographer
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Sedalia | MO | USA | Posted: 6:20 PM on 06.12.08 |
->> With the problems being faced by newspapers, how many working photojournalist are thinking about making a change.
For me; the job is just a job. I didn't feel that way 18-years-ago when graduated from college. |
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Erik Markov, Photographer
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Kokomo | IN | | Posted: 7:10 PM on 06.12.08 |
->> Hal,
I think you're right, things do seem to be changing dramatically. I've been doing this 11 years, its been long enough so I've had some of that euphoria also wear off since college.
Newspapers are defnitely facing problems. But in looking around at my family/friends and how they're doing, I don't see where they are feeling any more secure necessarily because they are in different professions.
I don't say this to try and talk anyone out of leaving newspapers or photography. Everyone has to do what's best for them. But for me, looking around at how other people are doing in their jobs, no one feels very secure with the way the economy is.
Between the economy and gas prices, I tend to get this general sense that everyone is kinda hunkering down, hoping to wait this out. I don't know that that is really possible, I get the feeling the U.S. is in a for a protracted feeling of malaise.
I think about leaving sometimes for something that could make me more money or I think might make me happier, but when I look at my other options, I don't feel like I'd be any more secure.
I do get *&^% about the job, quite often sometimes. But the one thing I've realized is that I have a lot of say in what my photos will be and how they'll look. And while I want more money, I know people who would pay a lot of money to go to some of the assignments I get on a regular basis. I know a lot of friends who are looking for at least a little of that kinda control in their lives.
I've also been told I must be on crack and I don't know what I'm talking about. On more than one ocassion, on more than one subject. |
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Steven E. Frischling, Photographer
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Live HVN : Work SFO-NYC | | | Posted: 10:21 PM on 06.12.08 |
->> I left newspaper to pursue other photographic opportunities. I miss news. I miss shooting for wires, I love wires, I love how wires operate, I loved the challenge. If there was a viable opportunity to return to shooting for a wire I would in a moment.
I look at newspaper jobs and there is no way I could ever return to one and support my family. As much as I love it and I miss it and I crave it, I can't make a living at it the way the current environment is.
A byproduct of my shooting has turned to travel. In turn, while I am not a travel photog but a photog who travels, my blog (http://www.flyingwithfish.com) generates quite a bit of traffic and has gained significant national and international exposure, without generating a single dime. The need to generate income, and desire to make life easier for my family, has caused me to to spawned a side business to be launched next week for strategic travel logistics to maximize corporate travel while reducing the overall costs of corporate travel.
......I'll still shoot full-time and have no plans to not be a full-time shooter. |
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Jeff Loy, Photographer
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Hurst | TX | USA | Posted: 11:22 PM on 06.12.08 |
->> I was only in journalism for three years when I left in 2000 for what I thought would be a temporary career change to advertising work.
When I considered getting back in a couple of years later, I kept hearing the same message from editors: "This business is really changing." I decided to stay with studio work and even though I really missed journalism greatly (and still do), I think I made the right choice as I watched newspapers go even further downhill. I have an enormous amount respect photographers that have stayed the course, but I just couldn't do it and didn't want to put my family through it.
After eight years of advertising and corporate work, I've moved on to web work with a little photography thrown in. I'm starting to see advertising heading in same direction and I don't know if it will recover.
I read an interesting article in Rolling Stone a couple of weeks ago, titled "Rock's New Economy: Making Money When CD's Don't Sell" (http://tinyurl.com/6ch7s2). It's about how bands are evolving as the record industry is changing (and some say dying). Instead of depending on record sales they're moving towards licensing their work for commercials and other alternative revenue streams.
Evolving in the face of change...maybe that's a message that more photographers should subscribe to.
But to quote Dennis Miller, "..of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." |
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Curtis Clegg, Photographer
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Belvidere | IL | USA | Posted: 8:44 AM on 06.16.08 |
| ->> Thanks Jeff that Rolling Stone was a good read. |
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Thomas Boyd, Photographer
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Eugene | OR | USA | Posted: 1:41 PM on 06.16.08 |
->> I have a friend in the tire business. They just suffered layoffs. I have a friend in the heavy equipment business...layoffs there. I have a friend who was in the mortgage business...notice I said WAS. I have a friend in the dental business...no layoffs yet, but they are seeing a major downturn in business. Evidently, people let their teeth go longer in a downturn..who knew.
We are living through a downturn in the economy. It's not the first time newspapers have laid people off. Nearly every sector of business is suffering... except oil and weapons companies.
Moving out of newspapers into another profession may or may not create a more stable job outlook for you. |
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