This is from Nevada Wier's post about "Those 10 things I knew, or wished I knew, before becoming a professional photographer"
I've reposted her list. :
+ That photography is 80% about business, not photography. I really should have hung out with MBA students and not river guides and rock climbers (for potential boyfriends).
+ Just about everything that had to do with photography since I am self-taught—which means that the teacher knew very little.
+ It took me awhile to figure out that it was useless to try and photograph what I saw, since slide film can only render about four stops of contrast range, while my eyes could see about 16 stops. Really, I was just using reality to express my perception of it.
+ That there is a difference between marketing and business and you have to be great at both.
+ That many clients do not understand that photographers need to make a decent living also (especially non-profit organizations) and are always asking for free images. And, that it was never a good idea to give into these requests without some kind of compensation.
+ That one should buy a house young to build up credit and equity. Invest in yourself but also in other ways.
+ Those credit cards are essential, but evil.
+ That I should never have carried such heavy cameras bags or pack packs.
+ That computers would eventually rule my life (well, maybe it good that I didn’t know that actually)
+ That no matter how recognized I would become in photography, the phone would never ring on its own. I would have to hustle and reinvent myself all the time.
What are things you wish you knew before embarking on this career ?
I wish that I knew I was going to do this professionally back in high school and not several years after graduating from college getting a degree I'm not really using.
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