11.9.09 Diary Post With An Explanation About My Harley @macgroup Tweet
So this is some information will be useful to anyone going to pursue a career in photography. I have been working myself to death for nearly a decade, and it doesn’t matter how good you are, how professional you are, or what your portfolio looks like. There are only two things that matter for a professional photographer that want to seek more work than weddings. Side note, I in no way look down on wedding photographers in fact I respect them greatly. Some of my best friends are wedding photographers and they have a very difficult job. The basis of my statement remains in the fact that brides and grooms are not magazine editors. Brides and grooms hire a photographer based on what style they like and are far less critical than magazine editors and advertising professionals, in laymen’s terms the people that hire you for a wedding are not imaging professionals, and don’t look at things like media dexterity and color consistency.
Scott Kelby himself once told me on the phone “You are better than 95% of the photographers out there, you just don’t have the right friends”. So, one of the things you need to be successful is connections. Bottom Line, if you want to be serious about going into high end photography, you need to be in a major market like New York City, Los Angeles, or Miami by the time you are ready to attack this level of work. Our market has become one in which every time you say your a photographer, a potential client will more than likely assume you are someone who went out and bought a camera, taught yourself a little (enough to be dangerous to the client) and called yourself a photographer.
If you plan on working as a staff photographer at a magazine or a corporation you will more than likely not even get an interview if you do not have a degree. With the world having rolled over to a full out internet screening process for new applicants, chances are your portfolio will never even be considered for viewing if ten people before you have a degree, even if they have no vision and you only have three credits left to finish yours.
Not that I desperately want to be a staff photographer anywhere, but I have decided I don’t want to struggle with bills any longer so I will be seeking out any grants and scholarships I can find to go back and finish a BFA just before moving on to a MFA in photography. I will basically do anything short of selling my soul to make this happen, all while continuing to work and seek out new work as I always do. My portfolio will continue to grow as new work comes along and I progress through the degrees.
As far as the Mac Group tweet is concerned, I have to apologize to them. The tweet read “@macgroup literally just cost me a harley because my meter isn’t back yet.” The information is true, I did in fact lose a Harley Davidson because I did not have my meter back yet however it is not the fault of the Mac Group themselves. I do not have my meter back yet due to a miscommunication between myself and an employee of the Mac Group where I misunderstood what I was being told so many months ago. It was my understanding that this individual was going to call and approve the repair for me, but I seem to have misunderstood. My apologies for the hasty, and public remark.
