How to Turn Your Photography Hobby Into a Career? Free Essay Example

Imagine if you could only choose between a few jobs to have for the rest of your life. You probably wouldn’t love what you do because of the minimal number of choices. Not doing good research on your career is very similar. It’s important to research a prospective career before choosing one because without good research options will be limited. There are multiple ways good research can be beneficial such as finding the right colleges and knowing what classes to take.

With being a photographer there are many specific jobs you can choose from like scientific, wildlife, events, etc. If someone does not enjoy taking pictures of people at events, but still loves photography, they should look into a job where they work with animals or nature. Researching the requirements, salary, and location of the career you want will help you decide what’s best for you.

The first important factor you should look into while researching a career is the requirements.

It’s important to know what classes you have to take, what college you should go to if you need to, and what training you’ll need. For photography, you need to have a high school diploma or equivalent. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, most people who are going into photography as a profession take classes or get their bachelor’s degree to help improve their skills. Taking photography classes in high school or college can help you learn how to take better photos and teach you how to use the equipment.

This is important to know while researching for a career because it can help you decide if that is the job you want to pursue. Long-term on-the-job training is needed to become a photographer. Many photographers are naturally good at taking pictures, but start out as a professional photographer’s assistant to learn more and build their skill level (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Being an assistant to a professional photographer consists of providing customer service, editing photos, and distributing the photos. These jobs will help you with your future career in photography. To become a photographer, you must have important qualities to be good at photography such as artistic ability, business skills, computer skills, customer service skills, interpersonal skills, and be detail oriented (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Photographers typically have these skills and can take great photos and handle customers well. Having these skills makes a photographer’s job much easier.

Secondly, while researching information about your future career, it is important to know the salary of the specific job you’re looking for. There are three levels of salary in the photography business. Entry level earns $9.54 per hour, mid-level earns .35 per hour, and senior level earns $36.72 per hour (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Photographers can earn anywhere from $19,400 to $75,080 a year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that in May 2018, the median hourly wages for photographers in the top industries in which they worked were in broadcasting, photographic services, and newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers. Broadcasters earn about $21.89, publishers earn $20.86, and you can earn $14.21 if you work in photographic services. In order to earn mid-level or senior level pay, you must be a photographer for so many years. To earn mid-level pay, $16.35 an hour, you have to work as a photographer for 5 to 10 years. To earn senior level pay, you must have 10 to 20 years of experience as a photographer (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Some advancement opportunities you get with working as a photographer are you can advance to different jobs and receive more money. These jobs include camera operator, art director, and photography professor. A camera operator’s median pay is $53,550 a year, art directors earn $92,500, and photography professor’s earn $66,930. If you are looking for higher pay to support your financial needs, these might be good jobs for you.

The last important factor to look into while researching a career is the location. It’s important to know where the job you are looking for is located so you know if that’s a good job for you. Photography is a job that can be found in most states, but there are some states that have more jobs than others. In May 2018, California, Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia had the highest employment for photographers (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Each of these states had 1,120 to 6,060 new jobs available. Most of these states are big states that have large cities with many people. So if you are looking to be a photographer, it’s best to live in a bigger city where you’ll find many customers. For many people, this won’t be a problem, but if you don’t want to live in a city it would be better to look into another type of photography job. Although there are many states that have lots of jobs available in the photography field, there are also states where it would be very hard to find business. Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, West Virginia, Delaware, Vermont, and Maine had the lowest employment in May 2018. Only 80 to 120 jobs were available in these states (Bureau Of Labor Statistics). With such little job opportunities and demand for photographers, it would be very hard to find business. There are also many people employed in Ohio alone. According to Ohio Means Jobs, there are currently 5,720 people employed in photography. There are lots of jobs located in Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, and Dayton. There is 330 job openings in Ohio each year (Ohio Means Jobs). This means that there are many photography job opportunities available in Ohio. With so many openings each year it would not be very hard to find a job that has decent pay.

In conclusion, looking deep into the career you want to pursue is very important. Doing lots of good fact-finding and looking into topics such as the requirements, salary range, and location for your career will help you find the most reliable job around. Requirements are important to know so you know what training and education you’ll need. The salary of the career you are looking to go into is important because it’s good to go into a career that can support you financially. Finally, the location is a major topic to look into because if the job you want to have is in another state and you are unable to move there then it would be best to look for another job.