Day in the life of
Photographer – Allison Roche
Every day for me is wildly different and some days are spent without ever looking at a photo. There’s so much backend work to running a photography business that no one thinks of.
My typical day
A couple of hours in the morning catching up on email and client communication. This usually involves answering initial inquiries, preparing contracts and proposals, scheduling sessions, going over details for upcoming sessions (start time, location, contact information), answering questions, going over wedding day timelines, communicating those timelines to my second photographer, and creating a to-do list for her at our upcoming wedding(s).
Most days, I spend time culling and editing photos, preparing photos for social media, and delivering photo galleries. If I’ve just delivered a wedding gallery, I’ll prepare to send photos to vendors involved in that particular wedding, and potentially write and prepare a blog post featuring that wedding.
At least part of every day is spent on behind the scenes tasks necessary to keep my business running. Today, I’m gathering receipts and serial numbers of all the equipment and gear I’ve purchased lately to add to my insurance policy, I’m ordering new memory cards and batteries, charging batteries and formatting memory cards to prepare for my sessions this week, and planning some educational content to highlight on social media.
Pros
There are certainly companies that hire photographers, but I chose to own my own business. The biggest pro for me has been the flexibility that being my own boss has created. I work a lot, but I work when I want to. I can take sessions based on my schedule, and the schedule of my family which is a huge blessing. When people hire a photographer like me, it’s almost always for very happy reasons. Getting to be a part of such special moments in a stranger’s life is something I’ll never take for granted. I get to be the first to congratulate a couple after they’ve been pronounced husband and wife, and the one to tell a groom how handsome he looks just before his bride sees him. It’s truly a joy to be able to do what I do.
Cons
It’s also very hard work. I have no paid sick time, and no built-in benefits. If I’m unable to work because of sickness or injury, I don’t get paid. Most of my client work takes place in the evenings, and I’m leaving my home just as my husband arrives. I love the fact that my income is up to me in the sense that I can make as much money as I’m willing to work for. I don’t have to wait for a supervisor to tell me how much they’re willing to pay me. If I want to make some extra money, I just work a little harder that month. But on the flip side, my own income is up to me.
In order to be a photographer, the ability to motivate yourself is a MUST. Work doesn’t always come to me, I have to find it. Early on in my business, that looked like reaching out to new businesses asking if they needed photos for their website and taking images of the city I live in to sell as stock photos. Now that I’m established, it comes a little easier but it took years and years of working a demanding full-time job while building this business on the side before I was able to do what I love full time.
