I have a twenty year career in wedding photography, both as a photographer and as a business owner providing services to wedding photographers.

A day at work for a photographer will depend a lot on the type of photography that you do. Wedding and event photographers do their shoots mostly on the weekends, while commercial and headshot photographers usually do their shoots during the weekdays. No matter what, a photographer does a lot more than just take pictures.

Some typical duties that a professional photographer incurs, on top of shooting:

• Culling and Editing: On average, a professional photographer will shoot anywhere from hundreds to thousands of photos at a job. They need to cull out photos that are blurry or out of focus, along with any duplicates or bad expressions. Then, each photo that makes the cull must be edited for color, tone, and style.
• Gear Prep and Maintenance: Photographers must bring a variety of gear to a job, ranging from cameras to lenses to flashes to accessories. All of this gear must be maintained, cleaned, and prepped prior to a shoot.
• Invoicing and Bookkeeping: Most photographers book their own jobs and maintain their own records and books. From invoicing a client after a photoshoot to keeping accurate records, these responsibilities fall to a photographer.
• Emails and Phone Calls: Client communication is vital for a professional photographer, and there must be active and responsive communication via email, phone, and often times even text message. Clients must be kept up to date and have their questions answered.
• Marketing and Social Media: From sharing images on social media to advertising campaigns to staying in touch with past and current clients, photographers must market their work in order to get new clients. Oftentimes, photographers must spend a significant portion of their time on marketing efforts.
• Client Consultations: A photographer must interact with their clients, both to secure them initially and throughout the relationship. These can often be done virtually but also can involve in person meetings.
• Networking: Spending time with other photographers, art directors, and coordinators is one vital way that a photographer secures future work and maintains work relationships.
• Education: As a technical industry, the photography niche is always changing and growing. As a result, professional photographers must stay educated to keep at the top of their work.

It is commonly said inside the industry that a professional photographer only spends 10-15% of their time taking pictures, and the rest of the time managing the business of taking pictures. Over the last 20 years, I have found this to be very true, and students considering photography as a profession should be aware of this before going into it.

Pros

• Creative and inspiring work: As a pro photographer, your job is to create inspiring and creative images for clients. This requires you to constantly create something new and compelling, with it constantly encouraging you to flex your creative muscles. You’ll be required to constantly work to create something new.
• Constant engagement with new people: Most professional photographers are in constant engagement with other people. If you are in the event, portrait, or headshot niche, then your job will be to work directly with people. Even brand and product photographers are working with art directors on a regular basis. This engagement makes photographers one of the most interactive professional niches in the creative and artistic professional spaces.
• Opportunity to make an impact on people and/or brands: Professional photographers have the opportunity to use their creative energy to impact both people and brands. Through their images, they can bring a new and unique perspective to every job they shoot, making a big impact on both people and organizations.
• Flexible hours and schedule: Professional photographers have photoshoots that will occur at a variety of hours, along with deadlines that will require flexible work hours. However, that flexibility also works in the photographer’s favor, allowing for a flexible schedule, provided you can work with client deadlines.

Cons

• Often is seasonal: The variety of professional photography is seasonal, meaning that there are busier seasons and slower seasons of work. This requires a professional photographer to be conscious of the seasonality, working hard during the busy season, and saving for the slower season.
• Feast and famine workload/pay: Most photographers don’t have a consistent weekly workload. This can be seen as an advantage, allowing a professional photographer to work hard for a period of time, and then take a break. However, it’s important to know that this is the case for pro photographers.
• Business tasks: Most photographers are either contractors or run their own business. This can be a pro or a con, depending on your preferences. For self-starters that don’t mind some business tasks as a part of their photography career, this is a pro. You are in charge of your workload and the types of clients you work with. However, if the thought of booking clients and managing invoices scares you to death, carefully consider what type of photography you go into.

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