Why do people choose photographer or videographer as living? The average salary for this job is not high. Sometimes it below average salary. I believe one main reason is that it is interesting. Always bring excitement to our life. I personally can not sit in office 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week. I will be crazy.
To me there are several exciting moments during the course of any photo/video job.
1. Got the job. The moment I got the job, I feel excited
2. Prepare equipment. When I decides what equipment to bring, when I pack my bag, that time I do feel excited also.
3. Arrive at the place. The time I arrived the place, I do feel excited. Looking forward to the shoot.
4. Shooting experience. This one is not always. If the shooting part is boring, I can feel boring actually. It depends.
5. Finish job. The moment I finish my job I always feel excited. If the job is interesting, I feel excited to see the final result. If the job is boring, I still feel excited because it is finished and now I can go home relaxing. Also most of the jobs I got paid right at the time I finish the shoot. So I feel excited for got money for sure.
6. Review photo/video at home. This part depends. If I know there were some great shots when I was doing the shoot, I can not wait to see them. I will turn on my computer immediately after I got home, and browse through the photos. That anticipation can arouse a lot of excitement. However if I am not that interested in the photo, I can leave the SD card in camera for days until I have the mood to edit them.
7. Finish the final product. Again this parts depends. Sometimes if it is a video I really like, I would feel excited once I finish editing and final retouch. If it is a boring and tedious job, I feel relieved by the time I finish it. For photo, there will always be some good ones. But for video, sometimes you spend hours just to edit one piece of work. If that is a very boring topic, you really won’t feel any joy.
8. Publish my work online. This is a big part of excitement too. I think every photographer like this part too. Once they have works they really like, they can not wait to share them. Whether to post on facebook, website, twitter, blog, etc. Also the anticipation to get good feedback also bring excitement. For example, even now I feel excited to click the publish to kai liu photography button.
Where is your excitement or joy come from. Are there any special excitement that only belong to you?
