I have clients all over the country, in all different aspects from weddings to portraits to commercial sessions and one thing I pride myself on is my ability to work large and small sessions and have an image return in under a month. A lot of photographers get bogged down by the processing and the office work, it piles up if left unattended and it is totally understandable.
A lot of my clients assume my job is clicking a button and then a few more on the computer for a magical finished product— more so my graphic design clients, couple literally said all I do is click buttons to my face— but anyone working the profession eventually finds out it is more than that. So I wanted to give a day in the life type blog just to educate and because sometimes its fun to write about what I do.
For those new to this blog, welcome I am Tiffany Bumgardner owner, operator and for all intents and purposes I am Exposure One Studios. I have been a professional photographer for over 10 years with a focus in portraiture, commercial, and rodeo photography. At the end of 2019 I semi-retired as a rodeo photographer and I am still evaluating what will fill the hole that leaves in my professional work, obviously 2020 didn’t offer a lot of options of exploration to begin to fill that gap.
I absolutely love being a photographer, I love creating images for my clients and bringing them joy from moments otherwise gone. But the creation of the image is by far the easiest job I have as a photographer, so much of my job isn’t even making images anymore but rather office work.
So the day in the life of me….
Waking up usually feels like minutes after going to bed, usually anywhere between 1:30 am -3 am depending on the night before. I generally am a huge night owl and edit into the wee hours of the morning, sleep till 9ish am and get up ready to fall back into work. No rest for the wicked.
If I am honest the best example of the majority of my days is filled with being tired upon waking, body sore from lugging around a 50lb plus camera bag and camera on my neck sometimes for 10+ hours if working an event the day before. I will generally start off the day by checking into my social media accounts, like minutes after waking guys, the social media world waits for no one and someone has to run it. PS social media is like 40% of my business life so if you hate it doing this professionally may not be for you.
After that I may grab something small to eat, check messages only to see if there is anything pressing, I generally do not like to get bad news in the morning so I am talking looking for bombs and then moving on. From there I check my galleries, see if I have pending print sales I need to review before sending off the printers, shipping notifications I need to up date clients on, and any outstanding or pending bills from clients needing handled.
Office work is tedious most days, I will have contracts to review, contracts to send out, model releases, questionnaires, as well as invoices. I am lucky that I can do the majority through my gallery service and I love them for that! Not having to click between multiple accounts matters so much sometimes. I may also be answering phone calls and about the middle of this I have my emails up and am reading and responding to those as necessary.
Usually once a week I update my bookkeeping software with expenditures and net profits. Then I start working on edits if I have them or graphic design contracts if I have those. Generally once I start post process that is what I am doing for the day so I have to be to the point I can devote uninterrupted time to this. Most editing days are followed by a late shooting night generally I won’t find myself in the door until 1 am then up, get the office work sorted and right into edits.
For example the weekend of July 17th when I photographed at Shenandoah it was a later show we arrive around 7 pm, show started around 8 pm, left and got home around 1:30 am. Sleep a few hours and up on the computer, social sites squared away, uploads started and then edits, gallery creation before finishing with publicly viewable images before 11:30 pm. Once a gallery is finished there is sharing it to social media sites, the event hosts, and necessary individuals, followed by an instagram post and then I check out for the night exhausted after hours in front of the computer.
The following days will be office work responding to emails, sales, general questions about the galleries and orders. Scheduling new clients, all through routine again, and again and again.
A lot of photographers will need a couple weeks to a month to edit, I am lucky I have the extra time and insomnia to really make my process faster. My goal is always a few weeks for clients to get their images but the goal in my heart is always do the unexpected. Guys I love the days I can shoot the an event the night before, edit the next day and have the images available in 24 hours.
I love it but it is rare, give your photographers time we are working hard and long hours behind the scenes. We have a lot on our plates and not a thing listed even included family or a personal life. Keep all of this in mind when you approach us, we appreciate you for letting us live out our dreams and we love you for giving us time to do our jobs to the best of our abilities.
As always Stay Safe, Stay Healthy and Stay 6 Feet Apart.