A lot of people find photography to be a very glamorous job. There is the travel, and taking pictures and doing cool things that give that impression but those things and social media doesn’t necessarily give the full impression of the reality of being a photographer.

I am talking about all the work we do, the hours we spent editing, curating galleries, answering questions, responding emails, and then obsessively checking for sales when we let the images we painstakingly took, curated, and perfected go live.

But what happens when those sales don’t come in?

I am not talking about shoots either. I guess I should lay out some more information…

I am talking in regards to event/show photographers. Generally depending on the type of event (especially equine) we are not paid to travel to an arena and photograph a show. We only make money from the photographs we sell which can be amazing when you have a supportive bunch competing at the show but can be a real low when you do not.

So what happens when the sales do not come in?

I can not speak for all photographers but for me personally it stresses me out when sales do not happen. Not just because the worry becomes how do I pay my bills this month or next but because I wonder if everyone just hated the images, if the quality wasn’t good enough, or if I did capture the event the way they needed.

It creates a rather abundant amount go stress because I am so hard on myself as a photographer and artist. It is only after I can talk myself off a cliff and stop checking for sales obsessively that the worry on paying my bills trickles to the front of my mind. It is a real worry because does this one failed gallery of photos mean that others won’t perform or was this a one off?

It can mess with your self confidence and finances so quickly because you paid expenses to go, you paid for the galleries, editing programs, electric to charge cameras, food, gas, and even your time. So much you weren’t compensated for, and that you consider when pricing your work. Did you over price it?

The worries are there and this is a reality we photographers face. We can have amazing months, lots of sales, new clients, bookings and then seemingly over night it can dry up for a month or two. It is a storm even the best among us have to learn to weather and plan for and it is hard.

For me this happened with a big two day event in August. I was shooting something new and challenging myself to one get awesome images while at the same time using a lens not really slated for low light indoor action photography. But I made it work, I took thousands of images and I edited them for delivery in under 48 hours.

I was excited to release this gallery and then quickly bummed when sales didn’t come in like my past equine events. While I got a few sales it wasn’t enough to justify the work, travel, the time, the stress, and the. space a gallery of unpurchased and appreciated images took up. It made me pause looking at my calendar for this month where a second event was planned and inked in.

I was not excited to go through all that a second time. I couldn’t justify the value to myself. I could potentially make more money on the second than the first or it could flop just as badly.

So dear clients when photographers do not come to your events it could be more than a packed and busy schedule. Sometimes we decided that past events of similar natures were not financially worth while and we do not attend because we redirect our efforts to something we are hoping will be worth our time, efforts, and talents.

Remember if you want us there supporting us is the way to keep us coming back.