I have spent a decade working as a photographer, I have poured myself into learning cameras and editing softwares, into growing the technical side of my skills to match the easy talent I have for capture. I have let it consume my free time, my work time, and dreaming time.
Like so many I want to wholly be my own boss, I was so close to the reality before 2020, now every year seems to bring more and more set backs. Which is a reality as a professional photographer especially a freelance one. We have times of feast and famine.
A true reality a freelance photographer can and will experience is inconsistent income. We will have months where we will be flush and then we will have months where we bring in zero income. Many of us will continue to work other joys and run a business burning the candle at both ends and risk true burn out, others will find away to do photography full time and either succeed or fail but the reality remains that the income will fluctuate month to month and we are the bread winners, we bring the income there is no other business or person we can rely on.
Another reality is our lives become entangled with our business. Our personal lives and our work lives, they mingle in relationships and in our social media presents. In a 9-5 you can leave work at work most of the time, but as a freelancer your work is always with you.
There will be emails at all times of the day, phone calls, and not to mention whatever other business functions you have to do. You are wearing all the hats and when you start off it, it is a lot you will be hustling at all hours. This honestly increases the risk of burn out to high degrees, you need to find away to balance having downtime.
For me I still struggle with that because I keep adding new elements to my business, but there are times when I will literally take an entire weekend and just read books and be idle. It is important not to burn yourself out because once burnout sets in it is hard to get out of it.
If you read photography blogs you will have read numerous photographers plead with you to have personal projects and to take time to make personal photography. Some much of the work of a freelance photographer is being creative for others to realize their dreams and not being creative for ourselves.
Find ways to keep your passion and joy for photography alive by doing what sets your creative vision free and not just that of others 24/7.
Being a freelancer is difficult, it is not without challenges, and it can take its toll. While running a freelance business is hard work, fighting the burnout and mental challenges that come with it are perhaps harder. I have been doing this for a decade and I have been feeling the effects of burnout since February.
My creative reserves feel empty. Truly empty there are no ideas in my head which has never happened to me before. I have little drive to take my camera out, and a large part of me wants to shut the business down and just do photography for fun again.
I have made the hard decision to scale back my work for the year, to limit the contracts I take on and take time to recharge my batteries before I make any rash decisions. This is a hard career path, there is a lot of competition and while there are many amazing months there are going to be times of immense struggle too.
Have a plan and take care of yourself. Happy Shooting.