I really liked this article by Joel Grimes. A lot of what he says here really resonates with me and what I’ve seen as a photographer, but my favorite bullet point from his article is this one:
Member of the Professional Photographer Whining Club (PPWC) - Stop whining. the industry is difficult, clients are difficult but there is no need to talk about this all the time. The solution – Encourage others and be excited about the creative process.
So true. I used to know an illustrator who jumped into freelancing for a while. I would see his posts on Facebook all the time complaining about how this client was wanting another version, or that client was late paying him, or how frustrating meeting with people was…. It had the overall effect that I eventually started to think of him as a terrible illustrator. Even though his work was decent, and he was getting jobs regularly, his constant complaining made me think that he must be terrible, because he’s telling me all the time about how much he’s failing. And of course, I get that it was probably cathartic to complain on Facebook about his clients and meeting people…. but at the cost of damaging his reputation to all those people he knows on Facebook who might have hired him. I wouldn’t hire someone I knew would probably complain about me to his friends. It’s something I try and keep in mind when I say things to people or post things online. Day to day, I love what I’m doing. That’s the message I should be sending out to people. Photography is great!
10 Things that Spell Disaster for Photographers, by Joel Grimes
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