She asked where we were off to today for work and we mentioned we were not out on assignment anywhere. She responded with "Oh right, so you're not working today".
I pointed out that we were in the middle of editing some 10,000 photos from recent assignments which takes an enormous amount of time and energy and is in fact, extremely hard work.
I'm sure that people must think it is so easy being a photographer.. "you just turn up at a wedding for a few hours and your job is done". I wish it were so easy.
Using weddings as a good example, we spend hours in advance meeting the clients, planning the schedule for the day, planning the locations for the photos both if it is nice and weather and what we would do if is bad. Then there is the wedding day itself which usually starts very early travelling to the bride's home or wherever she is getting ready.
After the day ends for us, we travel home and start organising all the photographs and making sure we have taken security backups. My wedding day rarely ends before midnight.
After that, the editing of the photographs themselves, which usually number over 1000, can take 4 or 5 man days so that we give our clients the very best photographs produced with as much creativity as possible.
So next time you think it must be 'easy' to be a photographer, do please bear a thought for just how much work really does go into it
