Should I go for it??

[ajax_andy]

Might sound simple but follow your heart.

If you have the opportunity to study and it's something you love, then you'll make sure you're great at it, and make sure you learn enough to stand out from the crowd... be that Photography or Nursing.

I know someone who had the exact same choice as you... she chose nursing. The hours were long, she was tired and didn't have the energy to even touch her photography most of the time. She ended up quiting nursing and is now studying a degree in photography.

So doing both isn't quite as cut and dried as some people seem to think.

I think you just need to pick which you love the most, and remember you can always come back to the other if you make the wrong choice

[Niresangwa]

Why do you want to run your own business?

Are you super excited to have to do all of the paperwork, marketing, reading, book-balancing, as well as the constant communication and dull busywork with no real guarantee that you're going to make much money?

Have you been charging for these shoots, or just doing them for friends and family and being told by them how awesome you are?

Are you excited to fight for some recognition amongst hundreds of people doing exactly the same thing as you, and what exactly makes you different from them?

What can you do that someone else with a couple of months of experience of owning their dslr can't do?

Do you have a background in business and experience with doing all of the above stuff?

While your other half may currently be happy to support you, is he still going to be excited to support you as time goes on if this doesnt go as quickly as you think it will...? heck you're already experiencing a dead period and you havent even started yet..

Do you have the start up capital for everything you're going to need, and you've done your cost of doing business analysis? Have you figured out the relevant licenses you may need? Have you gone though all of the minutiae such as contracts, software etc...

[Lolkat]

Hi there, I am a nurse and have been doing photography as a hobby for a while now- hopefully planning on doing some photoshoots for friends and coworkers soon. But my point is that nursing will enable you to have a stable, rewarding profession and a great source of income, which, in turn, will enable you to support yourself and your future husband. And it will also help you to finance your possible photography business. In nursing, there are so many positions that allow you to work when you want/are able and it is not uncommon to have 4 or more days a week off (working 12 hour shifts). I think you will have ample time to meet with clients and set appointments for photoshoots. So I think that you could possibly have a business while working full time as an RN. And as others have said, you will most likely make connections at work that will boost your photography business. So, even though you are not yet a nurse, you can still do both, but it will take time- and by the time you are finished with the nursing program, you will have had several years more experience and be much more prepared to start charging for your photography. But, yes you need to follow your heart and do what feels right.

[jannereed]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

Why do you want to run your own business?

Are you super excited to have to do all of the paperwork, marketing, reading, book-balancing, as well as the constant communication and dull busywork with no real guarantee that you're going to make much money?

Have you been charging for these shoots, or just doing them for friends and family and being told by them how awesome you are?

Are you excited to fight for some recognition amongst hundreds of people doing exactly the same thing as you, and what exactly makes you different from them?

What can you do that someone else with a couple of months of experience of owning their dslr can't do?

Do you have a background in business and experience with doing all of the above stuff?

While your other half may currently be happy to support you, is he still going to be excited to support you as time goes on if this doesnt go as quickly as you think it will...? heck you're already experiencing a dead period and you havent even started yet..

Do you have the start up capital for everything you're going to need, and you've done your cost of doing business analysis? Have you figured out the relevant licenses you may need? Have you gone though all of the minutiae such as contracts, software etc...

Whoa whoa whoa...slow down. A person can only handle so much reality at one time! Joking.....sort of. But thanks so much for your input and for spelling out the not so glamorous side of photography. Those are some really good points and it's good to know what I'm getting myself into. Has it been worth it for you?

[jannereed]

Originally Posted by Lolkat

Hi there, I am a nurse and have been doing photography as a hobby for a while now- hopefully planning on doing some photoshoots for friends and coworkers soon. But my point is that nursing will enable you to have a stable, rewarding profession and a great source of income, which, in turn, will enable you to support yourself and your future husband. And it will also help you to finance your possible photography business. In nursing, there are so many positions that allow you to work when you want/are able and it is not uncommon to have 4 or more days a week off (working 12 hour shifts). I think you will have ample time to meet with clients and set appointments for photoshoots. So I think that you could possibly have a business while working full time as an RN. And as others have said, you will most likely make connections at work that will boost your photography business. So, even though you are not yet a nurse, you can still do both, but it will take time- and by the time you are finished with the nursing program, you will have had several years more experience and be much more prepared to start charging for your photography. But, yes you need to follow your heart and do what feels right.

Thanks Lolkat! I checked out your pictures on your flickr...loved them (especially the bw cemetary!) I shoot with a D90 also!

[graciousness]

Originally Posted by jannereed

Whoa whoa whoa...slow down. A person can only handle so much reality at one time! Joking.....sort of. But thanks so much for your input and for spelling out the not so glamorous side of photography. Those are some really good points and it's good to know what I'm getting myself into. Has it been worth it for you?

For Steve, yes. He does really well and works really hard with the business.

The point he is making is that if you want photography to work for you as a career, you will need to really dedicate yourself into the business side of it. It's not just a matter of showing up to a shoot, doing some edits and you're done. If you want clients, you need to work on that and that requires full time dedication. Even if you just want to do it as side business or part-time, it still requires a bit of dedication.

Are you passionate enough with photography to put all that work into it?

Of course, if you want both (nursing and photography) in your life, you can make it work. I suppose you can only give it a try - go for nursing and do part-time photography. Should photography prove to be too much on top of the physical and mental demands of nursing, you can put it aside and do it as a hobby to fulfill your creative needs. However, should it prove to be successful for you as part-time and you want to extend to full-time, that's an easy transition to do.

I am and only planning on doing photography part-time, being a full-time mother and all. Even now, as I am just setting up the business and building portfolio, it requires a lot of time and dedication. It feels like it's full time work now.

I think you need to really look into your heart and find where your main passion lies. Success will only come if you are willing to put your heart into it and dedicate yourself into it. You can do whatever you set your heart to do, even if it means doing 2 careers at the same time. Just make sure you don't burn yourself out too fast, though, because you've overcommitted yourself and haven't balanced your life in the process.

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by jannereed

Whoa whoa whoa...slow down.

That's precisely the point I was trying to make to you.

Originally Posted by jannereed

A person can only handle so much reality at one time! Joking.....sort of. But thanks so much for your input and for spelling out the not so glamorous side of photography.

I waited a while before responding thinking perhaps someone else would bring a dose of reality to the conversation, but it seemed no one else felt like it, surprisingly.

The point is, it's not about being photographer, it's about being a business-person. The ratio of behind-the-scenes work to actual shooting is staggering. Sadly, people tend to gloss over that fact and would rather talk about the interesting parts of the job. It's like being a policeman or a fireman for example... the stories they tell are the exciting parts, they never bother to talk about the hours of paperwork or waiting around doing nothing interesting at all.

I should also note that due to recent conversations on this forum, I at the very least am perhaps more reticent to be 'negative' and not encouraging to this kind of question, but to be honest, just being a cheerleader for this kind of thing is bordering on being dishonest.

Originally Posted by jannereed

Those are some really good points and it's good to know what I'm getting myself into. Has it been worth it for you?

In some regards it has been worth it, in others not. Is it satisfying to be successful, yes. Has it come at a cost of losing an enjoyable pass time and skill because it's now 'work', amongst other things? Yes.

Ultimately, those questions I posted to you were not meant to be rhetorical, they were serious questions. Whether you talk them out publicly here, or just answer them quietly to yourself, it doesn't really matter.

Generally speaking, these kinds of posts do not a new regular member make. If you're inclined to stick around however, you'll get all of the answers you need, either actively or passively to give you the best chance you may have, however.

[donrogers]

Stick with the photography - you'll always be happy. You may have to expand how to make a business with it - Don't stick to only one thing. You can get jobs like school photos - may not be exciting but it will help pay the bills and you can slowly move up

[MattJohnRobinson]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

Why do you want to run your own business?

Are you super excited to have to do all of the paperwork, marketing, reading, book-balancing, as well as the constant communication and dull busywork with no real guarantee that you're going to make much money?

Have you been charging for these shoots, or just doing them for friends and family and being told by them how awesome you are?

Are you excited to fight for some recognition amongst hundreds of people doing exactly the same thing as you, and what exactly makes you different from them?

What can you do that someone else with a couple of months of experience of owning their dslr can't do?

Do you have a background in business and experience with doing all of the above stuff?

While your other half may currently be happy to support you, is he still going to be excited to support you as time goes on if this doesnt go as quickly as you think it will...? heck you're already experiencing a dead period and you havent even started yet..

Do you have the start up capital for everything you're going to need, and you've done your cost of doing business analysis? Have you figured out the relevant licenses you may need? Have you gone though all of the minutiae such as contracts, software etc...

Why do you want to be a nurse?

You can't wait to work 12 hour shifts, on your feet all day long, so that you go home completely exhausted?

You're super excited to have doctors scream at you when you did absolutely nothing wrong, except follow their orders, aren't you!

You're ready to neglect the fact that you have had to to pee for 2 hours as you run around like a chicken with your head cut off, passing out the meds that are keeping your patients alive?

You of course can't wait to skip half of your lunch breaks because you simply don't have time for them.

Oh, and you LOVE to work every holiday for your first few years starting out because you are the lowest in the pecking order, and that's how it goes. Expect to either be working or on call.


There are two sides to every coin.

[MattJohnRobinson]

That being said, I'm NOT saying "go for the photography"! I'm just saying, you have a lot of considering to do. It takes a certain kind of person to be a nurse. It takes a certain kind of person to be a photographer. What kind of person are you? And how much is a stable income worth to you? The ideo of doing both sounds great, however, it may be completely impractical. Especially in the beginning. The 12-hour shift thing can be a huge benefit; in fact that alone is enough to pull some people into a nursing career. You would probably be able to find a nursing job in which you work only 3 12-hour shifts in a week. That would leave some great photography time...

The lifestyle of Photography vs Nursing considerations aside, I think you are a gifted photographer, indeed. Like others have said; they could use some technical polishing (the main thing I notice flipping through your pictures is that the focus is sometimes off). But in terms of producing quality pictures that people will pay for, you've got it.