Pros and Cons of being a Photographer in your Country?

[mokka]

What country are you based in, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a photographer there.

I'll start off, I'm based in the UK.

Pros
Lots of history, though this could be said of anywhere

Densely populated with lots of variety in urban areas

Multicultural, easy to explore other cultures without going far

Nice landscapes, especially coastlines

Simple and Strict copyright laws, you don't need to register an image as copyrighted, it is automatically copyrighted as soon as you press the shutter unless you say otherwise (though a proposed law change will make it easier for people to use images where the copyright holder can't be found)

Easy to start a business. So long as you aren't making enough money to concern the taxman, and aren't turning your home into primarily a place of work and aren't employing anyone, there is no paperwork or registration involved in becoming a sole trader, just put an ad in the local paper and off you go.

Cons
Awful weather, often poor lighting and rain.

A lack of true wilderness

Ugly lampposts, signs, crash barriers, white vans everywhere make urban photography difficult.

Increasingly draconian laws on where, what and who you are allowed to photograph, increasingly likely a policeman or security guard will come up to you and tell you to put your camera away

Public are distrusting of photographers and view public photography as an invasion of their privacy, they tend to assume you are taking a photo specifically of them and/or are a paedophile/terrorist.

[bambina]

Originally Posted by mokka

Easy to start a business. So long as you aren't making enough money to concern the taxman, and aren't turning your home into primarily a place of work and aren't employing anyone, there is no paperwork or registration involved in becoming a sole trader, just put an ad in the local paper and off you go.

Even if you aren't employing anyone or working from home, you still need to register as a business within three months. If you don't, HMRC can fine you.


Oh, and a pro:
Stunning landscapes up here in Scotland, and the rest of the UK too.

Con:
If you get the weather for them! You literally have to carry your camera everywhere ALL the time on the offchance you can get a pic.

[milosh]

Being only an amateur photographer, this is my take on Bosnia:

Pros:

- Many many easily available folks who still live like 50 years ago, on the country side (country side is almost everywhere )

- Almost no one has a clue about photography so all I shoot is amazingly good for them (I'm not thrilled by this).

Cons:

- A lot of uninteresting plains and a lot of highly interesting (but almost unreachable!) mountains to shoot. Some 80% of Bosnia is mountainous but there are no decent approaches to the mountains, and local roads are pretty bad, to get to some other location it's 5-8 hours of driving. There's a lot of wilderness and mines also.

- No coastlines (for landscape photography)

- Since folks here don't know much about photography, I guess it would be impossible to charge a print decently.

- Everyone is terrified when you take their picture.

There's more but I'm not in the mood.