Don’t worry, I’m not quitting but over the last few weeks I can’t help that I’ve had this feeling I have.
As many people know I am without a job for the last year. I’ve been offering my services as a photographer for the last six months and I’ve had varying success with people hiring me as to take their photos but recently that has stopped.
Keeping Busy
How I keep myself occupied is keeping up to date with my various social media blogs, daily cosplay photo from my collections, spreading the posts made on our newly born website. I’ve been very proactive in trying to make the website a bit more of a fun, informative site which everyone can benefit.
I still have people wanting to shoot with me and waiting for people to make time for me as I know balancing life, social and cosplay isn’t easy. I even tried to reach out and ask them if we can shoot together but I either don’t get a response or get a polite no from them, which is fine and don’t take it personally, as I know my photography style and experience isn’t for everyone and still have lots to learn.
Over working myself
I don’t know if I am over working myself, pushing myself too much on my social media work and website, hoping to get work from the photography side. I think my thought have been about quitting, as things how I thought things would go during my time away from work would be more involving and exciting but things so far have been patchy.
Advice
I think the advice I need to take which I give to others, if things are getting too much, you need to step away from things, cosplay is only a bit of thing and shouldn’t be a source of stress or anxiety. I don’t plan to step too far back, but will be evaluating my approach to things and may take a lesser role. Also will be looking for a job so my time to do location shoots maybe less. Fingers crossed.
Let me know if you have thought about quitting but haven’t and what was the reason which kept you going.
Honestly Eddie, the best thing I ever did was get a business mentor. There are loads of government funded schemes that can get you access to one for free, they really help you come out of the dark and plan out where you want o go in a really methodical and common sense way. I seriously nearly quit several times, the stress was killing me a lot, especially this last year, but I contacted Growth Hub about 3 months back and got the help I needed and I’m excited about the business again and got my mojo back big time. Message me any time x
I know exactly where you are coming from. Being without a job *is* the worst experience of your life. I made a bad career move 10 years ago and I was out of work for 2 years because of it, I was barely getting by with a few temporary contract IT jobs which gave me about 9 months of work but the rest of the time I was pretty much sat “on the bench” and that’s no place to be with two young children at that time. I got myself into a lot of debt in order to keep a roof over my family’s heads no matter the cost. What kept me going was the hope that things would turn around, and they did. Sure I took a dive in my salary and it took almost 8 years to get back to where I was (still with the financial baggage that came along with it) but I got there eventually and you will too!
I was surprised to read your experiences of getting people to work with you, that was something of a surprise given the standard of your work. I guess in some ways at least I’m not alone in that regard. I’ve seen people venture into trying to make a living as a cosplay photographer but experience tells me that the market isn’t really there. Yes there are one or two who have managed to make a living through their followers however one cosplay photographer told me that people don’t care about what pictures you take as long as they have one of themselves. I know that this sounds a bit harsh but that is the reality. You’ve probably seen some of the professional photographers touting for business on the various cosplay groups on Facebook with little success. I’d say that the fact that the UK scene operates on the standard time for trade arrangement is one of the reasons why it is hard to run a business, after all how can a business compete against “free”.
I very nearly quit photography and the cosplay scene this year after a bad con experience which caused me to slump into a depression for a while. I was very cautious about going to another con but forced myself to confront my fear and go to MCM Manchester with my kids as support. Thankfully the event was a lot better and I started feeling a lot more positive about things.
One of the things I’ve tried was attending workshops hosted by working photographers as it can be a great way to pick up some new skills as well as a better understanding of the challenges faced by working pros. You can pick their brains about things like business models and market sectors and how to diversify your services. I’ve taken the opportunity to learn about studio lighting so I can hopefully arrange some indoor shoots with people who want to collaborate with me.
Like you say cosplay is a bit of a thing and I now look at photography as not a business but an expensive hobby. Sure it would be nice if people could show their appreciation by putting a few £££’s our way by Ko-Fi/Patreon but that isn’t really part of human nature sadly.
Good luck in your job hunt and I hope things work out!
There’s a version of you in a parallel world doing extremely well. He didn’t quit.
Hang in there Eddie. Your photography is amazing, hope we can work together some time.
BB