people with day jobs?

[hue-e]

How do you balance your day jobs with photo gigs? It seems finding processing time is such a challenge.

I mean, I'm sure I'm just overwhelmed with the holidays, some design freelance and getting two portrait gigs and a product gig out the door before the end of the month, but seriously?... do I just keep working till midnight every night or take vacation time and get it all done?

guess I'm not really looking for an answer, just venting... ugh.

[rab3rd]

Wish I could say I have this problem.

[BeccaJ]

Originally Posted by hue-e

How do you balance your day jobs with photo gigs? It seems finding processing time is such a challenge.

I mean, I'm sure I'm just overwhelmed with the holidays, some design freelance and getting two portrait gigs and a product gig out the door before the end of the month, but seriously?... do I just keep working till midnight every night or take vacation time and get it all done?

guess I'm not really looking for an answer, just venting... ugh.

add going to the gym, and the time gets even tighter! I process in the evenings, not every night tho. I do most on the weekends while my husband stays up late playing xbox. Just gotta find the rythm of your workflow. and then morning's like this morning...sometimes I'll get up and finish a session before i come to the day job.

[Flea77]

Yep, I work late sometimes, and weekends usually all day both days. Workflow has been the most critical thing for me, still working on it to get it as efficient as I can.

Allan

[dmbusch09]

Try throwing in 2 kids, one that plays select soccer....luckily my husband is a creative too and helps a little on the processing side. Also, my day job is print based and we don't print from Thanksgiving to New Years, so my crazy time is pretty much over and I can concentrate on the last of my photog stuff.

We are hoping that by this time next year I can be photography only, but not getting my hopes up...it would take a miracle...either the photog business increase by 200% or the debt fairy to come take care of my debt ;)

[hue-e]

heh, I don't have any kids... and I can't really find any time for the gym right now, but I'm not fat so I have that going for me.

at least my wife and I are both busy, we can at least hang out at the dining table and work together, on separate jobs :|

[merock]

If you are that busy with free lance jobs, and you have no kids, then why not go for it and go full time?

[hue-e]

because the freelance is not consistent enough... and right now, I'm building a portfolio for photog work, and getting paid next to nothing on the jobs.

besides, I work for the city and out of all the creative jobs I've had, you can't beat the security... I know exactly how much money I have every month, no matter what... and the benefits are awesome compared to what I'd have to pay through the nose for running my own business.

it will actually be a tough call for me, if/when I make the leap to running my own gig.

right now I can put in another 18yrs and retire... collect about 60% of my salary at the time of retirement, and still do photog work privately. until then, it's more a matter of work work work.

[ChristopherCoy]

I'm fortunate enough to have a job that (A) allows me nearly four days off a week, and (B) supplies me with nearly 5 weeks of vacation a year.

I work 12 hour shifts Sun/Mon/Tues, and I work a 4 hour shift on Wed. This leave 3/4 of the day on Wednesday open to do photo work, as well as Thurs/Fri/Sat. On the occasions that I have a wedding on Saturday night, I have ample vacation/comp time to use, so I take those Sundays off.

As 'emergency personnel' we get the normal two weeks of vacation, but we also get 12 hours of 'Holiday time' for each federal holiday that the city is closed, whether we work or not. So once you add the Holiday Time, plus the two weeks vacation, plus any comp time that we accquire - its nearly 5 weeks a year that we get.

So I work at the PD Sun through Wed, and I work in the studio Wed through Sat... and sometimes I take a day off for myself.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by hue-e

right now I can put in another 18yrs and retire... collect about 60% of my salary at the time of retirement, and still do photog work privately. until then, it's more a matter of work work work.

I've only got 15yrs left to go. If you are with TMRS, I hear that if you retire at 25 you get 90% of your salary instead of 60%.

[hue-e]

I'm actually still testing the waters of what I'm really interested in shooting as far as how I go about making money.

-I've ruled out weddings, I don't feel like being micromanaged by bridezillas.
-I've almost ruled out senior photos for the same reason (but will do it for people I deem cool to work with).
-I'm working on a corner of my studio where I can do product shots, but that's not that creative... at least I won't have to really work with any sorts of zillas and I've been in the art direction business for a long time so working with ADs won't be a problem for me.

honestly, I really want to get into concepty commercial/editorial type work. it's a niche business and will probably be inconsistent but I'm not really doing photog to make a living just yet, I'm still just having fun with it. I'm just interested in being an artist again, which I haven't been for a very long time even though I do graphic design every day (sounds silly, but it's true, I'm more of a whore :P)... hoping I can land some sort of celeb gig further down the road. I mean, if that sort of thing takes off (which I'm not really holding my breath for), that would be awesome... if it doesn't, I won't have a problem just remaining mostly a hobbiest and sticking to the day job.

[mrsrice22]

My day job consists of a toddler and a 4 month old princess and I'm usually up til 1am either working on photos or my website (it needs some serious tlc) and then up again at 630am, needless to say the sleep deprivation is catching up.

I guess you just have to find what works best for you, if you don't have kids tugging at you to play with them (or your conscious because you're stuck to your laptop while they play by themselves), or an overbearing boss that makes you work late, then you can probably find a good routine.

My deal with my husband is that if I have to stay home with the kids during the day while he's at work, then he has to stay at home with them during the night when I'm at "work"... though that's not working because by the time dinner is done, kids fed, bathed and ready for daddy time it's already 930pm and the kids are crying and he's running around like a headless chicken so I feel that I need to step in, lol. One day I'll let him figure it out, until then I have "me" time from 10pm-1am, sigh.

[brewercm]

I work full time then go to school full time at night. On the occassion that I do a session for someone it's under two conditions that they are aware of up front.

1. I'm not a professional full time photographer (working toward that goal though). I will work to give them quality product and since I usually personally know them all they understand from both their expectations and what I'm also getting out of it (portofolio/experience building etc.).

2. With my schedule I usually only have weekends to work on the processing and many times that's also mixed in with homework. They are also good with that due to the second part of number one.

[hue-e]

well, here's a good question for some of you then... what kind of timeframe do you give your clients on final delivery?

for me, it's about 30 days, but I'm really struggling to even meet that.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by hue-e

well, here's a good question for some of you then... what kind of timeframe do you give your clients on final delivery?

for me, it's about 30 days, but I'm really struggling to even meet that.

10 business day turnaround for proofs, 2 to 4 weeks for print delivery.