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Old 10-29-2006, 03:43 PM
 
Location: The Big D
14,862 posts, read 42,779,122 times
Reputation: 5787

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Quote:
Originally Posted by hotcity View Post
These are good advice; but your post right above this one about being a sales rep....com'on now, you might be encouraging this young kid to chase after his hobby and try to make a career out of it.
But I did say that it may require some college or a degree. I just don't know personally what they require. I just know that the sales reps are in their 20's. Never did ask them where they went to school. Guess I need to next.

I think getting into the front office in some way even in ticket sales may be the best bet and take classes part time at one of the many area colleges be it community or a university. Not only would it get you a job w/ a flexible schedule for classes but it would put you around others that are the same age. Something that would be nice especially if moving to a new area.
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Old 10-30-2006, 04:15 AM
 
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
201 posts, read 859,802 times
Reputation: 143
First of all, playing with a camera for fun and having friends "oo" and "ahh" is completely different from making a living doing photography. You have to be an extremely good shooter before you have any hopes of making scraps at it. AP stringers don't make that much money. Only the top AP photographers who have been in the business forever make anything decent. It takes a lot more than an interest in sports to be a great sports photographer. It looks "glamorous" but it isn't. I have known of several AP photographers and all have done it for YEARS and will tell you honestly that it's TOUGH TOUGH TOUGH to break in and these are extraordinary shooters who have long been in the professional photography world before digital cams. Several of them even have degrees in photography or journalism. Even if you have rich parents who came buy you $20-30k worth of gear, it is still meaningless if you can't shoot and haven't paid your dues in the professional world. There are no short cuts in life even if it may seem there are.


Quote:
Originally Posted by BSL63087 View Post
I don't really know what I would like to do. My main interests are sports, baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. I have wanted to move to a big sports city in the south for a long time and I think Dallas will fit most of my desires and needs. As for making a living, I would like to try to get into something sports related but I'm not real sure what. There are a lot of things out there but not all of them pay very much money. One thing I have looked into is being a sports photographer. I have talked with a guy who works for the AP in Los Angeles and he has a season pass to shoot all of the LA area games and he also does youth sports. He has helped me out a lot with a lot of info and such and basically it takes several thousand up front to buy some of the equipment you need to get started and you should expect to make very little or maybe even no money at first until you get good and establish yourself as a good sports photographer. One good piece of advice he did give me is that it may be a little bit easier to get into youth sports and there is actually more money in photographing youth sports.
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Old 10-30-2006, 09:27 AM
 
Location: The Big D
14,862 posts, read 42,779,122 times
Reputation: 5787
Hey, if your interests are in photography and videography, you could make a killing around here doing team photos for every sport group around and doing the videotapes for all of the dance recitals for all of the dance places. I know personally that the dance places have a hard time every year trying to find a good photographer and a good person that is reliable (key word there) to do the video's of their dance recitals. And they are NOT cheap. We have had MANY bad experiences from companies/individuals that promise the moon but never deliver. I mean really, be honest and tell people how long it wil take you to deliver the final product. Or at least tell them that you are already booked to capacity and another job would jeopardize your quality and timelines that you prefer to keep. Then the sports organizations seem to need to find a new photographer every year as one will suddenly flake off or disappear off the face of the earth.
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Old 10-30-2006, 10:26 AM
 
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
201 posts, read 859,802 times
Reputation: 143
There are people who do make a career from their hobbies but professional photography or videography is not an easy one to break in. It's a whole other world snapping photos of kids in their soccer uniforms where the main criteria is for the kid to look "cute" and "good" versus the ability to get that perfect shot of the winning moment on the field, etc. There are many, many amateur/freelance photographers at sports events shooting with the hope to get that winning shot to sell. And even then, they never get that much money for that shot. Newspapers don't pay much for photographs.



Quote:
Originally Posted by hotcity View Post
These are good advice; but your post right above this one about being a sales rep....com'on now, you might be encouraging this young kid to chase after his hobby and try to make a career out of it.
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Old 10-30-2006, 10:45 AM
 
Location: The Big D
14,862 posts, read 42,779,122 times
Reputation: 5787
Quote:
Originally Posted by speedoflight View Post
There are people who do make a career from their hobbies but professional photography or videography is not an easy one to break in. It's a whole other world snapping photos of kids in their soccer uniforms where the main criteria is for the kid to look "cute" and "good" versus the ability to get that perfect shot of the winning moment on the field, etc. There are many, many amateur/freelance photographers at sports events shooting with the hope to get that winning shot to sell. And even then, they never get that much money for that shot. Newspapers don't pay much for photographs.
So true. Being a sports fanatic fan for one of our local sports teams I have purchased many items over the years, mainly photos w/ autographs. Does the photographer end up getting much of the proceeds from the money that I paid? NO! They sell the rights to use the photo to these collector/memoribilia companies to produce them in mass production and get them signed.

Besides, unless it is a photo of someone that is REALLY GREAT and autographed, it is not going to draw much interest.
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Old 10-31-2006, 04:34 AM
 
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
201 posts, read 859,802 times
Reputation: 143
You are viewing professional photography from a very narrow scope. What I was referring to was not sports memorabilia type of photography. There's money to be made in some of this but what the original poster had asked was about AP, which is a completely different genre. It is arguably far easier to be a sports memorabilia photographer than it is an incredible AP sports shooter. And as mentioned, the top money isn't often made by AP photographers. They are made by advertising photographers who undertake major assignments by top magazines, sporting goods companies (Nikes, Adidas, Speedos, etc.). These are photographers who command thousands of dollars for their day rate. That genre of professional photography is extremely difficult to get in on and has little to nothing to do with being in sports. Their subject matter happen to be sports stars, goods, etc. but the photographers may or may not even be sports fans and you often don't do that type of work by hanging around in sports stadiums.



Quote:
Originally Posted by momof2dfw View Post
So true. Being a sports fanatic fan for one of our local sports teams I have purchased many items over the years, mainly photos w/ autographs. Does the photographer end up getting much of the proceeds from the money that I paid? NO! They sell the rights to use the photo to these collector/memoribilia companies to produce them in mass production and get them signed.

Besides, unless it is a photo of someone that is REALLY GREAT and autographed, it is not going to draw much interest.
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Old 11-19-2006, 12:40 AM
 
Location: Texas/Alberta
7 posts, read 66,946 times
Reputation: 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by BSL63087 View Post
I am currently 19 and living in Southern Indiana right next to Louisville, KY. I can't stand it here and I have wanted to move since I was a little kid.

I have been looking at the Dallas area very closely and I like it a lot. I like all of the newer homes and nice newer looking areas. I don't really like older neighborhoods with a bunch of old 1950s homes like you will find in St. Louis or Cincinnati or Pittsburgh or somewhere like that.

It seems like Dallas and its suburbs have many neighborhoods with newer homes and very very reasonable prices. Almost so reasonable that it almost sounds too good to be true. My question, is it too good to be true or is the cost of living including home prices in the Dallas area a great bargain?

Also, what has kept the prices of homes so low? In most other cities you can't hardly get a house for less than about 200 grand. And its always those ugly old 1950s homes. In the Dallas area you can get a huge newer 2 story 4-5 bedroom house for that.

I'm seriously looking at Arlington and areas around it. I'm not real sure on what I am going to try to do as far as work but I hope to have it all figured out and have a plan ready to go within the next 2-3 years. I would prefer to stay in the Arlington area as I want to be within 20-25 miles at the most of both Arlington and Dallas.

The DFW Metroplex suffered an extreme economic downturn in the late-1980s; the market for everything from commercial office towers to mansions, shopping centers and apartments simply collapsed; thus, it took longer for prices to rebound...they only 'recovered' in the late-1990s and profits became a reality again.

The area has historically overbuilt and this oversupply of space (and high foreclosure/risk rate) led to bargain prices.
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Old 11-19-2006, 06:57 AM
 
Location: Fort Worth/Dallas
11,887 posts, read 36,860,078 times
Reputation: 5663
Quote:
Originally Posted by momof2dfw View Post
Hey, if your interests are in photography and videography, you could make a killing around here doing team photos for every sport group around and doing the videotapes for all of the dance recitals for all of the dance places. I know personally that the dance places have a hard time every year trying to find a good photographer and a good person that is reliable (key word there) to do the video's of their dance recitals. And they are NOT cheap. We have had MANY bad experiences from companies/individuals that promise the moon but never deliver. I mean really, be honest and tell people how long it wil take you to deliver the final product. Or at least tell them that you are already booked to capacity and another job would jeopardize your quality and timelines that you prefer to keep. Then the sports organizations seem to need to find a new photographer every year as one will suddenly flake off or disappear off the face of the earth.
momof2 has a great point. You can still be a photographer, and make pretty darn good money doing it but you might be required to do what some consider "less than glamorous" photography-related jobs in the meantime. In truth it's really all what you make of it. Most of the so-called glamorous jobs aren't glamorous at all and besides, it takes years and years (and years) of work to gain the reputation and respect you are seeking before your name becomes well-known, even inside your chosen profession. It's called "paying your dues," and I'm a fairly good example of that. Now don't get me wrong, I'm no household name, nor am I wealthy from what I do, but I'm very happy at my chosen profession and that's what really matters isn't it?

I always dreamed of being a writer and writing the great American novel; something easier said than done. After college, I needed something that paid the bills; preferably something that centered around writing. I became involved in Technical Writing because I have always been a techie as well, and found that it paid WAY better than most journalism jobs. After working at it for awhile, I found that I liked it very much. Technical and/or business writing involves much of the same concepts as journalism (depending on the genre) because it requires many of the same skills (interviewing, communication, good writing, etc.).

Once I became experienced and worked at several companies as a Technical Writer, I moved around within those companies at various writing positions and today, after 16 years of what you could call "corporate writing," I'm pretty much able to do what I want and earn a decent living doing something that I love.

Have I written that great American novel? Not yet, but I've built up such a large portfolio of work as a writer of diverse material that I can pretty much do what I want when I want (in regards to writing). I work from home, for the most part set my own hours, work with people in a variety of professions and locations, travel as I please, and make pretty a decent living doing so. Plus, if I ever want to write that book I have more time to do so than if I worked at a regular 9-5 job with the added hassle and stress of commuting to work 40 hours a month, office politics, and so on.

So, my advice is to get into photography or something photography related such as graphic arts or videography; in short, something that PAYS THE BILLS. You will work around talented professionals that share your enthusiasm for photography or similar crafts, and over the years you can hone your photography skills, network with people who can help advance your career, learn from others of a like mindset, and perhaps make that big break doing what you love.

Best of luck in fulfilling your dreams.

Last edited by Synopsis; 11-19-2006 at 07:16 AM..
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Old 12-08-2006, 11:37 AM
 
3 posts, read 6,832 times
Reputation: 10
Default relocation to dallas/arlington

we are being relocated from denver, co to work on the new cowboys stadium. my first question is where is the stadium? i would like to live on the ouskirts of downtown dallas. this is only a temporary move (one year) and i know nothing of the area. we do have two small children, however we would like to live in an urban-suburban area. safety is a concern. we would like a furnished four bedroom condo in a nice area. if anybody has any information please help me!! thank you
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Old 01-21-2008, 10:21 PM
 
1 posts, read 1,972 times
Reputation: 10
To want to move to Dallas Irving area, is this a goo area to bring 4childern 15-3. and jobs?
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