Here’s a sure-fire way to blow your career in photography: 
1. Take lots of photos.
2. Get on twitter.
3. Start a blog.
4. Assist for another photographer.
5. Buy a better camera.
6. Create a “style” that’s all your own.
7. Hire an intern.
8. Get an agent.
9. Do behind-the-scenes videos.
10. Get a studio.
11. Franchise your business.
12. Live off your stock library.
13. Sell your prints.
14. Get some gear sponsors.
15. Teach workshops.
16. Do a book.
Now you’re confused.
Ok, so my point is NOT to avoid doing any of the things on the above list – there are lots of good things in there. My point is that old recipes die hard. And guarantees are few and far between.
By following some old-model plan for how to be a photographer, a filmmaker, a creative whatever, you’re surely doomed. Because there isn’t one anymore. If you’re not……actively looking for a way to differentiate, to blaze your own path, to nuke the mold, your chance of survival is slim and your chance of raging success is even slimmer.
Hey Chase,
This post was really good. I did post few of my Photographs to the ‘Invite To Hang’, I hope they did got ‘Hang’.. LOL
How am I supposed to find an agent..??
I would really like to assist someone but How..?
Thanks..
i know the intent is the standard Chase ra-ra “blaze your own path” speech, but folks can follow the path above and they can make their own path. saying some one has to do something a certain way, or can’t do something a certain way, and trying to put a blanket over an industry automatically makes you wrong (or at best, only partially correct).
my sense is that what you’ve said here agrees w my point david. many points on the above list are fleeting. target tomorrow, not today.
Chase, thanks for the post….. where can I get more info about
12) live off your stock library ???
Thanks!
um. that one died a while ago… and is certain death for creativity.
I have to ask…
Am I completely crazy for ignoring the rules ( a lot of the time) of composing a shot and just thinking about what looks good to me??? Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of the rules, but isn’t that what makes some things more brilliant…when you show something like no other woud? Just a thought after this post…And, I am actually positive I’m crazy! Have a great one…
Ps. Can I be your assistant, since you brought it up? 😉
I know that internal dialog…I have that going on a lot too. My sense is that I need to always study established rules/guidelines, practice them to be comfortable with them, but don’t become enslaved to them. Shoot with these guidelines in place and then also allow for some shooting in different directions and see where it might take me. For instance, I very much like many of the highlights in Chase’s images…they have such a brilliance to them. I generally have such a fear of “blown” highlights that I miss the opportunity to really have that image jump off the page at me. I look at work like that and I find myself trying to deconstruct that look/feel and what’s at the heart of it….I’ve become a bit of a highlight junkie of late.
Can I not give a damn and still blow it?
that’s a sure fire way to blow it.