Say no more! I took it personally for a lot of years.
You got that right!!!!!! It never ceases to amaze me how we seem to always be the last paid!
I see from Don's post that he too is well familiar with the "business" of being a photographer.
Bill
And when you are a 9-5 employee, making a regular paycheck, your employer acts like they own you; calls in the middle of the night, weekends, two weeks vacation, if you are lucky (most likely a few days off, here and there).
"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist" -- Louis Nizer
I earn a paycheck as a photometric tech. I guess that counts. All this LF stuff is relax mode for me though.
Let's say you've got a missile that you want to have land at spot X and it's traveling about 960 ft. per second. You'd really like to know how fast it was really going, what the angle was in flight and what if any difference the angle of the unit was compared to the angle of flight and spin rate if there is one. You'd also like to know within a thousandth of a second when it hit the ground. I can build you a camera array that will get you all that info.
I picked up my Nikon FG about 1985 or so because I wanted to make some pretty pictures of my Postwar Lionel train layout. I didn't have a clue. So I had to buy some books and learn how to use my Nikon. That led of course to better lenses and better Nikon's. (Not that much better, an FE was all I ever needed). Soon I got more interested in the cameras than the trains and yet another expensive bad habit was born.
By the time I came to work out here on the test range in 1994 I was doing 4X5 work. I came out here as an electrician but got to be very good friends with the guy in the photo shop who was also into 4X5. To make a very long story short, when they offered him a very nice early retirement package we conspired to move me into this photometric job from the electrical work. I spent a year getting up to speed on the high speed movie cameras but most of the building blocks I needed were already in place. Of all the old timers that retired, the photometric job was the most seamless transition they experienced out here.
So while I make my pay as a pro photog the LF stuff that I chatter about here at the forum is still just hobby. I plan to keep it that way. I try to make the hobby pay it's way by horsetrading on Ebay and that frees me up to just give the pretty pictures away.
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He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep..to gain that which he cannot lose. Jim Elliot, 1949
And when you are a 9-5 employee, making a regular paycheck, your employer acts like they own you; calls in the middle of the night, weekends, two weeks vacation, if you are lucky (most likely a few days off, here and there).
Robert, for the first 15 years of my career I was working far more hours than 9-5, working 6-7 days a week and at the beckon call of my clients. At a certain point that all changed and my life became much easier, but there's very little security when you have your own business, all of the pressure is on you with few if any people to help shoulder the load. Granted I would never want to be a full time employee of some company, but for those who currently work 9-5 and dream of having their own business, believe me when I say that you'll be working twice as hard in your own shop. When you have your own business, you are never far from it.
And when you are a 9-5 employee, making a regular paycheck, your employer acts like they own you; calls in the middle of the night, weekends, two weeks vacation, if you are lucky (most likely a few days off, here and there).
As a 9 to 5 er, You're not asked to finance your employer's business,
free-lancers are. When you understand that, you can prepare YOUR
business accordingly. You don't own, you rent: rentals are the clients
responsibility. And so on.
In my case, and the reason I mentioned it, is that I drifted from being an employee ( in the days it was a respectable thing to be ) to being an 'entrepreneur'.... which is a big word for 'fresh bait'. I wasn't prepared and suffered until I caught on. The world changes, be ready. Learn the rules, play by 'em.
And when you are a 9-5 employee, making a regular paycheck, your employer acts like they own you; calls in the middle of the night, weekends, two weeks vacation, if you are lucky (most likely a few days off, here and there).
Are you speaking from experience? I though the Iron curtain went down 15 years ago, nowadays employers can't get away with such crap?
Robert, for the first 15 years of my career I was working far more hours than 9-5, working 6-7 days a week and at the beckon call of my clients. At a certain point that all changed and my life became much easier, but there's very little security when you have your own business, all of the pressure is on you with few if any people to help shoulder the load. Granted I would never want to be a full time employee of some company, but for those who currently work 9-5 and dream of having their own business, believe me when I say that you'll be working twice as hard in your own shop. When you have your own business, you are never far from it.
I understand, what you do isn't easy. I was just making a point being an employee, and trading security for control. When you work for yourself, you do give up a measure of control as well, especially when you are first starting out.
"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist" -- Louis Nizer
Are you speaking from experience? I though the Iron curtain went down 15 years ago, nowadays employers can't get away with such crap?
They do in the US. Most Americans only get 2 weeks vacation (holiday) per year (I get one), not the 5 or 6 weeks Europeans get. 40 hours may be the law, but a lot of the people I work with do at least 10 hours a week, unpaid.
"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist" -- Louis Nizer
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