A Typical Day in my Life

The title is a ruse: I rarely have anything like a “typical” day.

I know there’s a lot of interest among photography enthusiasts about “what would it be like to do what I love for a living?” Here’s just a snapshot of what my life is like:

8:00: Wake-up, check through e-mail, answering replies and moving things along with about 10 different clients.

9:30: Get on a train for a quick shoot at Fordham University, one of my favorite corporate clients (and my undergraduate alma mater). I planned to arrive there early, which is a good thing because there was a fire on the track, holding me up for half an hour. Preparation kept me from keeping the former New Jersey governor waiting.

11:45: Head into the city for a meeting with a previous wedding client discussing options for professional albums (see her wedding slideshow here)

1:00 p.m.: Especially after the morning’s track fire, I decide to show up for my evening job WAY early. I take the subway down to southern Brooklyn, find a hole-in-the-wall Cuban restaurant that kindly seats me next to a power outlet, and use my laptop to process photos, including the slideshow for Shanté and Akili.

4:30: The day’s big job, an opening of a major research center for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Mayor Bloomberg gets a tour and speaks. A philanthropist himself, he seems genuinely interested in the work the researchers are doing.

Midnight: Get home, scan through e-mail again. Send off a wedding album order that has final approval, process some quick selections for commercial clients, and book a flight to Florida for a destination wedding.

And that was a Wednesday. Things really pick up on weekends. The short answer for “should I become a professional photographer” is “are you passionate enough about it that you can work on other people’s schedules and projects, all day, every day?”

I certainly am, but I’m a bit crazy.