Oh hi, it’s me.

First of all I want to say thanks to everyone who messaged me personally after my ‘pause’ email to say how much you’ve enjoyed my previous newsletters. It was slightly overwhelming at a time when I felt quite fragile and it truly meant a lot. I will reply to each of you personally soon I promise. But it was all very kind.

I’m temporarily emerging from newsletter hibernation because I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about something and I miss writing.

So first, a story.

Before I was a photographer I was a programmer. It was a cushy job and I was very good at it. It was completely stress free, it was black and white, it was fixed hours, fixed location, fixed salary. Predictable.

My boss was a tool but my grandad always says you measure a job by three things: the work you do, the boss you have and the money you make. If you’re happy with two out of the three, don’t change it.

I didn’t hate that job or that life. But I knew I wanted a different life.

I wanted a life that involved me being useful to people. Providing something to people that benefited their lives.

At that time, this was fuelled by the fact my brother was a plumber. His customer had a problem, he fixed it, they were grateful. He was useful and provided a necessary and useful service to people every day.

I, on the other hand, was helping a big corporation cleverly find and target the best people to squeeze more money out of every day. Does buying fresh lemons make you more likely to buy two loaves of bread in a single shop? That kind of stuff. Pointless, futile stuff.

And I remember many feelings from around that time, but mainly I vividly remember standing in my spare room in the middle of a day, looking out of the window at my quiet street when I’d pulled a sickie from work, thinking to myself:

“I just want to be here more often.”

And by ‘here’, I mean home. My house. My world.

So I worked to achieve that.

I eventually ditched that job with its low responsibility and fixed, generous salary for less money but a life I was in control of, and a life I’ve enjoyed so much since.

I didn’t stand staring at the quiet street thinking “I could make a fortune from photography, so I’ll do that.” I stood there, and thought about doing something I love for a living, gaining control of my life and time, and being my own boss.

That window isn’t my spare room any more. It’s my son’s room. He was a new born baby at the time, now he’s 4 years from adulthood. Time flies. Life flies.

But still when I look out of that window, I feel the same feeling plus a feeling of contentment because… I did it. I achieved what I wanted that day when I was at home pulling a sickie. I became a photographer, and all these years later I’m still achieving it every day, week, month and year.

Maybe you wanted to become a photographer to make loads of cash. I’d wager you probably didn’t. I certainly didn’t. But as I sat the other day and read two instagram posts back to back about how money was the most important metric in a photography business I sighed.

I wish I’d screenshotted both posts, but one of them was about a workshop to teach you how to charge fifty thousand dollars per wedding. And how if you were “only charging eight thousand dollars” it was ok, but you should want more than that. FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.

Listen, I get it. If we don’t make money we have to relinquish the life of self employment and running a profitable business is important.

But “making six figures” isn’t important. Making as much as a photographer in a different country isn’t important. Hell even making as much as the photographer next door isn’t even important.

For me I have one goal: make enough to pay my bills and look after my family, and make enough so that I can keep doing this job.

Each time I achieve one more year without having to go back to ‘having a job’ I celebrate it. That’s the goal.

And I’ve achieved the ‘six figures’ thing you know. And when I did I was miserable, I was just too busy and working that hard significantly affected my health and wellbeing, so I pulled back from it. I had two six figure years and hated them both.

Six figures isn’t an award.

Now, I know exactly how much I ‘need’ to make to look after my family and keep the wolf from the door.

I know exactly how much I’d ‘like’ to make to have a buffer and some luxuries on top of that for us.

The money I need is the goal. The money I’d like to have is the target. Then I stop.

If I get to the ‘need’ target it keeps me looking out of that spare room window. I’ve achieved my dream again.

What you ‘need’ will be different to me. So it would be pointless for you to aim to make the money I make. It would be equally pointless for me to tell you what those numbers are, and I would never sit and show you how much money is going in my bank every month, every year or whatever.

Some of the sentiment of these posts about money making in photography, which are getting more frequent, is noble. It’s about how it doesn’t matter how many followers you have, how many likes you’re getting, as long as you’re making the money you need.

That’s true.

But don’t chase the money, if you’re in it for the lifestyle and the life control.

Going back to the absolute root of what pulled me into this photography life – I wanted to do what I love, I wanted to give something of value to society, and I wanted control of my time and life. I achieve that every day.

The salary I left behind over a decade ago is probably way more than I earn now on a per-hour basis, but to me that is totally irrelevant.

And I don’t need to earn the same as a photographer living in New York City who probably needs to charge that fifty thousand per wedding just to afford a sandwich from Katz’s deli.

I’m sharing my thoughts on this today because I don’t think these people who share this kind of money-motivated crap just to ‘content create’ and keep being a slave to those algorithms know the effect it can have on us all.

It can redirect our focus to the wrong things and lose that all important perspective on our own lives.

Going back to what my grandad said. The work, the boss, and the money.

Two out of three ain’t bad.

I love this work.

I have enough money.

There is no better boss than yourself.

Three out of three, baby.

Six figures can’t buy that.

Perspective is personal.

Thanks for reading.

Adam

PS — If I don’t speak to you again before the year is out, I hope you enjoy the upcoming festive season. Use my ‘spare room window’ as a metaphor and find yours that roots you back to that moment when you wanted to be a photographer. I hope to see you in 2023.