I’m a full-time, in-house photographer for a small-medium sized company in Florida. Total compensation is about $83,000 ($70,000 salary base + $13,000 benefits). I get yearly raises at about $4,000-6,000. Bonuses are also possible in years where company profits are good.
Top three best advice I've received for my career:
-Show what you want to do more of, don't show what you don't want to do
-Do the best that you can in the place where you are
-La fruta madura cae - "ripe fruit falls," which reminds me to let time do its work as I build my career
Having a successful long-term career in photojournalism or documentary is difficult. You have to want to be a journalist and be passionate about the good that it can do more than anything else in life.
It is absolutely baffling that people in other creative fields think that they will be safe if Art copyright gets taken away and they can freely train on it.
Why the fuck would any other company stop there? Why wouldn’t they use your copyrighted material to?
I don't aspire to work outside of my geographic region (I value the work/life balance I've been able to build with my young family) so I feel pretty much capped out in terms of raising my rates. But it works for me.
I think owning my own gear and having my own space for shoots has been huge in my work. I sometimes go weeks without a day off, and sometimes weeks without having any gigs.
I’m just starting to learn about licensing and how I’ve let people over use my work in the past. I feel like I can create with the best, but I can’t seem to reach my target clients, and when I do I have trouble landing the gig because I don’t know how to close the client.