Many of you ask me questions about my freelance with three reoccurring questions: how did I start Freelancing, what it is like and how do I manage my work/life balance. So decided while we are sitting here in New Zealand complaining about the price of petrol and how cold it has been I shall share with you that freelance life.
How did I start Freelancing? It was actually by accident... Athletics New Zealand stumbled upon a sketch animation I made for my final assignment for my Bachelor of Design and asked if I was interested in doing some casual design work for them which I jumped on. This work has progressively grown over the years. Most of my work when I was just starting was in fact graphic design work with the occasional 21st photographed, from designing logos for start up companies, to flyers etc. I took up Post Graduate study in Communications which allowed me to continue to grow my freelance. I used to take photographs at track events and take images of my friends which continued to do as a hobby with shooting for the dreaded word 'exposure' to build my portfolio to then getting hired to shoot the big Athletics events with the photographic side of my freelance growing rapidly from there and started branching out to other areas just from people knowing people for example lifestyle, businesses, product and weddings!
What Freelance is Like? Its feast and famine. Actually. And work ain't going to just land on your plate. If it does, lucky you but you are going to have to hustle hard at some point. So put yourself out there, network and hate to break it to ya, when you are starting don't be afraid to do some work for free, helps you get your foot in the door, build a network and build your portfolio before you feel you can start charging for it. Rule of exposure thumb: Do it ONLY if: It will benefit your profile and business, you have not photographed this before so want something low pressure to build your skills, it won't cause extra stress or cause you wanna have some fun and get some fire Instagram content. THAT IS IT.
How do I manage my work/life balance? HAHAHHA I don't. Kidding I really try to balance it out but I always get caught up. I guess cause I love what I do so often I don't see it as work. However I make an effort to make sure my life isn't all about photography and design, I fit in my borderline stupid extra curricular activity pole vaulting as well as seeing my friends and doing other things I love.
Little hit: work with social media and place importance of connecting with followers. I love making friends with all my followers as they support what I do. So in saying that any questions about anything photography or anything hit me up! Social media is a great platform to creating digital communities.
And look after yourself. Coffee isn't a food. Get enough sleep and make sure you get a good sleep the next day after a deadline! (Sounds like I am talking to myself). Working with visual mediums my eyes are reasonably important as well and you all know how blind I am getting. So shout out to SmartBuyGlasses.com (check it out!) for my new RayBans that actually stay on my head so can run around shooting or just sit and chill without them slipping down my face. Shooting full day events in the sun can be very harsh on my eyes (as well as not being able to see cause of the glare) so I take actions to keep them working well cause I need my eyes!
