Photographer Fatigue is what happens when you stop loving the photography you used to love! It was 0600, and I was getting ready to leave for a location shoot. The location was A-1-Brake and Carburetor here in the valley. I’d shot there before and I messed up the entire shoot, and we were going back for a re-shoot.
Normally, that would be a reason to be excited. A new location, an opportunity to create photographs and a chance to work with good people are all things I enjoy.
But that morning, I was exhausted.
Not just tired. Burned out.
I did not want to go anywhere or do anything. If I had received a text saying the shoot had been postponed, I would have been thrilled. I probably would have gone straight back to bed.
That got me thinking about something that does not get discussed very often in professional photography: fatigue and burnout.
What happens after success?
Much of the conversation about professional photography focuses on success.
How do you get clients? How do you build a portfolio? How do you make more money? How do you establish yourself as a professional? Those are important questions. But there is another question that gets considerably less attention:
What happens after you have been doing this for years?
Eventually, you get tired.
You can get tired of the work, the travel, the equipment and the constant demands of running a business. You can get tired of packing equipment, driving to a location, setting everything up, shooting, tearing it all down and doing the process in reverse when you get home.
That was one of the reasons I built a studio. I wanted a place where I could work without having to constantly transport and set up equipment.
For the most part, I still enjoy location work. Once I am there, I am usually having a good time. There are certainly worse jobs and worse ways to make a living.
But I have noticed that I increasingly dread the process of getting there.
That makes me wonder whether I am simply tired or whether I am experiencing genuine burnout.
Loving the work does not eliminate burnout
I do not think I am ready to quit photography. I still expect to be doing this for many years, health permitting.
What has changed is what I find most rewarding.
Lately, I have found myself enjoying teaching and mentoring more than I enjoy some of the photography sessions themselves.
I enjoy workshops. I enjoy talking about the business side of photography. I enjoy helping photographers understand how to build businesses that allow them to earn a living, support the lifestyle they want and prepare for retirement.
After nearly 40 years as a professional photographer, I have a lot of experience to share.
That is one of the reasons I am particularly excited about an upcoming workshop in Costa Rica. The plan is to bring together 15 photographers and five models for several days of shooting, instruction and business education.
The goal is not simply to have photographers watch me work. The attendees will be shooting, too.
We will talk about lighting and photography, but there will also be a significant focus on business. How do you make money with photography? How do you build a sustainable business? How do you create a career that supports the life you want?
That part of the work still excites me.
In some ways, it excites me more than another photo session.
The difference between “have to” and “want to”
For years, one of the ways I dealt with fatigue was to work on personal projects.
There is a significant difference between photographing something because you have to and photographing something because you want to.
When photography is your business, there are things you have to do. You have to work with clients. You have to answer emails, edit photographs, market yourself and pay the bills.
Personal projects provide an opportunity to photograph simply because you want to.
That distinction can make a big difference.
Recently, however, I have noticed that my “want to” and “have to” are starting to feel more alike.
That is something I need to pay attention to.
Maybe it is temporary. We have been busy. There has been a lot of travel, shooting, building and general activity.
Age probably plays a role, too.
I am not 26 or 30 anymore. My knees hurt. My back hurts. Recovery takes longer than it used to.
Experience may have to make up for some of the energy I had when I was younger.
Is pushing through always the answer?
There is a tendency to treat burnout as a motivation problem.
The advice is often simple: Push through. Get the work done. Stop making excuses.
Sometimes that is necessary. I still plan to show up and do the work when I have commitments.
But constantly pushing through may not be the best long-term strategy.
Maybe sometimes you need to stop.
Maybe you need a week or two away from the camera. Maybe you need to clear the calendar and give yourself time to reset.
I am considering doing that.
The schedule is too busy right now, but I may try to create some time in October to step back and regroup.
The important thing is recognizing that this does not feel like the kind of tiredness that a good night’s sleep will fix.
A vacation may not be the solution
The obvious answer to burnout is often a vacation.
I am not sure that would solve this problem for me.
My schedule is already relatively flexible. When I do not have a booking, I do not necessarily have to get up at a particular time. I often schedule shoots later in the day so I have some flexibility if I did not sleep well the night before.
In many ways, my life already has some of the flexibility people associate with a vacation.
That does not mean a change of scenery would not help. We have a trip to San Francisco planned, and getting away from the normal routine may be useful.
But I suspect the solution is more complicated than simply going somewhere for a few days.
Sometimes you do not need to get away from your life. You need to change how you are approaching it.
Finding something that is exciting again
There is also plenty happening at the studio.
We are remodeling some of the sets and trying new ideas. The Paris set, in particular, has never felt completely finished to me. We recently added a piano, which was a great addition, but there are still changes I want to make.
We also need to get the studio back in order. After building and rearranging things, there is equipment and other stuff everywhere.
I hate clutter, so that is another project waiting for me.
Eventually, I will give everyone a proper studio tour.
For now, there is still work to do.
Maybe fatigue is part of a long career
The more I think about it, the more I suspect that this is not unique to photography.
Anyone who spends decades working in a profession they care about is likely to experience periods of exhaustion. Loving your work does not make you immune to burnout.
It also does not necessarily mean you should quit.
Sometimes it means something needs to change.
You may need to take a break. You may need a new challenge. You may need to spend more time doing the parts of your work that energize you and less time doing the parts that drain you.
Your definition of success can change, too.
Early in my career, success was about getting the next job, making the next photograph and reaching the next milestone.
After you have reached some of those goals, different questions become more important.
What do I enjoy now?
What do I want the next 10 or 15 years of my career to look like?
What do I want to spend my time doing?
Those are questions I am beginning to ask.
There may not be an immediate answer
I do not have a solution yet.
That may be the most honest thing I can say.
I have probably experienced periods like this before, but I never stopped to consider what was happening. This time, I am paying attention.
Maybe I need time away.
Maybe I need more personal projects.
Maybe I need to spend more time teaching and mentoring.
Maybe I need to change how I structure my photography business.
Or maybe I simply need to slow down.
Recognizing burnout does not mean you immediately have to know how to fix it. Sometimes the first step is acknowledging that something is not right.
Ignoring it does not make it go away.
Have you experienced photographer fatigue?
I would like to hear from other photographers about this.
Have you reached a point where you still love photography but do not want to pick up a camera?
What do you do when you feel burned out?
Do you take time off? Work on personal projects? Travel? Change the kind of work you are doing? Or do you simply push through until the feeling passes?
I do not think burnout is something we can completely avoid. If you spend decades doing anything, there will probably be times when you are tired of it.
The challenge is learning to recognize those periods and figuring out what you need when they happen.
I am still working on that.
But I will figure it out.
I always do. And when I do, I will share what worked.
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