Commercial photography stressful?

[Kirk Gittings]

I've done this so long it all seems normal, but this article got me thinking.....is it all that bad? I can't imagine doing anything else for a living.

http://www.exposingfashion.com/?p=435

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/...ul_jobs/8.html

[Walter Calahan]

Kirk

I absolutely love what I do. What is stressful is an economy that doesn't want to hire me to do what I love to do.

Cheers.

Walt

[Kirk Gittings]

I hear that!

Actually I think the most stressful thing I do is moderate this forum. Behind the scenes you would be amazed at what we have to put up with. For those who have never done it, you would be astonished at the nut cases that haunt the digital highway and seemingly innocuous sites like a LF photography forum.

[r.e.]

Actually I think the most stressful thing I do is moderate this forum. Behind the scenes you would be amazed at what we have to put up with. For those who have never done it, you would be astonished at the nut cases that haunt the digital highway and seemingly innocuous sites like a LF photography forum.

I'll admit that it's complete news to me that moderating this forum is stressful. Now you've got me, and I suspect many others, curious. What does go on behind the scenes?

[J Ney]

I'll admit that it's complete news to me that moderating this forum is stressful. Now you've got me, and I suspect many others, curious. What does go on behind the scenes?

I'll second that...

[Frank Petronio]

...you would be astonished at the nut cases that haunt the digital highway and seemingly innocuous sites like a LF photography forum.

Hey I took my meds!

[Merg Ross]

I hear that!

Actually I think the most stressful thing I do is moderate this forum. Behind the scenes you would be amazed at what we have to put up with. For those who have never done it, you would be astonished at the nut cases that haunt the digital highway and seemingly innocuous sites like a LF photography forum.

Speaking from experience, it would seem to me that a LF forum would be a logical place for nut cases to covene.

Having said that, thanks to all of the moderators who keep this forum on track, and provide a depository of information for LF photographers in all stages of development.

As to the commercial aspects of photography, those days are behind me. Were they stressful? You bet, but my choice, and I do not regret a moment of the venture.

[Allen in Montreal]

I hear you!

I was a moderator of EP for about a year, I had to give it up, my family was about ready to revolt!

I greatly appreciate what you all do to keep this forum we love so much up and running and civil!
(or reasonably civil)

(humble fotog bows to moderator icon goes here).

I hear that!

Actually I think the most stressful thing I do is moderate this forum. Behind the scenes you would be amazed at what we have to put up with. For those who have never done it, you would be astonished at the nut cases that haunt the digital highway and seemingly innocuous sites like a LF photography forum.

[Allen in Montreal]

It can be that bad some days,
and it can be bliss other days,
so on the average, it ain't the heydays, but it sure beats welding!

My brother is a senior manager at one of the big banks,
he makes boat loads more money, but counts the days until he can throw in the towel, I want to drown in a tray of Dektol at a ripe old age.
So I will take the bad times knowing there are some good days too!

I've done this so long it all seems normal, but this article got me thinking.....is it all that bad? I can't imagine doing anything else for a living.

http://www.exposingfashion.com/?p=435

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/...ul_jobs/8.html

[Chris Jones]

I am perhaps one of those who has unwittingly made Kirk's moderation of this forum more stressful then it should be for an open and democratic discussion which this forum strives for and celebrates.

Perhaps I should have taken more steps to disguise my identity, since the fire I re-directed at Kirk was intended for me by way of what I now strongly suspect to be an internet forgery. This occurred just as I was beginning to engage with and speak publicly with approval about some of the ideas I had read on this forum.

What happened was at the top of my unified view, as if it were a new discussion, appeared some very nasty and criminal sexist, homophobic and racist attacks on a woman artist I knew as a lesbian along with very nasty homophobic attacks on Minor White along with other general sexist, homophobic and racist attacks on artists.

I kept this on my laptop monitor and re-read it several times and waited some forty minutes before firing off a very angry protest to the forum moderators which also contained a veiled threat of legal action. I then shut down my computer, intended to send my photographic gear to the landfill, never wanting to touch film again. I needed to go to the supermarket, which I did, perhaps some shoppers were perplexed to see a middle aged male crying between the aisles. It took me a week before I could even touch my cameras again.

My mistake was I did not immediately snapshot and time stamp along with record the IP addresses of this forgery but it caught me unaware. Even if I did hide my identity it would not take much tracking of IP addresses to work out that I am an internationally recognised queer poet and for this I more or less take death threats as an everyday event, so should have known better. It is just one of those things us publicly queer artists live with. So I reacted badly to this forgery. My mistake and apologies.

But if I am to take a bullet from the neo-Nazis and fanatical religious right in the US who have me on their hit lists, then I would rather this be done as I stand up proudly with my own name in opposition to homophobia, sexism, racism and the exploitation of those working poor who struggle to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. To speak up publicly with pride is the only ethic I know against this sort of cowardly hatred. And it would not surprise me if I am not the only one on the firing line. Democratic and freedom loving photographers seem to present a threat to Neo-Nazis and the religious right. (Better to stand up for freedom then die as a coward. Odd how this takes on such an urgent reality in the times in which we now live. And this includes the cowardly criminal attacks on the twin towers in NY.)