My daily, weekly and monthly routine as a photographer
Someone on my instagram requested that I write a blog post about my daily, weekly and monthly activities as a photographer, book cover and underwater photographer.
Daily Routine:
Check emails and reply to any.
Check my website analytics, see if any referrals have come in, it’s interesting to see where my traffic comes from.
Social media twice a day (instagram primarily).
I make a list of things that need to be edited and in what order, some are urgent and some can wait.
Tea. All the tea.
If I have a shoot, I iron the clothing whilst waiting for models and HMUA to arrive, I hang them all up in order I might need them, accessories that go with and I print out the moodboard I’ve previously done (if I have one).
If I DON’T have a shoot I crack on with editing.
Short afternoon break with lunch and I always try to get a walk in, keeps my eyes healthy, mind healthy and get the exercise in too.
Back to editing.
If I’ve had a shoot I’ll get back, upload the images to my hard drive straight away. If the shoot was for a client I’ll make selections and create contact sheets, aiming to send them that day or early the next morning. If it’s not for a client, depending on the time I’ll peruse through them and select some favourites, sometimes even editing a couple to show a sneak peek on social media.
Evenings I often check to make sure I’m on top of my blog posts, ideas for new ones and the scheduled ones are checked for spelling mistakes etc.
Weekly Routine:
Organising at least 2-3 photoshoots a week. Models, makeup and hair artists.
Once the days are organised I’ll start researching the themes I’ve chosen more closely, other books in this era, recent best sellers and see if there are themes.
I go to my local costume place and I’ll pick out what I need, it’s a good 45 minute journey there so this can take a couple of hours overall.
Clean and tidy the studio, get the lighting prepped for the upcoming shoots, if I am doing any in studio.
Keep on top of my website
Keep on top of my editing (I often fail at this but I try my hardest).
Take costumes back when I’m done with them, potentially picking out my next genres also.
Monthly Routine:
Try and get one underwater shoot in per month if not more. That takes more preparation with my underwater camera gear, making sure my camera doesn’t get moist too, moist camera = mould. I prep the clothing. After the shoot I have to wash and dry everything, put everything away properly. Clean my gear and then edit which takes a lot longer than most editing.
Back up my hard drives.
Email clients images.
Send and submit all edited images to agencies and to the models, HMUA’s and costume hire place.
Pay everyone as and when.
Stack up invoices, print them out and file them away for when I do my taxes.
Create a monthly newsletter for my email list, create a monthly theme and shoot for it accordingly also.
Keep on top of social media, blog and website.
I’ll try to find new models, but it is increasingly hard in the area I live in to do so.
And that is all folks! My entire life boiled down into a fairly uneventful list! But I realise how much I do, I wish I had the money to delegate a little. Editing would be a main one as I often just want to shoot and not worry about the editing. Social media would be another big one, I find it mentally rather challenging and draining at times.