it’s march 5, and in less than four months, shanima and i are boarding a plane for an epic journey across southeast asia. that is not a lot of time to get my shit together. i have to start applying for jobs post-travel right about now. i need to push myself to earn as much as humanly possible through my photography to help boost my income now in order to invest further into my kit and pay it forward on some bills i will rack up while i am on the road. and i need to continue working on my fiction project so that i can (hopefully) complete a first draft before we leave. or at least get damn close.
as it stands, i am going to have at a minimum of a month and a half with no income (and i am calculating that it will be two months just to play it safe), which means that i am going to have to pay it forward on two months worth of bills. that’s about $3,000 in case you were wondering. so that means that i’m going to have to bump up my monthly allocation to the joint checking account that we use to pay bills for the two months ahead of our trip. here i was thinking i was going to just buy a new camera and a drone and be able to pay them off before we go, and unless i add a couple racks to my pocket between now and then, that ain’t happening. well, the drone is happening. but the camera sure isn’t.
so, as if i haven’t been busy enough lately, shanima and i talked and she’s lifting the limit on the amount of photography work i can do before the trip to help make up the difference. she sees the importance of the hustle in this case, and i appreciate that about her. it’s going to be a struggle, and i’m going to have zero room for error, but i know i can get it done.
making things interesting, my regular weekly client is adjusting her business strategy, so one of my regular income streams just dried up. truth be told, it is probably for the best because things are getting crazy busy at work and i can’t really commit to meet people during my lunch breaks as freely as i was able to up until mid-february. i am really happy to have worked with her as long as i did, and we are definitely working together in the future, but under a different arrangement. i look forward to that.
the good news is i still have my monthly event photography gig with video consortium, which isn’t a huge payday but is most importantly a rewarding experience and definitely helps to keep the money flowing. i also have a multi-faceted project working on fashion photos for a boutique brand, and at least one individual lifestyle session booked later this month. i also have another event photo gig this month and have been putting out major feelers on thumbtack again to try and fill in the cracks. and fingers crossed, i just sent someone a high-value quote for a wedding that would definitely put me on the right path.
looking further ahead, i have an engagement photo session in april and a small wedding ceremony in june already booked, and those will be a major boon. all in all, i have about $1,500 in bookings on the calendar, so really halfway there on making up the difference. and i’m really only about five good gigs away from shoring that up. i am fairly certain i can close at least five sales in the time i have, and i am going to be responding to anything and everything that is within my power from now on to make that happen.
who knows? maybe i can have it all. but it’s going to cost me.