Photography vs the day job

On my way to spend Sunday with a friend, I spotted this ad in a copy of a Calgary Sun newspaper left behind on the bus; another one of my photos on a Carifest poster.  

Here's the Flickr version:

This is the Carifest 2013 poster, where they used a photo I took during the parade the year before.

The Flickr version:

No, I didn't get paid money and since I have a day job getting paid doesn't matter. The warm tummy tingly of having my photos used for posters and in advertising is nice. There's also the love of taking photos of joy and fun.  Since warm tummy tinglies are few and far between they have been payment enough.

However, more and more I'm finding myself pulled between my day job and taking event photos. I work every other Saturday. An ache develops when something I want to photograph is over-ruled by work. Usually responsibility picks paycheck over the love of photography. There's also the reality that Kit and I would probably be starving and homeless if I relied on my own business sense for a living.

It should be a no-brainer.  

Recently a friend's grandfather passed away.  Even at 92 years the grandfather said, "There's never enough time."  Which begs the question... what do you want to fill that time up with?

Is it about finding a balance?

Still, the conundrum.

This year, the Carifest has been rescheduled for the end of August in the hopes that the weather will be better than the monsoon month of June. The change puts the parade and Sunshine Festival on a Saturday I am already scheduled to work.

Because Carifest is so much fun to shoot and the Carifest people like my photos enough to use them for ads, my first thought was to find someone at work to swap my Saturday with.  Or take that day as a vacation day (without pay).

A lot of photographers shoot the parade and Sunshine Festival.  It's not like the Carifest people need me to be there. [sigh]  Then again, do they really need me at work? [double sigh]

What to do.

Being the responsible person that I am, I will probably work and then go the Sunshine Festival afterwards.  Will really really miss the parade, though.

Links:

• Carifest Calgary