From a large lens, Sean Audet’s profession appears random: He was a biochemistry pupil, educated fine-dining chef and native school lecturer earlier than selecting up photography.
Audet’s background as a chef landed him a recipe analysis and improvement job at Red River College in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2016. He additionally taught a “pastry arts” class there, and discovered to stage meals for cameras when the college started serving to native eating places plate, {photograph} and promote their meals.
Then, he tried taking the images himself, and realized he had a knack for it. He borrowed a digital camera from a buddy, and picked up a couple of purchasers of his personal. By 2020, he had sufficient momentum to give up his other jobs — on the school, and as a chef at a pop-up restaurant — to pursue photography full-time.
His freelance work is now probably the most lucrative job of his life, Audet says. Last year, his enterprise introduced in roughly $133,900 in U.S. {dollars}, based on paperwork reviewed by CNBC Make It. Most of his enterprise comes from Fiverr, a freelance platform the place he finds most of his purchasers, he provides.
He works as much as 60 hours per week, however the energy to manage his personal schedule whereas being artistic every single day is priceless, he says.
Here’s how Audet obtained his photography enterprise off the bottom, how he manages his freelance price range and what he plans to do subsequent.
Building a new profession from scratch
Audet could not have jumped straight into full-time photography: He wanted to reside on paychecks from his other jobs whereas studying the ropes of his side hustle.
When Audet began taking pictures in 2018, he was incomes round $56,500 per year from the pop-up restaurant, which he began with a buddy — full with a seven-course tasting menu — and his school job.
You’re going to need to make some sacrifices. But typically instances, it is simply a obligatory a part of constructing one thing up.
Sean Audet
Freelance meals photographer
Adding photography into the combination got here at a worth: He repeatedly labored 12-hour days, seven days per week, spending any spare moments watching YouTube movies to select up extra digital camera abilities.
“Juggling two or three jobs … it should be time-consuming,” Audet says. “You’re going to need to make sacrifices. But typically instances, it is simply a obligatory a part of constructing one thing up.”
Breaking down his photography price range
In 2018, Audet’s side hustle introduced in $8,403, not practically sufficient for him to depart his other jobs. He did not make sufficient in 2019, both.
The tide turned in 2020, when Covid-19 shut eating places down the world over. Audet spent much more time on photography, discovering and dealing with purchasers from the consolation of his residence. He invested about $15,000 of his personal cash in new gear like lenses, lights and backgrounds, he says.
Audet’s freelance photography revenue.
Elham Ataeiazar | CNBC Make It
He closed his pop-up restaurant and introduced in $53,276 that year. With all his consideration targeted on photography, and higher-quality gear, Audet practically tripled his income over the subsequent two years, reserving main purchasers like McDonald’s and Campbell’s.
Today, he costs wherever from $1,000 to $17,500 per shoot, he says, noting that every shoot has “wildly” totally different wants. Sometimes, these wants are costly: Audet spent $19,000 final year on manufacturing elements like location leases, fashions, stylists and extra on-set assist.
Calculating dangers with out worry of the longer term
Audet would not plan to modify profession paths once more, he says. That doesn’t suggest he’s achieved increasing: In addition to food-based shoots, he now takes on beverage and cosmetics initiatives, too.
He needs to increase his footprint past Winnipeg, whereas concurrently turning his metropolis into a manufacturing hotspot — reaching out to other space photographers within the hopes of working collectively and rising Winnipeg’s creative status, he says.
Sean Audet, 30, makes $134,000 per year as a freelance meals photographer.
Josh Diaz for CNBC Make It
And he’s keeping track of generative synthetic intelligence instruments like ChatGPT and Midjourney, which he says have helped him repair small imperfections in his photos and reduce down on time spent speaking with purchasers.
“Working as a freelancer comes with challenges, however for me, I really feel prefer it’s principally advantages,” says Audet, including: “The company it offers me over my time [and] life-style … is, in my view, invaluable.”
Conversions from CAD to USD have been achieved utilizing the OANDA conversion fee of 1 CAD to 0.75422 USD on July 14, 2023. All quantities are rounded to the closest greenback.
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