Ken Jarecke’s excellent new blog post on Mostly True, on the odds a new photographer faces, rightly points out the difficulties we face in this increasingly challenging environment. His breakdown of cost of doing business compared to gross income and what might be left begs the question, why bother? If you hustle your ass off and still only make slightly more than a greeter at Walmart is this really a business worth doing?

I know many photographers who have asked themselves this question over the past couple years, some have answered, no. I’ve answered yes.

Over my career I’ve been fortunate to find a level of success that eludes many. Of course I’m no rockstar photographer, certainly don’t make NBA level money, not even NBA cheerleader money, but I’ve managed to support myself and my family reasonable well over the years. However, it’s never been more difficult than the current market and there are no signs that it will become easier. So why do it? Easy answer, the work.

I still love making pictures, I love the challenge of making something beautiful or compelling, of telling a story or describing a place. I love the characters I meet and the places I visit. There is simply no better job in the world, for me.

So while I might make out better driving a cab or pulling draft micro beers, I have every intention to keep hammering out pictures and finding clients to pay me for them.

Back to Mostly True and the notion that there are more people playing in the NBA than are successful as photojournalists and documentary photographers. My only guess why so many others try to buck the trend in the face of such odds is the same reason I keep going. We simply can’t imagine anything else. So of course it screws up the marketplace when hungry, not so business savvy, artists flood the arena, as is currently happening. Just take a look at guitar players, quite possibly an even less savvy, hungrier group than photographers. How many freelance guitar players make $50G out there? But the ones I know keep at it because they simply have no choice, they have to make music.

So here we are, music makers, treading water in an uncertain sea, hoping to last long enough to play a few more songs. At least a guitar floats.