I got accepted in an anthology for no pay, and I’m assuming it’ll actually cost me money cos I’ll feel obliged to buy the book, if only to show my mother. I’m in my forties and she’s ancient but I still need the validation, I guess.

I completely am 100% with you on this. The long term goal is to do what you love and get paid for it and believe me, I’m working on it.

i used to agree with you. i used to think, hey, if i bust my ass and work for free, even if i only get name credit, eventually someone will notice. and sure, they notice.

in addition to noticing the quality of your work, they notice that you don’t seem to want to be compensated for providing quality work. then they start in with the expectations. in my case, several different monetized blogs with huge readerships wanted my work. they wanted hours of my life, both shooting and editing, and overnight turnover, all for no compensation.

at this point, name credit is worthless to me. i’ve stopped shooting for all those big blogs. i give my work to one or two smaller publications. i wait for the paying gigs to come to me. and you know what? they do. maybe not enough for me to play full-time photographer to the stars just yet, but it will come.

i just don’t want you giving away your work forever. you’re far better than that.