Living the Life of a Snowboard Photographer

Photography Tips

When you ask someone how they got the job that you’ve always wanted, you’re often disappointed with an answer like, “I just kind of fell into it.” But I don’t believe this is the case for most people. I believe it’s more that they jumped into the field rather than fell into it. Because people who have the kind of positions that we consider dream jobs don’t often go looking for that very specific job, but rather they create it for themselves by doing what they love to do. This is the case with f-stop photographer Scott Serfas. Serfas says he used to use an old Minolta camera, buy film from the drugstore, and have it developed at 7/11. Now he’s on the f-stop pro photographer team:

“I get e-mails all the time, ‘How do I get your job?’ You need to pack up your stuff, move to the mountains, and live it. You have to live it.”

Do you have what it takes to land your dream photography job? If you’re not sure, ask yourself these questions:

• Do You Make up Excuses to Not Shoot? Do you ever look outside and say, it’s too sunny today or too rainy or there’s nothing much to shoot out there? If so, perhaps you’re not as passionate about photography as you think.

• Do You Make Time To Shoot? Between work, family, friends, and fun, it can be hard to find time to shoot. But if it’s something you really love, you’ll want to make time for it.

• Do You Like to Show Your Work to Others? If you can’t show your work to your family or friends, how do you expect to show it to a publisher or client?

• Do You Crave Learning More About Photography? Those who really care about their work will want to learn about new gear and new techniques and are willing to experiment with both to create something unique.

• Do You Only Care About the Money? There’s no shame in wanting to make a living doing the thing you love, but it can’t be all about money. You’ll find that those who have amazing jobs don’t care as much about the money as they do about their work.

Scott Serfas’ photos have been on the covers of Transworld over twenty times.

“If someone was to open a magazine or see this photo and be like, ‘I wanna go there and I wanna do this’, I’ve done my job.”