Freelance

The word freelance according to google "A Basic Definition. Essentially, a freelance job is one where a person works for themselves, rather than for a company. While freelancers do take on contract work for companies and organizations, they are ultimately self-employed"

Freelancing is a lifestyle, is a life choice that you have as a side hustle or a full-time job. Everything you do is building up for yourself hence it is a selfish act yet it has many benefits.

I have mentioned various articles over my blog regarding freelancing, how to go about it, and what to expect. As a freelancer, I see the world, the people around me a little more critically than many seeking a job may think and see. My life is nothing to do with security and I have to have the social contentment in me every day with a mere line of

Things happens for good!

Everyone has its own journey to be one and it is worth reading and observe everyone possible and learn the things we can as down the line the situations are not newborn yet it recycles from one person to another.

Photography and product styling remain my primary source of income and rest is on the way to an exploration of finding the target audience who will like to hire me and help me pay my bills. Here I do not exactly wish to talk about freelancing and how to go about it rather there are many things I learned a little faster than else.

An adult and growing up to be an adult is a choice and I chose to be a child who is curious as long as possible. I have realized how being an adult is a trap and how being a child leads to a better world. A child, in general, doesn't look for perfection and adapts anyone unless it hurts. A child is more venerable and open to get molded and re-shaped. A child leads to discovery very new to itself.

Then why are we asked to grow up and how well it is important?

There is a difference between growing up and being a child and they are pretty broad lined.

As a grown-up, we are expected to understand things and be careful with our words. We are expected to earn and be compassionate and less venerable to being emotional and anxious. We are more aware of the rights and less aware of the very subconscious mind. Having the content attitude is a sign of being an adult for many and we choose to be choosy with the kind of people we should be with and shape our lives. We find being sad and low as a sign of being weak and less worthy to be with and successful people to be the ones you should look up to.

We complicate ourselves more than ever. We behave as a complicated being yet calling self the simplest and minimalistic of all just because we are not ambitious and we don't let our mind wander madly.

You have to understand if things are crazy in your head and you see it exist then it was always a part of being a human.

A child, on the contrary, is new to the world and everyday it tends to evolve, biologically it goes through a cycle of being a human, being a specie which is advanced and more mobile than anyone else. It discovers everything cause it is new to it, every word it says and everything it sees is new to it and the cycle will continue unless it is forced to be a grownup.

Very recently I have been rejected by someone I potentially saw as one worth to be a partner. I was exploring you see and my past has not been kind enough to me and it floats upon the surface the moment I find someone finally understanding me and giving me time to let them know the best part of me being me but it seems it was too late. The person was looking for a quick fix and he moved on and I eventually kept thinking that he will be back.

I let myself be venerable and I am thankful for it coz I wouldn't have been productive the way I am now just to overcome the feeling of being abandoned all over again. As a child, I rant, I take chances and I let people come into my life and I rest my trust in them easily. I let myself mold the way one wants me to and on the way, I discover the best of me.

Now with everything possible said what is the connection of everything above with being a freelancer, and the answer is simple it all depends on you and just you how you shape your freelancing career. There is the right way to be content and do things that work and keep life as safe as possible. There is another right way to let your child be alive to discover every possibility to raise your bar and aspect of your skill and talent. Be complicated, be difficult, be moody and keep ranting about things but at the end make sure you discover for better tomorrow.

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Hii, I am Shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, freelancer, and businesswoman, money, and creativity always intrigue me and I am passionate enough to share my knowledge with others too.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries, or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#coronaindia #mumbaiphotographer #femalephotographer #portraitphotographer #commercialphotographer #freelancecommercialphotographer

My worst driving skill

If I say every assignment of mine as been as smooth as a butter on bread, I am clearly lying to you all. If I say every client treated me professionally I am not honest. If I say I didn't learn and grow from the experiences I am definitely bluffing. As a freelancer in the early days of my career, I did the mistakes which come from an anxious mind, untrained attitude and the inability to trust people.

To inject it is still a little difficult to trust people but I have no choice than to calm the f**k down myself and let the flow take it along its pace.

I am here to share a few things which I did in my early days and I am sure many out there did the same and in fact, must be in the phase currently. There is no right or wrong way to go about freelancing and but there are few things I feel are basic and I wished someone would have helped me understand things better.

Communication:

Early days comes with an ego and an urge to specialize over things and one goes downhill from there, every time a client calls and if it doesn't fall your genre if you tend to say "No", you are potentially losing an opportunity to have something for yourself. Just because you feel you are good at something it doesn't mean you have to restrict yourself to that arena. Say yes to every opportunity and find a way to make it happen and when to say No, read along to know about it.

Be curious to know what the client is looking for and be humble to hear what they want from you and be patient to do things again and again.

The entire urge to bombard and get the best and do the best comes along the time so let yourself be in a learning curve as long as possible.

TRUST:

The urge to jump into a project and not keeping things over mail and often clients feel skeptical to keep it over mail led many to feel anxious about many things and up above remained the fact if they will pay one on time as per the telephonic conversation. The anxiety grows and the urge to ask for money is embarrassing, it is if one ask at the wrong time.

Many even do a mistake of not keeping the terms clear and let the client have a zone where they ask for more than agreed and with no written confirmation one gets handcuffed to do the job, that's the con of being early in the career.

Keep the information and terms and conditions as much as possible over the mail, an absence of response keeps the client in question, not you.

ANXIETY:

The overwhelming feeling of many things does rupture a lot many elements than you can imagine. Your subconscious mind has things to say and you are bound to hear to it and believe it than anyone else and there is absolutely no harm. One thing to learn along the way is anxiety is just going to degrade your image for future prospect so practice the art of being calm. F**k the calm out of yourself!

Instilling the art of meditating and building focus in your day to day work is the best thing you can gift to yourself.

CHAOS:

Creativity takes birth in chaos, a chaotic mind wanders enough to let you see things which others don't see and this is something you should not get rid of but learn to cage it enough for it to not overwhelm you when you don't want or need. Early days look like everything needs to be perfect and perfection is an enemy not a cure and frankly let the chaos be there in you in some way which helps you to bring the best out of you.

There is a clear difference between chaos and panic, the feeling of everything going out of hand to do happen in the early days but there is no cure than to breathe in and breath out and simply take things slow.

Potential Red Flags:

• When the client doesnt agree to come over mail. They tend to keep everything over a telephonic conversation.

• There is no clarity about the job description in terms of quality and quantity expectations and keeping the assignment as an open experiment.

• Raising questions to every terms and condition you have kept to work along.

• Asking too many options for one potential assignment on the job floor.

• A habit of bargaining for everything even after confirmation.

One of my personal experience dates back to 2014 and one of my initial commercial assignment where the client bargained and came to a mutual price, argued my choice of having my assistant and then later agreeing to it, Eventually flying me down and I was little taken aback with the fact of doing more than asked for and hanging me with my advance untill and unless I had to shamelessly ask for it in the middle of the work floor (don't do it). My chaotic mind led me to miss a piece of equipment back in the hotel which pushed the shoot time and I was guilty enough. I realized they pushed the agreement on the day one and I dropped a mail to state my position to do a certain aspect of the job and not been able to do other (always keep things over mail). Well eventually things went well and I ended up doing the job at my best.

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Hii, I am shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, I undergo the above almost every day and I am here to support others to let them feel cool about anything happening in life.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#dailyblogger #mumbaiphotographer #freelancetipsandtricks #portraitphotographer #freelancer

I almost committed suicide.

There is no death with no disease. Wow! I just made it up... But why to score your death if it is coming anyway?

There are few things as a freelancer we tend to practice for the death of our own career and there are ways to avoid it. There is something we have to deal with no prior experience is to deal with new people and understand human behavior and gauge the best possible among the many. Every day I get calls from an average of 5 people looking for my services and there are days when none of them turns into anything potential client and it is totally fine. What is not fine is to lose a potential opportunity. Very recently the Indian economy was effected post its overnight decision of demonetization in 2017 and it took a year for many freelancers including myself to recover. As I looked back I saw a few things I took as a final call for my better tomorrow and I am here to share the secret with you.

Creating art may not seem very relatable to you with being commercial but they both are intertwined except the kind of attitude you carry. Either you change yourself or hire, it is totally up to you.

When I looked back into the years when I just started my career being a freelancer in 2014, I was approached by people looking for talent at a cheap price, well I cribbed for the lack of budget clients carry but self-authentication to be a professional worth the bucks was not well signed by many and then I took up the job at the price they offered me, I still thank myself I did coz every experience matter and you tend to start somewhere in your career. The big bang theory exists but it's not all in one indeed it is an amalgamation of many. I ended up with a beautiful portfolio carrying various portraits and products which lead me to get my very first international client The Morningstar based out of Chicago, USA.

It is not important to earn the highest in every project, gaining credibility is indeed a currency one needs to earn and invest in itself for better opportunities tomorrow

The biggest problem is to understand and dissolve it in our mind is everything comes gradually, I have been rejected by many talent agencies for not fitting into the bill they are looking for and many agreed to make me a part for a sum I am still not able to afford it.

I do say No! to too many of my clients for the amount they offer against various factors of lack of enough to feed my assistant's effort to the inability to hire the equipment I require and more. I have negotiated enough to gauge the best they have to shed for the project. I have come to terms finally where I have made a style of myself the way I wish to work for better outcomes cause now I have things at stake.

Nature is the best example to relate to if and when we seek answers to all the worries and queries and doubts we have in and out. Evolution as a word is going to stick to you for the rest of your life and I have evolved enough to come to terms with the way I wish to work. It is been 6 years where I have done everything possible at my best to understand the circumstances I work the best and I work from my heart to give the best I can and I have committed to my clients. They come to me post seeing what I have done so far and where I have been me at the optimum as a photographer and professional artist.

I have a crew which helps me to work at ease, I have a production assistant which figures the things which I am not supposed to and I have a co-mate which brings the best out of my images, my stakes are high, my work experience has expanded, I believe in customer experience and indeed the productivity one is approaching me for. If one can't bear the minimum of what I need I can't take the risk to give an outcome I can't commit to.

I highly encourage everyone to take a risk and do things that are beyound your comfort zone and I myself practice it in every way possible. I have shot 1000s of images in a day to just 10 in a day and it took a while to understand what I do best and how I do best in what circumstances.

For anyone having a work style and aesthetic style is two different aspects relatable to each other and it takes years of being under pressure to be a diamond to define your worth.

Once you know and feel you have taken enough, step up and stick to your working style.

As an artist, we have a mind with thousands of things wandering around in and out and we either go speechless, talk endlessly or talk our heart out and as a professional, we need to train ourselves. Train not to stop wondering but to calculate the way we let other people know what we think and how we think and what we have to offer. Early in my career, I tended to crib a lot and talk endlessly and I still do in and over meetings with clients and people in general and I regret the big time when I self realize, over the years I have been open to criticism and words people around me looking out for best for me, have told me to follow and It has helped me a lot eventually but the child within does error from time to time and I have stopped taking control over it.

Stop talking before they stop listening to you

is a mantra I came across a book (The art of creative thinking) and I found it very amusing. I have been invited to many local and national conferences and they invited me to talk and talk the heart out, well I have had to brief it up as much as possible due to the same mantra above. When it comes to the meeting I tend to practice listening more and talk the least and it has worked the best for me. Listening holds more capacity to engage with our audience than talking to them and many called it a scientific way of human dominance in a way they tend to depend on you.

The very exchange of words turning into a potential transaction is a study every freelancer needs to do and evolve accordingly.

The death of a freelancer comes with the haste, jealousy, anxious mind and ever over the top self affiliation attitude. As a freelancer one needs to lead itself along the lines of evolution everyone goes through and has gone through and will go through. The attitude of settling down too soon in your career makes you stagnant. Fear of working out of the comfort zone doesn't bring anything new out of you. The hunger doesn't need a la carte to raise the symphony rather simplicity has given birth to many la carte.

I have seen many photographers going off the track due to the lack of passion and vision and exposure of what good work is.

The eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue every sense needs to get trained and needs to get fooled more than getting the right answers. Aspiration and inspiration are at the tip of your hand, how you practice are what makes you who you are.

I hold and no hold any guarantee for a miracle to happen in your life and yet the insurance is in your efforts and attitude you behold. We and I can learn from what others have for us to give away.

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Hii, I am Shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, freelancer and a businesswoman, money, and creativity always intrigue me and I am passionate enough to share my knowledge with others too.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#coronaindia #mumbaiphotographer #femalephotographer #portraitphotographer #commercialphotographer #freelancecommercialphotographer