As an advertising photographer in the '80s, I did a picture of a Walls Pork Sausage that was very successful for the product and its advertising agency but put me in danger of being Britain's top sausage photographer (and never being asked to do an ad for Guinness, Toyota, Petfoods etc). That's because people like to put you in a pigeonhole. I turned down any commission that involved sausages after that and enjoyed a successful career being pigeonholed instead as a 'safe pair of hands'.
Since I gave up that career to go diving, I've concentrated on underwater photography and have built up a library of around 350,000 pictures over 20 years. I may not be an award-winner but I have found a steady demand for these pictures that net me a useful amount of money each month. However, I've made my name as a diving writer (despite the fact that my pictures are used to illustrate my articles and articles written by others and are seen (unattributed) elsewhere.
I was recently commissioned to write a book of short stories about diving and the 70,000 word manuscript is now with the publisher. I am the author.
Imagine my surprise when the marketing dept. of the publisher (in charge of the cover design) sent me their finalised version of the cover of my book with a photograph by someone else!
Well, I'm a writer. How could I possibly have made any suitable pictures!
Pigeonholed again!
(I just wanted to share my anguish with you all!)
where is a `like` button when you need one....
