"Cleaned up the apartment in Singapore, packed our stuff and headed for Paris in Mar 2006. No, not migrating. Blog's not work related, it's for and personal views and keeping in touch with family & friends."
2009: Back in SG having a baby. Will be here for at least a year from May09.
2012: Had another son in Nov 11, staying in SG indefinitely.
We are in Singapore, from Feb09 onwards.
wesley [at] memphiswest.com
Wes + Jo 
Awesome article. Thanks for the insight and history lesson!
Hi Wesley, Thanks for the lesson:) Although I don’t think freelancers are always the happiest. Most maybe.
wansheng > haha. thanks and noted. i’ll update if i do bump into unhappy freelancers. :-)
Even though I’m not a photographer, I’ll go with option 3. In any business, it is always about the unique product + PR/marketing and packaging. Technology has only flattened the barriers. Last time, it may be about how good you are in the technical skills; now, the limit is no longer in the person’s skills but the person’s creativity. Technology has bridged the gap between skills and creativity.
I don’t think a freelancer is the happiest person. Contented, maybe; happiest, unlikely.
A happiest photographer would be someone who could do photography as a full time job/career. A happiest photographer would be someone who could pursue the passion full time and make a living. This is what we call ‘have the cake and eat it’ scenario.
Freelancers will never attain nirvana. Only full time photographers with the passion will strive towards the goal and hoping of reaching it.
Some of us may fail, but at least we’ve lived!
Dreams are worth fighting for!
Hi Anonymous,
Thank you for raising a couple of points.
“Technology has bridged the gap between skills and creativity.” – Unfortunately, the gap has not been 100% bridged, especially in some critical areas. Technology has flattened the basic learning curve but technical skills like precision lighting & advanced image composition are still relatively untouched by technology.
“A happiest photographer would be someone who could do photography as a full time job/career” – Again, unfortunately that is not true. Let’s simplify this and say that a happy photographer is one who enjoys photography >90% of the time, including paid assignments and personal work. Most professionals will tell you that they enjoy personal work but feel that a sizable amount of paid work is bread and butter. Meaning that they might not hate it but they don’t feel a huge amount of personal satisfaction (or happiness) doing it. By turning a hobby into a full blown business, there’s huge risk of killing the passion more often than not.
A pretty frank and accurate take on the local photography scene. It’s tough making a buck these days doing photography but I suppose it’s those that choose to innovate and lead the pack who will end up making a name for themselves.
T