After reading some of the comments I guess I'm one of the oldest DP's at 69 years old with almost 40 years actively shooting. The crazy thing is that I'm still buying gear and excited to go out and shoot. I'm very fortunate that my health has held up and that I have great connections with production companies and networks that keep me pretty busy. I believe one of the things that keeps me going is the work itself. You can't do this job with out a lot of movement (unfortunately that also includes humping a lot of gear) and it can take it's toll depending on the shoot, but when I look around at the people who are retired or sitting at desks they often have more health problems. I'm starting to feel it more each year, so I know I can't keep going forever. My plan is to focus on projects I can produce and bring in some younger guys to do the shooting. Thanks for sharing your journey Dave, I think it's really great what your doing with your channel!
I'm late 40's. Started out in network TV mainly studio and OB cam dep early 2000's. Have done it all since. Purchased a bunch of XDCams and trained up young guns over the years and now mostly manage our clients, crew and equipment from the office. Back has had it, pain not worth the money shooting HH any longer. Still do occasionally get out and shoot the more interesting gigs that come in just to keep up appearances.
Smart move to plan ahead - my rollercoaster income conditioned me to be pretty thrifty, live within the current budgets, and keep monthly expenses low, so when I'm making good money I can easily save some of it (sometimes most of it), and when it's a slow 2-3 months then at least I'm not panicking on the money side of things. Overall working in the media has been a great professional choice, because I'm doing things I'm interested in and many people can't say that, but decades of freelancing had a massive impact on my life including some important life decisions, etc.
Been dealing with some really crazy health issues in the last few months too. Long-term heatlh issues. Only a year into doing this full-time for myself. Luckily, I found a client recently that I think I'll sort of passively make $60k from next year, which is a huge ease of mind. That will allow me to stop taking all the low-budget work and allow me to work on the things I want to do more. Plus re-investing into a home, new vehicle, maybe get into bigger camera packages and higher-end work. My market is pretty small, so hoping to get more of the bigger clients with bigger budgets.
I am only just under a year in, with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and EDS and it's rough. Thankfully I have a full time job with decent hours so I can freelance outside of it and subsidise the costs. Buy it really can suck when your joints are just not up for it, stretching has really helped me and sports recovery techniques at the end of the day really been saving me and keeping my energy up. Plus I go through about 5 litres of water or more as I suffer from heat exhaustion pretty often. I can only be thankful that I can do as much as I do, but I am confident that it'll get to a point in my late 30s - mid 40s that I'll have to stop and live off of passive income or benefits. I'm a little too slow of the admin world and standing for 8 hours just hurts. I feel you even though I'm young I don't see myself doing this for long, hopefully enough that I go full time freelance, make 50-60k for at least 5 years (ideally longer but who knows in the current environment) and probably have to retire early with doses of hot evening baths and morning morphine.
Ohh, I feel this. I get hit with a flare and fatigue at greater frequency the past few years. One my days off I have to lie down and rest each afternoon. Adding a bunk to my work van was also a component of this. It’s good you are aware and planning for the future.
Since covid shut down my photography business, I realized that I needed to switch to a new line of work. I have SI joint problems too, and have had hand and shoulder operations. I just can't carry the gear anymore. I can do it for one day, but the next three days I need to recover. The SI joint is a problem, but it's the recovery from labor. I'm just super tired and not thinking clearly for several days. I've been trying to find work in project management, but haven't had much luck.
I’m still young, but I’ve diversified into four streams: Videography, Broadcast, Music Production and Video Editing. Good overlap across all fields so not spreading too thin but if I have an issue that puts me out of work, then I have other options to push
I’m 61 years old and have never regularly done sports in my life. I’ve occasionally gone jogging or swimming, but nothing beyond that. I’m not overweight, nor do I have any illnesses that require me to take medication. The only thing I’ve consistently done since I was 22 is avoiding fish and meat. What I do notice about my friends of the same age is that those who regularly engage in sports, gym, and other activities that sometimes put extreme stress on the body tend to have physical problems. Maybe I just have better genes or have been lucky so far, but I see physically intense activities as problematic. I believe that mental fitness is much more important - accepting things as they are, not getting upset over every little thing, and listening to your inner voice. Admittedly, that seems to get easier as you get older.
You won the genetic lottery. But there is much truth in your observations. My veteran and athlete friends have the most physical issues. I tried a vegetarian diet a few years ago, unfortunately resulted in more inflammation and gut issues. Contrary to the medical advice I received 20 years ago, I’m getting the best results with high protein and minimal carbs, minimal fruit and vegetables. I have lab work every 6 months due to medications and amazingly my BP and cholesterol are within range.
@@CrankyCameraman You seem to be a medical miracle. :-) A friend of mine gradually cut out meat and sausages, but he still eats fish. As a result, his arthritis has significantly improved. But as I said, everyone’s physiology is different, and you just have to experiment a bit with what works for you in terms of food. I think nutrition is going to be the major topic of the future anyway. Without the right fuel, the engine simply won’t run. And we’re getting more and more seasoned plastic from the food industry. Especially our kids are growing up with it. I can only encourage you to keep experimenting and testing what works for you. Despite living a vegetarian life, I somehow don’t like apples or oranges, so I just leave them out. Fitness is also when you’re transporting your film equipment from A to B every other day. :-) Have a great day … Chris
Hey David! I know that you’re simply trying to document your business process here on TH-cam but as you’ve grown your TH-cam channel, I’m sure you’ve seen the potential that you have to earn here on TH-cam. It’s just keep moving forward with that as another income stream on the side. I’m pretty sure you’ve seen your views increase whenever you purchase a new camera, the Internet loves that stuff. I’m really glad you made this video. We never like to think of it, but our bodies are not going to last forever. I’m 41 and I’m starting to feel it now more than ever. You bring up a lot of good points here.
Hi Mike. Thanks... Yes, it would be fantastic if YT generated a meaningful amount of revenue. About $120 / mo right now and offers of free gear in exchange for review. I do pickup a few bookings a year off the channel and meeting other freelancers that are referring work in both directions.
@@CrankyCameramanmake the videos more like a commercial, your rate would increase exponentially each deal you make. Its a long game I am starting to play with.
@@CrankyCameraman if you dig into it a little further, you’ll find that there are many people out there who are making a full-time living off of TH-cam, and I don’t just mean Adsense, and they’re subscriber count is not much larger than yours. As you know, David Moorefield is looking to get his TH-cam revenue to pay his rent/mortgage and it is definitely achievable. Take Shane Herbert for instance. He’s taking TH-cam serious and he’s leveraging his channel/following to direct people to his online courses. Just some food for thought.
As creatives in a physically demanding (in odd ways most times) niche this is a great topic. I ride my bike because it's low impact on my knees and good for my heart.
I should also add a low-key big win for living in San Antonio is the green belt trail system. All that otherwise flood plain land turned into biking/running/walking trails is one of the best cases of government spending ever.
I am right there with you. I'm 57 and after 30+ years in TV production, mostly handheld camera, I'm getting more back issues than ever before. I figure I have less than 10 years left before some kind of retirement. We have one rental property but I need to figure out one more income leg to get me through. I've been exploring more editing work as well as doing more photo shoots as that has minimal stress on my back. It's tough as I love shooting but can see my body not cooperating for heavy production work for the coming future. Thanks for your candor about this topic.
The still photo suggestion is interesting. Now that I'm in a smaller market, I'm getting calls to shoot stills, corporate headshots, corporate events. I've been passing those jobs onto other people. In 2024 it's been about $10,000 - 15,000 in missed opportunity. Two bodies, two lenses, minimal lighting, it would be a lot easier on the labor side.
Appreciate this honest conversation! Sad to hear you're dealing with health issues but good to learn about playing the long game with your financial future. I actually STARTED my videography company last year right before I turned 50 after being an art/creative director (sitting in a chair all day) in ad agencies for a number of years. I changed up my workouts to high-rep based weightlifting and went stronger on cardio. Having to carry 10+lbs of camera around for handheld work has gotten a LOT easier and after 10mo of that I can do it all day. But I'm grateful for days when I can put my rigs on sticks and take it easy!
Love this. My weight training is all high rep lighter weights, working to keep my core strong vs getting bigger. 3-4 sets of 20 reps. With my inflammatory disease sitting in a chair all day was more problematic vs being on my feet all day. Thanks for sharing and I wish you success.
Other than some mild arthritis in the shoulders (which a scorpion rig negates) I'm doing good at 49. But I live in a college town and am looking to buy some property out in the country with a dozen or so cabin rentals for our sports seasons. Praying I have another 10 years left in me!
Keep at it. I started strong on the rentals, buying two new construction starter homes. They didn't cashflow much the first few years, but 5 years in they were my biggest performers. Each buy I got more aggressive migrating to low income inner city, 12-18% cash on cash returns until the lockdown.
Si Joint inflammation is a miserable experience and you are dead on with the 2 week minimum for recovery. Great video as always, really great to share this realistic perspective on working in this industry as you get older totally relatable.
I see myself moving more to hybrid video and in-house fabrications and sales, doing shooting and media transfers is okay money, but hardware sales like SMD fabrication with pick and place machines, you can drop a product overnight and change what your selling within 7 days if you parts stock right, and 3D printing makes cases for anything and the overhead margin for global shipping is nothing in the UK. The biggest issue with being UK based is the cost of living, its a do or die situation with dealing with the local power/water companys, so end game just 550w solar pannels and DIY batterys 100% off grid 7 days of power reserves with over provisoning to run a small factory, smelt metal from alu cans, pull water from the air with a reverse osmosis kit and 300L of rain water, the kit and filters cost less per decade then the per month/year cost of my local providers. Cost insulation is all you can do In the west keep that outgoing cost an 10:1 ratio to what you have comming in.
Hey dude - I’m 10 years in and I’d love a video about how and when you made certain big purchases like cameras and cars n stuff. I debate that kind of purchase all the time. I’m 35, financial security for the future, I don’t know many people my age that have that at all. But health! Took up yoga at the beginning of the year - way better mental health and physical health, my regular shoulder knots and back pains are essentially gone. For now.
For me alignment of the spine. Theres a book called acuyoga, vital as quality > quantinty when it comes to exercise. Zen meditation as well because the nerves and deep muscle pain are healed. Hope you get better Mr Winters
Just turned 50. Still shoot and op for corporate clients here in OC/LA but have moved to doing more DIT/Data Manager work. I’m also a union Video Assist Op and livestream and that falls in between Cam Op and DIT on the fatigue side of thing. The kit is light for docs. Running and weights for exercise. And walking with my wife. My biggest motivator is mental fortitude. I realize I’m getting older but my wife has been stay home mom as well so I really do everything possible to keep healthy. Mind and body.
David, I hear you on health issues as we age. I was fortunate to be able to work full time for PBS North Carolina as my free lance days were numbered. I shoot for various programs including a traveling magazine show, but rarely have to do any hand held work. I use a gimbal and a sony FX3 occasionally, but primarily work with the Sony Fs5 MII. It is very light and I know it has allowed me to work with little or no pain over the years. You may want to consider looking at the PBS stations in your area that do not do news programs. Best of luck with your health.
Thanks, appreciate the suggestion. I'm considering exactly what you are describing, possibly next 1-2 years once my son is out of the house. At the moment his interest in production has kept me motivated to continue freelancing.
Thanks heaps for putting this out, Yeah it’s amazing how you can forget to think about anything future revenue wise for so many years while having your boots on the ground busy working. I’m 40 now and understand fully that as a DP I’m pure labour, if im physically not working the job, there is no money as a DP. I find offering editing as a good way to keep income coming in as well but again, I’m the one needing to do that so it’s not passive. We recently went to a financial advisor to help us build a plan as a family moving forward. Best of luck in freeing up the joints!
I understand the health issue. I am a martial artist and was in the airborne, disabled veteran and drive trucks. I got into videography a few years back. My back have been in pain for over 4 years. I am switching to more conference/broadcast style shooting with PTZs.
Such great points! I own a 1 Ton in a ford transit connect and gaff with it. I primarily DP and own a couple camera bodies. I get busy and I like keeping things separte as my goal is to build a lighting company. A production house, a camera rental, a youtube income stream and of course my DP work.
first thing was to cut weight, for my old job i was 315 and had to maintain that weight, once i retired from that life i cut to 250. part of the reason I like tradeshows is because of the constant movement. standing in one spot for too long would not be fun. fasting and carnivore seems to eliminate any inflamation related issues with the joints
I've been avoiding the carnivore diet for years. Today is week two on it and I'm down 8 pounds. Took a solid week to get over the carb cravings during and after every meal. Good info, thank you.
I used to skip past these rental property videos of yours a few years ago but now that I’m older and interested in assets- they are extremely valuable 😂 Just sent off my FX6 today. Fingers crossed. I’m on the mma train as well. It’s such a nice mental space to jump into. And combos are a problem for me as well. It’s hard to even see the opening much less strike a few steps ahead. Love to see it Dave. Please show more combat practice!
Thanks brother. Sony Service will take care of you. About 1 day after your camera arrives they'll send you a link and a ticket number to track progress. Training... I'll vlog a bit while all us old guys sit out during the warm up stretching and stalling. Haha.
Interesting to hear you talk about your body feeling the toll of your profession, to combat this what you are currently doing with exercise and rest is great. So many cameramen I've known developed serious neck, shoulder and back issues mostly from shooting from the shoulder. Always use sticks! There's not enough oldtimers left to pass along this dire warning to the younger bucks.... they wouldn't listen anyway.
Solid advice. Minimal handheld / shoulder work has been my focus from the start. I’m happy to shoot parts of the day HH but can’t do the all day feature, commercial, reality tv operating that way. I leave it to the ones with good backs that can wear a vest.
Am curious what autoimmune disease exactly you have? As living with one myself! I inherited ankylosing spondylitis, unchecked it attacks the joints. Personally I'm thinking I might go back to Software Development, is a job you can still do even if the body has seriously gone downhill.
Hey man please please please consider trying DDP yoga. If you have joint issues like I do you have to consider moving on from high impact athletics. It sucks but its the cards we were dealt. I'm almost thru 2 months of DDP Yoga and I feel better than I have in a long time. I've been shooting for 13 years so I know what you're going through.
@@CrankyCameraman low impact is key, cant have your joints bouncing around like the average Joe can. I was super into MMA and BJJ and all that for most of my life so giving it up was really difficult. I had to start the first two weeks of DDP Yoga with the chair program because I just hurt my back doing kettlebell swings. Just do what you can do comfortable for the first few weeks.
Yeah, I'm thinking about selling my property. I can cash out buy a very nice home, pay off the balance here and bank some cash. The thought of no mortgage, no car payments and a fund is more attractive at 59 years old than people "liking" my house. I have a big home, a couple acres with a guest house/office in a separate building. I'm over it. For my age I'm in pretty good shape. I box non-stop for 20 minutes with 2lb weights. Not all the time but when I feel it. One or 2 rounds till I get to 20 minutes. My knees are rough but I just started peptides. Awesome. We'll see. Stay healthy bud!
A basic house free and clear takes off huge pressure. Our current residence is paid off, never planned to live here, bought it as an investment. We've been holding out for what you have, but going back to a loan and at a high interest rate kills it. Wish I had bought a place in Comal county late 2020, but all for the best. With the low overhead, I need chill and be grateful for what we have. I have a friend that just sold their big house and downsized, buyers assumed the 3.5% mortgage and cash for the difference. I wish you success and financial ease.
Hang in there, for me biologic meds and the right diet have improved quality of life dramatically. When I get on 5+ day production runs is when the diet fails and the problems ramp up.
I gotta be honest I’m kind of lost at this point doing cam op and video production work over the past 5-6 years. I’ve been thinking of going freelance to give myself a better work/life balance but I don’t own a ton of equipment and struggle to find production work in my area (SC). Any suggestions or tips?
I have the same issues, a few weeks of no bookings and I'm ready for a new career. Then a booking and I'm hooked again. My income (inflation adjusted) maxed in my 30s. Finding the consistent freelance clients takes a long time, geography plays a huge part, buying the right gear at the right time and retaining those long term clients. At my present stage I'm loosing repeat clients from retirement / death and the new ones are not coming on at the same volume. Which has been ok as I can't work the same volume of days as 10 years ago. I have a friend that is a union lighting technician and works as a commercial electrician apprentice between film projects. And a few others that jump between IT and media. Both have some overlap and possibly that is an angle to explore, parallel complementary skills. Good luck.
I've learnt a lot from your videos man. I really enjoy your channel. Sorry to hear about your health in regards to autoimmune disease. I hope you have many many many more years in the tank. Thanks for sharing with us! Best -
I’ve got an autoimmune disease that attacks my joints as well…very similar to gout. I am on medication that mostly keeps it under control. But for last project, I had to travel to 4 different locations to make ‘town profiles’ for a cruise agency…and my right wrist was about three times the size of my left wrist as I had a severe attack. So I had to do everything on this shoot using only my left hand. I didn’t mention it in the vlog but since you are talking about it, I figured I’d share that it’s a struggle I have as well: it was this project which I was doing one handed:…big pain! Vlog #21 Sometimes things are a bit.....foggy. th-cam.com/video/00hL52MR4rU/w-d-xo.html For passive income, I had been using our first house (we didn’t sell when we bought a bigger/newer house) as an Air B&B/VRBO. It was doing pretty well as my area is a popular tourist area. Alas last year after 20 years of marriage my wife decided she wasn’t happy and wanted a divorce so now I am living in what was supposed to be my ‘passive income’ stream. 😂😢 Life….its unpredictable and you never know what’s coming next.
After reading some of the comments I guess I'm one of the oldest DP's at 69 years old with almost 40 years actively shooting. The crazy thing is that I'm still buying gear and excited to go out and shoot. I'm very fortunate that my health has held up and that I have great connections with production companies and networks that keep me pretty busy. I believe one of the things that keeps me going is the work itself. You can't do this job with out a lot of movement (unfortunately that also includes humping a lot of gear) and it can take it's toll depending on the shoot, but when I look around at the people who are retired or sitting at desks they often have more health problems. I'm starting to feel it more each year, so I know I can't keep going forever. My plan is to focus on projects I can produce and bring in some younger guys to do the shooting. Thanks for sharing your journey Dave, I think it's really great what your doing with your channel!
Health has become my overriding factor. Nobody escapes the toll of time - you are smart to be thinking ahead.
Truth.
I'm late 40's. Started out in network TV mainly studio and OB cam dep early 2000's. Have done it all since. Purchased a bunch of XDCams and trained up young guns over the years and now mostly manage our clients, crew and equipment from the office. Back has had it, pain not worth the money shooting HH any longer. Still do occasionally get out and shoot the more interesting gigs that come in just to keep up appearances.
Smart move to plan ahead - my rollercoaster income conditioned me to be pretty thrifty, live within the current budgets, and keep monthly expenses low, so when I'm making good money I can easily save some of it (sometimes most of it), and when it's a slow 2-3 months then at least I'm not panicking on the money side of things. Overall working in the media has been a great professional choice, because I'm doing things I'm interested in and many people can't say that, but decades of freelancing had a massive impact on my life including some important life decisions, etc.
Been dealing with some really crazy health issues in the last few months too. Long-term heatlh issues. Only a year into doing this full-time for myself. Luckily, I found a client recently that I think I'll sort of passively make $60k from next year, which is a huge ease of mind. That will allow me to stop taking all the low-budget work and allow me to work on the things I want to do more. Plus re-investing into a home, new vehicle, maybe get into bigger camera packages and higher-end work. My market is pretty small, so hoping to get more of the bigger clients with bigger budgets.
I am only just under a year in, with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and EDS and it's rough. Thankfully I have a full time job with decent hours so I can freelance outside of it and subsidise the costs. Buy it really can suck when your joints are just not up for it, stretching has really helped me and sports recovery techniques at the end of the day really been saving me and keeping my energy up. Plus I go through about 5 litres of water or more as I suffer from heat exhaustion pretty often.
I can only be thankful that I can do as much as I do, but I am confident that it'll get to a point in my late 30s - mid 40s that I'll have to stop and live off of passive income or benefits. I'm a little too slow of the admin world and standing for 8 hours just hurts.
I feel you even though I'm young I don't see myself doing this for long, hopefully enough that I go full time freelance, make 50-60k for at least 5 years (ideally longer but who knows in the current environment) and probably have to retire early with doses of hot evening baths and morning morphine.
Ohh, I feel this. I get hit with a flare and fatigue at greater frequency the past few years. One my days off I have to lie down and rest each afternoon. Adding a bunk to my work van was also a component of this. It’s good you are aware and planning for the future.
Since covid shut down my photography business, I realized that I needed to switch to a new line of work. I have SI joint problems too, and have had hand and shoulder operations. I just can't carry the gear anymore. I can do it for one day, but the next three days I need to recover. The SI joint is a problem, but it's the recovery from labor. I'm just super tired and not thinking clearly for several days. I've been trying to find work in project management, but haven't had much luck.
I’m feel your struggles. The flares, fatigue and multiple day recoveries I’m experiencing first hand. Stay positive the opportunities will present.
I’m still young, but I’ve diversified into four streams: Videography, Broadcast, Music Production and Video Editing. Good overlap across all fields so not spreading too thin but if I have an issue that puts me out of work, then I have other options to push
Editing and post side is a good suggestion, I'd kind of forgot about that route. Would be full circle in my case.
I’m 61 years old and have never regularly done sports in my life. I’ve occasionally gone jogging or swimming, but nothing beyond that. I’m not overweight, nor do I have any illnesses that require me to take medication. The only thing I’ve consistently done since I was 22 is avoiding fish and meat. What I do notice about my friends of the same age is that those who regularly engage in sports, gym, and other activities that sometimes put extreme stress on the body tend to have physical problems. Maybe I just have better genes or have been lucky so far, but I see physically intense activities as problematic. I believe that mental fitness is much more important - accepting things as they are, not getting upset over every little thing, and listening to your inner voice. Admittedly, that seems to get easier as you get older.
You won the genetic lottery. But there is much truth in your observations. My veteran and athlete friends have the most physical issues. I tried a vegetarian diet a few years ago, unfortunately resulted in more inflammation and gut issues. Contrary to the medical advice I received 20 years ago, I’m getting the best results with high protein and minimal carbs, minimal fruit and vegetables. I have lab work every 6 months due to medications and amazingly my BP and cholesterol are within range.
@@CrankyCameraman You seem to be a medical miracle. :-) A friend of mine gradually cut out meat and sausages, but he still eats fish. As a result, his arthritis has significantly improved. But as I said, everyone’s physiology is different, and you just have to experiment a bit with what works for you in terms of food. I think nutrition is going to be the major topic of the future anyway. Without the right fuel, the engine simply won’t run. And we’re getting more and more seasoned plastic from the food industry. Especially our kids are growing up with it. I can only encourage you to keep experimenting and testing what works for you. Despite living a vegetarian life, I somehow don’t like apples or oranges, so I just leave them out. Fitness is also when you’re transporting your film equipment from A to B every other day. :-) Have a great day … Chris
Hey David! I know that you’re simply trying to document your business process here on TH-cam but as you’ve grown your TH-cam channel, I’m sure you’ve seen the potential that you have to earn here on TH-cam. It’s just keep moving forward with that as another income stream on the side. I’m pretty sure you’ve seen your views increase whenever you purchase a new camera, the Internet loves that stuff.
I’m really glad you made this video. We never like to think of it, but our bodies are not going to last forever. I’m 41 and I’m starting to feel it now more than ever. You bring up a lot of good points here.
Hi Mike. Thanks... Yes, it would be fantastic if YT generated a meaningful amount of revenue. About $120 / mo right now and offers of free gear in exchange for review. I do pickup a few bookings a year off the channel and meeting other freelancers that are referring work in both directions.
@@CrankyCameramanmake the videos more like a commercial, your rate would increase exponentially each deal you make. Its a long game I am starting to play with.
@@CrankyCameraman if you dig into it a little further, you’ll find that there are many people out there who are making a full-time living off of TH-cam, and I don’t just mean Adsense, and they’re subscriber count is not much larger than yours. As you know, David Moorefield is looking to get his TH-cam revenue to pay his rent/mortgage and it is definitely achievable. Take Shane Herbert for instance. He’s taking TH-cam serious and he’s leveraging his channel/following to direct people to his online courses. Just some food for thought.
As creatives in a physically demanding (in odd ways most times) niche this is a great topic. I ride my bike because it's low impact on my knees and good for my heart.
I should also add a low-key big win for living in San Antonio is the green belt trail system. All that otherwise flood plain land turned into biking/running/walking trails is one of the best cases of government spending ever.
I am right there with you. I'm 57 and after 30+ years in TV production, mostly handheld camera, I'm getting more back issues than ever before. I figure I have less than 10 years left before some kind of retirement. We have one rental property but I need to figure out one more income leg to get me through. I've been exploring more editing work as well as doing more photo shoots as that has minimal stress on my back. It's tough as I love shooting but can see my body not cooperating for heavy production work for the coming future. Thanks for your candor about this topic.
The still photo suggestion is interesting. Now that I'm in a smaller market, I'm getting calls to shoot stills, corporate headshots, corporate events. I've been passing those jobs onto other people. In 2024 it's been about $10,000 - 15,000 in missed opportunity. Two bodies, two lenses, minimal lighting, it would be a lot easier on the labor side.
Appreciate this honest conversation! Sad to hear you're dealing with health issues but good to learn about playing the long game with your financial future. I actually STARTED my videography company last year right before I turned 50 after being an art/creative director (sitting in a chair all day) in ad agencies for a number of years. I changed up my workouts to high-rep based weightlifting and went stronger on cardio. Having to carry 10+lbs of camera around for handheld work has gotten a LOT easier and after 10mo of that I can do it all day. But I'm grateful for days when I can put my rigs on sticks and take it easy!
Love this. My weight training is all high rep lighter weights, working to keep my core strong vs getting bigger. 3-4 sets of 20 reps. With my inflammatory disease sitting in a chair all day was more problematic vs being on my feet all day. Thanks for sharing and I wish you success.
Other than some mild arthritis in the shoulders (which a scorpion rig negates) I'm doing good at 49. But I live in a college town and am looking to buy some property out in the country with a dozen or so cabin rentals for our sports seasons. Praying I have another 10 years left in me!
Keep at it. I started strong on the rentals, buying two new construction starter homes. They didn't cashflow much the first few years, but 5 years in they were my biggest performers. Each buy I got more aggressive migrating to low income inner city, 12-18% cash on cash returns until the lockdown.
Si Joint inflammation is a miserable experience and you are dead on with the 2 week minimum for recovery. Great video as always, really great to share this realistic perspective on working in this industry as you get older totally relatable.
Thank you. Week 3, about 75% recovered... A few more days.
I see myself moving more to hybrid video and in-house fabrications and sales, doing shooting and media transfers is okay money, but hardware sales like SMD fabrication with pick and place machines, you can drop a product overnight and change what your selling within 7 days if you parts stock right, and 3D printing makes cases for anything and the overhead margin for global shipping is nothing in the UK.
The biggest issue with being UK based is the cost of living, its a do or die situation with dealing with the local power/water companys, so end game just 550w solar pannels and DIY batterys 100% off grid 7 days of power reserves with over provisoning to run a small factory, smelt metal from alu cans, pull water from the air with a reverse osmosis kit and 300L of rain water, the kit and filters cost less per decade then the per month/year cost of my local providers. Cost insulation is all you can do In the west keep that outgoing cost an 10:1 ratio to what you have comming in.
Praying for you and your family man! Healing and peace in Jesus name! Keep grinding! Be safe!
Can't beat that md46, cheap and amazing.
Sounds so good.
MD42 is the omni version, and is a good mic to partner up with the MD46
Hey dude - I’m 10 years in and I’d love a video about how and when you made certain big purchases like cameras and cars n stuff. I debate that kind of purchase all the time.
I’m 35, financial security for the future, I don’t know many people my age that have that at all. But health! Took up yoga at the beginning of the year - way better mental health and physical health, my regular shoulder knots and back pains are essentially gone. For now.
Good questions, I'll make a vlog this. Yoga is great! Thanks
For me alignment of the spine. Theres a book called acuyoga, vital as quality > quantinty when it comes to exercise. Zen meditation as well because the nerves and deep muscle pain are healed. Hope you get better Mr Winters
Thank you for the info.
Just turned 50. Still shoot and op for corporate clients here in OC/LA but have moved to doing more DIT/Data Manager work. I’m also a union Video Assist Op and livestream and that falls in between Cam Op and DIT on the fatigue side of thing. The kit is light for docs. Running and weights for exercise. And walking with my wife. My biggest motivator is mental fortitude. I realize I’m getting older but my wife has been stay home mom as well so I really do everything possible to keep healthy. Mind and body.
Excellent info, thank you.
David, I hear you on health issues as we age. I was fortunate to be able to work full time for PBS North Carolina as my free lance days were numbered. I shoot for various programs including a traveling magazine show, but rarely have to do any hand held work. I use a gimbal and a sony FX3 occasionally, but primarily work with the Sony Fs5 MII. It is very light and I know it has allowed me to work with little or no pain over the years. You may want to consider looking at the PBS stations in your area that do not do news programs. Best of luck with your health.
Thanks, appreciate the suggestion. I'm considering exactly what you are describing, possibly next 1-2 years once my son is out of the house. At the moment his interest in production has kept me motivated to continue freelancing.
Thanks heaps for putting this out,
Yeah it’s amazing how you can forget to think about anything future revenue wise for so many years while having your boots on the ground busy working. I’m 40 now and understand fully that as a DP I’m pure labour, if im physically not working the job, there is no money as a DP. I find offering editing as a good way to keep income coming in as well but again, I’m the one needing to do that so it’s not passive.
We recently went to a financial advisor to help us build a plan as a family moving forward.
Best of luck in freeing up the joints!
Happy to see you are planning ahead. I wish you success and financial comfort for your family.
I understand the health issue. I am a martial artist and was in the airborne, disabled veteran and drive trucks. I got into videography a few years back. My back have been in pain for over 4 years. I am switching to more conference/broadcast style shooting with PTZs.
Hang in there and thank you for serving our country.
Such great points! I own a 1 Ton in a ford transit connect and gaff with it. I primarily DP and own a couple camera bodies. I get busy and I like keeping things separte as my goal is to build a lighting company. A production house, a camera rental, a youtube income stream and of course my DP work.
All good plans. I did really well with G&E rentals. It's an excellent second vertical as a working DP.
first thing was to cut weight, for my old job i was 315 and had to maintain that weight, once i retired from that life i cut to 250. part of the reason I like tradeshows is because of the constant movement. standing in one spot for too long would not be fun. fasting and carnivore seems to eliminate any inflamation related issues with the joints
I've been avoiding the carnivore diet for years. Today is week two on it and I'm down 8 pounds. Took a solid week to get over the carb cravings during and after every meal. Good info, thank you.
I used to skip past these rental property videos of yours a few years ago but now that I’m older and interested in assets- they are extremely valuable 😂
Just sent off my FX6 today. Fingers crossed.
I’m on the mma train as well. It’s such a nice mental space to jump into. And combos are a problem for me as well. It’s hard to even see the opening much less strike a few steps ahead. Love to see it Dave. Please show more combat practice!
Thanks brother. Sony Service will take care of you. About 1 day after your camera arrives they'll send you a link and a ticket number to track progress.
Training... I'll vlog a bit while all us old guys sit out during the warm up stretching and stalling. Haha.
Interesting to hear you talk about your body feeling the toll of your profession, to combat this what you are currently doing with exercise and rest is great. So many cameramen I've known developed serious neck, shoulder and back issues mostly from shooting from the shoulder. Always use sticks! There's not enough oldtimers left to pass along this dire warning to the younger bucks.... they wouldn't listen anyway.
Solid advice. Minimal handheld / shoulder work has been my focus from the start. I’m happy to shoot parts of the day HH but can’t do the all day feature, commercial, reality tv operating that way. I leave it to the ones with good backs that can wear a vest.
Hey! You go to the same gym I go to! Well, went to, I had to stop recently because I tore my acl and meniscus
ACL bummer. Hope to see you in there, reach out when your back to training.
@@CrankyCameraman definitely will do! Surgery’s next month, but once I’m back in, I will introduce myself if I see you!
@@ItsMidasProductions Keep up on that PT post surgery. Looking forward to training!
Am curious what autoimmune disease exactly you have? As living with one myself! I inherited ankylosing spondylitis, unchecked it attacks the joints.
Personally I'm thinking I might go back to Software Development, is a job you can still do even if the body has seriously gone downhill.
The same. On Cizmia for about 10 years. Staying active has been the best treatment.
Hey man please please please consider trying DDP yoga. If you have joint issues like I do you have to consider moving on from high impact athletics. It sucks but its the cards we were dealt. I'm almost thru 2 months of DDP Yoga and I feel better than I have in a long time. I've been shooting for 13 years so I know what you're going through.
Resistance yoga. Interesting, I’ll try it out in the future. Thanks.
@@CrankyCameraman low impact is key, cant have your joints bouncing around like the average Joe can. I was super into MMA and BJJ and all that for most of my life so giving it up was really difficult. I had to start the first two weeks of DDP Yoga with the chair program because I just hurt my back doing kettlebell swings. Just do what you can do comfortable for the first few weeks.
Yeah, I'm thinking about selling my property. I can cash out buy a very nice home, pay off the balance here and bank some cash. The thought of no mortgage, no car payments and a fund is more attractive at 59 years old than people "liking" my house. I have a big home, a couple acres with a guest house/office in a separate building. I'm over it. For my age I'm in pretty good shape. I box non-stop for 20 minutes with 2lb weights. Not all the time but when I feel it. One or 2 rounds till I get to 20 minutes. My knees are rough but I just started peptides. Awesome. We'll see. Stay healthy bud!
A basic house free and clear takes off huge pressure. Our current residence is paid off, never planned to live here, bought it as an investment. We've been holding out for what you have, but going back to a loan and at a high interest rate kills it. Wish I had bought a place in Comal county late 2020, but all for the best. With the low overhead, I need chill and be grateful for what we have. I have a friend that just sold their big house and downsized, buyers assumed the 3.5% mortgage and cash for the difference. I wish you success and financial ease.
@@CrankyCameraman Drop by some time.
Shit. I have an autoimmune disease as well since I was a teen. 😩
Hang in there, for me biologic meds and the right diet have improved quality of life dramatically. When I get on 5+ day production runs is when the diet fails and the problems ramp up.
I gotta be honest I’m kind of lost at this point doing cam op and video production work over the past 5-6 years. I’ve been thinking of going freelance to give myself a better work/life balance but I don’t own a ton of equipment and struggle to find production work in my area (SC). Any suggestions or tips?
I have the same issues, a few weeks of no bookings and I'm ready for a new career. Then a booking and I'm hooked again. My income (inflation adjusted) maxed in my 30s. Finding the consistent freelance clients takes a long time, geography plays a huge part, buying the right gear at the right time and retaining those long term clients. At my present stage I'm loosing repeat clients from retirement / death and the new ones are not coming on at the same volume. Which has been ok as I can't work the same volume of days as 10 years ago. I have a friend that is a union lighting technician and works as a commercial electrician apprentice between film projects. And a few others that jump between IT and media. Both have some overlap and possibly that is an angle to explore, parallel complementary skills. Good luck.
I've learnt a lot from your videos man. I really enjoy your channel. Sorry to hear about your health in regards to autoimmune disease. I hope you have many many many more years in the tank. Thanks for sharing with us! Best -
Thank you much appreciated.
I’ve got an autoimmune disease that attacks my joints as well…very similar to gout. I am on medication that mostly keeps it under control. But for last project, I had to travel to 4 different locations to make ‘town profiles’
for a cruise agency…and my right wrist was about three times the size of my left wrist as I had a severe attack. So I had to do everything on this shoot using only my left hand. I didn’t mention it in the vlog but since you are talking about it, I figured I’d share that it’s a struggle I have as well: it was this project which I was doing one handed:…big pain!
Vlog #21 Sometimes things are a bit.....foggy.
th-cam.com/video/00hL52MR4rU/w-d-xo.html
For passive income, I had been using our first house (we didn’t sell when we bought a bigger/newer house) as an Air B&B/VRBO. It was doing pretty well as my area is a popular tourist area. Alas last year after 20 years of marriage my wife decided she wasn’t happy and wanted a divorce so now I am living in what was supposed to be my ‘passive income’ stream. 😂😢 Life….its unpredictable and you never know what’s coming next.
Thanks for sharing. Until recently I've kept my health issues silent out of fear I won't get booked for projects.