I didn’t have a shoot today, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t work. You can estimate that you’ll shoot about 100 assignments per year as a self-employed freelance photographer. If you are a regular shooter for a daily newspaper, that number may be higher. If you are strictly a wedding photographer, that number may be lower. However, 100 days is a good average to start out with, until you can track and review your shooting schedule from year to year.
Now, just because I didn’t shoot today, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t work. As a freelancer, you will probably work six or seven days a week, to some degree. Today, I ran some images to Fedex, followed up with clients over email, will work on some images in Photoshop, and will prep my gear for tomorrow’s shooting. And I could’ve done more, if I didn’t need to dig up a sprinkler pipe and repair it in the back yard…
Realistically, you can wind up working about 364 of the 365 days in each year. Some days will be slammed with things on your list. Others may require thirty minutes of emailing and/or calling clients. Hopefully, you are trying to be a professional photographer for the love of the image. If you thought you’d get rich or thought it would be an easy job, you were mistaken. You would’ve been better off in a cubicle, if that’s the case.