Freelance photography represents the ideal job for many people.  The ability to be autonomous in your work, do what you love, and earn an income doing it.

This dream of course adheres strictly to the rule in life which says that great things are neither easy or free.  Anyone setting off to become a freelance photographer has a long and arduous road ahead.  I want to highlight an article found on Photo.net which I think every aspiring freelance photographer should read.  Lifecycle of a Freelance Photographer

The series of article is quite long, but well worth it.  If you don't think you'll have the time to read through all of it, at the very least go have a look at the "Client Contact" section.

After reading through it this morning, I went through the author's advice and decided to look and see if any opportunities would match my particular field of photography.  I logged in to my theCreativeloft.com account, filter by freelance, near New York City, click, click, and I had a list of 42 freelance opportunities to go through.  It might not sound like a huge number, but these are 42 good opportunities.  That's a good start!! And it took me all of 5 minutes to find.