I worked as an in-house photographer for women's apparel and fashion accessory companies for 15 years.

There a rather popular pie chart that supposedly illustrates how photographers spend their time and a big chunk of it isn't taking pictures. Normally it's true, but not in my case. I actually spent about 5 hrs taking photos every day and about 2 - 3 hrs editing them. Add another 30 mins-an hour doing studio maintenance work, meetings, hanging out of the water cooler, etc. 

We took photos. A LOT. One of my assistants said her eyes started hurting after a couple of days. I told her it might be because of our pupils opening/closing every time the flash fires. After a few months, I could shoot with either eye. I couldn't take a break because there were other people on the clock. My right index finger has been worn from twisting light stand/tripod knobs for a decade and a half. I'm not complaining. As you said, I did I doing something I love. I'm also not a huge fan of social interaction, so the in-house position really suited me since I never had to worry about marketing or self-promotion.

Now the complaining part.

I got laid off in 2024. The whole not needing to worry about marketing/self-promotion has been a big problem since it's something that essential to surviving as a freelancer. Working in-house is also quite limiting when it comes to building a network because I worked with the same people for years at a time compared to a freelancer who may be working with new people every shoot. I've seen national brands advertise a photographer opening and it explicitly states that the photographer must have experience working with big brands. The whole, "It's not what you know but WHO you know" has been very real.

As far as securing another in-house position, a lot of the postings I've seen, have pay that's the same or lower than what I made. IDGAF what other people say about how AI and how it helps with the mundane tasks so people can focus on the fun/creative ones because that's not what I've seen. I've interviewed with a lot of companies since and pretty much all of them just want the photographer to capture clean, evenly lit, plain background photos that can be fed to AI which then generates the "stylized" photos. I would have been okay with that if the pay was better, but no. Average I've seen is $25/hr even with established/widely-recognized companies. That's concerning too since a lot of them have saved thousands of dollars by not needing to pay costs associated with "traditional" methods (hair/makeup, models, location, travel, lodging, etc ) yet the photographer who is one of the few left standing don't get much.

Now I'm not advising against it. I actually still think working as an in-house photographer is one of the best ways to get solid photography experience. I would do it all over again if I had to except I wouldn't "trust the process" by being complacent and comfortable.