making your photos pay...

[leeb]

Just thought id open one up to the photographers in here...

I am sure there are many of us who regularly use this site who make a living, or extra cash from our photos, what i think would be interesting would be to hear how people make their photos pay, is it selling to publications, companies, individuals etc etc, photographing what? there must be a huge variation in how things are done and how money is made.

Not looking for some "easy way to make money" at all, i am just genuinely interested in how people use their photography.

i will start off, my full time job is as a school photographer, which pays a living, gives me over 2months paid holiday, a decent car, and various other perks, and i do some private studio family portraits, a few weddings a year. Thats pretty much how i earn my money, and i must say although im a long way from rich i bloody enjoy every bit of it!

So, topic open..........

Thanks
Lee

[GetCarter]

I sell cards & photo CD's in local shops (landscapes) and flog about 10 per month on photobox.

Doesn't make much, but what it makes I give to Kiva.org

[CVP]

At the moment I don't make any money from my photography. I've had one image published but that is for a charity I am a member of and I granted them a licence to use the image for that particular purpose for free.

In the long term I am aiming to sell via someone like Almay but I need to build up a decent portfolio in the first place and also be sure of being able to keep shooting new stock regularly

Chris

[leeb]

on the stock photography, where do you guys pull inspiration from? or are you set projects to follow. as all my stuff has been people specific so it is for an obvious purpose, the idea of shooting for stock is a much bigger area to play in i imagine.

[CVP]

For me it would be shooting what I love rather than shooting for a specific market. Therefore I'd be shooting animals, landscapes and travel related images.

My photography is one of the things that keeps me sane, if it brings in some income then great but I don't want it to become another job, I've got one of those already that gives me enough headache !

Chris

[crmcatee]

Don't sell per se, but just having had a sequence of my photo's accepted as a double page spread in one of the bike magazine I must admit I did get paid..and nicely pleased to see my work in print. (this months TBM if you're interested).

I've lost count of the gifts I've had for taking friends photos : wine, whisky, balloon trips and quite a few meals out as payment in kind.

[leeb]

crmcatee said:

I've lost count of the gifts I've had for taking friends photos : wine, whisky, balloon trips and quite a few meals out as payment in kind.

Thats always a very good one, photos make a brilliant currency all on their own, the amount of deals to be done and doors to be opened is brilliant. Down to getting in the pits at silverstone (not F1 or anything, but saved £20) with a decent camera and a bit of cheek.