How do you make money?
Discussion
Looking for some ideas to generate some income from photography.
I currently work remotely so I travel non stop, currently in Japan. The work I do is okay, it earns a living but it's not something I love.
I want to look at ways I can earn money whilst I travel through my photography which I enjoy.
I take mostly car photos with the odd landscape/city thrown in. I'm not one for waiting a couple hours to get that one perfect canvas shot so I think selling canvas's wouldn't be a big option.
I've done the odd wedding before and it really wasn't my jig, plus whilst traveling it wouldn't be possible to take bookings whilst moving around a lot.
So I want to know, how do you earn from your photography? Who is your customer and how did you find them?
I'd love some inspiration!
Thanks
I currently work remotely so I travel non stop, currently in Japan. The work I do is okay, it earns a living but it's not something I love.
I want to look at ways I can earn money whilst I travel through my photography which I enjoy.
I take mostly car photos with the odd landscape/city thrown in. I'm not one for waiting a couple hours to get that one perfect canvas shot so I think selling canvas's wouldn't be a big option.
I've done the odd wedding before and it really wasn't my jig, plus whilst traveling it wouldn't be possible to take bookings whilst moving around a lot.
So I want to know, how do you earn from your photography? Who is your customer and how did you find them?
I'd love some inspiration!
Thanks
Simple answer. It's very hard and much easier to earn in other ways.
I used to be a wedding photographer and reasonably successful (about 40 weddings a year)
Gave up in the end as I could earn 3 times as much working 35 hours a week in IT.
Plus I didn't have to hear "my uncle has a nice camera, so he's doing the photos" any longer.
In fact at the end I used to respond "has your auntie got a nice sewing machine? Is she making the dress?"
They still didn't get it.
Do it for fun.
I used to be a wedding photographer and reasonably successful (about 40 weddings a year)
Gave up in the end as I could earn 3 times as much working 35 hours a week in IT.
Plus I didn't have to hear "my uncle has a nice camera, so he's doing the photos" any longer.
In fact at the end I used to respond "has your auntie got a nice sewing machine? Is she making the dress?"
They still didn't get it.
Do it for fun.
The world is full of great travel photos with millions of people taking millions more every day.
My break was weddings, which for some reason I seemed instinctively good at. But if you can't face weddings, try commercial - ie cold call and work on a daily rate, not 50p a month from a stock library. On the downside you'll have to take the photos THEY want, not cars.
My break was weddings, which for some reason I seemed instinctively good at. But if you can't face weddings, try commercial - ie cold call and work on a daily rate, not 50p a month from a stock library. On the downside you'll have to take the photos THEY want, not cars.
Edited by Simpo Two on Thursday 19th July 08:39
keirik said:
Simple answer. It's very hard and much easier to earn in other ways.
I used to be a wedding photographer and reasonably successful (about 40 weddings a year)
Gave up in the end as I could earn 3 times as much working 35 hours a week in IT.
Plus I didn't have to hear "my uncle has a nice camera, so he's doing the photos" any longer.
In fact at the end I used to respond "has your auntie got a nice sewing machine? Is she making the dress?"
They still didn't get it.
Do it for fun.
I used to be a wedding photographer and reasonably successful (about 40 weddings a year)
Gave up in the end as I could earn 3 times as much working 35 hours a week in IT.
Plus I didn't have to hear "my uncle has a nice camera, so he's doing the photos" any longer.
In fact at the end I used to respond "has your auntie got a nice sewing machine? Is she making the dress?"
They still didn't get it.
Do it for fun.
I like that one. I know it's not the easiest to get into, but I'd rather spend my time trying to create an income from something I enjoy for the foreseeable future than sticking to a job that I don't.
Even small things like stock photo sites, I know you're not going to make a living off them but if it's something that you just do and forget about, its worth trying.
not a photographer but have a few friends heavy into the blogging thing and making a decent living having given up their jobs.
Their biggest issue is finding decent pictures.
With these they post them on pinterest (using a reposting software to keep them going up maybe 2-3 times a day?) then use affiliate links to click through to whatever each one is selling.
Once the initial posts have been made, which are nothing more than an image, a few lines of text and a link, they are there forever so each additional one just adds more to the potential income stream.
Their biggest issue is finding decent pictures.
With these they post them on pinterest (using a reposting software to keep them going up maybe 2-3 times a day?) then use affiliate links to click through to whatever each one is selling.
Once the initial posts have been made, which are nothing more than an image, a few lines of text and a link, they are there forever so each additional one just adds more to the potential income stream.
STIfree said:
Looking for some ideas to generate some income from photography.
I currently work remotely so I travel non stop, currently in Japan. The work I do is okay, it earns a living but it's not something I love.
I want to look at ways I can earn money whilst I travel through my photography which I enjoy.
I take mostly car photos with the odd landscape/city thrown in. I'm not one for waiting a couple hours to get that one perfect canvas shot so I think selling canvas's wouldn't be a big option.
I've done the odd wedding before and it really wasn't my jig, plus whilst traveling it wouldn't be possible to take bookings whilst moving around a lot.
So I want to know, how do you earn from your photography? Who is your customer and how did you find them?
I'd love some inspiration!
Thanks
Self promotion and networking are key to starting any business weather it's photography or making t-shirts. I currently work remotely so I travel non stop, currently in Japan. The work I do is okay, it earns a living but it's not something I love.
I want to look at ways I can earn money whilst I travel through my photography which I enjoy.
I take mostly car photos with the odd landscape/city thrown in. I'm not one for waiting a couple hours to get that one perfect canvas shot so I think selling canvas's wouldn't be a big option.
I've done the odd wedding before and it really wasn't my jig, plus whilst traveling it wouldn't be possible to take bookings whilst moving around a lot.
So I want to know, how do you earn from your photography? Who is your customer and how did you find them?
I'd love some inspiration!
Thanks
My Brother In Law is professional photographer. His bread and butter is weddings and to my knowledge he did about 30 last year, but is now branching out to commercial photo shoots for new products (Wrist supports being the most recent).
In the early days, he did some shoots for free, so he could build up his portfolio but after that he spent a long time at wedding fairs and building relationships at some of the big local venues. Most of his business is now from word and mouth. He posts stuff on his FB page occasionally, but its pretty rare and he doesn't advertise anywhere.
My point is you need to go door knocking if you want to sell your business and also be prepared to take photos of stuff that you have zero interest in.
I have a mild fantasy about being a pro photographer one day, but when you look at how much competition is out there, its quite frightening. Also some of the top photographers in F1 have been doing it since they were 17!!
I gave up being interested in photography when I sold my Leica rangefinder. There was some proper hard-core skills required to operate one of these and the joy of taking great pictures with it. Photography is a blur between science and art - and of course the latter isn't that well paid for the majority. The extra benefits of knowing all the technical stuff is marginal nowadays so it comes down to who you know etc. I have had wedding photographers asked me why the aperture matters on a lens and similar - must be a lot of clueless snappers out there who produce great pictures.
STIfree said:
Even small things like stock photo sites, I know you're not going to make a living off them but if it's something that you just do and forget about, its worth trying.
I have a bunch on Shutterstock. makes me a couple of hundred a year. It does feel like free money - but then so does my day job (the musical equivalent of Shutterstock).singlecoil said:
Weddings you might make a bit, but it's a hell of a lot easier to take a really good picture than it is to get anyone to pay for it.
That's why you need to get commissions. It might only be £200 a day but that's more than hoping your photo of Brighton Pier will get seen on Shutterstock for 5p (it's called 'w
king for coins').Out walking once a friend said to me 'Ooh look there's a swan! You could get a really good picture of that!' I replied 'Yes but why? I'll just have a photo of a swan I don't want and can't sell'.
Simpo Two said:
... that's more than hoping your photo of Brighton Pier will get seen on Shutterstock for 5p (it's called 'wking for coins').
Okay, I'll rise to that. Shutterstock approached me to say they'd like to add a dozen photos of mine to their site. I've already taken the pics, it's a non-exclusive deal, so takes me about 10 minutes to send them the images. I've since made about £1100 from said photos in the past 5 years. Not exactly 'wking for coins').king for coins' - more 'money for old rope' I would suggest.GetCarter said:
Okay, I'll rise to that. Shutterstock approached me to say they'd like to add a dozen photos of mine to their site. I've already taken the pics, it's a non-exclusive deal, so takes me about 10 minutes to send them the images. I've since made about £1100 from said photos in the past 5 years. Not exactly 'wking for coins' - more 'money for old rope' I would suggest.
out of interest, what genre do you find sells best?king for coins' - more 'money for old rope' I would suggest.Efbe said:
out of interest, what genre do you find sells best?
I only have one genre - which is where I live, and the landscapes here. I appreciate that this is why I was approached in the first place. It's not exactly ugly round here and there are sod all photographers!FYI >> http://www.stevecarter.com/gallery1/MyFaves.htm
GetCarter said:
I only have one genre - which is where I live, and the landscapes here. I appreciate that this is why I was approached in the first place. It's not exactly ugly round here and there are sod all photographers!
FYI >> http://www.stevecarter.com/gallery1/MyFaves.htm
How odd, the picture of the highland coo half way down...FYI >> http://www.stevecarter.com/gallery1/MyFaves.htm
I was trying to make a book cover for a story I am writing for my daughter (don't ask!) settled on using a picture of that house behind the cow. can't remember where it is, but found that in google images. was going to head over that way to get some of my own pics of it
Oh, and gorgeous pics!
Efbe said:
How odd, the picture of the highland coo half way down...
I was trying to make a book cover for a story I am writing for my daughter (don't ask!) settled on using a picture of that house behind the cow. can't remember where it is, but found that in google images. was going to head over that way to get some of my own pics of it
My local! :0)I was trying to make a book cover for a story I am writing for my daughter (don't ask!) settled on using a picture of that house behind the cow. can't remember where it is, but found that in google images. was going to head over that way to get some of my own pics of it
My wife's been a photographer for about 15 years. Mainly family portraits, corporate headshots, schools and nurseries, some commercial work etc. She's also done celebrity weddings too where they've been good PR...she spends hours each month networking and trying to get new business.
She's not too choosy...even once covering the President's Club at the Dorchester...but she refused to do that gig ever again.
The money she makes from it is very little...She's lucky to have a nice studio in a wealthy part of SW London and very high end equipment. Everything was paid for by me - she could never afford it herself. I also have to pay for all her holidays, pension, housing, kid's school fees etc.
So in my experience the answer to your question is you don't.
However, she does love doing it and gets lots of great feedback from happy clients.
She's not too choosy...even once covering the President's Club at the Dorchester...but she refused to do that gig ever again.
The money she makes from it is very little...She's lucky to have a nice studio in a wealthy part of SW London and very high end equipment. Everything was paid for by me - she could never afford it herself. I also have to pay for all her holidays, pension, housing, kid's school fees etc.
So in my experience the answer to your question is you don't.
However, she does love doing it and gets lots of great feedback from happy clients.
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