Can I Make Money With Photography?

I think it's possible, but this particular time in history makes it much harder. If you play the gallery game it's as much about who you know as whether your work is any good or not. I see people self publish their books sometimes, but can't imagine anyone making any appreciable money this way. Then there's working for a commercial photography agency, which I wouldn't do if you held a gun to my head. Stock photography will have you working until your thumbs fall off (assuming you wish to totally make your living from your photography), and you need a good agent to get past the established photographers. So that leaves opening your own enterprise (landscapes, nature, B&W, portraits, etc) or getting into the university grant catching business, a great way to meet some of the most insufferable and full-of-it no talent people on the planet. It's a university you know. Assuming that someone is talented and hard working, maybe best to follow the paths of Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and others by striking out on your own.
 
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I'm a graphic designer and use microstock an awful lot. Nobody wants to pay for a photoshoot, and with some of the photographers I've hired in the past I can see why — they tend to suck. And nobody wants to pay "real stock" prices either.

A couple years ago I tried to figure out if people were actually making money through iStockPhoto. This was more on the illustration side as I had an idea I might give it a try. Couldn't figure it out. It looked as if a few, well established people with good portfolios might be doing alright. But the vast majority, I determined, would be better off working at Home Depot.

I should note that I actually ran numbers because this was when iStockPhoto was listing the exact number of times a file had been downloaded. Since illustrations are at a set price, it was easy to calculate what any individual illustration had earned.
 
i work for a company that owns a stock business.

there are people making around the $100,000 mark, a very few considerably more, a few a little less. i could probably count all of these people on 4 hands though, in a sea of perhaps hundreds of thousands of contributors? it can be done, of course, but i would assume by those numbers it is not easy. the funny thing is, the images that sell the most usually aren't the pretty artistis photographs but the boring 'pretty girl smiling wearing a telephone headset' 'attractive young business man in suit looking happy' sort of images.

if i ever buy a digital camera again, i imagine i'll approach a small modelling agency and work a trade with them (their models for my headshots) and shoot some of these drab, boring images as an aside to other shoots then upload to a stock library.
 
Paddy C said:
nobody wants to pay "real stock" prices either.
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i hear this 20+ times a day every day of the year. people complaining about the price of stock and how it's SO expensive and how they 'can pay a photographer to shoot a whole load of images for that price and own them outright'.

it seems there are a lot of "semi-pros" who have (or have had to) undercut themselves to stay in "business". or maybe it's Joe Blows aunt's cousin who has a digital camera and knows how to use it, more or less, and likes the sound of making a fast buck. who knows? but still, this is only the small fish. the big companies and design / ad firms still fork out the big $$$ for custom shoots and high quality imagery.
 
FrankS said:
I'm not sure why anyone would you really want to do photography as a job anyway. It's more enjoyable when you don't have to photograph what and how others tell you to. You'd have to be young and intense and dedicate your life to this and forsake meaningful long term relationships.
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Dear Frank,

Not necessarily.

You just have to be prepared to live on very little.

I've met surprisingly many people who do it, especially at Arles. Some are in stable, long-term relationships.

Cheers,

R.
 
Welcome back, Roger.

I'm not saying that it can't or isn't being done, I guess it's just not for me. I'm very happy with my amatuer status. I do admire those who have what it takes to make a living with photography, but I wouldn't trade places with very many of them even if that were possible.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Dear Frank,

Not necessarily.

You just have to be prepared to live on very little.

I've met surprisingly many people who do it, especially at Arles. Some are in stable, long-term relationships.

Cheers,

R.
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That's harder in the USA. Remember that we have NO social safety net for young men who cannot make enough to live, and women here largely still expect men to support them, especially in the more culturally backward parts of the USA (anywhere in between the east coast states and the west coast states!)
 
chippy said:
i find it utterly amazing, in this day and age, with all the TV coming out of the US promoting how much the women are not just equal but , well more...that, you said that, if i were to presume you speak on behalf of your fellow countrymen, utterly amazed! its just not the impression thats being exported by you blokes is all!
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What I said is the truth. My fellow countrymen may not be willing to admit it, but that doesn't change the facts.

Where I live women are openly hostile to the feminist ideal of women's equality. Those who do wish to work still expect their husbands to pay the bills. I have a friend who's father and stepmother divorced because his $75,000 a year job couldn't support her in the lifestyle she thought she deserved. This woman is an attorney earning over $200,000 a year but she flat out refuses to pay any part of the house payments or utility bills or any other family expenses. Her money is hers to spend on fancy vacations with her daughter from a previous marriage (my friend and her dad were not included in these trips) and on expensive clothes and purses.

Most women here don't make that kind of money though and haven't any ambition. They just want to be housewives. Most of you know I am a student at Indiana University working on my Masters degree. Last year I had a female professor for a history class who just exploded one day because she heard some of the female students talking of how they're only in school to meet a man who will earn big bucks someday so they can be housewives and live off the guy's work.

She told our class that women like that have no business being university students, that they were a disgrace and their presence in her class made her sick! She told them in no uncertain terms that in her opinion those women were committing fraud by accepting student aid and taking up a place on the class rolls that could be occupied by a person who actually desired an education.

A few days later, I met the professor to discuss a paper I was working on for the class and i mentioned to her that the attitude she railed against was simply part of the local culture. She told me she was not from the midwest and was shocked the first time she heard girls in her classes talk like that, and that she has heard it many times in the few years that she has taught here.
 
I know one fellow making good money as a photographer. He has an old motorhome parked at the local drag strip with a computer and several printers. He cruises around on a golf cart with a G10 and some dslr's with longer lenses. He takes lots of photos of the cars and drivers and sells 8x10 prints for $15.00 each. It is a weekend job and he has other jobs during the week but he is making money. Joe
 
when I was freelance... I reached this same conclusion... made more money on more enjoyable commercial art projects... then I just got a real job for money and went back to fineart photography and rediscovered my passion for photography... and when I have my stuff in a show, no matter how small, or not selling, it doesn't matter.

A friend of mine is going into fetish photography... apparently that is big now... if that was just my kink, I can see how it would be fun and *rewarding*... but cameras and sex don't do it for me... memories are always so much more forgiving.

:)

Avotius said:
Stock photography takes a lot of energy to do I found. I decided my heart was not in it when I saw the returns compared to how much money I could make doing other things.

Actually for the most part, I found my heart not in photography much anymore after doing a few years work in it and now just shoot the odd commercial assignment to supplement the two other jobs I have.

The problem really is the drive and motivation to keep with it even after some slow times. I wish you luck with yours.

I have a friend right now who shoots stock photos in England to get a little money but she shoots mostly nude female body parts so that may be a different idea as well :)
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Dear Chris,

The story you tell is horrifying and I wish I could say I do not believe you - but I do. Your point about rich kid/'artists' has, I think, always been the case.

Do you know the wonderful story of George Bernard Shaw talking to Henry Ford? I quote from memory: "Ah, Mr. Ford, there is the difference between us. You think only about art. I think only about money."

I take a certain pride in writing for one of the magazines for which GBS also wrote: AP.

Cheers,

R.
 
I'm not whining either. I have a client in Santa Fe who supports me and I'm selling work off my website. I'm relatively poor but I make enough to live and to keep doing the artistic work that I really want to do. I am simply pointing out that for most, its not as easy as a lot of you seem to think. Sure, you can probably make more money in New York, but does NY really need another photographer? This isn't just an issue with artists and photographers. Where I live now 75% of the jobs pay less than $8 an hour. EVERYONE here is hurting BAD. This is NOT because of the recent recession, it has been this way for over 20 years (20 yrs ago the jobs paid less than $6 an hour.....inflation's brought most jobs up to $8).
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Because I'd rather shoot myself than work at walmart, which is the only 'real job' left in America.
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Nah, I work at the local Amazon warehouse. We work harder than a WallyMart, for about the same pay...

That said, it does seem that most of the jobs remaining in the USA are retail or some sort.

(I pick books off of shelves and load them onto library carts to deliver them to the sort line)
 
The Wal-Mart here has a really fast turnover in women employees. They get out of high school and then work at Wal-Mart only long enough to get pregnant (without benefit of marriage). Once they are pregnant, they quit, because the WIC, Medicade, Food stamps and subsidized housing kicks in and they no longer have to work. That's the facts in rural America, whatever it is you see on TV. Have a new kid every couple of years and they never have to work again.
 
Pickett Wilson said:
The Wal-Mart here has a really fast turnover in women employees. They get out of high school and then work at Wal-Mart only long enough to get pregnant (without benefit of marriage). Once they are pregnant, they quit, because the WIC, Medicade, Food stamps and subsidized housing kicks in and they no longer have to work. That's the facts in rural America, whatever it is you see on TV. Have a new kid every couple of years and they never have to work again.
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Interesting. I didn't know that the Daily Mail had a large readership in the USA.

Cheers,

R.
 
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