Tuolumne
Veteran
This thread was lost in the great RFF crash this weekend, so I'll start it again. It had some really interesting insights.
How much money do you make on photography? Hints, tips, comments from amateurs, sem-pros, and pros welcome.
/T
How much money do you make on photography? Hints, tips, comments from amateurs, sem-pros, and pros welcome.
/T
iml
Well-known
None at all, and I hope I never do.
Ian
Ian
Tuolumne
Veteran
In the earlier poll, which was lost, we were running a consistent 66% of respondents who made nothing on photography. So, we are clearly dominated by members who shoot for the fun, love and hobby of it. I guess that's not surprising, given the nature of this forum. But we also had some serious professional shooters, x-ray for one, who graciously shared their wisdon and experience of doing photography as a business. There were also a number of comments asking why i didn't have a negative number as a poll optiomn. Of course, we'll have that poll coming right up.
/T
/T
Al Patterson
Ferroequinologist
I voted none, as it is a hobby. Although I'd like to make some money out of it when I retire. It would be great to hear the pros opine about the business side. One can have excellent photo skills and have a lousy head for business.
And yeah, so far every year I've been taking photographs it's been a negative cash flow.
And yeah, so far every year I've been taking photographs it's been a negative cash flow.
Nachkebia
Well-known
hahaha, bunch of money wasters we are....
btw, my college asked me to shoot his portfolio, he is an actor, can anyone suggest price range? Thanks
btw, my college asked me to shoot his portfolio, he is an actor, can anyone suggest price range? Thanks
Thea
Established
I think I said something along the lines of how I am currently a phtographer's assistant and am fed up with being yelled at (Not, I might add because I am rubbish at my job) Whilst not being a f/t student, ie in the summer.
I am currently setting myself up in business as a local wedding photographer, have just ordered some cards etc and just waiting for them to come back.
Hoping to make enough to cover my living expenses and alittle more for 4 months a year.
Would be very glad to hear from other people in similar situation....
I am currently setting myself up in business as a local wedding photographer, have just ordered some cards etc and just waiting for them to come back.
Hoping to make enough to cover my living expenses and alittle more for 4 months a year.
Would be very glad to hear from other people in similar situation....
Toby
On the alert
Nachkebia said:hahaha, bunch of money wasters we are....
btw, my college asked me to shoot his portfolio, he is an actor, can anyone suggest price range? Thanks
What part of the world are you in, and more importantly how much money does your actor friend have? The price for this sort of thing varies wildly I would go for at least a couple of hundred pounds for half a day plus prints. But really it all depends on exactly what he wants and how much money you can get out of his pocket - a lot of actors have NO money.
Tuolumne
Veteran
Toby said:
I shoot shows for my actor and director friends for free. They have no money. Perhaps some day they will. Maybe then they can pay me.
/T
erikhaugsby
killer of threads
The only time I really made money was shooting pictures of my local marching band. There were about 150 kids, and I made a solid $3000 (net, gross was closer to $1800 or $2000 after I paid for prints).
DavidH
Overweight and over here
50 quid in 10 years...hmmm...and a 25,000+ outlay...
FrankS
Registered User
I make around $1000 annually with photography - mainly family portraits.
I hope to increase that after retiring from my real job in 3 to 5 years.
I hope to increase that after retiring from my real job in 3 to 5 years.
TheHub
Well-known
I give them away
FrankS
Registered User
Other people's families, not mine. Those I give away too.
Gabriel M.A.
My Red Dot Glows For You
It's not good etiquette to give away other people's families, Frank
Chris101
summicronia
I've devolved.
In the 80s I had a business making those, you know, corporate slide shows, then after becoming a college teacher, I supplemented my income by working as a photographer from Memorial day (May) until Labor day (September). I did weddings, grip & grins, websites, products, catalogs and anything else I could scrounge up. This summer I decided that I would pack away my digital cameras, buy a (used) Leica, one lens and shoot only for myself. So I have made it!
Zero.
In the 80s I had a business making those, you know, corporate slide shows, then after becoming a college teacher, I supplemented my income by working as a photographer from Memorial day (May) until Labor day (September). I did weddings, grip & grins, websites, products, catalogs and anything else I could scrounge up. This summer I decided that I would pack away my digital cameras, buy a (used) Leica, one lens and shoot only for myself. So I have made it!
Zero.
mfunnell
Shaken, so blurred
I was thinking about the whole "money from photography" thing while making my (now deleted but, of course, brilliant and insightful post on the earlier incarnation of this thread).
In that post I noted, amongst other (more dazzling!) points, that I'd sell copies of my photos (prints or files) if anyone were interested, which seems unlikely. But I'd not (in the unlikely event it were offered) accept any form of commission or assignment - because I want to keep taking photos for the love of it, without any form of deadline pressure or pressure to produce particular types of photos. I get plenty of that in my day job - photography is supposed to get me away from all that. And I certainly don't want to rely on photography for my income (all questions of ability aside ), again because its my escape, not my job.
But that got me to thinking. I recently attended a photography workshop run under the banner of the Australian Geographic Society by Darren Leal of WildVisions Photography. Through the workshop, and while having drinks after the days' formalities were over, and so on, Darren had a bit to say about how he makes his living and I formed a bunch of impressions as well.
Now, Darren is a very good photographer specialising mostly in wildlife and macro, with a bit of landscape work. He's won competitions, received awards, makes a lot of stock sales and gets good commercial commissions (eg. SeaWorld at the Gold Coast) and so on. But I got the distinct impression that he and his family would be eating very thin soup if he relied on selling his photos to make a living, even though he is good and he does sell.
Where he really makes his money, it seems (note its my inference, not his statements), is in running photography courses and capturing a bigger-than-usual part of the value of that through his wife running the travel agency side of the business. (That's a nice piece of synergy, though I'm not sure if it was deliberate or if things just happened that way.) I also got the impression (see note above) that he used to make his living selling photos but that this became unsupportable through the double-whammy of increasing family responsibilities and declining ability to sell photos at decent prices.
And there were some real stories (not just inferences) there. For example, he still receives royalties on photos published in books by a very well known Australian photographer. But that photographer, these days, mostly provides a very small percentage of the photos in his books and is progressively replacing images that command royalties with photos he pays a flat $50 Australian (or so) for, demanding all rights into perpetuity. (It also seems, in this particular case, that the quality of the photographs is declining steeply, but that matters not since celebrity name recognition trumps all.) And that, apparently, is the direction the market is going - at least here in Oz. He also speculated (no names!) that buyers in publishing, advertising and the like seem to be, um, cooperating to push things their way, while photographers appear to be conspiring to cut each others' throats.
Now, I'm sure that different segments of the photography market have quite different dynamics and I'm also pretty sure that wildlife photography is an especially tough way to make a living compared to other market niches. But I'm also starting to get the impression that the commercial value of photographs themselves seems to be declining to the point that a lot of photographers are using their images as, essentially, marketing material while making their real living from running courses and workshops, giving lectures and the like.
And I find that pretty depressing. It may not gore my ox, since I make my living elsewhere but, well, I like the photos themselves (when they're good, of course). The thought that the real business of photographers is lecturing on some combination of "this is how to set your camera up, and fix it like this in Photoshop when you stuff it up", with photographs reduced to promotional material for an air-fair/hotel-room/workshop package deal is, well, sad but perhaps true.
Its not that I think there's anything wrong with that as a way to make a living, and not that useful services aren't being provided. It just seems wrong that its now difficult for a photographer to make a living by producing photographs. A very old-fashioned idea it seems - but I hope its time comes again.
...Mike
post on the earlier incarnation of this thread).In that post I noted, amongst other (more dazzling!) points, that I'd sell copies of my photos (prints or files) if anyone were interested, which seems unlikely. But I'd not (in the unlikely event it were offered) accept any form of commission or assignment - because I want to keep taking photos for the love of it, without any form of deadline pressure or pressure to produce particular types of photos. I get plenty of that in my day job - photography is supposed to get me away from all that. And I certainly don't want to rely on photography for my income (all questions of ability aside
), again because its my escape, not my job.But that got me to thinking. I recently attended a photography workshop run under the banner of the Australian Geographic Society by Darren Leal of WildVisions Photography. Through the workshop, and while having drinks after the days' formalities were over, and so on, Darren had a bit to say about how he makes his living and I formed a bunch of impressions as well.
Now, Darren is a very good photographer specialising mostly in wildlife and macro, with a bit of landscape work. He's won competitions, received awards, makes a lot of stock sales and gets good commercial commissions (eg. SeaWorld at the Gold Coast) and so on. But I got the distinct impression that he and his family would be eating very thin soup if he relied on selling his photos to make a living, even though he is good and he does sell.
Where he really makes his money, it seems (note its my inference, not his statements), is in running photography courses and capturing a bigger-than-usual part of the value of that through his wife running the travel agency side of the business. (That's a nice piece of synergy, though I'm not sure if it was deliberate or if things just happened that way.) I also got the impression (see note above) that he used to make his living selling photos but that this became unsupportable through the double-whammy of increasing family responsibilities and declining ability to sell photos at decent prices.
And there were some real stories (not just inferences) there. For example, he still receives royalties on photos published in books by a very well known Australian photographer. But that photographer, these days, mostly provides a very small percentage of the photos in his books and is progressively replacing images that command royalties with photos he pays a flat $50 Australian (or so) for, demanding all rights into perpetuity. (It also seems, in this particular case, that the quality of the photographs is declining steeply, but that matters not since celebrity name recognition trumps all.) And that, apparently, is the direction the market is going - at least here in Oz. He also speculated (no names!) that buyers in publishing, advertising and the like seem to be, um, cooperating to push things their way, while photographers appear to be conspiring to cut each others' throats.
Now, I'm sure that different segments of the photography market have quite different dynamics and I'm also pretty sure that wildlife photography is an especially tough way to make a living compared to other market niches. But I'm also starting to get the impression that the commercial value of photographs themselves seems to be declining to the point that a lot of photographers are using their images as, essentially, marketing material while making their real living from running courses and workshops, giving lectures and the like.
And I find that pretty depressing. It may not gore my ox, since I make my living elsewhere but, well, I like the photos themselves (when they're good, of course). The thought that the real business of photographers is lecturing on some combination of "this is how to set your camera up, and fix it like this in Photoshop when you stuff it up", with photographs reduced to promotional material for an air-fair/hotel-room/workshop package deal is, well, sad but perhaps true.
Its not that I think there's anything wrong with that as a way to make a living, and not that useful services aren't being provided. It just seems wrong that its now difficult for a photographer to make a living by producing photographs. A very old-fashioned idea it seems - but I hope its time comes again.
...Mike
Last edited:
macymills@mac.c
Member
I started getting very serious about pursuing photography as a hobby around 5-6 years ago. Invested a bunch of $$ in high end cameras (I am one of those people who love "toys" and gain more enjoyment from photography when using "finely crafted instruments" I guess). I started thinking about "going pro" in November 2005, and in Jan 2006 my business officially began. I started out on a part-time basis (with a full-time job at the bank), but this January, I quit the bank full-time and am a portrait photographer full time. It has been a wild ride and business is booming much more than I had ever imagined that it could. I am simply blown away. Having said that, I was starting to lose a lot of inspiration and started to feel burnt out. Having a photography business that is so busy took away the enjoyment and fun I used to feel when out shooting for myself.
To make a long story short, I have been working on doing more photography for myself (ie, film, darkroom work, etc.), and I am finding that it is helping me tremendously in getting some inspiration and enthusiasm for photography back.
Tips and hints? If you are seriously thinking about pursuing photography as a profession, the first step is to write a business plan. Then remember that to have a successful (ie, profit-making) business, marketing and business skills are more important than photography skills. Also, remember to keep shooting for yourself. I now know how important that is to me.
To make a long story short, I have been working on doing more photography for myself (ie, film, darkroom work, etc.), and I am finding that it is helping me tremendously in getting some inspiration and enthusiasm for photography back.
Tips and hints? If you are seriously thinking about pursuing photography as a profession, the first step is to write a business plan. Then remember that to have a successful (ie, profit-making) business, marketing and business skills are more important than photography skills. Also, remember to keep shooting for yourself. I now know how important that is to me.
foto_fool
Well-known
The very thought that someone would pay me for my lame photos is risible. I would like to think that more practice might lead to more skill, and that perhaps talent can be increased through repetition. But I doubt that I will ever make a "living" though this hobby.
- John
- John
anselwannab
Well-known
I sold my first pic on istockphoto last week and got $0.22.
And back in college I shot some family and friends weddings for beer.
I would never suggest paying photographers in beer.
Mark
And back in college I shot some family and friends weddings for beer.
I would never suggest paying photographers in beer.
Mark
Last edited:
mfunnell
Shaken, so blurred
Well. That's no fun!anselwannab said:
...Mike