OT: Making a business of a hobby

[bmattock]

I've seen a number of 'how do I get started making money' threads, even asked some of those questions myself. Never really thought you could make money just by taking photos, posting them on your web page, and charging for prints. Seems too easy somehow. Anyway, thought this was interesting for those who wonder about that sort of thing.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

http://www.airdrieecho.com/story.php?id=232066

Nascar Notes: Photographer Greg Sherry lives life at top speed
Veteran loves to snap pics at 300 clicks

Covy Moore
Special to the Echo
Wednesday May 24, 2006

Airdrie Echo — I do anything from still life to cars going 200 m.p.h.," boasts American photographer Greg Sherry, who has been taking pictures of all different types of events for two-and-a-half decades.

Sherry, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, has been wielding a camera for 25 years, but started professionally a mere three years ago.

In November 2003, Sherry designed and created a website showcasing his work. He covers any and all events he possibly can, but avoids weddings.

"You don’t want a bride that is not happy with her wedding pictures," he said with a laugh.

Sherry is a certified IT engineer by trade, whose professional photography training and education have been "self-taught" over the years.
"Photography is something you never stop learning," he said.

Sherry also uses only the best equipment to capture all of his works.

"After my very first Pentax my grandfather handed down to me, I have since always used Canon cameras," he said.

The digital cameras of today have made his job much easier, enabling him to utilize computers and the World Wide Web.

Sherry will take up to 1,000 pictures at any given event.

"For this past Daytona 500 event my picture count total was 870," he said.
He then uploads all the images and edits them using Photoshop CS2. Once edited, the images are uploaded to his website, making them available for purchase over the Internet.

Sherry started contributing to the Airdrie Echo’s Nascar Notes column in February of last year. When asked about his relationship with the Echo and Nascar Notes – the other side of North America – the pro photographer is upbeat.

"When you run a website and you are starting a business up from a hobby, any and all ways of getting your name and website out to the world is helpful," he said. "It is said that we are all only six degrees away from knowing everyone else in this world. If each person that reads your newspaper tells six of their friends about my website, you can only imagine how many people would then know about me and my love and profession."

All of Sherry’s work can be found online at: www.gregsherry.com

 

[John Camp]

I think it might be done, but probably only by somebody with a particular enthusiasm (or a deep cycnicism) and I doubt that you'd get rich doing it; although you might get by. The guy in the story takes 870 pictures at a Nascar event. If he simply throws out the bad ones, as determined by a quick scan, then posts the "good ones," he might eventually build anough of a stock, and enough of a reputation with Nascar fans, that he could sell a few dozen from week to week as posters. People now routinely pay $10 for magazines; I think you could get away with $25 for a good poster. If you could sell 50 a week...and you might be able to, if you had thousands of choices available. You might actually be able to set up an on-site (or just off-site) large format Epson printer run out of the back of an RV and print on-site custom photos of the fans at the races...It'd still be a pretty thin living; and it sounds an awful lot like drudgery. There are a few other areas where it might work. Porn, for college kids: $20 to download a hi-res RAW image that you can print as big as you need 😎. Possibly celebrity photos -- maybe set up an agency that would distribute PR photos of stars, so when somebody in a fan club wanted a picture of X, they would be referred to your site. There's not much else that I can think of. Leica fans are considered fairly hard-core, but how may of us (really) would spend $20 for a RAW file of an M6? Even a ttl? My view of pro photography is that it is a huge amount of work surrounding a relatively small amount of button-pushing, while for us amateurs, there's a large amount of button-pushing and hardly any work at all.

JC

 

[clarence]

The most depressing thing I've discovered, after doing research on how I could possibly make some money on the side, is that there is no way to make a profit by using film.

I might have to start looking for a used Digital Rebel.

Clarence

 

[ruben]

Theoretically nothing could be better than making money while enjoying. In practice, it is very much like the story of the kid asking his father about the difference between theory and practice.

Since the story is too much sex-discriminatory, I'll spare all of us.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[Goodyear]

Since the story is too much sex-discriminatory, I'll spare all of us.

Okay, now I'm curious 🙂

On topic, I enjoy my photography too much to be pro. I am more than open to the occasional bit of paid work, I enjoy it and it's a way to gain some pocket- or GAS-money from my hobby, but I figure that any serious level of income would require putting more effort into the business side of it than I am prepared to give.

 

[BrianShaw]

Okay, now I'm curious 🙂

On this one, I'm with Ruben... SPARE US!

 

[ywenz]

I videotape weddings on the side, but have been itching to get into wedding photography, mainly because photographing a wedding IMO is less work than videos.

I would think it's pretty hard to make any significant side income by selling your prints as pieces of art. If you can fetch a decent amount of money simply by selling your prints, it means you probably have the skills go into photography as a full time gig or you have earned the title of an "artist". Photographing events on the other hand doesn't take nearly as much skills and there are events occuring all the time!

The most depressing thing I've discovered, after doing research on how I could possibly make some money on the side, is that there is no way to make a profit by using film.

Very true. Try covering an event with a film camera and then with digital, and you'll soon see which one makes more sense.

 

[FrankS]

.... itching to get into wedding photography, mainly because photographing a wedding IMO is less work than videos.

Perhaps less work, though I'd argue that too, but definitely more talent/finesse. You have to know when to push the button for one thing.

 

[sbug]

Trying to make money through a hobby you love seems to me to be a sure fire way to ruin your hobby. No thanks.

 

[Magnus]

I make money, not a living, by photography. I free-lance for a Research company (TV productions) this is exactly how far I would go. Having to make a living would indeed ruin you hobby. Now I get the chance to phtograph what I find intersting anyway and get paid to go to places I have never been too, or would of gone to for that matter. It brings in enough money to pay for my hobby and on this level it is fun to do. You do however need the contacts to get such a position, and also need to know something about a given subject (in depth) ... Knowöedge of photography comes second, or even third.

 

[ywenz]

.... itching to get into wedding photography, mainly because photographing a wedding IMO is less work than videos.

Perhaps less work, though I'd argue that too, but definitely more talent/finesse. You have to know when to push the button for one thing.

Incorrect, both mediums require the same level of talent, however for video, the bulk of the work is in the edit suite. I'd also argue that videographers work harder on the day of the wedding as well.

Have you seen a crappy wedding video? That's not the type of work I nor other skilled videographers do.

 

[KoNickon]

I would like to know more about the conclusion that one is not able to make a profit using film. Certainly you can shoot digital all day (assuming you've got sufficient memory and battery capacity) and accumulate a whole lot of shots. But folks have done much the same with film for decades. If all you then have to do is send the digital files you've created somewhere (like posting them to a website, or on to the newspaper) then I agree, that's a lot quicker than film. But if there's any Photoshop work to be done, or if e.g. the bride's parents want a complete set of actual prints, then there is additional work involved, some of it quite time-consuming.

Regarding Greg Sherry's work -- it may be cliched to some extent, and I bet all of us have done better than that at some point in time. But, the point is, people buy cliched stuff! That's what stock agencies provide, in large part. If anything, seeing that he can make a go of it should inspire us to get off our duffs and see if we can do the same.

 

[ywenz]

If all you then have to do is send the digital files you've created somewhere (like posting them to a website, or on to the newspaper) then I agree, that's a lot quicker than film. But if there's any Photoshop work to be done, or if e.g. the bride's parents want a complete set of actual prints, then there is additional work involved, some of it quite time-consuming.

In almost all cases, no post processing on digital files can ever be as time consuming as shots from film.

 

[ruben]

.... itching to get into wedding photography, mainly because photographing a wedding IMO is less work than videos.

Perhaps less work, though I'd argue that too, but definitely more talent/finesse. You have to know when to push the button for one thing.

Wedding photography could be one of the most emotional branches of Photography, if free from the clients and photographer's sustain :bang:

I have not found the key but still looking after.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[ruben]

The most depressing thing I've discovered, after doing research on how I could possibly make some money on the side, is that there is no way to make a profit by using film.

I might have to start looking for a used Digital Rebel.

Clarence

The second most depressing thing you may discover, after investing in digital, is that there is no way to make a profit in Photography at all, but just to cover part of the expenses.

Nevertheless, I wish you the best. You deserve it for your boldness.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[ruben]

PS:
At the end of the day it may result that we have been just lucky, for being it like it is.
The only pending issue being how long it has taken us to realize it, if at all.
:angel:



Hey BUPHOTO, where are you with your masterfull sentence about the 5 cents ?

 

[clarence]

Customers want colour photos, often in digital and they want them fast. I could pay for a 1 hour lab, but the sheer volume of film that has to be processed and scanned makes this quite unfeasible.

I was wrestling with either getting a scanner or a digital SLR. The scanner would not save the costs of C41 film processing, though, and manually scanning everything would be slow and troublesome.

I'm not afraid of paid work, if only because I am a student and I'd rather be paid to photograph people than to wait on tables. There's a summer full of opportunities waiting out there, and I know that if I want to be able to break out of the hobby and into paid work, I have to get a digital camera.

Clarence

 

[ruben]

......... There's a summer full of opportunities waiting out there....

On this I specially agree with you: "Mamiya will live forever".
(I too, am a full flexed c-330 Mamiyero)

 

[ruben]

Hey folks, it's time to catch ourselves at the food chain.
Lovers of Photography,
fidling with film cameras
dreaming about bussiness


:bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :angel::bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:




PS:

To:
Moderators Coxon, Joe & Rover,
True, I promised by self choice and without pressure to restrain myself from enraging too much the spirits around, but at this one I fell victym of a tragic contradiction between what I want to be, and what I still am.
Kindly let me get away just with this one.
Thanks in advance,
Ruben

 

[amateriat]

I shoot film almost exclusively, and, curiously enough, this has worked in my favor for the last handful of gigs I've done. In part, it might be because there's a ton of hacks out here (NYC), a lot of whom seemingly just got a new dSLR and are determined to make a buck somewaysomehow (yes, there have always been hacks with cameras, but I guess the proverbial floodgates are truly open now, since "anyone can use a digital, right?"). The clients also Googled my name and seemed to liked some of the pictures they found (there's a new line to toss to prospective clients: "Portfolio? Got nothing on me right now, but you can Google me". The NSA has nothing on these guys). Being a film shooter is almost novel, like being the only guy in the neighborhood who plays a mean gut-string bass (oh, how I wish!). I do have a fast workflow that allows me to get results out within a day or so (the only faster way to do this shooting digitally is to literally hand the client the CF card; yes, I've seen it done), making quick, small TIFF scans and FTP'ing them to the client's Web space. Usually, I have more time than this, but it's good to know I can get it in gear if I need to, even with the "handicap" of shooting film.


- Barrett