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08/03/2009 02:27:20 PM · #1 |
I've just started getting into Photography. So please pardon me for my ignorance.
My first impression about Photography is that it's an expensive hobby. But as a career...I don't know about it. That is my question...what are the ways that Photographer's earn and how does it scale to other profession salary, let's say, a Software consultant or a doctor?
Now, before you jump on this thread...I know that there are photographers that do wedding shoots, portraits. Some highly skilled do photography for magazines, websites. Some creative ones go for internet based business like Stock photography. What else?
So am asking all those photographers for whom Photography is the career...how much, ball-park, do you make AND do you do something else to make ends meet?
With the answers, I will probably pass it on to my very young cousin who seems like is interested in photography and can tell him whether he should make it as a career or just a hobby. |
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08/03/2009 02:49:18 PM · #2 |
| I can´t help you with how much is being made since I don´t have a clue on where you live but I assume it´s not Iceland, all I can tell you is this, you will never be rich doing photography unless you are EXTREMELY talented so do not go into it for the money, I didn´t, but it´s a decent living so he´ll get by. |
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08/03/2009 02:52:56 PM · #3 |
| like anything in life, if you know the right people you can be sucessful. Otherwise I concurr with LalliSig. |
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08/03/2009 02:57:57 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by LalliSig:
I can´t help you with how much is being made since I don´t have a clue on where you live but I assume it´s not Iceland, all I can tell you is this, you will never be rich doing photography unless you are EXTREMELY talented so do not go into it for the money, I didn´t, but it´s a decent living so he´ll get by. |
I know this that one can't be RICH with photography unless you are really great at it...but all I wanted to know from other photographers is when they choose Photography as a career, do they have a second career too or any part time business/work? |
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08/03/2009 03:25:52 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by Oregonian:
Originally posted by LalliSig:
I can´t help you with how much is being made since I don´t have a clue on where you live but I assume it´s not Iceland, all I can tell you is this, you will never be rich doing photography unless you are EXTREMELY talented so do not go into it for the money, I didn´t, but it´s a decent living so he´ll get by. |
I know this that one can't be RICH with photography unless you are really great at it...but all I wanted to know from other photographers is when they choose Photography as a career, do they have a second career too or any part time business/work? |
Ummmm...I know of some well-to-do photographers that produce absolute crap, so I'd have to say photographic talent is only part of the equation.
As for me, at the moment, I'm trying to combine photography with my second career in order to make my living. Whatever you do, don't forget to shoot for yourself even if what you're doing to make money sucks. I made that mistake and it just about killed me. |
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08/03/2009 05:35:50 PM · #6 |
It also depends on the alternatives. If your cousin is the type who will end up in a well paying career then it would make more sense to use the income from the job to finance photography as a hobby --  DrAchoo comes to mind as an example. On the other hand if the alternative career paths are not especially well-paying then photography as the main career would make more sense. |
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08/03/2009 05:44:34 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by JaimeVinas:
like anything in life, if you know the right people you can be sucessful. Otherwise I concurr with LalliSig. |
I disagree, as with anything in life, if you focus, work HARD, don't expect it to be handed to you on a plate, don't expect a cushy job where you just `take photos` all day - then you can make a good living out of it. I am currently phasing out my old job in IT with my wedding photography - this year I am making 50% more from my photography than my old regular day job. Granted I am probably working twice as many hours when you factor in designing and business stuff, but I am ten times more content and feel I am finally achieving something with my life instead of just working for someone else. and yes, I am having tremendous amounts of fun at the same time.. I don't expect to be `rich` in the financial sense, but my life is richer as a result, I don't see myself as super talented, but I know there is a customer base out there that seems to enjoy and appreciate my work and pay pretty good money for it.
Also, it's far cooler to reply to anyone who asks what I do for a living "I'm a photographer" instead of "I work in IT Support"..
So its not who you know, its how hard you work and how much you want it that counts.
Being able to take a picture helps as well.
Message edited by author 2009-08-03 17:48:50. |
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08/03/2009 05:46:52 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by Spazmo99:
Ummmm...I know of some well-to-do photographers that produce absolute crap, so I'd have to say photographic talent is only part of the equation.
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Agree, it doesn't stop there either - how many successful actors, pop stars, models etc are out there who are rich and famous for being genuinely talented? Not many I'll warrant.
Sometimes a pretty face, tight butt, and perky boobs is all the talent you need..
I may not have the first two, but I certainly have the (man) boobs.. |
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08/03/2009 07:50:21 PM · #9 |
There was a thread here some 12 months ago that linked to a source stating the average US photographer is on $25K per annum.
Wouldn't surpise if that figure is now lower with the downturn in the economy.
bazz. |
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08/04/2009 03:00:31 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by Simms:
Also, it's far cooler to reply to anyone who asks what I do for a living "I'm a photographer" instead of "I work in IT Support"..
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Hey Simms
I'm in IT too and yes, I agree that sometimes it so boring sitting in the chair for the whole day long and not do anything creative (like right now...typing this reply). Feels like going out and do something different. But then non-working housewife and a kid comes to mind and then I get afraid to take risks in life. I know that without taking risks, you can never know what's out there, but...
May be one day I'll be bold enough to do something different... |
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08/04/2009 03:14:12 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by Oregonian:
Originally posted by Simms:
Also, it's far cooler to reply to anyone who asks what I do for a living "I'm a photographer" instead of "I work in IT Support"..
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Hey Simms
I'm in IT too and yes, I agree that sometimes it so boring sitting in the chair for the whole day long and not do anything creative (like right now...typing this reply). Feels like going out and do something different. But then non-working housewife and a kid comes to mind and then I get afraid to take risks in life. I know that without taking risks, you can never know what's out there, but...
May be one day I'll be bold enough to do something different... |
So keep your IT job, and do photography on the side on the odd evening and weekends. No risk there. :-)
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08/05/2009 04:07:14 AM · #12 |
I too am slowly trying to phase my "real job" out and just make a living with photography. I'm not even close to being able to do that yet, but slowly workig on it. It helps that I have a retirement check from the Army every month though.
If you are to the point in your life where you are trying to decide a career path, the size of the paycheck isn't everything. If you can make a living at something you LOVE it's far better than making more money at a job you're not totally happy with.
Just my opinion, but I feel photography is getting harder and harder to make a career out of. I would say that being a great photographer is less important than being great at marketing yourself. |
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08/05/2009 02:15:24 PM · #13 |
you can earn as much as you are willing to work for. it's not automatic and it's not overnight (unless you are gloriously well-funded and well-connected to begin with).
but, if you want to do it and are ready to make the commitment to build the reputation necessary to establish a career, you can do very well. yes, in some ways, it's a lot harder today than it was 5, 10, 25 years ago, but, that just means you have to work a bit smarter. very few professions offer as much variety as photography, where you can make money doing just about anything (even though some of it is a bit sucky or downright ugly). all the same, if it's something you really want to do, it is still a viable dream.
as to how much? well, it all depends on what you can commit to and be passionate about...
for further ideas on the topic, feel free to check out these articles...
is this the right time to start a business?
some more Q&A
what to do if you've been laid off
realizing your dreams
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08/05/2009 02:40:02 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by Oregonian:
Originally posted by Simms:
Also, it's far cooler to reply to anyone who asks what I do for a living "I'm a photographer" instead of "I work in IT Support"..
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Hey Simms
I'm in IT too and yes, I agree that sometimes it so boring sitting in the chair for the whole day long and not do anything creative (like right now...typing this reply). Feels like going out and do something different. But then non-working housewife and a kid comes to mind and then I get afraid to take risks in life. I know that without taking risks, you can never know what's out there, but...
May be one day I'll be bold enough to do something different... |
Have you talked to your wife about taking those kinds of risks? I'll bet she'd be willing to help you to start doing work that you enjoy. |
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08/05/2009 04:03:10 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by Spazmo99:
Originally posted by Oregonian:
Originally posted by Simms:
Also, it's far cooler to reply to anyone who asks what I do for a living "I'm a photographer" instead of "I work in IT Support"..
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Hey Simms
I'm in IT too and yes, I agree that sometimes it so boring sitting in the chair for the whole day long and not do anything creative (like right now...typing this reply). Feels like going out and do something different. But then non-working housewife and a kid comes to mind and then I get afraid to take risks in life. I know that without taking risks, you can never know what's out there, but...
May be one day I'll be bold enough to do something different... |
Have you talked to your wife about taking those kinds of risks? I'll bet she'd be willing to help you to start doing work that you enjoy. |
Spazmo is right, talk to your wife about it - the thing is both of you would need to be prepared for a lot of hard work - since I started out on this venture we have been working 18, 19, even 20 hour days to get it up and running. We borrowed against the house to buy in some pro kit and pay for exhibition stands, albums, brochures etc. and have had to learn so much at the same time, book keeping/accounts, sorting out my own taxes, HMRC, VAT, all the while going out to see prospective customers, shooting weddings, pre-wedding venue visits, going through the photos, designing albums, keeping on top of queries etc whilst also working my IT job 5 days a week, 8 hours a day - however, with orders on my books in excess of £47,000 (about $80,000) over the next 18 months and more work coming in every week I am now feeling all the hard work, hours, time missed being with my family (i.e sitting in front of this damn computer or shooting weddings) is now starting to pay off - granted I haven't got a weekend free until the first week of November (and that`s if I take no more bookings before then) but we are already seeing the fruits of our hard work - in fact this is probably the first time ever we have been debt free (except for the mortgage), even in this time of economic turbulence! I can`t imagine what it will be like when the good ship Simms is sailing through more fiscally buoyant waters.
I say go for it, if you are prepared to work for it, and I do mean WORK!
And also, most importantly, you have to be able to take a good photo from time to time - and without sounded big headed, I think I am doing alright in that department.
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08/05/2009 05:18:30 PM · #16 |
| Photography is currently my job, if not part time(well technically i work my ass off 24/7 but that doesnt count). i only have $700 in the bank from all my efforts this summer. If i wasnt living at home i would definitely qualify as a starving artist |
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08/06/2009 01:01:56 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by Oregonian:
I know this that one can't be RICH with photography unless you are really great at it...but all I wanted to know from other photographers is when they choose Photography as a career, do they have a second career too or any part time business/work? |
i work full time doing design and started my own photog biz on the side - so far i have pulled in an extra $1,000 in a year. not too shabby considering it started as a mere hobby. |
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08/06/2009 01:29:00 PM · #18 |
Wow, all this talk about starving Photographers. I'm surprised. Might I suggest you have a look at the forums at OurPPA.com (professional photographers of America), where you will see ongoing conversations from many photographers that have been in the business 20+ years and are far from starving.
As for the OP's original question: there are as many ways to make money with photography as there are types of photography. If you wish to make your living with portraiture, you will need to do a lot of marketing to find your target audience. If you wish to work with product shoots, you will need begin targeting businesses who need their products photographed. I could go on, but you get the drift. No matter what realm of photography you wish to persue, you will need to do your legwork (like with any other business).
I have been doing photography professionally for several years - beginning while I still held a full-time job and doing the photography work on the side. For the last 16 months its been shooting 24/7 with no back-up. My income has peaks and valleys, so I have to budget for that. I specialize in seniors and weddings - althought I'll shoot any job that finds me. I love it very much and wouldn't change a thing. (PS, I'm writing this in my pajamas - today is an editing day). :) |
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08/06/2009 05:15:14 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by idnic:
(PS, I'm writing this in my pajamas - today is an editing day). :) |
This post is useless without pics. |
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08/09/2009 04:00:49 PM · #20 |
To further expand on the Mighty Simms' posts:
Taking the pictures is the easiest thing about making it as a photographer.
As for making it rich, I know of one guy who makes $4000 a day selling stock pictures somewhere in Denmark. His name escapes me but he has a catalogue of thousands of stock pictures and sells them for $1-5 depending on their usage. |
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08/09/2009 05:19:01 PM · #21 |
Originally posted by Tez:
To further expand on the Mighty Simms' posts:
Taking the pictures is the easiest thing about making it as a photographer.
As for making it rich, I know of one guy who makes $4000 a day selling stock pictures somewhere in Denmark. His name escapes me but he has a catalogue of thousands of stock pictures and sells them for $1-5 depending on their usage. |
There is also a guy on shutterstock who sells thousands of images a week and makes a hell of a lot out of it.. The great thing is, even if he quit tomorrow, his images would continue selling for a long while yet.
Message edited by author 2009-08-09 17:19:52. |
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08/09/2009 05:41:00 PM · #22 |
Originally posted by Simms:
Originally posted by Tez:
To further expand on the Mighty Simms' posts:
Taking the pictures is the easiest thing about making it as a photographer.
As for making it rich, I know of one guy who makes $4000 a day selling stock pictures somewhere in Denmark. His name escapes me but he has a catalogue of thousands of stock pictures and sells them for $1-5 depending on their usage. |
There is also a guy on shutterstock who sells thousands of images a week and makes a hell of a lot out of it.. The great thing is, even if he quit tomorrow, his images would continue selling for a long while yet. |
how do you even get to that point? do you just shoot your whole life and throw everything into a book? i just dont understand how some people can be so successful through stock photography |
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08/09/2009 06:02:59 PM · #23 |
Originally posted by LadyK:
Originally posted by Simms:
Originally posted by Tez:
To further expand on the Mighty Simms' posts:
Taking the pictures is the easiest thing about making it as a photographer.
As for making it rich, I know of one guy who makes $4000 a day selling stock pictures somewhere in Denmark. His name escapes me but he has a catalogue of thousands of stock pictures and sells them for $1-5 depending on their usage. |
There is also a guy on shutterstock who sells thousands of images a week and makes a hell of a lot out of it.. The great thing is, even if he quit tomorrow, his images would continue selling for a long while yet. |
how do you even get to that point? do you just shoot your whole life and throw everything into a book? i just dont understand how some people can be so successful through stock photography |
They just have great ideas and plenty of time to setup and shoot them. FOllowing the news helps as well, I know when we started to enter the whole `economic super crunch downturn recession` he posted a load of financial stuff like money falling out of a guys hand (guy was in suit) against a bokeh`d backdrop of a graph with a plummeting profit line. Then again he is going for quantity over quality (although his stuff is incredibly good).. But if you can get some killer images on Getty, you can make hundreds of dollars on a single image if its what the designers are looking for.
I have a few bits that are seasonal (but not in the conventional sense) that once a year experience a very healthy blip.. I also have a shedload of referred photographers who make me $2 - $4 dollars a day in referred downloads. |
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08/09/2009 09:05:34 PM · #24 |
It's successful because of its generic-ness. A hand holding a bunch of notes will always come in handy. But if you have a white hand, a black hand, a mans hand, a ladies hand, an elderly person's hand or a child's hand will give you a much broader range of markets and is the same concept.
Likewise with something like a person in a lab coat holding a clipboard. If they're male/female, young/old or whatever will give clients a much wider and more specific choice and that's what he does, gets the same shot/concept but with a lot of variation in the type of model.
If you want to make a living stock thats what you have to do I guess.
There's a video on Strobist about his 'studio' and it is quite simply amazing. He doesn't have a studio, he has a huge greenhouse with white sheets over all the panes of glass to make a giant softbox. The floor is white and he's got loads of props like fake cupboards, worktops, kitchen units, sofas, a dentist chair, vases, a massage table, computer screens, telephones, headsets and pretty much every conceivable prop you could imagine. It's taking stock to the next level.
If only I could remember his name...
Ahhh, it's Yuri Arcurs.
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08/09/2009 11:53:26 PM · #25 |
Originally posted by Tez:
There's a video on Strobist about his 'studio' and it is quite simply amazing. |
Had to google him following your comments about his studio. Huge isn't the word! WOW
Edit to correct link which was wrong!
Yuri Arcurs Check out the first video and you will see the scale of the studio.
Message edited by author 2009-08-10 03:17:46. |
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