Earning money in photography???

I don't think you have much of a business plan, very little preparation. Many stock photos tell a little story. Do any of yours tell a story?
I was in the stock business for quite a while and made some okay money but never utilized the Internet. There was a town on the Pacific Coast that every year grew 3,000 acres of flowers for seeds. It was hard to get decent photos of a lot of the flower fields because the area on the coast was overcast a lot. A photographer would come into town, drive around and get very few photos. This field was not ready yet and without it in perfect condition he could not shoot it and the next one and the next one and the next one.
However, I lived in the little town. Any time I had a few minutes or the weather was specially good I would zip out and get one field of particularly great flowers that everybody else with a camera missed. And I got to know how to look at a field and say -- this will be ripe next week and next week I would pick a nice, clear day and nail that one, too. I sold all kinds of photos of the flower fields to magazines and newspapers and even the local Chamber of Commerce.
Note all my sales were local and not on the Internet. You can find local clients if you look.
 
To make money off of photography... that's a million dollar question and I am sure everyone here would want that one simple answer so they could go out and make their first million off of the pictures that come out of heir cameras.

Unfortunately, its NOT that simple.

You can be the world's best photographer but if you business skills suck, you won't make enough in a year to buy a candy bar. If your business skills are exceptional, but your photography skills suck... same thing.

So how to make money in photography? Be an EXCELLENT business person, and have exceptional photography skills, do something that sets you apart from the other 90 million other photographers that are out there asking the same question and trying to figure it out at the same time as you are.

Unfortunately, because of the popularity of photography and the number of people out there doing it, the chance of making serious money in this field requires nothing short of extraordinary excellence in all areas, not just in one's ability to press a shutter button.
 
Photography has always been popular.
But back in the day SLR cameras and their lenses were out of reach, money wise, for a lot more people then.

Consumer electronics technology has dumbed photography down such that it's easier today to make a decent photograph.
Plus the price of digital cameras, planned obsolescence, and improved marketing strategies allows the camera makers to sell a lot more cameras today than they were able to sell 20 years ago.
Cell phone cameras are a perfect example. No expertise needed. Just point it and press a button.
The electronics in the cell phone will take care of all the technical details.

Cars will be next.
Get in. Sit Down. Text away, surf the Net, snap photos, or make video - as the car drives itself.
 

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