How do the pros make it.

[FatBear]

"instruction" of various types, has become a BIG income source over that last 15 years, ranging from skilled amateurs, to journeymen pros, to the most-skilled shooters, in multiple disciples.

Yes. Especially if you have or develop a particular style or skill.

A similar opportunity is guiding. People are willing to pay for experiences, travel, etc., and for a guide to help them make the most of their time.

A friend is a professional wildlife photographer who lives near a lake that has a large breeding population of grebes. He once took a famous wildlife photographer out onto a local lake to get some shots of their mating rituals, just as a favor. When they returned the guy said he would have paid a lot of money for such a guided trip. That guiding is now an important part of my friend's income. To do this you need to really know your territory well, how to put the subject in front of your customer, and how to get a great shot every day, regardless of conditions. He is out there, camera in hand, either on the water or along the shore just about every day.

And like every other business, you need to market yourself. I don't actually know all of the marketing venues that my friend uses. But one simple and free thing that I do see is his nextdoor.com postings. Once or twice a week he posts a beautiful shot there and a few thousand people see it. Doesn't sound like a lot of people, but they are all local and have never taken photos of, or even seen, some of the things he shows them. And some want to do it themselves or may recommend him to others. Websites and FB pages are pull oriented. Someone has to come to them. Not good for getting new customers. Nextdoor.com and other places where you can post are push oriented. You can put yourself before others and not wait for them to come to you. Pretty creative.

Oh, and guiding doesn't have to mean wildlife photography. If you are a good street photographer, you could guide that. If you know all of the best scenic angles in your area, you could guide that. Etc.

 

[webestang64]

I asked my pro-photographer friend who makes all her money by taking photos....How do you do it?

I work my a$$ off!

 

[FatBear]

I asked my pro-photographer friend who makes all her money by taking photos....How do you do it?

I work my a$$ off!

That is the case for almost every successful small business. I was an employee in small, medium, and large businesses - rising to a high level in engineering - before starting and running my own small business for 24 years. So I've seen the difference and I'll tell you what: nothing is harder or more rewarding than running your own small business. And that's what most professional photographers are. Small business owners. Just be aware that most small businesses fail. It's not always just skill or smarts, luck plays a part, too. But even with luck you gotta work hard.

 

[Derrel]

There are probably more people doing photography as a "side hustle" now than ever before.

Lower costs on consumables have made it easier to shoot jobs/gigs that used to require $100 to $300 or more, back when a 2-bedroom apartment rented for $240-$325 a month in the mid 1980's. Back then, 100 feet of bulk 35mm film was $100 or so; gas was 79 cents per gallon; a 44-ounce fountain soda was 49 or 59 cents at a discount place; $100-$300 was a LOT more than it is today. With no film or proofing costs, and virtually unlimited shooting and with digital revealing of both successful and bad posing/lighting/shooting, digital has allowed MANY more marginal shooters a place in a marketplace that was once difficult to enter,both in terms of money, and in terms of core competency.

 

[smoke665]

digital has allowed MANY more marginal shooters a place in a marketplace that was once difficult to enter,both in terms of money, and in terms of core competency.

Not just those out to make a buck as a photographer, but the general population as a whole. Social media is inundated with cell phone uploads of life, family, events, you name it. In the world of instant gratification, the quality is not as important, because in less then a few minutes, it's already been replaced by 100's more.

I can remember a time when family photos were exciting special events. Everyone got dressed up in their finest, and traveled to the mysterious dark world of a photographer's studio. If you were lucky there was a studio in town close, but if you were out in the boonies the trip in itself was an adventure. Once you got those prints back they were something that held a place of honor on the walls of the home.

 

[zulu42]

Same exact thing happened to the music and recording industry, along with a decline of respect for intellectual property and the perceived monetary value of art in general - and photography and music in particular.

 

[FatBear]

Top 8 Ways to Make Money Teaching Photography

1. Teach a basic digital photography class .
2. Teach private lessons.
3. Offer a gift certificate for your class.
4. Teach a mom’s photography class .
5. Make sales on affiliates.
6. Market to your prior students.
7. Have a photo walk.
8. Teaching photography to kids.

Good list. May I remark on it from a business owner's perspective? Not so much judgements as a more fiscal way of looking at them.

Before I start, I'd like to suggest that anyone starting a business which requires driving do two things: 1. learn the tax regulations on a business vehicle -vs- using your vehicle for business. 2. Figure out your actual cost per mile to drive. This is very important and almost no employee ever does it. (And everyone all the way up to the CEO of any corporation is really an employee, so this is not an insult to employees.) To do so you first estimate how many miles you will own the vehicle (I used 150,000) and how many miles per year you will drive it. Then take the acquisition cost of the vehicle, add to it all predicted costs during those miles (taxes, registration, insurance, upgrades and customization, planned maintenance, a reasonable unplanned maintenance estimate, and fuel), subtract your estimated trade-in or sale value at the end of those miles, and then divide that sum by the number of miles you used.
I calculated my cost per mile when I first bought my truck. It came to about 63 cents a mile over the estimated life of the vehicle. I calculated it ten years later and it came to 62.5 cents a mile. So that's a pretty good idea of what it costs me to drive my truck. So if I make a ten mile round trip to buy a $6.25 hamburger, that hamburger will really cost me $12.50. It's the same with all of you out there, but the difference is that I actually know the cost.

Why do you care? Because if you drive your vehicle 100 miles in an hour and a half to get a photo, that photo cost you at least $62.50 + an hour and a half of your time (maybe $30-$40 for a photographer just starting out in the business?) so you're around $100 just to get there and back. There's also the cost of your equipmen, time taking the photos and post processing, and business overhead. If you only get one good photo from your expedition, you probably have $250 or more into it and will have to get that much out before you make any profit above your basic wage. Not very good, though getting more salable photos will make it better and better for each one.

Now for the list.
1. Teaching a basic photography class in an adult learning program (community college evening courses, etc.) usually does not require teaching credentials and you can do this. (I have done so, though the subject was birding, not photography.) It also does not pay much, but if it puts beans on the table, so much the better. You'll lose one or more evenings of personal time per week, but when you are starting a small business you should probably not have more than a few hours of personal time a week for the first two or three years or you are doing something wrong.
2. Private lessons. Might work for groups, but you'd have to be pretty awesome to ask enough money for an individual lesson to be worth your while. Know all of your costs before embarking on something like this.
3. Nice if you can do it, but I bet you don't sell very many. Hopefully I am wrong about this.
4. Good idea for some, probably not for all.
5. No idea what that means, but it sounds like you will have to pay someone else for each sale. Be sure it pays well!
6. Market what? Advanced instruction? You gotta have the customers first, but repeat business is the best kind because it costs you nothing to find them.
7. Photo walks, guiding as I mentioned before, etc. Good because they spread the costs around a group (like group private lessons). But you probably can't have them every day unless you live in a tourist area and can link up with hotels who might want to add this to their guest services guide.
8. Kind of like other teaching, but parents usually have less money to spend than single adults or empty-nesters.

Sorry to be harsh, but business is like that. And if you don't treat it like a business, you will remain a hobbyist.

Your customers are harsh and fickle - all of them. They may be mean about it, panning you on Yelp for example, or they might be quiet about it and just never come back - like most people. The ones who complain are actually better for you in the long run because you can identify and fix problems. So never blow them off. And as you get better, more and more people will come back or refer you.

Keep note of your humiliations. They make good stories when you are old.

Boy, that was long even for me. Sorry.

 

[Derrel]

digital has allowed MANY more marginal shooters a place in a marketplace that was once difficult to enter,both in terms of money, and in terms of core competency.

Not just those out to make a buck as a photographer, but the general population as a whole. Social media is inundated with cell phone uploads of life, family, events, you name it. In the world of instant gratification, the quality is not as important, because in less then a few minutes, it's already been replaced by 100's more.

SNIP>>. Everyone got dressed up in their finest, and traveled to the mysterious dark world of a photographer's studio. If you were lucky there was a studio in town close, but if you were out in the boonies the trip in itself was an adventure. Once you got those prints back they were something that held a place of honor on the walls of the home.

Yeah... back when even large metro areas had only 3 or 4 TV stations, and a half-dozen radio outlets, and when TV quit broadcasting at 2 AM or so...

Remember the "test pattern". I am sure you do! Remember waking up to the monotone "deeeeeeeeeeeee" sound?

Times change, culture changes. I remember Springsteen's song lyric, "500 channels, and nothing on". We are there now.

Carol Burnett versus American Idol...

The way we take,make, store, look at, and share photos has profoundly changed. Back in the days in which photos were less common, and prints were treasured,long distance phone calls were _expensive_ and uncommon. Now? We very well might have "unlimited talk", for $30-$50 a month. Nostalgia is fine, but we gain little from nostalgia. Decades ago, radio meant radio plays and programs, phone calls were fewer, and letters were common. Today, radio is mostly music, and 24/7, and is background music many times, not a once-a-day 30 minute radio show, and photo prints are rare now...I have over 1,800 photos on my iPhone...I have not received a personal, handwritten letter in over a decade!

 

[Derrel]

40 to 80 years is a long time in cultural terms. Many used to live in fear of "the bomb" and "the reds."Not so much these days.

We used to need film and developing to see an image. it used to take from two or three or five or six hours to 10 days to see our photos...today, to see our photos it takes less than 1/2 second. We used to have ONLY ONE slide or negative of an image..today, we can make and give away or sell PERFECT clones of our images...

We can now transmit an image 6,000 miles in 10 seconds, something that used to take 10 to 30, 40 days.

We can now shoot a photo a DAY of our kids, and not 3, 12-shot rolls a year.

 

[smoke665]

We can now shoot a photo a DAY of our kids, and not 3, 12-shot rolls a year.

Yes, but this is something I alluded to earlier, the "value" we place on those photos has decreased dramatically. There's no preparation, there's no effort, and as a result I think most people place little value save the second or so it takes to look at it once, before it's replaced by even

 

[Soocom1]

Ergo the education system.

i cannot emphasize this enough.

The fact that the current education system has literally dummed down education to the lowest common denominator and that children are not taught value in art or to find value in anything (ergo modern Marxist socialistic theory) that they dont look to anything of value unless they can have instant gratification from it.

And THAT is due to modern silicon Valley whos wares last maybe two years at the most longest end until something new is made and Moore's Law kicks in.

 

[FatBear]

We can now shoot a photo a DAY of our kids, and not 3, 12-shot rolls a year.

Yes, but this is something I alluded to earlier, the "value" we place on those photos has decreased dramatically.

Yeah. And everyone and his dog has a professional level camera, so they don't see why they should pay you so much for a photo they "could" have taken themselves. This has been a growing problem for a long time and is a big part of why I did not go into professional photography in the early 1990s. It must be a huge problem for certain types of photography now.

But there is still a market for photographs. If you can compete.

 

[Soocom1]

IMO its the nitch market thing and one has to tread VERY carefully.

making something unusual and unique then splaying it all over the world is an open invitation to theft.

The other half made in 2006 a very unusual white and blue coral necklaces that had never been seen before.
She posted it on ebay and was looked at literally 1000 times. but no purchase. (No it wasn't expensive either. )
but literally 3 months later in Wally World, the Panama Jack displays went up with literally exact copies of the necklaces made in plastic.

Her idea and the Panama Jack folks got the booty.

 

[Derrel]

Not too long ago I was reading an article about how to make money in photography, and most of the old paradigms are no longer valid. People no longer want prints in the way that they used to, but they do Want Digital files. Prints are no longer used as home display items and keepsakes the same way they used to be, but today the emphasis is instead on Sharing online,so that many people can see the photos.

Back to this article I was reading. The author suggested that photographers today provide the market with what it wants, not what people used To want In the first 150 years of photography's history. Not what people wanted in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s,1970s,80s 90s or early 2000's. It does no good to cry over spilled milk, and I find all of this talk about "instant gratification"a bit hypocritical. It used to take five months to traffic one's personage across United States from coast to coast. Today over 150 years later,we can make the trip in seven hours on a commercial jet for a few hundred bucks, Yet I do not read constantly about people who romanticize horse and wagon travel across the great plains

One of the biggest ways to make money today in photography is to sell the experience of having a photo shoot done. Today it's about a photo shoot and not so much about the wall hanging prints. or about the framed 8 x 10" enlargements.

I have grown very tired of all these people whining about the age of instant gratification. Yes we have had instant everything since the 1950s. Instant photos (Polaroids), television, recorded music. Movies instead of plays. It's been more than one century since the phonograph was invented;Prior to that if one wanted to listen to classical music,one had to go outside the home. Instant gratification has been with us for more than a century.

 

[smoke665]

But there is still a market for photographs. If you can compete

Agreed, but the bar is much higher. Let's be realistic here, the same holds true today as it did 50 years ago, there are varying levels of photographic skill. The competition from the cell phones and consumer grade gear may have knocked off the lower rungs of that skill ladder, but the need is still there for those top rung photographers. Magazines, newspapers, web, etc. are still filled with images created by highly competent photographers....not a mom with a camera. Frankly I'm not so sure that the skill set and competition for that top rung has changed much in the last several years, because for these photographers its more then a camera or lens, its the knowledge/ability they have, that can produce the shot.