Making Photography Your Full Time Job

[donny1963]

Personally, I think professional photography is pretty much dead today. It has been replaced by DIY, cell phones and computers. It died quickly after digital photography replaced film. I quit doing it in 1997. I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone take it up as a full time career.

It is because of the technology, with Digital Camera's you can take your picture and then look at it and make your corrections , before when it was film, you had to wait until you got them processed at the LAB, so unless you knew what you was doing, chances are they would not be very good..
today Uncle Bob or your best friend can pick up his Nikon Rebel and start taking pictures.. And get acceptable results.
Why go pay $1200.00 or $2,500.00 for a Professional when they can use that money when they go on their honeymoon in Vegas and gable it..

I'm not saying it's a good option , i'm just saying that is the way it is today and the reason Wedding Photography is not what it use to be, Or any other type of photography.
News Media gets 80% of there content from people taking shots with their smartphone, For instance a hurricane, or Car accident..
And then when there is lets say an interview with some one they just hire a contractor when they need them, In the 80's News papers and Media news, had a few Photographers Employed full time for them, With a car they provide and Health benefits. Not any more, your lucky of one large News giant Like maybe The NewYork Times or The Boston Globe Might have 1 Photographer,and when he / she is off duty they got there contractors who they can call if they need them..


Now when your talking about Hollywood Or Big Magazines, They have a few photographers, most celebrities actually have their own private photographer, or New works will have them to cover lets say the AWARDS, or hollywood bowl stuff like that, irving penn made millions of dollars as a all around photographer, along with working with big magazines like VOGUE, Penn Has a ton of pictures in Art Gallary's in NYC, he was one of the best and deserved his money and credit for his work..
If you don't know who he is look him up, he was a photographer for VOGUE for about 30 years, who use to make over 8 million dollars a year From Vogue Magazine alone.
That may not sound like alot for a celebrity, but tell me how many photographers do you know of that made half that a year from a Magazine?

If you look on the neat there is a chart of the average salary for specific photographers, ranging from weddings to commercial, to Shooting supermodels and doing Fashion week in NYC, you would be surprised at how much money these guys make over wedding and even commercial photographers, that is unless you have a large company that has many clients, then that is a different story then that is not just because your a photographer but because you own a huge business..

But people who shoot for Sports sport illustrated swimsuit , or Vogue, or rolling stones, them people i believe from what i read, take in the most money..
Gary Peterson who was a photographer for Playboy Enterprise for over 21 years in his entire career made 4 million dollars, just as a paid employee of Playboy, that is all he did was shoot the playboy models, either for the magazine or at events, I read about this guy, he used a hasselblad Medium Format Film Camera, that is all playboy use to use for their magazine. And from my research, most of these photographers, for major magazine's like Vogue and all them owns a medium format camera and so did irving penn was one of them..

 

[donny1963]

You're going to retire Donny! Who's going to take over the business?

No one lol
no one has to, let some other fools do this, this is the way i feel about wedding photography right now, it's use to be ok, but now all the clients want to do is undercut the price and haggle, no one wants to pay for wedding pictures any more, it's as simple as that..

 

[Tomasko]

This phenomenon is pretty much a standard almost everywhere, not just in photography. Once you introduce "free/cheap" alternatives, some people will always gravitate towards such solutions. I still believe though that if you're good and persistent enough, you will find a way to monetise your experience. Also many people often soon realise it's stupid to expect professional quality from amateurish approach.

God this thread is full of negativity, cheer up people! You should be looking for solutions, not rants on how it's too hard.

 

[smoke665]

this thread is full of negativity, cheer up people! You should be looking for solutions, n

I wonder if the the manufacturers of the Walkman, the VCR tape players, and the thousands of other products and services that have been made obsolete by technology have found solutions?

 

[Tomasko]

@smoke665 , yep, they started manufacturing other products, e.g. blueray players. They didn't abandon technology/engineering/whatever just because the market changed a bit. It's called adaptation and is vital to any business field. If someone was made obsolete by kids having a camera in their phones, something's probably not exactly right... And no, the phone manufacturing industry is not to blame

 

[smoke665]

It's called adaptation and is vital to any business field

Sometimes, but in the case of the Walkman, it was item that was abandoned by Sony to pursue other products. Though Sony builds blue ray players, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't abandon it before long as Samsung makes a better player.

The point I was making was that sometimes there are no solutions available but to go away. How many corner stores still develop film??? For that matter try to even find film locally. Need to buy a floppy disc??? I believe there will be a market for the professional photographer in the future, though granted a much smaller market. While there may be a continuation of the cheap craigslist photographers in the near term, even they will go by the wayside as technology continues to improve in the digital field. Why would you want to spend even $200 on something that you can do better yourself? The reason I believe that a market for the professional photographer will remain, is because the "artistic element" is something that can't be manufactured. The ability to pose, light, and compose the image, comes from the knowledge of the photographer, not the camera.

 

[Tomasko]

The fact something goes obsolete doesn't mean a whole field disappears. Stores developing films transformed and now are selling new digital gear and printing photos. Floppy discs were substituted by CDs, DVDs, blue-rays etc.

Why would you want to spend even $200 on something that you can do better yourself? The reason I believe that a market for the professional photographer will remain, is because the "artistic element" is something that can't be manufactured. The ability to pose, light, and compose the image, comes from the knowledge of the photographer, not the camera.

Precisely. You can do something yourself, but in most cases you will never substitute a real professional photographer. If you do, maybe the photographer wasn't that great to start with? Or maybe he couldn't keep up and adapt to the new market.

Sure, maybe xyz type of photography isn't so popular right now, but there are always other ways how to make a living using your experience.

 

[smoke665]

Stores developing films transformed and now are selling new digital gear and printing photos

I equate the stores selling other digital gear now to the Quick Stops. No selection, very limited, and usually low end merchandise. Used to be "full service" camera shops in just about every town of any size. We had one in our town, that was great! Now they are far and few between. In our area, Birmingham, had two or three decent stores, now there's none. I think there may be one in Huntsville, but I haven't been there in a couple of years. There's one supposedly in Auburn, but I've never found it, and supposedly one in Mobile. That's it, maybe 3 full service camera stores in the entire state of Alabama. Atlanta has two, but I look for one to close before long. Last year I made an out of route trip to stop at a fairly well stocked camera store in Missouri, that I've patronized in the past. Imagine my surprise it was gone!!! The owner retired and no one stepped up to buy it. The point is that in some cases things are disappearing.

 

[Evertking]

This is a sad read... Lol.
I love photography.. LOVE it. Seems like I'm late to the party.

 

[donny1963]

The fact something goes obsolete doesn't mean a whole field disappears. Stores developing films transformed and now are selling new digital gear and printing photos. Floppy discs were substituted by CDs, DVDs, blue-rays etc.

Why would you want to spend even $200 on something that you can do better yourself? The reason I believe that a market for the professional photographer will remain, is because the "artistic element" is something that can't be manufactured. The ability to pose, light, and compose the image, comes from the knowledge of the photographer, not the camera.

Precisely. You can do something yourself, but in most cases you will never substitute a real professional photographer. If you do, maybe the photographer wasn't that great to start with? Or maybe he couldn't keep up and adapt to the new market.

Sure, maybe xyz type of photography isn't so popular right now, but there are always other ways how to make a living using your experience.

Right Like everything else you have to improvise, when things change, the successful industry changes with it to stay alive..
For instance Record Companies realize that most people don't wish to buy Audio Cd's any more, some do , but most people don't they have all their music on MP3 players or stored in something like that, why Stack your house with hundred's of CD, which degrade in time any way and don't work in 5 or 10 years any more.
So they sell Music on Line that you can either download or access..

Same with Movies, That is Changing, DVD's are still alive, but they are tons of methods of Buying movies now, for instance If you have Comcast you can just Purchase movies, and access them any time, no need to hang the DVD on your shelf any longer..

With Photography, the technology has Improved and grown so much they have made it so just about any one can take an acceptable picture.
Even Movie's, Many Creative artist Actors / Directors People wanting to get in the business they are using Camera system they can afford and making Movies and Music Video's
For Example, Lindsey Sterling Famous Violinist, got her big beak and started her success just from making her own music video's And putting them on youtube, Now she Sells her music all over the world and Tours all over the world Live..

She first went to a record Label And they turned her down and told her she would never make it, and so she was on her own and still kept at it and is now A success.
To this day all her music videos that end up on VH1 Or Music videos you can purchase, she creates them her self, With Affordable Video Camera's and does all her own editing
and post herself..

cinematography Is huge these days, 90% of all the Rapper artist famous or not famous are creating there own Music Video's.
So even that profession, all these major Companies who did most of the Music Video's for successful artist ie, Madonna, Lady GAGA, they was making Billions off offering cinematography Services, Now they are not used so much, Smaller cinematography Services are out there and used, for less then half the cost, or the artist use there own crew for that now.

The only industry that cinematography Is still alive and strong is the Movie and TV series Industry, (Hollywood)

Oh and as far as the point and shoot camera, the little compact camera, the the Nikon Coolpix, are DEAD, The Cell Phone Industry Killed it, Why buy that camera when your IPhone 7 Takes just as good pictures if not better, and now the Iphone X which can give you bokah now with it's new software,
the DSLR professional type cameras are still selling good, but the common buying camera for the general public like the Nikon Coolpix, is just about DEAD and probably you won't see them any more in the next 3 or 4 years..