why does photography cost so much?

nikon90s · Nov 8, 2005

I was thinking about this the other day, how much have I spent on photography. Now I really don't that that much stuff but I bet I have spent over $4500 in equipment, over a grand for classes, and who knows how much in film or processing. Now, I am thinking about selling everything and starting over but man it is going to cost an arm and a leg and maybe a girlfriend. All of this to make a photo that I might be able to sell, and I have never made a dime on it yet, or show to my friend. Even the people who do make a living out of photography just pay the bills. I guess it is just like a drug, we dump tons of $$ into it and just get that feeling out of it.

I just had to vent....
:soapbox:

DocFrankenstein · Nov 8, 2005

Welling everything and starting over? Are you switching to canon or something?

I've spent about 5 grand on photography in the past year... and about 30K of my time was invested in it. I should just drown my equipment or make money off it.

darin3200 · Nov 8, 2005

Photography doesn't cost that much, photography equipment does. If you wanted you could grab an old rangefinder and use cheaper film. The problem is that people obess about things such as frames per second, and tiny little things and are constantly buying new equipment in hopes of being able to produce better images.

thebeginning · Nov 8, 2005

lenses matter alot if you print large and care about things like sharpness, and those can get pricey. also, if you shoot film and develop it yourself nice b&w paper and film really adds up (ive had to learn that, unfortunately).

craig · Nov 9, 2005

Venting your frustrations is important. We are here for ya man. I say keep at it. One of the few truism's of photography is that it takes a lot of perseverance.

One thought is that is not worth losing a girl over. Look at the way you do photography. If you have no clients keep the gear you have until you can justify the cost of better equipment. I do better then paying the bills. Mostly because the biz grew slow and strong.

AIRIC · Nov 9, 2005

A good lens costs money but some of the best images of all time were taken with a completely manual camera, most did not even have a battery in them. I find today people are obsessed with getting the most expensive camera with the fastest this and fastest that. Some of the most popular images are not even technically good but they capture a feeling. I make a fair amount of money off of photography but try to keep it on a hobby level so I will enjoy it. You need to be creative and take some decent images but you really need to know how to sell the work and promote your work. Find the area you are comfortable with, mine is aviation, what is yours?

Eric

jstuedle · Nov 9, 2005

Yes, photography can be expensive, so can a bass boat, motorcycles, race cars, airplanes, and so on. We all have our "addictions" and ours could be a lot worse.

St0nefrog · Nov 9, 2005

Hi, I'm new to this message board. Just wanted to say i feel the same way. Ive spent alot of money on the music aspect of my life, drumming and recording. But I believe if it's something you love to do, it's worth the money.

On the subject of photography, Does anyone own a Canon D20 DSLR. I've been looking at getting my first SLR Camera. Ive done alot of photography in the past with point and shoot camera's but never an SLR. Ive been looking at the Canon D20 as a choice for my first camera. I tried out the Canon digital rebel but it feals too plasticy and small to be an SLR. Anyone have any imput on the D20 or any cameras you'd recomend.

thebeginning · Nov 9, 2005

jstuedle said:
Yes, photography can be expensive, so can a bass boat, motorcycles, race cars, airplanes, and so on. We all have our "addictions" and ours could be a lot worse.

good point.

stonefrog, you may want to start a new thread...

airgunr · Nov 9, 2005

jstuedle is correct. Any hobby can be a black hole for money. I got into airguns because I enjoyed them and also thought they'd be less expensive to shoot then regular firearms. Boy was I wrong. I've probably got over $60K in them and could easily double that.

Anything can run up there. At least I didn't get into cars and racing. I've got a buddy who started racing Lotus's and is on his 3rd car. I'll bet he's spent upwards of $200K with no end in sight. Hell, he blew an engine in the first race of the season last year and had to drop something like $10K just to get up and running again! So if you compare to that you got off pretty cheap! ;^D

Marctwo · Nov 9, 2005

There's a level of acceptable technical quality that pretty much most gear will give you these days (once you know how to use it). Beyond this is the image you produce - that's the bit that's interesting.

How sharp is sharp enough? Once you get pin sharp, is only razor sharp then good enough? I personally don't even like sharp for most shots because the world just doesn't look like that to me. Sharp photo's are like macro for me as they show the reality, but not as we see it.

I use a cheap camera with a cheap lens, I put cheap film in it and scan it on a cheap scanner.

Yes, of course I understand that pro's/specialists will need what they need.