Wildlife photography full time job, where to start?

[LK_Nature_Photography]

Hello everybody! Is there someone who works as a full-time wildlife photographer?
It´s my dream to become a wildlife photographer... I don´t know where to start.
I have a full-time job but every weekend I´m somewhere in the wild trying to get some good shots. I have a wife too, so when the weekend comes one day is for my wife and the jobs that I have at home and the other day is for wildlife photos. I have a few questions because I feel I´m stuck and I´m not moving forward.
1. I want to make a portfolio site at the end of this year. Now I still gathering good shots. I need this, right?
2. Is it a good idea to sell pictures on stock sites? To have a passive income.
3. I started a YouTube channel to share my adventures, sharing my experience, tips... One day maybe it will be as a second passive income.
3. Write a book with lots of wildlife pictures? What kind of a book?
4. Make wildlife workshops? Maybe after a few years when I´m already experienced wildlife photographer...

Is this how it goes? How can I make a living out of it? How can I get to the point when I can leave my stupid job and be a wildlife photographer? If somebody has good ideas or have his own story, please help me out, I feel like I´m not doing it right.

My next bigger plan is to go to Serbia on a 3-day expedition in the wild to shoot the white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) and the black stork (Ciconia nigra) and all other interesting wild animals. This expedition will be here: Google Maps

 

[Jeff15]

You will need a lot of luck and your pictures will have to be perfect, no room for error. Specialising in just one subject will make it even harder for you.

 

[OldManJim]

There are 3 areas in which you will need to gain expertise:
*Technical aspects of photography. As noted above, your images need to be perfect and/or very, very unique.
*Business management - you need to understand your costs and control them. Pricing depends on two independent variables - your costs and what the market will bear. You need to learn this and figure out how to apply it to make a profit. Don't forget expenses for replacement/upgrade of gear, travel, etc.
*Marketing - once you have your saleable images, how are you going to let potential buyers know about them? You need to include marketing costs in you calculations.

These all sound simple - but they are not. To be successful, you need to master all 3 areas. Look at successful people - they all have figured this our.

Good luck.

 

[Jeff15]

The only certain way of making money out of photography is to sell all your gear....

 

[Fujidave]

Can`t remember any names, but some of the best wildlife photographers can spend days/weeks taking shots of the wildlife. I think you have to spend a lot of time in their back yard to watch the animals, as some have a favourite place to sit or lie down just like bird photography they have a favourite perch. What I`d say is, on the days you can then find where some wildlife is ( take the camera ) and just sit and watch and learn what they do. Hope this helps.

 

[KmH]

Stock photography stopped being able to sustain a serious professional photographer financially about 10 years ago.
Stock photography outlets sell use licenses, the don't sell images, and most (like 85%) of the images licensed have people in them, not wildlife.
Yes, you will need to have several income streams. If fact a majority of your time will need to be devoted to maintaining those streams and taking care of routine business tasks.

It is very, very tough today to be a full time photographer, of any kind.
Consequently, to a degree being a full-time pro photographer compromises your photography because you have to balance the need to be creative with making enough money to live on.
As a full time wildlife photographer you would need to travel often and to places not easy to get to. You will also need some significantly expensive gear, like long telephoto prime lenses. That means you need to have substantially more income than most people.

Some photographers have done what you want to do. But in all honesty most of those who did did so years ago when it was more likely to be accomplishable.

Top 10 Best & Most Professional Wildlife Photographers - Top Teny 2018

 

[Derrel]

Stock photography stopped being able to sustain a serious professional photographer financially about 10 years ago.
Stock photography outlets sell use licenses, the don't sell images, and most (like 85%) of the images licensed have people in them, not wildlife. >SNIP

TO put this in perspective, I have a friend who used to sell a lot of stock images, and he did a lot of traveling and photographing. He was telling me, back in 2008, how the market had been ruined by, "Rich doctors and dentists with d-slrs," who were flooding the market with low-cost,digital captures. He lamented the fact that $150 single-use, small-publication images sales and $500 to $750 cover image sales were, basically, gone. Imagine, a market in which a scanned 35mm or 120 color transparency frame could bring a person $150 for a small, inside-the-magazine, single-use. That is what the OP is thinking about, that market, the one that existed 30 years ago.

Today? Any publisher has access to computer-searchable databases that contain millions upon millions of images, for which a single-use can set them back a whopping 39 cents to as much as $10.

Stock photography is dead.

OP: definitely, keep the full-time job you currently hold.

 

[zombiesniper]

I know a couple of people that are wildlife photographers and make their income related to it but the photography doesn't make anything.

Workshops, speaking engagements, wildlife photography tours are the only way I know of anyone making a living. These people are well respected photographers and have excellent portfolios to prove it.
Some have won awards, others have not. This tends to be less important that what they all have in common.

The ability to market themselves.
at least 50% of your efforts should be marketing and social media.
There are MANY mediocre photographers making bank because they can market themselves well. Inversely there are excellent photographers that would starve to death if they had to rely on it for their sole income.

So my recommendation is.

Get the portfolio.
Learn business.
Learn effective marketing/social media.

The last two are the most important since the average person couldn't tell a good photo or not.

 

[Overread]

+1 to Zombie's point - basically the actual photos are almost worthless today unless you can secure yourself working with something like the BBC (and then they'd rather you had video rather than stills). The rest of wildlife photography is far more focused on workshops, tours, training - ergo passing on the skills.

The market is basically over-saturated in photography, but at the same time the affordability and access to gear means that there are many eager to learn and willing to pay.


I would say if you want to do down this path the most valuable skill isn't photography. That is actually secondary - the most valuable is access to wildlife. That is tracking, finding, stalking, setting up camera traps, how to gain access to land, etc..... Next to that the photography skills come in second as it doesn't matter how well you teach them to use the camera, if they can't find wildlife they can't take the photos.

 

[dennybeall]

The only way to make a small fortune in the photography business is to start out with a large fortune..........

 

[LK_Nature_Photography]

Wow! You guys just blew my mind! You have opened my eyes and the ideas are just flowing through my head.
I just changed my job for the same amount of money for less work time so I can do my hobby and to look the opportunity if I can make a living out of it.
So it looks like it will last a few years till the goal, but I think it will be a nice and hard journey. 100%-ly I don´t know what the goal is but it will be something like workshops, between workshops to do expeditions, selling prints and maybe a book.
I´ll go step by step achieving things.

I have to start from the bottom.

Tasks for this year:
1. I will go to a local wildlife conservation group and join them, and to be helpful as I can, to be an active member. I have to look what kinds are out there and to chose wisely. I have to give something to get something. My logic is if I´m out there with biologists I will learn a lot of those animals, behavior, location, how to find it...
2. Search for local wildlife/nature/conservation photography contests, apply, meet people, exchange experience, learn from them...
3. Shoot nice images and make a portfolio.

If I can squeeze something more in this year I´ll write it here. If something goes for the better or for worse I´ll write it here so somebody can learn from my steps and do it faster and better.

 

[smoke665]

Photography isn't much different then any of the other art mediums. You have to present a product that someone is willing to buy at a price that you can make money. I have a friend who for years has made a substantial income as a watercolor artist. She's good, she travels around the country to art shows, in a large motorhome, but it wasn't always that way. There were a lot of lean years as she practiced her craft, and learned how to make money. Now her income stream comes mostly from commission work, art classes, and the occasional print sale at art shows. Another friend is a master carver, he'll tell you he only goes to shows, to pick up commission work, and that his most steady source of income are the classes he teaches around the country.

 

[zombiesniper]

Tasks for this year:
1. I will go to a local wildlife conservation group and join them, and to be helpful as I can, to be an active member. I have to look what kinds are out there and to chose wisely. I have to give something to get something. My logic is if I´m out there with biologists I will learn a lot of those animals, behavior, location, how to find it...
2. Search for local wildlife/nature/conservation photography contests, apply, meet people, exchange experience, learn from them...
3. Shoot nice images and make a portfolio.

Excellent goals.
Look for magazines/periodical pamphlets written by local/regional organisations and (once you've gained some insight) write an article about photography ie. "The Do'd and Don'ts of wildlife photography" or "Wildlife Photography 101" etc.
Being published (even if in a small periodical) with a well written article or two is also quite impressive for some clients and will aid in the appearance (if nothing else) of knowledge and respect in your field.

Good luck.

 

[LK_Nature_Photography]

Tasks for this year:
1. I will go to a local wildlife conservation group and join them, and to be helpful as I can, to be an active member. I have to look what kinds are out there and to chose wisely. I have to give something to get something. My logic is if I´m out there with biologists I will learn a lot of those animals, behavior, location, how to find it...
2. Search for local wildlife/nature/conservation photography contests, apply, meet people, exchange experience, learn from them...
3. Shoot nice images and make a portfolio.

Excellent goals.
Look for magazines/periodical pamphlets written by local/regional organisations and (once you've gained some insight) write an article about photography ie. "The Do'd and Don'ts of wildlife photography" or "Wildlife Photography 101" etc.
Being published (even if in a small periodical) with a well written article or two is also quite impressive for some clients and will aid in the appearance (if nothing else) of knowledge and respect in your field.

Good luck.

Yes, I taught about magazines, I´m a little scared that it will be hard because I live in Germany and I don´t speak this language perfectly. I´m from Serbia and I went to Hungarian school. It can be done but I´m scared that it will slow me down. I thought about this magazine thing and I think it´s a great thing to do, maybe it´s something that I should always do, sometimes to write small articles with big beautiful picture about the local wildlife, but first I have to improve my language knowledge to that level.

 

[zombiesniper]

I´m a little scared that it will be hard because I live in Germany and I don´t speak this language perfectly.

Just photograph beer, sauerkraut and schnitzel. No need for words.