Which of you professionals make a living solely through photography?

[Hunders]

I know that there are quite a few photographers on here that make money through photography, mostly as wedding photographers. However, is your 'job' a photographer or do you do photography as a bit-on-the-side earner?

I'm toying with the idea of doing a bit of portrait photography and possibly weddings to make some extra cash but was wondering what kind of scope there is to potentially quit my day job all together.

 

[Hodders]

Hunders, you have just unknowingly taken a large bat to an even larger wasps nest.

Going pro or even part time is about soooo much more than taking some photos and selling them.

There is:

Insurance (equipment)
Insurance (Public liability)
Insurance (using a car for business use)
Tax (for any extra income)
Change of use (if you use your garage for portraits etc)
Camera Equipment (you need duplicates of EVERTHING especially if you want to do weddings)
IT (onsite backups, offsite backups)

And that is before you even press the shutter for the 1st time. These all cost a lot of money and are why pros get so narked when have-a-go-Joe turns up at a weekend and charges £200 for a wedding with all images on a disc. A full time pro just can't afford to do that.

Don't get me wrong, if you want to earn some money from photography go for it.

But be aware that walking into a wedding with one body and 2 lenses and no insurance is a disaster waiting to happen. Your camera/lens rolls of a table and breaks, knocking over a glass of red wine onto the brides wedding dress during the 'get ready shots'. Suddenly you have no camera and a law suit for £15000.

Or the venue asks to see your public liability cover for £2000000 before you are allowed to shoot ?

You walk into the church and the vicar says 'no flash' and stand at the back please - is your 24-70 f5.6 lens going to cut it ?

If you want to do weddings, beg to second a good photographer at least 10 times before you even think about it. The 8 hours at the wedding is just the tip of the iceberg, PPing the images, putting together the album all takes a lot longer than that.

I have been earning a living by doing full time portrait/commercial for the last 3 years and I wouldn't even touch a wedding unless I had done 4 or 5 seconds.

I know I have been very negative, so please don't think I am trying to put you off, but you have to go into it with your eyes fully open.

Start off with friends, take portraits of them, post them here and get criticism. Get friends of friends that don't know you, take their photos, get feed back.

Go for it, follow your dreams, but do it informed of the realities !

Lastly, genuinely, good luck !

 

[An Exception]

I know that there are quite a few photographers on here that make money through photography, mostly as wedding photographers. However, is your 'job' a photographer or do you do photography as a bit-on-the-side earner?

I'm toying with the idea of doing a bit of portrait photography and possibly weddings to make some extra cash but was wondering what kind of scope there is to potentially quit my day job all together.

I would guess the majority of photographers are struggling to make ends meet.
The ones earning a decent living are better than most photographers in either photography or marketing or both.

 

[Hunders]

Hunders, you have just unknowingly taken a large bat to an even larger wasps nest.

Going pro or even part time is about soooo much more than taking some photos and selling them.

Thank for the information, bud. It's all things that I have considered after reading around on the matter a lot, and trust me, I don't intend to leave my day job at the drop of a hat and declare myself a 'pro wedding photographer'.

My plan was to firstly get into portrait work, either at the clients home or on location, in order to supplement my main income and grow from there. I would never dream of doing a wedding with the equipment that I have now and do plan on getting backups in the future.

My motivation for starting this thread was simply, out of interest, to see how many of the great photographers on here do it 'full-time'.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I hate to say it but don't go into the arts looking to make money. You are not going to be in profit if you are shooting for £200 once a month.

The extras will barely cover your start-up cost, if you already have all the gear in place then it would be a little easier but for it to be paid work, you need to have not only the gear but skill the handle anything the environment can throw at you, the temperament dealing with people from all walks of life, the tech to fall back on and time on your side.

For wedding photography you have to be an administrator, a psychologist, IT support, lawyer, best friend, accountant, publicist, blogger, a student and a photographer.

Before and after the shoot you need to deal with admin work, meeting clients, correspondence, IT support on the data. Do the accounts, know a little about contract law. Keep up with social media, promote your business, constantly learn new techniques, from practice and online.

During the shoot you are their best friend, you reassure them for things like everything will turn out great (as you are the one of the few people in the profession that actually sees the wedding from morning to midnight), you need to learn how to read body language and deal with registrars, wedding planner, limo driver, wedding party etc throughout the day.

A wedding photographer also a product photographer, a landscape photographer, an interior architecture photographer a portrait photographer, a street photographer, an event photographer.

You can pretty much throw a good wedding photographer into any of the field above and he or she should produce decent work, all with nothing more than the gear on his back and the wits in his head and work out the best photo for that shot in that 2 second to 2 minute window. I would say most landscape photographer would struggle in a wedding, where as a wedding photographer won't have a problem tackling a landscape photo.

 

[Hunders]

The reason why I am looking at doing photography to earn extra money IS because I enjoy it so much. I don't see it as an easy earner at all but rather I see it as a way to potentially make some money while doing something that I really enjoy and can learn more from.

I think you guys have latched on to the word wedding a little strongly, too. As I say, I don't think I am capable of shooting a wedding just yet but I merely mentioned it as a possibility for the future if things go smoothly.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Perhaps I was a little strong to put empathsis on wedding photography, however if that is a field you are looking into, it is something you ought to be aware of.

With regarding to doing photography for money. I do it because I love it, the money is almost a bonus.

Start small, don't be known as the guy who does it for free but don't stick to a low price for too long. As soon as your portfolio allows and justifies, raise it up to the quality of work that it deserves.

Be known as a good photographer, not a cheap photographer.