Questions

[peter]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

How many people make a living in this NG from photography? What do you
specialise in?
To me it would be something that I would love doing especially nature type
photos but I just wonder if it would be viable to just specialise in nature
or the like to make a living without living on tin food.
I am a complete amateur now but I am keen to learn and give it a go someday
you only live once.
Thanks...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

>Peter writes ...
>
>How many people make a living in this NG from photography?

Not many, I'd wager.

>I just wonder if it would be viable to just specialise in nature
>or the like to make a living without living on tin food.

"John Shaw's Business of Nature Photography" is a good book that will
give you a feel for the 'business' side of it. Most of the really
prosperous nature photographers I know personally are making much of
their money either from guiding tours and teaching classes or
workshops, or writing/selling books or occasionally from stock sales.
A handful make most of their money from selling prints, typically if
they own one or more galleries. One guy told me he made less than 5%
of his income from selling images to magazines, for example, but finds
that leading photo tours to places he would visit on his own anyway is
wildly profitable.

One problem with making a good living from nature photography is that
so many affluent amateurs do it for fun at a high level that there's a
tremendous amount of great images floating around. But if you have
enough talent and drive you can be successful at it.

Bill

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

In article <21oDe.53468$oJ.43926@news-server.bigpond.net.au>,
"Peter" <Lopy@dj.com.au.> wrote:

> How many people make a living in this NG from photography? What do you
> specialise in?
> To me it would be something that I would love doing especially nature type
> photos but I just wonder if it would be viable to just specialise in nature
> or the like to make a living without living on tin food.
> I am a complete amateur now but I am keen to learn and give it a go someday
> you only live once.
> Thanks...

Being an art photographer is bad for the belly but good for the soul.

Nature photograph is an over saturated genre and might be the very
reason you love the "idea" of nature photography. Just do what you like.
That's how you are more likely to make wonderful photographs. If you
specialize you close yourself off to millions of opportunities. One of
which might lead to great art or more money. So it all depends on what
kind of photographer you want to be. And it all depends on your
experience right now.

I don't make a living from my art. If I had to take photos to make money
those photos would be made to sell. And that is only pandering to the
latest trend. If you follow you are not original. You might make money,
but that's it.

If you loved what you are doing, tin food would is delicious.

Peace.

--

http/home.nc.rr.com/christianbonanno/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Peter wrote:
>
> How many people make a living in this NG from photography? What do you
> specialise in?

Travel, nature, and travel related advertising photography (hotel and
resort brochures) for national and international magazines and
calendars.
http/www.photoenvisions.com/
I also write a monthly magazine column about photography,
http/www.gmorning.info/photo_vision.htm
and run classes to teach our tourists how to use the other three buttons
on their cameras with ond-day photo classes and photo safaris.
http/www.photoenvisions.com/Advert.htm
Of course this last part will only work well for you if you live in a
tourist rich location. Fortunately, northern Thailand is a
photographer's paradise, and I live at the last stop of the rail line
running north. Beyond this there be dragons!

Steve Kramer
"PhotoEnvisions" Freelance Photography
Chiang Mai, Thailand
http/www.photoenvisions.com

--
"The voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new horizons, but in seeing
with new eyes." - Marcel Proust

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Peter wrote:
> How many people make a living in this NG from photography? What do you
> specialise in?
> To me it would be something that I would love doing especially nature type
> photos but I just wonder if it would be viable to just specialise in nature
> or the like to make a living without living on tin food.
> I am a complete amateur now but I am keen to learn and give it a go someday
> you only live once.
> Thanks...
>
>
>
Ask yourself if you would buy the pictures you intend to take.
95% of people who want to start as a paid photographer, don't have any
idea if what they will photograph is actually salable. There's a wedding
photographer on every street corner just waiting to undercut your price.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and believe me, hell is a
much friendlier place than the chief Editor's office as he picks apart
flaws in your pictures you never knew were there.

Some years back I was fascinated by pelicans. I probably have the
largest collection of pelicans in flight in my city now. Last month I
sold a print. Two month's earlier I sold one too. From time to time I
sell one on Ebay. The lens I bought to capture these birds in flight
cost $12,000. I haven't used it for 9 months.

At the rate I'm selling the pictures, my great, great grandson might get
to recover the cost of the lens... And then there's the cameras to work
on. As if DSLRs of today will be worth anything in 2042.

Unless you invest in your own printing business and start making
calendars, postcards and coffee table books, you are unlikely to feed
yourself.

--
Douglas,
Zero care factor for negative responses
from anonymous posters.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

"Peter" <Lopy@dj.com.au.> wrote in message
news:21oDe.53468$oJ.43926@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> How many people make a living in this NG from photography? What do you
> specialise in?
> To me it would be something that I would love doing especially nature type
> photos but I just wonder if it would be viable to just specialise in
> nature
> or the like to make a living without living on tin food.
> I am a complete amateur now but I am keen to learn and give it a go
> someday
> you only live once.
> Thanks...
>
>
The closest I've come was using my camera to copy my own artwork, making
prints, signing them and selling them. Mostly on ebay. I've stopped doing
this practice for two reasons: Art is a hard sell. Out of 12 pieces, I
profited no better than $50-60 total. Well, actually, I'm in the hole. I
spent $500 having a set of offset prints made. I gave some away as gifts and
sold some, but the bulk sits in a cardboad box somewhere. I don't even
bother with them because I found something unrelated that sells well (second
reason).

I'll keep the photography as a hobby.

John

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Bill Hilton wrote:
>
> >Peter writes ...
> >
> >How many people make a living in this NG from photography?
>
> Not many, I'd wager.
>
> >I just wonder if it would be viable to just specialise in nature
> >or the like to make a living without living on tin food.
>
> "John Shaw's Business of Nature Photography" is a good book that will
> give you a feel for the 'business' side of it. Most of the really
> prosperous nature photographers I know personally are making much of
> their money either from guiding tours and teaching classes or
> workshops, or writing/selling books or occasionally from stock sales.
> A handful make most of their money from selling prints, typically if
> they own one or more galleries. One guy told me he made less than 5%
> of his income from selling images to magazines, for example, but finds
> that leading photo tours to places he would visit on his own anyway is
> wildly profitable.

I'll second that. Even selling a dozen photos (to mags and businesses)
per month on average, and having at least one magazine cover per month,
my money is still coming from teaching and photo safaris.

Steve Kramer
"PhotoEnvisions" Freelance Photography
Chiang Mai, Thailand
http/www.photoenvisions.com
--
"The voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new horizons, but in seeing
with new eyes." - Marcel Proust