What is the best way for a hobbyist to start generating income from photos?

Question

What is the best way for me to look into the feasibility of selling my shots (hopefully including some sort of feedback on my technique) and examples of places where I can have someone manage the selling/storefront? I'd like to potentially expand my hobby to generate real income and rationalize new equipment purchases (real tripod, flash, etc.), so I want to see if it all makes sense.

I've gotten some great answers so far, and would normally have accepted an answer by now, but I'd like to hold out for some more people's input and experiences. I'll give it a little more time and then I'll pick what I believe to be the most enveloping answer. Great answers, all of you! The effort is well appreciated, and I hope you're not all burnt-out photographers stuck in the financial spiral... :)

Here's some backstory for those interested:

I have been shooting a Canon EOS 30D for almost 5 years now, and have amassed a collection of 5 lenses and additional equipment (see profile for more details). I've probably put in about $3000 over the span of my ownership, and have taken almost 11,000 images (many are dups/trips for alternates, since I can).

I am not about to get rid of my equipment, but I'm looking for some rationale to help me feel like I'm getting something more out of this than great personal images and wallpaper. I have so many friends tell me I take great shots (I consider myself a decent amateur with a slightly-better-than-average knack for subject and framing) and have suggested I get shots printed and try to sell them. My shots are primarily macro and landscape, although with some of my lenses I've been able to dabble in portraits.

Printing larger than 8x12 (with RGB laser only, e.g. Fuji Frontier, call me a snob) was prohibitively expensive the last time I researched it, and I still don't have a high level of confidence on the marketability of my shots. Add to that the saturation of the field with low cost dSLR cameras and image sites like flickr, and I question if it's even worth it.

On the flip side, I hate going into photo galleries where the artist has over-saturated or otherwise over-manipulated the images to the point of nausea, and feel my shots are at least better in that respect.

Answer 1

If you think you've got the stuff, you could try gaining exposure through a juried site like Onexposure (pronounced "one exposure"). It's not a point of sale per se, but it is a place where you can get a relatively wide exposure to a discerning audience.

You will receive good critique if there's any real merit to your work (snapshots are simply dismissed out of hand) -- even if it's not accepted. There's no need to invest anything until you have at least one image accepted for display on the site (at which point you'd probably want to spring for the paid membership that allows you to set up a "home page" to point interested viewers to a place where they can see -- and purchase -- more of your work). And you get to see and critique the work of others as well, which can help you see your own images more critically.

Once you see the quality of work already on the site, you'll understand.

Answer 2

The easiest way of making money through photography is selling variations on "how to make money with photography" to amateur photographers.

Look at all the seminars, books, and gadgets devoted to that niche.

Answer 3

The thing is there are loads of people who want to make money with their photography, however it can often boil down to who is the best marketing/sales person, rather than who is the best photographer.

A few possible approaches are:

• Alamy (or other reputable stock agencies, not microstock) if your images are technically good, you may be able to license some there, but it won't make you rich.
• Selling prints, you can do this through a website, mine is powered by Photoshelter which makes selling images really easy (although they do take a cut). You can sef fulfil the images, or use one of their printers to fulfill directly (I use this but it is a company I have already used for years and trust).

One thing to bear in mind is that you don't really want to get to the point where trying to make money from photography detracts from the photography itself.

Answer 4

Well, making money on photography is something alot of us wish we did, but its a tough field it seems, especially for landscape and macro work.

So, I'll tackle the easy piece of your question first, selling/storefront. Two options come to mind here, but there are certainly more:

1. Roll your own website and use something like Google Checkout to generate the invoice and process payment. Printing will be left up to you but you ultimately have the most options here. See showhomeart.co.uk for an example (built by one of our members Rowland Shaw).

2. Use something like SmugMug.com to handle the display, printing, selling, and shipping of your work. Less flexible, but simpler.

The other part of your question is basically "How do I become a professional photographer, specially landscape and macro pictures?"

Here you have a few options, you could try stock and micro stock, but its an extremely competitive and low paying market except for the few that thrive.

After that, you'll could start talking to agencies, building a portfolio, and basically get "discovered".

Another options is to build a full time business specializing in "special" things (macro, landscape, timelapse, etc) and using portrait work to fill the gaps. Its my understanding one of our users "Jay Lance Photography" does something similar to this.

Its a SUPER competitive market right as the cost of entry has been lowered due to easy of use of DSLRs and lower prices AND due to the economy in the US and many places around the world.

I wish it wasn't so, but research of my own indicates that unless you're prepared to commit significant resources (both money and TIME) up front to the "business" side of photography (advertising, studio equipment, agencies) , this isn't the right time to decide to go pro based on your love of photography.

EDIT: In general...if you find out an easy way to make money off hobby photography, let me know...privately...and tell no one else. ;)

Answer 5

in fact I'd say that if you love photography and want to continue loving it, you might want to NOT go pro. The few pros I know spend so much time on their business rather than photography, they don't do as much of it as when they were amateurs. And a lot of them have come to HATE photography after going pro, as they no longer can choose what and when to shoot, how to shoot it, etc. but have to work to exact customer specs and timelines.

More than a few wish they could stop but have no other source of income, so they must go on photographing things they don't want to photograph, running a one person business just scraping by knowing they'll likely never have more than a marginal income but if they stop they'll have nothing at all.

I was considering going pro or semi-pro several years ago, but decided not to. The occasional sale to someone seeing a picture I made on some website and wants a print of it (or even wants to use it in some publication) is nice for vanity :) but doesn't come close to paying the bills, and I don't care. I'm just happy I have the freedom to shoot what, when, and where I so wish, without deadlines or customer requirements.