Anybody whose been in this industry and have experience making money from photography, is it worth pursuing? How’s the money? would you say it’s enough to sustain financial independence and is there any hope to go further and even think of a above normal life? From a business standpoint is there any potential or is it oversaturated?
Anybody who’s been in this industry and have experience making money from photography, is it worth pursuing?
If you have any marketable skills, self employment is always worth pursuing. Photography is a marketable skill.
How’s the money?
Pay ranges from $20,000 to $200,000 - mostly dependent on you.
would you say it’s enough to sustain financial independence and is there any hope to go further and even think of a above normal life?
Yes, if you have the skill set to get you there.
From a business standpoint is there any potential or is it oversaturated?
Is what oversaturated? Pet photography? Real estate photography? $500 weddings? $5000 weddings? Those are all very different things that require different skills on your part and target very different clients.
Yes it’s viable but it’s not even about skill. It’s about who u know and how good u are at business and people skills.
Welcome to the daily question of “making money in photography”.
Photography (film landscape/wildlife) is my main thing, but I’m going back to school in a different field to do a side thing in order to pay for my main thing lol
Need a pinned post about this type of question.
Everything is oversaturated, it’s up to you to make it work.
At this point you will have better odds being really smart business wise than being a fucking great photographer (not that it won’t help).
This is super subjective to where you live. Short answer though is yes it’s just a lot of work and you need to understand what kind of photography makes money and what you’re skilled at. If you can do portraits wedding photos make money.
Anybody whose been in this industry and have experience making money from photography, is it worth pursuing?
It can be, but it’s likely you’ll enjoy it whole lot less if you’re counting on it (by itself) to pay bills. If you don’t like marketing and sales, I’d forget it, because honestly that’s more than 50 percent of the gig.
How’s the money?
This depends on the market you’re in and what you’re shooting (and for whom). Money can be good, or it can be a race to the bottom depending on what you’re shooting. I’d say do some research and find out who and what you DONT want to compete with, unless you’re satisfied with being a bottom dweller. If you associate yourself with hacks and lowballers you will be categorized as one.
would you say it’s enough to sustain financial independence and is there any hope to go further and even think of a above normal life?
Financial independence is a nebulous term depends on factors that make this question impossible to answer. “Above normal” - if by that you mean more money then possibly, but nobody knows what your “normal” looks like.
From a business standpoint is there any potential or is it oversaturated?
Potential, sure, there always is. Potential will not keep your lights on however.
Oversaturated? Definitely, for better or worse.
Thanks for this thorough answer! can you give some examples on products and services that are infinitely more profitable?
I went back to information technology myself. I work as a contract programmer remotely and even part time I make several times more than I ever did doing photography.
Capitalism ruined art in the US and the attitude is that if it has no commercial value it’s worthless. All the money is in science technology engineering and medical. Sad but true.
I do photography for myself now and I love it more than ever.
How did you end up there? Did you have a background in coding or you just decided to learn coding from scratch? If you could share that journey I’d really appreciate it.
I know a photographer, who runs courses on how to take photos, he also sells images from a gallery. It’s always funny when some of his trainees start their own business, and copy his pictures/locations/marketing strategies and become competition. Hilarious as he always feels like he’s a victim and blocks them on social media and tries to talk shit about them behind their backs. Like dude you showed them how to do it.
So yes, you can, but it’s more about business skills.
And you won’t love photography anymore.
Learn to shoot events and portraits. There will ALWAYS be a market for those styles, and learn to be able to replicate those results consistently across all environments. If youre good, and good at marketing, youll find work