There was so much potential when Smugmug bought it. They really blew that opportunity.

I like the Flashpoint XPLOR 300 Pro (same as Godox AD300 Pro) and the 33" Glow EZ Lock Parabolic Softbox (same as Godox AD-S85) that was made specifically for the mini Bowens mount on that light. This is quick and easy to set up and can fit in some pretty tight spaces.

You can deduct your travel mileage but not travel time. You can deduct hotel costs.

At first I thought you were talking about your website because it doesn’t say differently in your post. I saw in a comment that you are talking about Instagram. Instagram is not my “photography page”.

I have a picture of myself on the contact page of my website. I don’t really use Instagram anymore but when I did, it was split pretty evenly between architecture which I do professionally, landscape which I do for fun, and pictures of my city which I do both for fun & work. I would post behind the scenes type pictures of me getting the shots. A lot of people used to approach me because they recognized me from IG. I never posted anything about my personal life.

We’ll have to talk about this more.

No, we won’t. It doesn’t concern them at all. I do what I want in my free time. They have no say in that. If I want to photograph and sell landscape pictures, that’s what I’m going to do. If I want to make and sell jewelry, that’s what I’m going to do.

It’s in your best financial interest to charge as much as you can get people to pay you. As time goes on, your goal should always be to do less work for more money. Why work ten $100 jobs if you can work one $1000 job?

I don’t really believe in the concept of undermining the business. If you are a $200 photographer and I am a $2000 photographer, your pricing is not impacting me at all. My clients aren’t going to hire a $200 photographer. There are plenty of people out there who can only afford $200. They deserve good pictures.

If it comes down to you at $200 and someone else at $300, well that’s just business.

What do I charge?

$200 - $500 is reasonable, although I personally would not do it for $200.

They only want 12 photos in the end, but obviously I’ll have to edit much more than that so they can pick out which 12 they want.

Don’t do that. Either choose, edit, and deliver the 12 shots with no input from them, or let them choose from proofs (unedited or minimal exposure & white balance adjustments), then edit the 12 they choose.

I prefer to ask up front what is important to them (signage, costumes, specific people, etc), then focus on getting the types of shots they want. From there I choose the final shots but make sure everything on their list is covered.

I’m also a sophomore in college and wouldn’t say I have more than the average amount of experience.

This changes the way you feel about yourself. It does not change the value of the pictures to them.

1 - no 2 - yes, half day rate for a travel day 3 - no, I’m exploring & sightseeing like a vacation 4 - that’s happening during business hours, part of my day rate 5 - yes, half day rate for a travel day

There’s no difference between round and rectangle flash heads other than some of the round heads have magnets in them making it easy to attach compatible accessories. This will depend on manufacturer of course.

I don’t work from Thanksgiving to New Year and I enjoy every second of it. I usually visit a national park during that time to do some personal landscape photography.

Not to let the publisher off the hook, but there’s a good chance your photos were uploaded to some sort of content management system along with other photos that they actually licensed, and someone in the organization found yours and assumed they were licensed.

Well then that system is not managing the content very well. It’s still their responsibility.

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I’m assuming your info was in the metadata and that’s how they knew to credit you? It’s a good lesson for artists to populate those metadata fields before sharing work with clients.

I’m curious how you think the client can lack the knowledge required to track author and licensing information in a content management system but somehow have the knowledge to inspect image metadata to extract the embedded contact information?

Do you want to work for someone else or do you want to be self employed?

I went from shooting anything I could get paid for to shooting only architecture/interiors and corporate events, to shooting only architecture/interiors. I’ve been doing that exclusively since 2017. You can made decent money doing it for yourself.

I would not be interested in being a full time employee of an architecture firm, especially not working 6 days per week. I prefer freelancing and doing projects for many different architects on my own schedule. I would also not be interested in any job that involves social media. Sometimes one of my architecture clients will send their social media person out on shoots with me. I don’t mind that, but I don’t want to be the one creating the content.

Given the options you presented here, I would not consider leaving a job a like for one I don’t think I will like. You don’t need to work at an architecture firm to get experience shooting architectural photography. Start sending your portfolio out to potential clients. Stay where you are and work jobs as they come until you build up enough of a client base to go out on your own.

Watermarks didn’t stop anything. People used Photoshop to remove them or cropped them out of the picture. Some people didn’t care about the watermark at all and used the picture with it visible.

You mentioned ASMP. Did you join as a member and put your information in the Find an Assistant database? If an ASMP photographer wants to hire an assistant that they aren’t already connected with, that’s where they are going to look.

Same applies to APA. These are paid professional membership organizations. Networking happens within the organization. If everyone goes outside of the organization, the the benefits of membership are reduced.

Wonderful Machine reps photographers. Many of those photographers are members of ASMP, APA, and other professional organizations. It is not to their benefit to respond to solicitation emails from you, much less to hire you instead of hiring someone from within their professional organizations.

I use manual focus whenever I use a tripod, which is 90% of the time.

have like 15TB of space, so I can keep all the shots with no issue, but this surely isn’t sustainable forever.

I have 35TB of storage, 100,000 pictures on the drives, and probably room for that many more. I was tempted last year to go back and delete all non-delivered pictures from all projects more than 10 years old, but that seems like such a hassle. It’s easier to spend another $150 on a new drive.

I’ve shot hundreds of business events and have never been asked to sign an NDA or relinquish copyright. This isn’t the type of picture I’m ever going to use again or license to anyone other than maybe an editorial publication if they were writing about that event, but I imagine the NDA would stop me from doing that. I wouldn’t have a problem relinquishing copyright for a fee. I’ve done it on other types of projects.

Business events are the only type of photography where I use an hourly rate. I charge a minimum amount just to show up and provide an initial amount of coverage, then charge by the hour after that initial time has elapsed. If the event takes a full day, then I switch to a day rate. If the event spans multiple days, I still use the day rate but might apply a slight price reduction depending on my sense for what their budget can tolerate. I only do minimal amounts of post production for business events and do not charge extra for it.

Ecola State Park is pretty close and has some great scenery.

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.