How Much Does A (This Person) Nature Photographer Actually Make?
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I Love that topic… Imagination is the limit.
hef19898
Well-known member
Once upon a time, I was an independant consultant. I charged between 1,200 and 1,800 per day, depending on project length. Soubds a lot, right? Well, that is before expenses, taxes, cost of living and some money to be put away for slower periods to cover everything from rent / mortgage to insurance and what not. All that before you realize that you can invoice only a couple of days per month.
Nobody pays you for client acquisition neither. Long term projects are nice, sure. But than you are off the market long enough to find yourself without any leads.
Hence, 1,700 per person for a workshop, or the same per day per person for a 1on1 workshop, actually is rather reasonable.
There is a reason I am happily employed full time again.
Nobody pays you for client acquisition neither. Long term projects are nice, sure. But than you are off the market long enough to find yourself without any leads.
Hence, 1,700 per person for a workshop, or the same per day per person for a 1on1 workshop, actually is rather reasonable.
There is a reason I am happily employed full time again.
RikWriter
Well-known member
I'm currently about halfway done with my 75th novel.
What is your pen name?
RikWriter
Well-known member
Rick Partlow
Impressive .
RikWriter
Well-known member
Thanks. The great part about it is being able to write wherever I want.
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The main challenge to making money in 2024 is how much the world has changed.
Up to around 40 years ago larger firms employer their own in house photographers, larger newspapers employed a team of photographers, most high streets had a professional portrait studio - and I got around £300 (maybe £2,000 equivalent now) for a front cover on a Durst or Olympus UK Users magazine.
With the ease of digital and mobile phone images, competition has increased almost unimaginably - and with the bigger screen than ML bodies and ability to zoom in on smart phones - ignoring photographic skill this is now the route used for maybe as much as 99% of photography.
When a traditional market evaporates as it has done making money becomes a rarity.
Up to around 40 years ago larger firms employer their own in house photographers, larger newspapers employed a team of photographers, most high streets had a professional portrait studio - and I got around £300 (maybe £2,000 equivalent now) for a front cover on a Durst or Olympus UK Users magazine.
With the ease of digital and mobile phone images, competition has increased almost unimaginably - and with the bigger screen than ML bodies and ability to zoom in on smart phones - ignoring photographic skill this is now the route used for maybe as much as 99% of photography.
When a traditional market evaporates as it has done making money becomes a rarity.
Doomrider74
Well-known member
The simple reason why there's no money in it is that photography has gone the same way as music I.e. no one wants to pay for it anymore. Printed media has been killed by Instagram, the same way Cds and vinyl have been killed by Spotify.
MikeInMI
Active member
Photography is an art, and like most of the arts, there are a few that do very well and most don't. The reason: There are more people that want to take pictures and are capable of taking pictures than the demand warrants. Add to that the fact that almost anyone can take a pretty terrific picture with their phone these days.
I've learned that in photography, the people that make the most money are those who teach, sell classes, etc.
I've learned that in photography, the people that make the most money are those who teach, sell classes, etc.
SerenityScenes
New member
So many thoughts... I started doing art festivals in 2003 and in response to a friend's comment that my work looked like everyone else's I moved to photoshop manupulation and primarily panoramas. I also had a very good paying job which obscured the fact that I wasn't making much money (if any) at art festivals. I can remember coming home from a show with $8000 and using it to pay off the credit card for booth fees and lodging and buying materials to create work for the next show. Then came 2020 and I made money. No shows, no booth fees, no travel. Just an active email newsletter and a good website. That kind of gave me pause. 2021 was an awesome year. People had stimulus money to spend and there hadn't been any art festivals for a year. 2022 went off a cliff and I was getting too old to put up and take down my display. I quit in the fall of 2022 and joined some galleries, including a co-op one that I hadn't had time for in the past. This year has been my best year yet but there is no way it would pay the mortgage, health insurance, and those other important things.
Doug Herr
Well-known member
+1
Selling photographs involves a lot more than great photographs. Marketing skills, for example. Some photographers rely more on the marketing skills than on making great photographs.
Slightly off topic but there are ~ 40 US colleges and universities that grant an MFA in photography. Each program graduates 3-5 candidates per year meaning that at least 120 photographers with a masters level credential are looking for a position at any given time. Those who persevere usually end up as adjuncts making 2-3,000 dollars per class and receiving no benefits. George Mason University even makes them pay for parking. Most will leave photography for fields with better prospects.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s I worked in NYC as an advertising, art reproduction, architectural and editorial photographer. I had Time and Life magazine credits and two one-man shows from that period but couldn't make a dependable living. I left to become a teacher and medical researcher. Forty years later needing something to occupy my time in retirement I returned to school and graduated with an MFA in Photography at age 75. As part of my teaching requirement for the degree I taught a masters level digital printing class. I told my students that after graduation they would likely need a day job since photo teaching positions were scarce but they all insisted that it would be different for them. So it goes.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s I worked in NYC as an advertising, art reproduction, architectural and editorial photographer. I had Time and Life magazine credits and two one-man shows from that period but couldn't make a dependable living. I left to become a teacher and medical researcher. Forty years later needing something to occupy my time in retirement I returned to school and graduated with an MFA in Photography at age 75. As part of my teaching requirement for the degree I taught a masters level digital printing class. I told my students that after graduation they would likely need a day job since photo teaching positions were scarce but they all insisted that it would be different for them. So it goes.
Doug Herr
Well-known member
Ansel Adams recommended that aspiring photographers get a job in a shoe store i.e., a day job.
Drbobcameraguy
Active member
I'm in agreement about making a living with photos ect. I can tell you that gem cutting is a hobby that I have struggled for almost ten years to keep from becoming a business. I'm retired. Retired at 55. Started gem cutting just before that. I have one stone that I cut and cannot show it to anyone. If I do they will buy it. It's funny that I spent most of my life building 2 businesses and selling them both when if I started cutting gems earlier it would have been so very much easier. Lol lol.
choochoo1414
New member
Wedding photographers can make a decent living... but you'll never get rich that way...
I haven't looked nationally, though I suspect it is the same as my local (Tucson) situation. Even that market has crashed. I used to work for the largest and oldest photo lab in southern Arizona. In the film days our professional division was the bulk of our income and the largest part of that was wedding photographers. When digital took over, that business started a slow decline. We eventually closed our professional division (which had a separate entrance) and when I left almost nine years ago there were maybe half a dozen pros still using us (down from several dozen in the film era). Last year the lab went out of business altogether.
The problem is people think my friend has a nice digital camera so he or she can photograph our wedding. Also people don't want to order prints or albums (which was a large part of the profit for wedding photographers). Now they just want the images on a thumb drive. Yes, some people do make good money doing high end weddings, but they are not nearly as numerous as they once were.
RikWriter
Well-known member
Even that is getting harder. There are too many people advertising rates that undercut professional wedding photographers and doing a crappy job of it.
In my opinion, Canon’s cheap Rabel offerings, was another factor in the crappy job‘s.
peachfront
Active member
I would be thrilled if you would show us a photograph of your special gem... or even if you can tell us a bit about how you photograph your gemstones, if you do. This is not about making money from it so I apologize for the digression from the main topic but...I have a large collection of stones I would like to photograph, but so far I'm discovering I enjoy photographing stones much less than I do birds. I think it's because my results are so terrible compared to my results with birds, and that in turn is probably because there are such good clear guides available online like Steve's to help with birds but I've not found much helpful when it comes to photographing gems/crystals.
O
Well-known member
The world is such a different place now.
So many people with a phone or camera want to be a professional photographer or sell prints and there is nothing wrong with ambition.
The photography world largely through industry evolution is progressing to video inspiring new young creative - innovative videographers who will no doubt embrace or incorporate AI benefits that many others are somewhat fearful off.
Wedding parties today mostly prefer videography footage 95% and 5% portraiture shots.
There are real possibility's ahead for the brave innovative and above all adaptable that embrace change.
Only an opinion
So many people with a phone or camera want to be a professional photographer or sell prints and there is nothing wrong with ambition.
The photography world largely through industry evolution is progressing to video inspiring new young creative - innovative videographers who will no doubt embrace or incorporate AI benefits that many others are somewhat fearful off.
Wedding parties today mostly prefer videography footage 95% and 5% portraiture shots.
There are real possibility's ahead for the brave innovative and above all adaptable that embrace change.
Only an opinion
Maxwed
New member
I worked for twenty years at the Port of Portland as the staff photographer, shooting at a large shipyard, airport and several marine terminals. Shot from the top of cranes at the shipyard and terminals. Shot video on ships crossing the Columbia River bar and up the river. And shot video and stills on tugboats traveling up the Columbia river and through locks at several dams. Shot from tractors harvesting wheat. I had photos on covers of several trade magazines. Were they really paying me to do this? !!!
On weekends and into twenty years of retirement, I have done photography for artists ranging from prints to sculpture to jewelry. Worked for several galleries as well as one particular artist who gained worldwide fame with maybe some help from me. But it doesn’t look like I met your standards for a pro. Too bad … I made enough money at it, had lots of exciting fun… got a pension too!
hef19898
Well-known member
That's the very definition of a pro, isn't it? Onr does not have to be independent to qualify, otherwise nobody in full-time employment would qualify as a pro in what ever field they are.
No idea hoe staff photography eorked in your case, but the ones in know in a similar sotuation got assigments. As do I in my job, and I dare consider me a pro in what do for a living.
Or try planting that magic tree which grows money or expensive lenses you can just pluck from one of the branches (ideally that tree grows Sony, Nikon and Canon glass
)The tree I tried only grows bloody apples and they don't even taste good but I can at least use them to attract a few birds during the next winter
Interesting thread, I agree, it's mostly an expensive hobby for most including me.
I write articles from time to time for a German birding magazine and hopefully will be able to provide pictures of my own for the next one (which increases the amount of euros I get). At least for some of the species needed. But I would need to write a lot of articles for the 600TC to paid for
I have no plans to give up my job as a software developer.