Photography Ideas

[devon439]

Hi,

I was made redundant from work last week. I have a great passion for photography and have all of the kit for studio portrait work. This obviously is a time when I need to try as hard as I can to make a living.

I'm pretty inexperienced in business but wondered if anyone could give me few pointers on where I could potentially make a small living.

Look forward to your responses.

 

[puffin]

Hi,

I was made redundant from work last week. I have a great passion for photography and have all of the kit for studio portrait work. This obviously is a time when I need to try as hard as I can to make a living.

I'm pretty inexperienced in business but wondered if anyone could give me few pointers on where I could potentially make a small living.

Look forward to your responses.

People aren't going to tell you exactly, as anyone could do it then .

You have all the kit, why not advertise in the paper?
Even like, get a front page local advert offering 'cut' price deals, its summer, get some summer photos.

Children with their parents?

Go to your local shopping centre?

Get a website up, put your porfolio down?

Hope this helps.

 

[Matt1959]

if it were me, I'd go down the road of affordable tutorials for private/ trade individuals. What with the advent of digital photography, everyone has a digital camera but not everyone can use them properly or the photo editing packages come to that. I take photos for my business and have never had any training - must have taken many thousands of shots and still dont really know what I'm doing. Last year I searched for some simple one to one digital photography tuition which wasn't going to cost £190etc for half a day and couldnt find anyone so I reckon theres a gap in the market there for someone...

 

[Dawg]

My local Prince of Wales Trust boy-done-good makes a substantial bit of folding doing soft pron shots of wannabe models.
There is always money there. You might not want your Mum to do the books, but it's a living...


(This is a sideline, not the POW Trust thingy)

 

[Billmccallum]

Hi,

I was made redundant from work last week. I have a great passion for photography and have all of the kit for studio portrait work. This obviously is a time when I need to try as hard as I can to make a living.

I'm pretty inexperienced in business but wondered if anyone could give me few pointers on where I could potentially make a small living.

Look forward to your responses.

Where are you? Devon? Location can make a difference...

 

[Cybamart]

Hi, something like this might be ideal for you - http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php it is a (one of many) website of images businesses and sites etc. use that they pay for and photographers can (as far as I know; I think it's the nature of the site) sell their images on there. The best of luck with it all.

 

[matth]

iStock is OK, as are the others, but to have any chance of making a decent living at it, you do need 1000's of images on there.

Many make peanuts from stock photography, myself included... I usually spend any money I make from it on the same site anyway though, so it's not too bad for me.

Portraits and weddings are generally where the money is. It's not easy money (as some would have you believe), but there is money to be made.

The wedding market is becoming saturated with photographers, much more so than a few years ago before digital... There are also less weddings, or at least less weddings that will book a professional photographer. Most families now have someone that's "got a decent camera" so they'll do the photos.

I'm just starting out in the wedding photography biz myself, and assuming you're not local I don't mind chatting with you about it and giving you hints/tips & things to avoid. If you are local, I still don't mind chatting, but wouldn't be giving you advice that could cost me business

I've also sold my studio in the last year or so, so I have some experience in that field as well. Not sure what lighting kit you have, or where your photography skills are, but happy to help

 

[LicensedToTrade]

one to one digital photography tuition which wasn't going to cost £190etc for half a day and couldnt find anyone so I reckon theres a gap in the market there for someone...

I can't see how you could earn a decent wage charging anything less than £190 for a half day. That is just the revenue, this doesn't take into account your costs. Travel costs, insurance, training materials, advertising etc.

 

[Dawg]

To make the minimum weekly wage on iStock, (assuming you only sell the smallest size) would entail selling about 1200 images a week, every week.
You would realistically need to contribute at least 25,000 images to have even a hope of doing that.

Some people do it. But not many.

 

[Cybamart]

To make the minimum weekly wage on iStock, (assuming you only sell the smallest size) would entail selling about 1200 images a week, every week.
You would realistically need to contribute at least 25,000 images to have even a hope of doing that.

Some people do it. But not many.

Still though, it's another medium for making money albeit not an entire living - and (as I'm all too aware) redundancy often gives you a lot of time on your hands that might as well be spent doing something like that rather than watching yet another Loose Women argument

 

[LicensedToTrade]

Still though, it's another medium for making money albeit not an entire living - and (as I'm all too aware) redundancy often gives you a lot of time on your hands that might as well be spent doing something like that rather than watching yet another Loose Women argument

I just had a nosey at your website Cybamart because I found the prices in your sig to be surprisingly low, then I saw why.

Can I ask, are you a professional web designer? It is a serious question, I am not trying to be rude.

 

[Matt1959]

I can't see how you could earn a decent wage charging anything less than £190 for a half day. That is just the revenue, this doesn't take into account your costs. Travel costs, insurance, training materials, advertising etc.

the OP said he wants to make a small living, not that that actually gives a clue on how much he wants to earn. I think there'll be quite a few people soon, who will be happy to turnover somewhat less than £400 a day (£2000) a week from this, from working out the back of their car and from a PC at home. Not all tuition has to involve premises etc

 

[puffin]

To make the minimum weekly wage on iStock, (assuming you only sell the smallest size) would entail selling about 1200 images a week, every week.
You would realistically need to contribute at least 25,000 images to have even a hope of doing that.

Some people do it. But not many.

But Dawg, that could be a nice little side earner, a few evenings putting them all on or whatever away you go.

 

[matth]

I offer a day of basic training for £175, but it's not my main area of focus, and I don't actively market it, it's just a sideline really. Based on location, so no property costs, my insurance is paid for by the wedding photography side of the business, so's the kit, so it's purely my time. It's also fitted around weddings, usually on a Sunday when I'm very unlikely to have a wedding booking.

I also offer studio training, which costs from £375, as there are a lot more costs involved (and mainly because I don't currently have my own studio)

 

[LicensedToTrade]

I offer a day of basic training for £175, but it's not my main area of focus, and I don't actively market it, it's just a sideline really. Based on location, so no property costs, my insurance is paid for by the wedding photography side of the business, so's the kit, so it's purely my time. It's also fitted around weddings, usually on a Sunday when I'm very unlikely to have a wedding booking.

I also offer studio training, which costs from £375, as there are a lot more costs involved (and mainly because I don't currently have my own studio)

Now this does make sense. You are making the most of your fixed costs and increasing your pound for pound return.

However it is a different story for someone who hasn't already got insurance arranged and doesn't have ALL the kit they need because as soon as you start buying little bits and pieces like new lenses (my last one cost £900) or even just a £50 lowe pro case...your little side earner soon becomes a loss maker.

 

[Cybamart]

Many thanks for that Licensedtotrade. A PM might have been more appropriate but I'm fortunately thick skinned

The design of my site is, admittedly, a huge mistake but is currently up like that instead of putting an "under construction" message up whilst I change things. During some research I learned extensively about the "power of the one page website sales page" and foolishly took my old, black-backgrounded and arty site down to see if this would indeed increase sales. A few people on here have, however, commented that they, to put it politely, do not think so much of selling websites on such a sales page and as such I am currently in the process of redesigning my homepage back to a normal website designer's site.

I made a mistake, I tested something out that might be great for affiliate marketers but is seemingly not the way to promote websites. It will be rectified shortly and I hope you would take the time to visit the new look site and then decide for yourself if you think I am a web designer

 

[LicensedToTrade]

As I said before, I had no intention of rude, but I'm aware that black and white text on a page can be interpreted in a way that was not intended.

I'm not against the idea of offering bargain websites in the slightest, it can be a profitable place in the market to position yourself, providing you can bring in enough volume. Just like cola I can pay a bit more for coke or save some money and buy the tesco private-label version...and plenty of money has changed hands with the private-label.

I'm really more interested in how much success you have had from this to date, is your strategy working out?

 

[Cybamart]

As I said before, I had no intention of rude, but I'm aware that black and white text on a page can be interpreted in a way that was not intended.

I'm not against the idea of offering bargain websites in the slightest, it can be a profitable place in the market to position yourself, providing you can bring in enough volume. Just like cola I can pay a bit more for coke or save some money and buy the tesco private-label version...and plenty of money has changed hands with the private-label.

I'm really more interested in how much success you have had from this to date, is your strategy working out?

In a word, no! As I say, it was a huge mistake selling websites through a one paged sales page instead of greeting potential customers with a home page that portrays the type of work for which they may be looking.

Things like the "handwritten" aspect of the page, it's length and black text on a white background with lots to scroll through are all supposedly big earners when the "one paged website" is used to sell other things such as affiliate products - I think selling websites are the exception as, like you imply, it is better to have a home page that depicts the type of site I build rather than a sales page (created solely for an advert in a magazine incidentally) that does not give any clue as to the designer's skills.

 

[Pap_sak]

cybamart do you have a website that you are proud of and shows your skills?

 

[crossdaz]

What the flick has this got to do with photography ideas?

 

[Cybamart]

What the flick has this got to do with photography ideas?

My view entirely, as I said before, criticism of my site like that should have been put in a PM. But when you type in "cybamart" to Google, my company name will be listed associated with that criticism as these forums feature highly on Google's page 1 and so I am obliged to reply to LicensedToTrade to defend that criticism and explain my situation in order to limit the potential problems associated with his/her comment.

 

[LicensedToTrade]

In fairness, at this stage I can only critique your ability to read. This now makes it the third time that I have said this: I simply wanted to know if your aproach was working for you!

It was actually an opportunity for you to promote yourself, note that I have not once said that your web design skills were poor, it was only you that assumed I said that...which makes me wonder.

As for what this has to do with the original thread, I'd be a little surprised if this was the first thread in history to go a little off-topic. Here is the link, now watch carefully...it gets a little magical.

Photography Ideas - Making a living - Residual Income - Cybamart attempting the same thing but with web design instead of photography - LTT asks how effective this has been for cybamart - LTT gets shot down for something he hasn't even said - LTT realises he is talking about himself in the third person and wonders what his psychologist would say if he had one and then finishes up this over elaborate narration of the thread.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

There you go OP,and you could collect it!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Business-Comm...d=ViewItem&pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item1c1292e424

Another,
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Photographer-...d=ViewItem&pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item2559be294b

 

[Astaroth]

If you have the standard 2 or 3 flash heads, portable backgrounds etc then you can always offer a mobile portrait service.

The challenge is to compete with the likes of Venture and other large scale studios who actually do the shoots free of charge and then have fairly high pressure sales guys who flog the over priced prints on acrylic etc.

If you google portable studio you will find how your potential competition are trying to sell themselves

 

[bdw]

Get a portfolio together and get a website published. Websites can take a few months to start working so move quickly on this.

Start doing stuff locally for nothing (or next to nothing) to get started. That will get people talking about you. Put small ads in the local papers. Write letters to the local papers that give you an excuse to mention your business. "This Coalition government is not working - I can't get any work. I am a struggling portrait photographer", etc. Get creative. Try leafleting on cars at the local supermarket, etc. Try posting your business card on supermarket and shop ad boards. These are all thing that you can do that don't cost too much.

Finally be prepared to wait for at least a year and more likely two before you are established.
....
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[aje]

It's the Primark syndrome again...people just don't seem to value professionals these days and want everything on the cheap.
£190 for half a day is a decent wage if you assume that someone works all day, every day, but any freelance enterprise normally means you have highs and lows, not to mention no holiday or sick pay and a photographic business can be costly to run.

There is too much negativity about people aspiring to be earn enough money to pay a mortgage, go on holiday with their families and enjoy the odd night out. Surely this is what most adults aspire to?

 

[sphynx]

Hi,

I was made redundant from work last week. I have a great passion for photography and have all of the kit for studio portrait work. This obviously is a time when I need to try as hard as I can to make a living.

I'm pretty inexperienced in business but wondered if anyone could give me few pointers on where I could potentially make a small living.

Look forward to your responses.

As someone mentioned earlier, it's largely due to the market in your location, I'm in Kent and I know a few talented photographers making a fair living - there are a few possible revenue streams you could look at,

- Weddings can be a great income, get together a decent, specific portfolio, website etc, invest in a few wedding fairs, network with local wedding planners and keep networking with whoever will listen as every wedding could be worth a decent amount

- Gallery space - this can be more difficult, but could become a more steady income source. Find a way to sell some photography to the public, talk to gallery owners who are selling the kind of thing you like, ask them what sells, at what price range just to gauge the market. Produce work that is reacting to a market intially just for earnings' sake- you can they get quirky and creative later - perhaps even talking to your local stylish bar, or venturing as far as London, asking the management if they would like to display your work and they can get a small commission for each sold. This can work out well if you have your work in a few venues in the right place and at the right price.

Portrait work will also come from both or either of the above, plenty of networking and a bit of advertising, target families with young children who always want photogrpahs of their children as they grow, now I'm rambling,

I hope this helps!

 

[thebigIAM]

If you don't have any family ties, I would recommend applying for a post as a cruise ship photographer. You learn so much about marketing skills and event photography there and have a pretty good laugh, so long as you don't suffer from sea sickness.

 

[ss_1]

We pay a photography company to take pictures of our product, simple on a white background and cut-out using what I would assume is photoshop.

With what we pay for one image, you could make a handsome living doing 10 a day if you were working from home, I doubt that would be too taxing.

PM if you would like further information.

..... or to quote for work

 

[dandan]

I've been running my portrait business for 3 years now and it hasnt been easy.
I dont know where you are located, but here (in Kent) there are literally hundreds of photographers. Many offering portrait sessions and differing prices and quality. The key is to be different - different in your style of photography and different in your marketing.
Every man and his dog are attempting the high key, high contrast Venture kind of shots, with 99% failing miserably. The key is to carve out your own style and market accordingly.
You may be pretty handy with the camera, but doing this to make a living is 90% business, marketing, advertising and 10% taking photos.