Home Forums Main YANAP Discussion Forum How many make their living from photography

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #3563
    Notaphotographer
    Participant

    I am wondering how many people on here make 100% of their income from photography or photography related fields.

    #3582
    IHF
    Participant

    I think I may hear crickets lol

    You may have just started the slowest, quietest thread that will ever be on YANAP, but I’m going to subscribe because my curiosity is up too.

    And  btw Im not a pro, nor do I pretend to be

    #3608
    dicksforeyes
    Participant

    I only actually started asking for money a few months ago. I taking home a few hundred more a week as a result.

    #3941
    Nightrose
    Participant

    I’m hoping within another year or so to have a much more stable income from photography, once my studio is properly built. It is insanely difficult to make enough money when starting a photography business, and if it wasn’t for my husband “bringing home the bacon”, I would have crashed and burned a long time ago, lol!

     

    #3946
    stef
    Participant

    I do.

     

    #3959
    Mrs Woo
    Participant

    Nope – not me.  I have been a hobbyist photographer for more than 25 years.  I developed an illness that makes it hard to work a straight 40-hour work week and am hoping to take on photography work here and there on my good days and one day build it up high enough to be able to make enough to not be on disability anymore.  I considered pursuing graphic arts/photography or a degree in journalism out of high school but was talked out of it by parents who wanted me to be more practical, so now that I can’t do what I’m used to doing, hoping maybe my creativity can help me be productive on my good days often enough to provide for myself.

    #4007
    TXGRL
    Participant

    I used too. I even supported a retail studio and 5 employees for over 2 years…. buttttttttttt, I got tired of all the stress. I was spending 50% of my day dealing with “But my neighbor only charges 50.00 and I get a CD” and better yet….I once had a woman come into my studio with her friend and with a canon rebel and began taking her own pictures trigging my lights with her pop up flash (which she turned on herself!) while I was in the backroom finishing another clients proofing session! It was honestly too much work to break even. We did it, but it was nothing short of 24 hours a day 7 days a week worth of total and complete stress! What Ive found is that I was getting the business over the fauxtogs…BUTTTTT I was getting a lot of business that were people who had been to the fauxtogs….been disappointed and expected me to provide a quality product for the same price they paid the fauxtog. Now we rely on my husbands income but I still shoot and my income supports my business not my lifestyle.

    #4009
    Notaphotographer
    Participant

    TXGRL,  I feel your pain. I  have friends who have made a good living for years, that are now just scrapping by or like you have given it up as a means of support. To me this is the real crime of the fauxtographer. What none of the ones  realize ,who say that one day they hope to make a career out of photography, is that the very thing they are doing is going to prevent them from ever making it a career. Photography as a business is almost dead. Killed by the fauxtographers, digital, and the biggest killer of all, a public that will settle for mediocrity.

    #4010
    PhotoLynx
    Participant

    I was at a party with an old Nikon D80 just to get a few shots for my friend. I brought the camera because there were a lot of kids present, and I didn’t feel like bringing the big equipment. Casual. Not a professional anything by any stretch of the imagination. A woman comes up to me, sees the camera, and says, “Oh my gosh, you have got to shoot my daughter’s wedding!”

    I kindly told her I’d love to, however she and her daughter should see my actual finished work taken with professional equipment, and be thrilled with it before making any decisions.

    It shows you how the general public has no clue what a professional grade camera even looks like. If it is black, and has a lens bigger than a golf ball, it must be amazing. It must make me the awesomest photographer on the planet. Ha!

    #4449
    soaringturkeys
    Participant

    I do.

    Weddings, music festivals, gigs, Fashion Weeks.

    People who charge nothing doesn’t bother me.

    If your clients are so easily swayed by people who are willing to pay the cheaper person…. then get better clients.

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.