If you love taking photos wherever you go: in the supermarket, on the street, at fairs, on vacation, and just about everywhere else, you probably stand a great stance to actually making an income from your digital photographic art.
I just read an old children’s book this morning, that explains how photography used to work…. I realize just how far we’ve come. No cartridges, no film, no this, no that, and most of all, no having to do everything so perfectly, as digital adjustments are so easy now. The world has completely changed. A digital camera and a myriad of photography software enable a current photographer to transform a mediocre shot into a masterpiece in not too much time.
As well, digital photography allows us photographers to take a thousand shots, each a tat different, so we can pick the best ones later, and merely ‘delete’ the bulk of the remainder with just a click of the button. If we can’t choose which we like best, we can digitally save the top 100. Digital memory is almost free when compared to the old way of having to invest in expensive film cartridges and negatives.
Based on this new technology, there are a number of ways that you could choose to earn money with your digital photographic art:
Make Money with Photos #1: stock photography. This is a growing field as more (digital) media is looking for illustration pictures. These websites, newsletters and magazine writers look for photos that are meaningful, that tell a story and that are fast, easy & inexpensive to obtain. There is also a growing number of stock photography businesses that you can work with to market and sell your photos.
Make Money with Photos #2: news photography. Newspapers have a need for unique photographs, namely those that capture a newsworthy event, person or situation. Think of a fire in a nearby forest, to the reunion of a family when a soldier returns from war. World news is of course the most glamorous, but remember that news is mostly local. Yes, even local weather photos can be sellable.
Make Money with Photos #3: photography for local business. Again, this is a step-up from working as a stock photography artist. You will work with local business to create mailer, sell homes, cars, home furnishings, garden benches, bikes or what ya might fancy. Usually, this gig starts as an opportunity whereby you help one shop for a small fee, and then get recommended and do photographic work for the whole shopping street over time.
Make Money with Photos #4: wedding photography. If you love weddings and you love people, this is the ‘job’ for you. Start with being the ‘back up’ photographer at friends’ weddings. Then, as you get better and better at wedding photography, develop unique ideas, learn how to photograph people and create a happy and/regal mood through your photographic shots, you could be hired as the main professional photographer over time. Weddings are usually well-paid assignments.
Make Money with Photos #5: event photography. Again, liking to photograph people and being rather good at it are two pre-requisites for money making success in this niche. First, think of wedding-like events like christening or reunions, and then move up to corporate events from there. Sell your photos to event participants as well as the host, and even the press, if you’ve obtained signed model release forms.
Make Money with Photos #6: magazine photography. Magazines look for larger and higher quality photos usually. They hire professional photographers who have a portfolio. So, you too must develop a portfolio of your photographs. Tailor your portfolio to the style and nature of the magazine. This is a hard market to break into, however it is also one of the most lucrative and the one that can help you onto the road of fame as well.
Make Money with Photos #7: teach (digital) photography. Whether you get into eLearning, teaching online through email, blogs, videos or other private resource sharing that’s just for students.Earn money through advertisement on your digital pages and/or earn a fee from each photography student. There are a thousand of topics to choose from ranging from basic composition, to ‘how to use photography software’ to how to use the latest digital camera….