Make Money by Diversifying your Photography

Written 7 years ago by Mark Evans

I can remember clearly that first time I sold a picture in a local store, it was a great feeling as I never really thought anyone would buy my photos, but 4 months on and with no other sales so far, I could see that following one path in photography wasn’t going to make me a lot of money. That’s why selling my pictures in the local shops is only one of many ways I hope to make money out of photography, and If I have enough little incomes streams then maybe they’ll add up to alot further on down the track!

As a photographer I wouldn’t say I’ve got anywhere close to ‘made it’ yet, because what I didn’t realize at the beginning when I made that decision to take the step from enthusiastic amateur to professional, was how hard it is to actually make any money in this industry when you’re starting out from scratch. Networking and Marketing play a key role in getting work and when your motivation is as bad as mine, then these become even more important. So thankfully a few months back I managed to get a job freelancing for a local magazine. The contacts I make through doing photography for the magazine are a great start for my business as I can promote myself to the businesses and people I meet; after every shoot I make damn sure I hand my business card out! And it was this work I do for the magazine that gave me many of my ideas for diversifying into other areas of photography I could potentially make money out of.

I started out thinking I would get into Interior photography, but after ringing around 50 or so of the local Real Estate agents, and receiving a pretty luke warm response, it was very clear I had to do something else. The work I do for the magazine is varied which I find great because it means I get to use different photography techniques, which in turn keeps me interested.

One of these jobs is Product photography, which is not a market I would have immediately thought of to get into, but is one where I have made the most money so far (outside of the magazine job)! I’ve found taking product images for websites to be fairly rewarding too, there’s always something new and challenging to photograph.

Another is portrait photography. It wasn’t something I would naturally go for, being a Landscape photographer, but now I actually quite like it, you meet heaps of different people, and getting the lighting and skin tone right can be a challenge too. So I’ve now added event/portrait photography to my repertoire and I’ve noticed when I’ve handed my business card out after photo shoots, many people asked if I do wedding photography, which I don’t at the moment, but am thinking very seriously about, since there seems to be a good amount of money to be made in this area, and the demand seems pretty high for wedding photography at this time of year.

There’s been many other areas of photography that have been suggested to me over the months too, including pet photography, which I only really do for family and friends, (as it can get pretty frustrating) and kids photography, which I probably wont get into just because of the (legal) hoops you have jump through, and the fact that I’m not that great with kids!

Putting all these different types of photography together makes for a pretty interesting photography career but I don’t think I’ll ever become super rich being a freelance photographer, but then again, that’s not why I do it. I love doing photography for a job, so my aim is to make enough money to get by at this stage, and if I have to do various sorts of photography to do it then so be it. I guess I’ll wait and see which type of photography comes out on top then concentrate on that. Who knows what the future brings!