Realistically,
What Photography and Videography businesses can make money?
And I do not mean >hurrdurr high end fashion photographers make heapz
I mean more specifically, realistic businesses the average photographer or videographer could start and actually make a great living with?
For example, the most obvious choice
>Weddings
An industry that does not decline even during a recession, is always in demand and as long as you arent a complete moron, can network and make a basic website you could enter the market and start making money, as opposed to trying to get work for some high end fashion designer.
But what else?
Specifically for you videofags out there, what market can you realistically enter and make GOOD money?
Why am I asking? I know a Canon explorer of light who makes less than the average wage and has to work a fucking shit 9 to 5 job to make ends meat, so fuck that shit.. I want to make money with the skills I have not struggle for life.
>>2746027
>I mean more specifically, realistic businesses the average photographer or videographer could start and actually make a great living with?
It's possible, yes, but you won't like it much. it's a grind, of making the customer happy. And the customer doesn't know anything about art, and doesn't care much for your creativity. You'll be shooting weddings, and events, and newborns, and senior portraits.
>>2746027
School photographers and stock photographers have always been profitable. Sure, you can operate your iPhone well enough to take a photo, but can you corral 2000 kids and photograph them all in less than a day?
>>2746027
>great living
>photographer
Pick one.
>>2746050
>implying you cant make bank doing photography
A family member of mine shoots 50 weddings per year at a BASE RATE of 4.5k per wedding, she refuses to take more than 50 so she refers other photographer friends to the clients and takes a cut from every referral.
She is an AVERAGE wedding photographer, self taught and with no prior business skills.
You are fucking retarded if you cant make money with photography.
As a comparison the local high quality photographers charges 7k per wedding and is booked up all year.
>>2746030
Lol the school does most the work usually
>as long as you arent a complete moron, can network and make a basic website you could enter the market and start making money
So much bullshit.
Making a living (as opposed to just beer money) through photography is fucking hard. Just because it's relatively easy to get paid cash in hand to shoot a friend's wedding on the cheap doesn't mean you can scale that up to the point where you can support a family or pay a mortgage. It's a whole different world. Stock photography is similar - lots of people can sell the odd image here or there but only a very few make a good living from that.
People who make decent money from normal photography (i.e. let's exclude the top-end art market etc) are great business people. There's way way more to it that a bit of networking and a website.
Reality check for you - the answer you are looking for is HARD WORK. I've never met a single successful person who sat around in a minimum wage job before one day becoming aware of some magical super easy route to money and a good lifestyle. If you're in a dead end job you're already way behind your peers - many of whom realised in school that work=success and put some effort into their education. If you really wanted a career in photography you'd be busting your ass doubling your shifts in your shitty job to save money for photography courses or the money to start a business rather than asking if anyone on /p/ knows a magically route to success (like we wouldn't be doing it ourselves if there was you fucktard!).
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Move to the suburbs around a large metroplex, and do pet photography.
People will always have pets. People will always love pets.
People will pay crazy amounts of money to have special memories of their pets.
Plus, you don't have to worry about bridezillas, or your photo sales on a stock website. You get to work with animals all day, and all you need to keep them happy and cooperative is a bag of treats, a squeaky ball, and a funny voice.
>>2746027
>average photographer or videographer
>make a great living
Why do you think that an average photographer/videographer should be able to make a great living?
>>2746068
...I think your standards for a decent paycheck are way the hell lower than mine, cause that is a shit job.
>>2746027
>An industry that does not decline even during a recession
Far less people are getting married now than one or two generations ago, while far more people have dSLRs and think they can make an entry into the professional wedding photography stage because it seems like a lot of fun and is "just" about taking happy pictures of people.
So not only is that niche in danger over a longer period of time... it is also overrun by morons who'll outbid you by doing shitty work for cheap.
Just like any other creative industry and/or niche.
The trust is, you're not going to be making a whole lot of money doing something creative unless 1)there's something you can do exceptionally, "elitistically" well, or 2) you can find the morons who are willing to pay but have no idea how to find the right person for the job despite massive over-supply of labor in the sector. (If you choose #2, be ready for a lot of customers that will truly get on your nerves because they'll likely not be informed about anything else from process to payment, so it'll be like dealing with a kindergarten.)
http://kenrockwell.com/tech/pro-not.htm
I know. Ken Rockwell's stuff is usually wonky and barely worth reading, but this text is not even about photography per se. It's about making money in general, including photography.
Read it, make some important realizations, and change the way you go about your business in this trade.
>Art direction and design are professions. These folks are paid for what they know and can imagine. They aren't paid to produce: the artists, photographers and carpenters do the production of what the art directors and designers imagined.
>When people do hobbies for money then one prefaces it with "professional," for instance, "professional golfer" or "professional photographer."
>There are no barriers to entry to the photography trade. All photographers are competing against an enormous sea of others at every skill level.
>You profit from this by knowing that even though many photographers don't know this, all clients do. They expect to haggle you down to working for peanuts, or even for free. Know this and you can plot to work around it, primarily by learning how to differentiate yourself from the sea of others.
>If you can't differentiate yourself, you'll walk into every potential job and believe the standard baloney lines like "we only budgeted this much for the job today, but if we like your work we have another project coming soon for which we can pay you much more." If you won't take their lowball offer, the next guy will.
Also, this one is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but...
http://kenrockwell.com/tech/what-is-a-pro.htm
>People who earn less than 50% of their income from photography are amateurs.
>People who shoot weddings every single weekend while holding down another job aren't professional photographers. People who sell prints at art fairs, but still have real jobs, are still amateurs.
>>2746397
So the T L;DR is that >>2746027 needs to stop thinking economics and structurally and realize that photography is just a trade where differentiation is key, and where moving up to the "profession" level of art direction, design, organizational stuff, contributes to that differentiation and being able to demand a higher price. And that it'll take all of your waking hours and should eventually be able to provide enough income to avoid being amateur-tier "I just do this on the side".
There's no set-in-stone solutions. Become a specialized bread photographer for all anyone cares. Still falls within photography, is still a trade. Make your profile, go make your money.
>>2746027
I shot sports (high school and professional), yearbook pictures, events, worked for a real estate agent taking pictures of interiors, took profile pics for grils, etc. while I was in high school.
I ate and paid my rent with photography and a part time job at a Mexican restaurant, and the money I saved is helping me now in uni, but you should know that even if your work is acceptable it's hard to make a living with just photography. If you can get by on a poverty-level income, it might work, but you have to hustle and get all the work you can get, and consistently do a good job.
>>2746027
Whats wrong with photography as hobby?
You can make heaps of money elsewhere as a professional without even struggling.
>>2746420
Hard to dedicate to it as a craft if you spend a lot of time working elsewhere.
Being a "pro" gives you access to people, places and things that being an amateur/hobbyist wouldn't.
>>2746441
This is the sort of absolute bullshit that only someone who has never done a days professional work would say.
If you're good with photoshop you can make a living easily. I make between $45 and $75/hr retouching 40hrs per week. Not exactly practicing photography in the literal sense but part of it.
>>2746632
How is it bullshit? Are you just being contrarian for the sake of it?
>>2747021
It's bullshit because anyone who isn't an aspie with a lack of social skills can easily have the same contacts, and thus access to people/places a 'pro' would.
The only real difference between an amateur and pro is where the paycheck is coming from.
>>2746637
If you really want to make money, jew the shit out of people who want to be photographers.
>>2747113
To elaborate on what I meant: if you're getting paid to do something, people are more likely to work with you to help you get the job done. They're more willing to be accommodating to your needs as a photographer so you can get whatever shot you want to get.
Having contacts like you said is par the course for being a pro photographer anyhow. Likewise, the average amateur/hobbyist isn't going to have a lot of those connections in the first place because it's not always that necessary. And good luck being able to set up an elaborate shoot with a high profile person in a secure area if all you are is a hobbyist photographer.
Again, social skills will already get you that without even having to to be paid. I've got access to properties and people most 'pros' never would in their lifetime. Unfortunately it's also the reason why I rarely post photos here, since it'd be incredibly easy to figure out who I am by doing that.
>>2746027
My best friend is a well known professional photographer and has won state awards/been in magazines. He shoots weddings and makes music videos for underground bands to make money.
He also works like 20 hours at a concrete company and lives in a rental for $300 per month. I just don't think you can make a real living doing photography (or anything arts related)
>>2747150
Your friend ain't shit. You can definitely make a "real living" doing photography.
>>2747145
Post the interior of an extremely wealthy person's house or something, and the list of people to narrow down gets real small, real fast.
>>2747144
>I've got access to properties and people most 'pros' never would in their lifetime
As the fucking pool cleaner.
>>2747175
Land surveyor, actually.
>>2747144
>I'm super important
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>>2747166
Being homeless is a real living too now.
>>2747171
>>2747183
>>2747185
>>2746027
Terminally ill kids.
All parents want a nice picture of their soon to be dead kids to remember them by.
And there isn't much competition because most photographer can't handle the feels.
>>2747307
I have literally never heard of anyone paying for/glorifying this.
