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Tag Archives: business
6 Guidelines for Finding Your Photographic Niche
Greetings, readers. I’m Erick, and this is a first post on DSLR Blog. This will be the first is a long series of articles on the business of photography, all targeted toward advanced enthusiasts interested in starting and running a photography business. While I’ll post an about me introduction later, for now, I just wanted to point out I’m also the editor of two other blogs: the photo gear blog SLR Geek and the group pro photographer blog Photocrati.
Since specialization of photographic energy is the subject of this post, let me also add that I specialize in Asian editorial imagery.
With that, onward. In this first article, i want to take up the subject of photographic specialties. You know you need one to transition from enthusiast to pro, but how do you find a niche?
Deciding areas in which to specialize your photographic efforts is, ultimately, a very personal decision. And it’s important, because your career will display “path dependency”—once you develop a reputation and established relationships with buyers, there will be strong pressure and incentives to keep shooting in the same niche.
Based on my own experience and photography volumes, I would suggest there are six important factors to keep in mind in picking on niche. Continue reading
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Earning Money from Photography
If you see photography as a quick route to riches you might want to think again, some sobering information on photographer salaries from The Online Photographer .
I do think it is worth pointing out that “salary” and “Income” to a self-employed person or to a company are not always equal (or declared), plus how many of these people who earn less than £5k a year are doing it on a part-time basis? What is the definition of “photographer”? Someone who has sold the rights to one image on Alamy could call themselves a “Pro Photographer”, someone who snaps the odd wedding could do the same.
The main reason for average low income is the same as any freelance industry where there is a low barrier to entry therefore a glut of low-experience people entering. It creates a buyers market and drives down fees for all but the top 2%.
Having said that it wouldn’t take too much for a determined person to earn a healthy side income, I have been thinking about it myself. For example a couple or few paid wedding gigs would put you over National Geo’s bottom end. The main factors are similar to any business:
None of these are unique to photography, you could see the same problems facing any freelancer or small business.
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