Your % of your earned income is from photography?

slackercruster · 07-10-2012, 03:38 PM

Your % of your earned income is from photography?

(Round up or down to the closest figure.)

Medium FormatPro · 07-10-2012, 03:53 PM

Complicated question.

There's a certain percentage which varies on a regular basis; even month to month.

Income from photography only; income from printing, and income from editing/storage.

**LaurenOE** · 07-10-2012, 04:18 PM

% of my income, as in now, 0.
I have done jobs over the years here and there for money, sure.
I believe in the old saving "You're only a pro when you get paid".

magkelly · 07-10-2012, 04:53 PM

I'm probably making 12-14K this year if I'm lucky. About half comes from flipping things, making crafts and selling them and similar stuff. The other half so far this year has come from photo shoots. I'm proud of that. I may actually make a living this year doing what I love. First time ever and while it may not be the most posh living it's still better than waiting for the phone to ring and temping. I hope to eventually be making 40-50K a year doing mostly photography but also selling my craft stuff, flipping stuff. I've got a novel I've been submitting too and I'm working on the photo tips book too. I'm really hoping one or both of those will sell eventually. I have been published (Couple times it was a freebie thing but I actually sold one short story and a NF piece.) in some small magazines a few times over the years but I'd really love to make my living exclusively from my photography and my writing eventually. Flipping collectibles and sewing up stuff is fun but it's also very time consuming and I'd rather write fiction and do boudoir shoots.

mtansley · 07-10-2012, 05:18 PM

At the moment 100% of my earned income is from photography since I'm currently unemployed (benefits have run out and am currently living on savings) from the computer field (still looking) but do get a few houses to photograph for real estate agents and will be photographing school students in the fall for a company.

Once I'm successful in again finding a full-time computer related job, the photography income should shoot down to less than 10% unfortunately.

slackercruster · 07-10-2012, 05:38 PM

Originally posted by Medium FormatPro

Complicated question.

There's a certain percentage which varies on a regular basis; even month to month.

Income from photography only; income from printing, and income from editing/storage.

Just give a rough idea on a yearly basis.

slackercruster · 07-10-2012, 05:40 PM

Originally posted by magkelly

I'm probably making 12-14K this year if I'm lucky. About half comes from flipping things, making crafts and selling them and similar stuff. The other half so far this year has come from photo shoots. I'm proud of that. I may actually make a living this year doing what I love. First time ever and while it may not be the most posh living it's still better than waiting for the phone to ring and temping. I hope to eventually be making 40-50K a year doing mostly photography but also selling my craft stuff, flipping stuff. I've got a novel I've been submitting too and I'm working on the photo tips book too. I'm really hoping one or both of those will sell eventually. I have been published (Couple times it was a freebie thing but I actually sold one short story and a NF piece.) in some small magazines a few times over the years but I'd really love to make my living exclusively from my photography and my writing eventually. Flipping collectibles and sewing up stuff is fun but it's also very time consuming and I'd rather write fiction and do boudoir shoots.

...like them red lips. but gotta stay on topic. You make it HARD to do that! You should have had that one marked as NSFW-ish!

magkelly · 07-11-2012, 06:02 PM

NSFW? Those red lips of mine are that distracting? Mmm, and here I was about to put my new avatar on a T-shirt! Anyway YOU should talk about too sexy content. They can't even post some of your best shots on here sans a blur cause it's just too too frisky for some people and makes the poor little dears blush... ;P But that's me and the K-30. Darn camera is so sexy it practically makes me have an orgasm just looking at it! Thing might as well be a rabbit vibe the naughty thoughts it puts into my head. Probably Pentax wouldn't appreciate my saying that, but tis TRUE....

Parallax · 07-12-2012, 05:13 AM

Groucho Marx once said "I sent the club a wire stating: I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER".
That's the way I feel about selling my photos. I don't want to associate with people who's taste in photography is so bad that they would be willing to pay for my pictures.

Medium FormatPro · 07-12-2012, 05:14 AM

Originally posted by slackercruster

Just give a rough idea on a yearly basis

Last calender year - 2011...

Through photography only work - enough to purchase a Hasselblad H4 50ms and a Mamiya Credo 80. Although last year the Credo wasn't even out yet - that should give some the idea of the numbers. Although on that aspect of work - most all of that income is immediately spent on ll kinds of camera gear, but more so on computer hardware. As an example. I've always liked my 10k++ Origin laptop, but I'm also seriously considering at 25k++ Falcon Northwest. Last calender year I spent well over 100k on computer hardware alone.

Conserative income amount... I'm one of the top 100 highest payed photographers. But I'm not in it for income - more for the creativity. I'd even do all of these three areas of work combined for about 50k if it was all exclusively about creativity.

Printing income: the amount varies, but enough to afford some of the best printer hardware ever made. I could easily spend 1k++ a month on just two printers, and also get good busines rates in doing so. Last year cleared at least 20k in printing

Storage and editing... Let me define this one further first. For the editing side one naturally has Adobe CS6 plus many, many plug ins. For storage it just depends. I have regular "access" to items such as Corbis and also Iron Mountain and two other true archival sites. Amount earned from editing and storage, about 10k - not much really considering how much time and efforts and all.

View Poll Results: Your % of your earned income is from photography?
100%	1	3.57%
75%	0	0%
50%	1	3.57%
25%	1	3.57%
10%	3	10.71%
0%...but I hope to make $ with photography!	3	10.71%
0% ...never tried, don't care, just love photography!	19	67.86%
Voters: 28. You may not vote on this poll

07-10-2012, 03:38 PM	#1
slackercruster Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: NE, USA Posts: 1,302	Your % of your earned income is from photography? Your % of your earned income is from photography? (Round up or down to the closest figure.)

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07-10-2012, 03:53 PM	#2
Medium FormatPro Banned Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Charleston & Pittsburgh Photos: Albums Posts: 1,683	Complicated question. There's a certain percentage which varies on a regular basis; even month to month. Income from photography only; income from printing, and income from editing/storage.

07-10-2012, 04:18 PM	#3
LaurenOE Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Photos: Albums Posts: 3,573	% of my income, as in now, 0. I have done jobs over the years here and there for money, sure. I believe in the old saving "You're only a pro when you get paid".

07-10-2012, 04:53 PM	#4
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,905	I'm probably making 12-14K this year if I'm lucky. About half comes from flipping things, making crafts and selling them and similar stuff. The other half so far this year has come from photo shoots. I'm proud of that. I may actually make a living this year doing what I love. First time ever and while it may not be the most posh living it's still better than waiting for the phone to ring and temping. I hope to eventually be making 40-50K a year doing mostly photography but also selling my craft stuff, flipping stuff. I've got a novel I've been submitting too and I'm working on the photo tips book too. I'm really hoping one or both of those will sell eventually. I have been published (Couple times it was a freebie thing but I actually sold one short story and a NF piece.) in some small magazines a few times over the years but I'd really love to make my living exclusively from my photography and my writing eventually. Flipping collectibles and sewing up stuff is fun but it's also very time consuming and I'd rather write fiction and do boudoir shoots.

07-10-2012, 05:18 PM	#5
mtansley Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Ajax, Ontario, Canada Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,139	At the moment 100% of my earned income is from photography since I'm currently unemployed (benefits have run out and am currently living on savings) from the computer field (still looking) but do get a few houses to photograph for real estate agents and will be photographing school students in the fall for a company. Once I'm successful in again finding a full-time computer related job, the photography income should shoot down to less than 10% unfortunately.

07-10-2012, 05:38 PM	#6
slackercruster Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: NE, USA Posts: 1,302 Original Poster	Originally posted by Medium FormatPro Complicated question. There's a certain percentage which varies on a regular basis; even month to month. Income from photography only; income from printing, and income from editing/storage. Just give a rough idea on a yearly basis.

07-10-2012, 05:40 PM	#7
slackercruster Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: NE, USA Posts: 1,302 Original Poster	Originally posted by magkelly I'm probably making 12-14K this year if I'm lucky. About half comes from flipping things, making crafts and selling them and similar stuff. The other half so far this year has come from photo shoots. I'm proud of that. I may actually make a living this year doing what I love. First time ever and while it may not be the most posh living it's still better than waiting for the phone to ring and temping. I hope to eventually be making 40-50K a year doing mostly photography but also selling my craft stuff, flipping stuff. I've got a novel I've been submitting too and I'm working on the photo tips book too. I'm really hoping one or both of those will sell eventually. I have been published (Couple times it was a freebie thing but I actually sold one short story and a NF piece.) in some small magazines a few times over the years but I'd really love to make my living exclusively from my photography and my writing eventually. Flipping collectibles and sewing up stuff is fun but it's also very time consuming and I'd rather write fiction and do boudoir shoots. ...like them red lips. but gotta stay on topic. You make it HARD to do that! You should have had that one marked as NSFW-ish!

07-11-2012, 06:02 PM	#8
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,905	NSFW? Those red lips of mine are that distracting? Mmm, and here I was about to put my new avatar on a T-shirt! Anyway YOU should talk about too sexy content. They can't even post some of your best shots on here sans a blur cause it's just too too frisky for some people and makes the poor little dears blush... ;P But that's me and the K-30. Darn camera is so sexy it practically makes me have an orgasm just looking at it! Thing might as well be a rabbit vibe the naughty thoughts it puts into my head. Probably Pentax wouldn't appreciate my saying that, but tis TRUE....

07-12-2012, 05:13 AM	#9
Parallax Moderator Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: South Dakota Photos: Gallery Posts: 15,779	Groucho Marx once said "I sent the club a wire stating: I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER". That's the way I feel about selling my photos. I don't want to associate with people who's taste in photography is so bad that they would be willing to pay for my pictures.

07-12-2012, 05:14 AM	#10
Medium FormatPro Banned Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Charleston & Pittsburgh Photos: Albums Posts: 1,683	Originally posted by slackercruster Just give a rough idea on a yearly basis Last calender year - 2011... Through photography only work - enough to purchase a Hasselblad H4 50ms and a Mamiya Credo 80. Although last year the Credo wasn't even out yet - that should give some the idea of the numbers. Although on that aspect of work - most all of that income is immediately spent on ll kinds of camera gear, but more so on computer hardware. As an example. I've always liked my 10k++ Origin laptop, but I'm also seriously considering at 25k++ Falcon Northwest. Last calender year I spent well over 100k on computer hardware alone. Conserative income amount... I'm one of the top 100 highest payed photographers. But I'm not in it for income - more for the creativity. I'd even do all of these three areas of work combined for about 50k if it was all exclusively about creativity. Printing income: the amount varies, but enough to afford some of the best printer hardware ever made. I could easily spend 1k++ a month on just two printers, and also get good busines rates in doing so. Last year cleared at least 20k in printing Storage and editing... Let me define this one further first. For the editing side one naturally has Adobe CS6 plus many, many plug ins. For storage it just depends. I have regular "access" to items such as Corbis and also Iron Mountain and two other true archival sites. Amount earned from editing and storage, about 10k - not much really considering how much time and efforts and all.