[NYpHoToGraphEr]

I am interested in knowing if Landscape and selling stock photos can
make you a comfortable living?

I know that portrait,commerical,food,news photography can provide a steady job
and living but can you make a living taking pictures of flowers and trees and streets?

[Tom Lusk]

is that "comfortable living" would probably turn out to be like...

"starving artist"

[NYpHoToGraphEr]

so your saying you cant make money.
or at least it's very hard?
and it's better to stick to
portrait or commercial for
security.

[Tom Lusk]

What is a comfortable living for one person may be poverty level for another.

I can't see too many people making a comfortable living at photography, especially as more and more people are capable of making quality photos on their own. Magazines pay, on average (in my experience) $100-300 for a photo. You'd have to sell maybe 200 or more per year to make any money. Stock photo sites pay pennies per sale, I believe.

I know two award-winning photographers, that had their own successful, established studios for over 15 years each. Both now do photography on the side as they had to take more "conventional" jobs to support their families.

I'm sure there are many who make a decent living as full-time wedding/event photographers, but I don't know any.

[NYpHoToGraphEr]

I know a wedding photographer who is rich really.
But I know thats its because of the high demand and
stuff. What about a home based portrait studio?
And weddings dont attract me at all.

[vievetrick]

NY read around. Curious how old are you? Is this something you are thinking of doing? I have read, at least on most photo forums that you can as Tom said make a little money but overall more people make alot less then they think they will. You would need great sharp amazing images of things that will sell. Good luck in your search. But I may suggest, Don't quit the day job just yet.

[NYpHoToGraphEr]

I'm 16 almost 17 but I have some good pictures.

[stewart_photo]

I am interested in knowing if Landscape and selling stock photos can make you a comfortable living?

I know that portrait, commerical, food, news photography can provide a steady job and living but can you make a living taking pictures of flowers and trees and streets?

Okay, I'm going to weigh in a bit here. Because there is far more supply (people who can take good images) than demand (clients looking for images), every area of photography is extremely competitive. You can reduce competition by focusing on subjects few others are doing, but you will never completely eliminate it.

At the same time, professional photography is often very expensive. Even a moderately equipped portrait studio can run into thousands of dollars (rent, utilities, furnishings, phone, photo equipment, etc), and that doesn't include ongoing advertising and promotion costs for the business itself. You can reduce this burden by using your home as a studio early in your career. But, since most residential property is zoned non-commercial in the USA, you'll eventually have to move to expensive commercial property (leased or owned) to gain enough customers to make any real money.

Some attempt to get around zoning by moving to remote areas, but customers are seldom willing to travel far. Nonetheless, some have been successful using this tactic, either by increasing advertising to prompt customers to travel further or being lucky enough to find an un-zoned area not that far from the potential customer base. By the way, a larger, well equipped, studio for commercial photography will increase those costs many times over, while photography solely on location (weddings, etc) can cut studio costs (making this an attractive, but very competitive, option).

Anyway, lets get to your original question about landscape photography and stock photo agencies. Sadly, the market for this type of photography is very low simply because there are few clients looking for these types of images. Calendar and greeting card companies are the two largest buyers, and neither use that many images. For example, while a typical magazine might use anywhere between 600-1500 images per year, a typical calendar usually only involves 12-14 images. At the same time, both of these industries (calendars and greeting cards) are flooded at the moment, driving profits down (which also drives down what these companies are willing to pay for images).

So can one really "make a living" from photography? Of course. There are many photographers, including myself, doing exactly that. However, far more fail than succeed, with actual photography skill seldom the determining factor. Instead, success often depends more on how well one understands business, finance, marketing, promotion, the clients, the client's business (for commercial work), and so on. Financial resources play a role, as does professional appearance, behavior, and manners. And, of course, all of this is in addition to being a reliable, competent, photographer.

stewart

[NYpHoToGraphEr]

Wow Stewart thanks a lot for that rundown.
I do think though that in my neighborhood and with my
potential I could actually become really big.(let me explain)
I live in a very Jewish Orthodox neighborhood where they don't really
know much about the arts. I know a wedding photographer
who makes a ton because there are so many weddings and not so many
jewish photographers in his neighborhood. I think that if I were to become a
home based portrait photographer who is less-religious and more knowledge
in photography I see that people make so much money that way.

[stewart_photo]

Well, it sounds like you have a game plan. The key now is figuring out how to exploit that successfully. If your goal is to make money, even at something you enjoy, never forget that it's a business first and should always be approached from that perspective. After all, if you're successful as a business, you'll be able to keep doing the thing you enjoy instead of something you may not enjoy as much. Take care.

stewart

[roscot]

One thing that you must always keep in mind, if you are thinking of turning pro, is no matter what area you decide to specialize in, the bulk of your time and effort is going to be in running the business. Sales, marketing accounting, payroll, etc. A much smaller percentage, 10-20% maybe, will involve actual photography. Most people do not realize how much time and effort it takes to run a small business - any small business.

A good business education in addition to your photographic skills, will teach you to be successful. When I was at RIT, business and marketing courses were required if you were enrolled in the Professional Photo program. I think that says a lot about what kind of effort it takes to be a successful pro.

I don't wish to discourage you, just the opposite in fact, but you must be realistic and knowledgeable about what it takes to reach your goals.

[NYpHoToGraphEr]

Thanks guys.
Like I said I am very young only 16 but I have a couple nice pics
Flickr: Photos from NYPhotGhaPher
I am also trying to get into the pentax photo gallery.

[jmdeegan]

One thing to keep in mind is that Brooklyn (and most of the 5 boroughs) have a lot of wedding photographers-although, not sure about targeting specific groups. Our wedding photog has a storefront in Brooklyn, and while I know it's a pricey area, they do awesome work and, at least based on how busy they were and how they dressed and travelled, their guys were well paid (or had other jobs they never mentioned). I know this group had a few younger guys working with them on the shoots-and not just grunt work, they did allow them to work the cameras too, which I thought was cool

Might not be a bad idea to ask around at some places to work part time to make some money and make contacts and really understand what is available out there. While I've never tried to make it as a photographer, I've worked at a few business ideas, which have not lifted off because while at first thought it seemed like a great idea with a wide open market, additional research turned up issues-unseen competition, no real market, etc.

Hopefully, your luck will be different-to be your own boss...tis the American dream, I'd think.

[NYpHoToGraphEr]

Well tomorrow I'm gonna help a friend and takes pictures of his kids program for free.
I told him that I would want to do something with the pictures like use it in my portfolio
and post it on a news website he said it was not a problem.
He needs the pictures for an ad so he can get more participants.
Oh and this is the 2nd time I do this there were 3 groups of kids,
First group was a nightmare and they didn't stop going crazy when I pointed the camera
at them while that may be fun they were supposed to be doing something.
The others (groups) didn't look at me once it was great.
This time when I go there I will tell them to try and ignore me as much as possible
any tips?

This will be good practice for me too

[George Lama]

I like your idea of specializing, particularly considering the area you live in. However, if your interest is in landscape/nature photography and stock photography, don't let that go just for the pursuit of money.

I love insect photography but I know there is no money in it. However, every time someone walks into the studio and sees my insect photos, they go "Wow", particularly the kids. In my opinion, having a variety of subjects/styles shows depth, perhaps a willingness to be flexible. The last thing you want is for people to look at your portfolio and see the same thing over and over.

I would say shoot what you want, and yes, shoot what you think will make money for you too.

About shooting kids (I love saying that ) - I'm shooting a baby calendar for a local paper, so it's 0-3 year olds every night through next week. As we do with all kid shoots, my wife (and business manager) handles the distractions and I shoot. She will stand next to me or behind me and work on getting them to do as needed while I worry about shooting. We communicate well with few words and since we know what we want before we begin (we do have plans on what types of photos we would like to get, some poses to try, etc) we can keep things under control.

Don't tell the kids to not pay attention to you. Have someone else get their attention and you move about capturing what you need. Depending on your lens, step back a bit so they don't worry about you so much.

Be flexible. This week alone I've crawled and laid on the floor in slacks, shirt, and tie just to get the shot. Try different angles and most of all, since you can't always check the shot before moving on, take multiple shots in case the kid(s) move, look away, blink, etc.

Depending on the age of the kids, bring toys. Ask the parents to help you out - they know their kids better than you.

There's a book to be written about this stuff, but I hope this helps you a bit.