The Key Ingredient to making Money as a Hobby Photographer

Even though I do make money with my camera and spend time thinking about ways to make even more money from photography, when it comes down to it I consider myself a hobbyist.

 

And it’s okay to be a hobbyist. In fact photography is a great hobby.  It’s a hobby that gets you out of the house and away from your screens, pushes you towards fantastic adventures in other countries, hikes through beautiful landscapes, the exploration of places you would never have been. Or maybe you just like cameras,  your dad did photography and you just inherited it. Or perhaps it’s just an opportunity to be creative in a way you can’t be at your day job.

 

And while being a hobbyist may not have the cool factor that being a professional has, there are still so many great things about being a hobbyist. 

 

First, there is the freedom to do whatever you want. I can jump in my car and just go. No plan, no agenda, no shot list. If I want to go downtown and photograph architecture I can, if I want to do street photography, no problem. Maybe I can head out into the country and look for abandoned properties. Yup, I can do that.

 

In away its great. I have the freedom to decide what I want to do, when I want to do it. And there is no pressure. If I only get a few crappy photos, then so what. Sure I get a little disappointed but there is absolutely nothing riding on it, certainly not my next mortgage payment. And to be honest, I forget about my failure on Monday morning when I am back in the office.

 

But if you want to make money at photography, even as a hobbyist, you have to change one thing to be successful.  And I am assuming you have the skills.  And I have been thinking about this quite a lot lately. I have achieved a certain level as a hobbyist, I sell a certain amount on stock photography sites, I do get a few clients, and I make some spare change on YouTube.  But I am stuck at a certain level. Beyond that level, doing better, doesn’t seem to be in the cards.

 

So what would I need to do if I wanted to start going up again? At the very least, I think one needs to start thinking like a professional, like someone that is actually running a business. There is just no way around it. 


You have to do the things that business owners and other professional do in order to run successful businesses.  It’s not that hard frankly, but you have to want to do it and then you have to execute.

 

You have to do things like identify your market, determine whether that market needs what your selling, get the right tools.  Maybe my Nikon Z6 that’s pretty old by now isn’t going to be sufficient.  Maybe you actually need to start creating shot lists, getting to those spots at the time of day necessary to fulfil the needs of the project. Maybe you need to take photographs of things that you don't necessarily enjoy! 

 

And you might need  to go further than the focus and discipline in the act of picture taking, and that’s where things really change from being a hobbyist. You can build the external appearance of being a business, for example, a professional website with the utilities built in to engage in e-commerce.  Right now, if I stumble into client work I am using google drop box and trust that someone is going to send me something over PayPal in return. It’s not really all that serious and I probably look like someone that’s not all that into this whole thing. And if you look like I look, you’re not going to get paid beyond the level of your visible credibility.

 

So the question is whether you want to be a hobbyist or a business, a hobbyist or a professional.  And to be honest, I don’t have an answer to that question. The pull of being a hobbyist is just too strong for me to overcome at this point and I have no choice but to accept the results of the fact. 


Here are some photos I regularly license which don't excite me. 














Sell your travel photos! Check out Shutterstock for more information! 

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