How to make money with photography - Part 1 / introduction

Making money with photography, who doesn’t like that thought? Nowadays owning a camera is as normal as it has ever been. Cameras are getting cheaper and cheaper and seeing as earlier this year over 77% of all Americans own smartphones, there are fewer and fewer people who don’t have any means to take a photograph wherever they are.

Although no real competition compared to DSLR cameras in terms of quality and options, smartphone cameras are getting better with every new update. This fact, combined with the speed and technological improvements of the digital age we are living in, makes it harder for traditional photographers to make a living and here is why:

• Traditional print is slowly getting swallowed by digital platforms. Let’s be honest, how many people still read newspapers? Do you really think our kids will? Everything is being digitized and the percentage of the world’s population with access to the internet is growing rapidly every day. Exclusivity is hard to come by these days so it has become all about speed.
• Apart from the factor of speed, quality is also important. Like I said earlier, the latest smartphone cameras are so good right now that they are good enough to use instantly. As mentioned above it should not be forgotten that most content is being viewed on digital screens anyway so the resolution is always perfect.

This applies to news coverage mostly, but this digital age also means every single company, big or small, has a website and/or is using multiple Social Media outlets. Not to mention blogs or other websites. I’m sure you can imagine what the demand for good images is on a daily basis and these images all have to be collected. Because it is very expensive and time consuming to hire a photographer, stocksites have been created. These are websites with literally millions of images ready to be licensed and used. This typically costs someone between a few pennies and several hundreds of dollars.

Obviously part of this money comes back to the photographer who took the photo and uploaded it. Two of the most well-known websites are Getty and Shutterstock. These websites have such an extensive collection of photos that it’s very cost-efficient for buyers to use these. They typically have very high quality standards and only photographers who put in a lot of time and effort will get a decent ROI here. There are a few downsides to these major players though, for example most images look staged and lack authenticity.

I have tried the traditional stock websites, spent a lot of time uploading many photos and adding all necessary information and keywords for them to be found. Sadly, not much has come out of it. There are some photographers who are truly successful here and make a very healthy living out of it, but it’s very time consuming and frankly…not a lot of fun.

This brings us back to the smartphone and that’s where this will become interesting for the average photographer who doesn’t have enough time, equipment or knowledge to get involved into the big league. The most authentic photos are taken in the heat of the moment and usually there isn’t anyone around with a real camera. Most people have tons of photos on their smartphone they don’t really do anything with. If only they knew how to open this treasure chest…

~ This article will continue tomorrow in part 2 where I will tell you about my favorite stocksite that operates very differently and makes everything a lot more fun and profitable so anyone can earn money with their photography!  

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