Why getting in to photography is a bad idea

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Be interesting to know how much I've spent on gear. Prolly 50k plus. But the only waste I could think of would be 150 quid buying and selling a cack canon 400d
 


Bit of both tbh... I love doing weddings, I'm good with people and after getting married myself felt it would be a really nice thing to be involved in... however it also pays for all my kit and I couldn't buy half of what I do unless it was because it would benefit the business (even if sometimes I buy it because I want it and use the business aspect as an excuse lol).



I reckon if I can clear £1k a wedding in a few years time, and do maybe 18 a year, then do some commercial stuff on top of that and make another £3k, then add a few family shoots in, baby bump etc I can make about £25k a year which is decent and about what I'm on now.

Might do a bit of part time photography teaching too which would add to the yearly income and as I'm a qualified teacher it's something I should be able to find work doing I think / hope.

It's not something I could ever turn over £50k a year doing I wouldn't imagine, but I'd love what I did and sometimes that's more important IMO

Clearly summit you enjoy doing, hope you get there in the end. I've made about £600 in total from prints and one paid job.. thats £100 for every month i've had the 7d :lol:

You should look to make more money from framed & mounted prints as well - you can make allot of money from that.
 
Of course you can recoup the outlay on them.

I only need to do 2 weddings at £550 each and that's my 7D paid for.

Admittedly I need more than that to pay for the rest of the kit like but should hopefully get them in.

You are you, I'm talking about the average Joe bloggs buying a dslr
 
Clearly summit you enjoy doing, hope you get there in the end. I've made about £600 in total from prints and one paid job.. thats £100 for every month i've had the 7d :lol:

You should look to make more money from framed & mounted prints as well - you can make allot of money from that.

Thanks mate, yeah I love it... not just the photography either but the business side too.

I've just started adding in an 'extra items' price list with the disk of images I send out to customers in the hope of adding a little extra cash to every wedding I do. It's something I need to push more though, but buying samples etc isn't cheap and I've kind of blown my budget / overdraft / credit limit on the new lenses sadly.

You are you, I'm talking about the average Joe bloggs buying a dslr

Ahh right yeah you're spot on there then tbh.

Not picking on anyone on here but I've noticed and even chatted to people about their 5d mark ii's etc when they are just taking pics of their kids or what ever. Made me realise that a lot of people probably get sucked in to buying stuff they don't really need.
 
Thanks mate, yeah I love it... not just the photography either but the business side too.

I've just started adding in an 'extra items' price list with the disk of images I send out to customers in the hope of adding a little extra cash to every wedding I do. It's something I need to push more though, but buying samples etc isn't cheap and I've kind of blown my budget / overdraft / credit limit on the new lenses sadly.

Get your self a decent custom made frame & mount and get one of your favorite images printed to fit and take it with you when you drop the images off. People love to see the images printed and framed, in the couple jobs i've done i've had success making money from the prints this way..
 
might be abit tough for you, in your line of work aswell? cannot imagine the pro landscape photographer making out but filum commercially viable TBH..

Certainly less competition doing what I do than weddings oc. And I have the track record of sales. But publishers are also far tighter and are only keen to publish now with a virtual promise of sales. Not necessarily a bad thing, veering me toward the most commercial projects
 
Get your self a decent custom made frame & mount and get one of your favorite images printed to fit and take it with you when you drop the images off. People love to see the images printed and framed, in the couple jobs i've done i've had success making money from the prints this way..

I don't drop the images off mate... got far too much on with the business and the day job to be going to people's houses with the images. I just post them.

It's something I'm going to show during pre-wedding meetings though and also put some stuff on my site I think that has examples.

You're right though that it can be a good money spinner.
 
Certainly less competition doing what I do than weddings oc. And I have the track record of sales. But publishers are also far tighter and are only keen to publish now with a virtual promise of sales. Not necessarily a bad thing, veering me toward the most commercial projects

yeah but, the actual images you take have to be commercially viable in the first place don't they? you finding you can do that on a DSLR and compete with the quality of your pano's?

I don't drop the images off mate... got far too much on with the business and the day job to be going to people's houses with the images. I just post them.

It's something I'm going to show during pre-wedding meetings though and also put some stuff on my site I think that has examples.

You're right though that it can be a good money spinner.

you should marra, missing a trick there. Put a shirt and tie on, take in the iPad and a couple framed samples of you previous work. Sell sell sell..

If you do bump and baby stuff it is hard for the ma' to say no..
 
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yeah but, the actual images you take have to be commercially viable in the first place don't they? you finding you can do that on a DSLR and compete with the quality of your pano's?



you should marra, missing a trick there. Put a shirt and tie on, take in the iPad and a couple framed samples of you previous work. Sell sell sell..

If you do bump and baby stuff it is hard for the ma' to say no..

Don't use a dslr sean ;)

The quality is better than film tbh. Why I resisted so long is the only mystery

Well, quality in terms of sharpness. There are other measures. But I've got better with colours too


:lol:
 
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you should marra, missing a trick there. Put a shirt and tie on, take in the iPad and a couple framed samples of you previous work. Sell sell sell..

If you do bump and baby stuff it is hard for the ma' to say no..


Aye I need to do more hard selling like but I'm not so keen on that approach as it's a bit door to door style for my liking.

I'm thinking of more doing a little brochure that comes with the package and they can go through it and order from that. I'd then call them or e-mail a few days later to chase them up.
 
Don't use a dslr sean ;)

The quality is better than film tbh. Why I resisted so long is the only mystery

Well, quality in terms of sharpness. There are other measures. But I've got better with colours too



:lol:
what do you use? I always was under the impression you were still using film
 
what do you use? I always was under the impression you were still using film

Since January Horseman swd, and Cambo wds with phase one back

Only use film with the 300m lens now, as there's no suitable lenses that long for the digi
 
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