p.1 #1 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
Hi all,
I am really curious to see how many people here do photography full time and earn a living with it? If so, what is the best way to have consistent cashflow coming in? Weddings?
What's the average salary for a photographer? I would love to eventually be able to leave my job and pursue my passion full time.
p.1 #2 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
Here's a comprehensive compilation of survey data by PDN that covers the entire country, not just the 30-40 working pro's who frequent this forum. This should give you an idea of the state of photography within America.
EDIT: The link I gave is broken. Sorry. Anybody else?
Edited by Jonathan H on Nov 07, 2007 at 02:20 PM GMT
p.1 #5 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
Sorry about the dead link. Also sorry about the terrible interstitial ads. God I hate those.
Anyway, as I recall, the bottom end was fine art photogs at about $35K and the top end was unsurprisingly held by commercial shooters in the $150K range. Of course, keep in mind that if anybody in the Chase Jarvis/Annie Leibovitz range respnded, they definitely would have thrown off the $150K average, seeing as they probably take home 20-50K per assignment.
I've seen the chart posted here before, maybe someone wants to dig through the archives? Also,m any PDN subscribers here with access to old issues?
p.1 #6 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
I've got a PDN Online subscription, but you'd need my account to access subscriber articles. Basically, go to a library and leaf through their annual "50 States" issue - it's got the survey Jonathan's referencing.
A couple things to consider: most photographers aren't salaried employees with the possible exception of newspaper shooters and folks who shoot for large wedding studios. For the most part, photographers are hired on a per-project or per-contract basis, so our incomes can be unpredictable and uneven. I've regularly gone a couple months at a time without a gig. If you're looking for job security, look elsewhere. If you're looking for subsidized medical benefits and a retirement plan, look elsewhere. If you're looking to make your own hours, make your own decisions, hustle constantly for work but have the opportunity to take great pride and initiative in your work then it might be worth pursuing.
The number of opportunities available to you is going to depend on where you are geographically and what kind of work you do. It won't be a matter of what is most lucrative, it'll be a matter of what you can get hired and paid to do. It's great to decide to do weddings because they can be a good source of income, but can you actually build a solid wedding portfolio and get hired to shoot one at a competitive rate? Are you in a place where you're likely to get booked for more than a handful of weddings a year? Are you prepared to invest in the equipment and self-promotion it'll take to start getting hired and working?
It's unlikely that you'll suddenly be able to leave your job and make a comparable living as a photographer. More realistically, you'll spend some time straddling both until you build up enough of a nest egg to quit your job and starve for 6 months while you initially make a go at photography full-time, and it will probably be additional couple years before you're earning anywhere near at the same level, assuming it ever happens. Professional photography can be a very tough gig and it's certainly a lifestyle choice.
p.1 #7 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
The link worked for me. We'll try again: LINKY
The link was to an allbusiness.com article about the PDN survey. Unfortunately, the page contains broken links. (Over a year old, after all.)
My prior comment was only half in jest. When young people ask me about a career in photography, I tell them that it's certainly possible, but they need to study business.
This always raises eyebrows. "BUSINESS?" Yep. And an awful lot depends on the market you're in (or choose to be in).
p.1 #9 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
I have a contract with the local business newspaper (which has 3 publications total), which brings in a substantial portion of my income. The I have my other clients, which are smaller, but add to it...one of them is another contract with a construction company, then occasional work from my others monthly. Wedding supplement me about once a month. So basically, it's like I have 10 different jobs...esp. if you include having the family at the end of the day.
p.1 #11 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
paparrazi are millionaires and take the cake i'm sure!
Nov 08, 2007 at 05:10 PM
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p.1 #12 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
robert hasty wrote:
paparrazi are millionaires and take the cake i'm sure!
I bet there are as many starving pap as there are starving artists
I looked at a few studio to buy - pa, maryland, kansas, and WV. All are 25+ year stablished studios that do general photography - seniors, family, corp headshots, etc.. Most don't do weddings (you can make more money with less work shooting 4 or 5 seniors on a saturday than a wedding). None of them were worth buying - the main photog took home $30-50k a year - BUT I'd have the debt of buying the place that would come out of that money...they all were debt free.
If you want a job in photography good luck. If you want to run your own business then you get paid last - after the bills and any employees you may have, and you need to pony up the $20,000 to $1,000,000 to get started (home based wedding photog to full blown turnkey main street type studio) If you start /own a business remember that you'll spend at least 50% of your time on the business aspects (books, accounting, planning, marketing, hiring/employee, sales, etc).
p.1 #15 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
I generally do not like advertising this, but I have done adult oriented photography (read whatever you want into it). But on average I take home $600+/hr.
When I factor in all the additional work I do on other projects (PP, meeting with customers, etc) it is by far the most lucrative aspect of my business and I live in a relatively sparsely populated area.
p.1 #18 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
Basically, what do you call "a living"?
A lot depends on the photographer. Are you a good business person? Are you a good photographer, though being a good business person is more important, unfortunately!
Even bad photographers can make it if they're good business people!
p.1 #19 · Best way to earn a living w/ Photography?
mkweaver wrote:
Basically, what do you call "a living"?
I think that's a really good point. Where I live in NYC (Brooklyn, technically), my wife and I can feel like we're barely scraping by on a $140,000/year gross household income just supporting the two of us. Whereas we could maintain a higher standard of living in parts of Western NY, where she's originally from, on $40,000/year. While there would be a lot less work available in that region, it would also be a lot easier to earn a living there.
Kind of like 'how do I strike it rich in the gold rush? Sell shovels & axes." 