How many members make money in some way through photography? (Page 2): There are 63,234 UHH users.

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

DerBiermeister wrote:

I'll take a stab at it. Kind of like guessing the number of jelly beans in a big jar.

First off, this forum does not list the membership -- at least I can't find it. So, based on the number of folks who are online at any given time (it looks to be hundreds), I would estimate the number of UHH members to be in the thousands. I'll say 3,000. I am going to arbitrarily pick a percentage of 2% for those that make a profit from their work. That equates to 60 members.

There are 63,234 UHH users.

DerBiermeister Loc: North of Richmond VA

Whuff wrote:

There are 63,234 UHH users.

You must have an inside track. :mrgreen:

Ok, staying with my 2% estimate, that moves the number up to 1265 profitable members.

llamb Loc: Northeast Ohio

I am now retired and enjoying photographing wildlife and waterfowl. One of my long term careers was as a technician for a long distance company. I did a lot of construction inspection all over the USA. I always carried my AE-1 and documented many job details. As soon as Sony introduced the Mavica with a 3.5" floppy I bought one to carry with me. I carried a laptop and the combination was perfect: I could photo-document job details and quickly get them to my engineers thousands of miles away. Many times I could rectify a complex problem the same day. I took pictures of and from towers of terrain for purposed work. I also to detailed pictures fiber optic cable and hardware, again allowing others to quickly see job details. This led to me getting much overtime. After I retired I did a few freelance inspecting jobs and always documented everything with a camera and email.
~Lee

mallen1330 Loc: Chicago western suburbs

isokc wrote:

I hear how hard it is to make money in photography and it's very competitive. I'm wondering what percentage of UHH members (take an educated guess if you want)make money through photography. Just for clarification, it can be small amounts, large amounts, money made through selling prints or perhaps in some other way.

Just curious. Thanks for your guesses!

A better question may be, "If you're making money with photography, how do you do it?"

There are several members here who are wedding and portrait photographers making a profit. Real estate and architectural photography supplies about a third of my total gross income (I also do programming and website design, and sell real estate). During the 60's, nature photography in Oregon provided much of my tuition at the UofO.

My understanding is that it's tough to make a profit selling fine art photos.

isokc Loc: Tacoma, WA

Jim Bob wrote:

One or two.

I was guessing more like 3 or 4.

isokc Loc: Tacoma, WA

kymarto wrote:

I'm a professional videographer--that's my day job, and that sometimes involves doing stills. I'm a member photographer of the Photonica stock photo agency, and I used to make a decent amount of pocket money that way. I still occasionally sell images through them. I had an image on the cover of a bestselling paperback--"The Island" by Victoria Hislop, which I recently resold for the British and Russian 10th anniversary editions of the book.

:thumbup:

isokc Loc: Tacoma, WA

Basil wrote:

I am hoping to get into making some $ on a small scale - doing portraits (like for my wife's many lady's groups) and small venues; possibly selling a few prints here and there. Not there yet, but that's a goal. No illusions of making lots of money, just some extra pocket change to offset the cost of the occasional GAS attack.

My Daughter-in-Law's Dad (who just retired as a "Brown" driver) has made some decent money selling his wild life photos to nature / outdoor magazines.

Yes, this is the kind of thing that got me wondering how many do this kind of thing. I guess the question was a bit silly, but I wasn't really wanting an exact number but more like "very few" or "only a small percentage" or "most."

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

My day job (that I love) pays me way more for me to ruin my serious hobby. Besides...I get to travel to lots of places for work...and even sometimes get to go out and photograph in the down time. It's a win win.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

mallen1330 wrote:

A better question may be, "If you're making ... (show quote)

Many big name fine art photographers either teach or do some commercial jobs.

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

DerBiermeister wrote:

You must have an inside track. :mrgreen:

Ok, staying with my 2% estimate, that moves the number up to 1265 profitable members.

My inside track is the UHH home page. I would believe your 2% estimate is probably low. There are many fine photographers here who either do now or in the past have been professionals earning a living from it, but no one will ever know the exact number.

Walt

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

I earned my living for over fourty years doing mainly Press and PR Photography.Twenty six of those years, was on a contract basis as an in-house photographer. Closed my business early this century. Still do the odd favour for past clients, but enjoy the freedom from 'Deadlines' turning out in all weathers, all hours of the day and night, to cover a 'story'. Wish digital had come along while I was rushed off my feet between jobs, and in and out of the darkroom. A divorce put paid to any chance of having made a profit from my endeavours. Only just managed to pay off the re-mortgage etc. But I still enjoy my 'Hobby' of photography for my own satisfaction.

Beagleman Loc: Indiana

No, I don't try to. I just enjoy doing it. One time I took a couple of shots of a lady loving on her horse, and when I showed her she said "Oh I'd love to have an 8 by 10 of that." So, I got her one and handed her the receipt, and she said "Sorry, I don't have my check book with me." Then I saw that unless you are in business as a photographer people won't even reimburse you for the cost of prints.

Now I share with people freely and enjoy doing it, and most appreciate it.

--Beagleman

barrdennis

I do aerials with a drone, landscapes, weddings, and the local team sports pictures of the high school. I don't make a lot of money but I shoot about 2000 pictures a week witch makes my skills that much better. My money is made doing appliance repair. All you can do is shoot shoot shoot and post on a for sale website like Photoreflect. I have enclosed an aerial with my drone.

(Download)

winterrose Loc: Kyneton, Victoria, Australia

isokc wrote:

I hear how hard it is to make money in photography and it's very competitive. I'm wondering what percentage of UHH members (take an educated guess if you want)make money through photography. Just for clarification, it can be small amounts, large amounts, money made through selling prints or perhaps in some other way.

Just curious. Thanks for your guesses!

0.000008755438666534217865 and a quarter %

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

isokc wrote:

I hear how hard it is to make money in photography and it's very competitive. I'm wondering what percentage of UHH members (take an educated guess if you want)make money through photography. Just for clarification, it can be small amounts, large amounts, money made through selling prints or perhaps in some other way.

Just curious. Thanks for your guesses!

And yet another question that cannot be answered. Does one loose sleep over coming up with such questions or does it just come to one as in an epiphany? Or was it a result of a childhood accident?