Photography After Retirement: I am wondering, is anyone who is retired or of retirement age, making money by just selling prints, greeting cards or other type of image sales, (locally...

julesannb

I am wondering, is anyone who is retired or of retirement age, making money by just selling prints, greeting cards or other type of image sales, (locally or online) in order to supplement your income, whatever that might be. That is where my interests lies. No weddings, events or clients. I don’t want to deal with those kind of hassles in my retirement. I just want to make some extra cash doing what I love.

smussler Loc: Land O Lakes, FL - Formerly Miller Place, NY

I would think yes

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Yes, I do.
—Bob

julesannb wrote:

I am wondering, is anyone who is retired or of retirement age, making money by just selling prints, greeting cards or other type of image sales, (locally or online) in order to supplement your income, whatever that might be. That is where my interests lies. No weddings, events or clients. I don’t want to deal with those kind of hassles in my retirement. I just want to make some extra cash doing what I love.

dat2ra Loc: Sacramento

I retired as a university Professor and have a photo studio. I shot events, some real estate, head shots, and products as prints of various kinds and digital images. Although I did (do) make some $, to really make it pay I found that I had to spend most (as in about 3/4) of my time on marketing and social media which is not why I wanted to do photography in the first place. The market is very competitive, and every one who has a cell phone or a point-and-shoot is telling their friends that they will "do it" for cheap. My experience is that you can make "some" money, especially if you develop your own niche, but unless you really commit and do it full time, you'll need another source of income.

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

There are many online venues these days to post your offerings, from Etsy to Smugmug, to RedBubble, to different stock photo companies. Then there are always art shows and galleries. What subjects do you shoot? Landscape, flowers, birds, buildings, people, mushrooms, food? Sweeping views or closeups/macros?

MrBob Loc: lookout Mtn. NE Alabama

I have always believed that capturing the image is only one third of the final product. Proper matting and framing are just as important, as total perception is what a potential viewer or buyer is looking at. That being said I have purchased a mat cutter and since I live in a rural area plan on collecting old barn wood and custom making frames. I don't know how you feel about woodworking but if you only creatively matted your work and presented it artistically at art and craft shows you could pick up some decent extra money. I would start by purchasing a mat cutter and learning how to creatively mat to present your images in the most favorable light. Maybe do some little collections on a certain theme... find an art show and have at it... you will be involved in something you enjoy and will pick up valuable info just by being involved.

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

julesannb wrote:

I am wondering, is anyone who is retired or of retirement age, making money by just selling prints, greeting cards or other type of image sales, (locally or online) in order to supplement your income, whatever that might be. That is where my interests lies. No weddings, events or clients. I don’t want to deal with those kind of hassles in my retirement. I just want to make some extra cash doing what I love.

Retired, but not tired, I do about one show a year up North and sell prints, I also sell greeting cards to local Northern businesses.
I do not do it to supplement my retirement, I do it because I enjoy photography as a hobby after almost 38 years of professional photography.

machia Loc: NJ

Supplemental income from photography used to be easy. But there’s intense competition due to the fact that everyone has a means of capturing an image now. I mean it’s possble, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Then again if you’re are really good, and are highly aggressive, maybe.
Try it, you never know. Good luck !

Paulco2 Loc: Gettysburg PA

I am retired and make a few dollars selling pictures and DVD slide shows. I do some shows (mostly church fund raisers and such) selling prints and cards. I would hardly consider the income as supplementing my retirement income but it does cover some minor GAS attacks. Not shooting for clients severely limits the income potential. Good luck on your retirement, my only advice is to keep something in your life than gives you purpose and photography is capable of doing that quite well.

Fotomacher Loc: Toronto

dat2ra wrote:

The market is very competitive, and every one who has a cell phone or a point-and-shoot is telling their friends that they will "do it" for cheap. My experience is that you can make "some" money, especially if you develop your own niche, but unless you really commit and do it full time, you'll need another source of income.

See the attached image for my opinion.

Attached file:
(Download)

Xanadu Loc: Clay County FL

I sell "Thank You" note cards and have prints displayed in one gallery. As pointed out earlier, the revenue can defray the cost of GAS attacks. However, I think the gratification of someone paying money for one of my photos is probably my main motivation.

MrMophoto Loc: Rhode Island "The biggest little"

I am close to retiring and plan on working in my studio, head shots cards and working on my own art. I haven't retired yet because I can't afford to. I will wait until I don't need to supplement my retirement income, the one thing I don't want is to feel the pressure of having to work. Just some thoughts.
Good luck

rstrick2 Loc: Beverly Hills, FL

I am retired and I do nature and wildlife photography. I might sell an owl photo or a deer photo now and then, however, I started to write article about my subjects and made some extra cash from those. I kept doing photography after retirement as a way to stay busy. I have friends who shoot wildlife and put together cards, prints and other creative things and sell them at shows.

Al Beatty Loc: Boise, Idaho

Hi julesannb,
After retiring in addition to our magazine and product work, we started to publish books through Amazon. For my wife and me, the subject matter is fly fishing, cooking, and how-to-publish-it books. We enjoy working on them and can do so at our own pace. You may want to give that a try as they do not have to be heavy into the written word; they can easily be photography related if you want. That's the great thing about POD publishing with Amazon; you do it the way you want. Take care & ...

Bike guy Loc: Atlanta

MrBob wrote:

I have always believed that capturing the image is... (show quote)

I just wrote something similar on a different forum.