Snap-Sun Loc: Lexington, KY

I am looking at the various income paths.
What are your opinions of what arena that is?

donrent Loc: Punta Gorda , Fl

What YOU have the most intrest in will be your strong suit...

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Agreed :thumbup:

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

Give this a look over.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-82669-1.html

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Good article.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Specialty services to businesses/organizations, not individuals, yields the most revenue per resource hour expended.

But you need to follow your passion, hone your skills, and both the "arena" and revenue will eventually follow. Chasing the evolving market versus following your passion will not be rewarding.

Today with every Tom, Dick and Mary is walking around with a camera of some sort, it is a difficult business to earn a living from; especially going it alone.

Like most any worthwhile endeavor, you have to love what your do (passion) and stick with it relentlessly, constantly learning while remaining humble and open-minded.
Time and business savvy will eventually make your chosen endeavor financially rewarding.

cwalti

Become a paparazzi. You get hang with all the cool people, get a lot of love, and for the perfect embarrassing celebrity shot you get BIG BUCKS...





:lol:

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

I did a career in broadcast television videography in the midwest. It's a burnout career that will last as long as you can stand the hassle and the torment of seeing what people can do to people and what accidents can do to people. If you can stand the 60 and 70 hour weeks you can make decent money. You won't get rich.

Don't misunderstand. This career can be very rewarding if you work at it and get a spot in feature (good news) shooting, writing, editing... that's mostly what I did besides just general pool videography.

But there's no quick trips in any field of photography. Same as racing cars. No car owner is going to hire a new drive to a big spot. No television or broadcast outlet is going to hire a guy for a new spot. So most of us start at very small stations in small towns.

This is the kind of work where to move up, you have to move on.

What every you choose, stills or video, it can be a good career.

Larrie Loc: NE Ohio

Yeah the current Lexington, Ky Paparazzi shouldn't be hard to find. I think they both reside at the homeless shelter. Dude there just aren't that many stars in Lexington

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That was my first choice for income, but you have to be really good at your job (meaning, not very nice) to make the big bucks. I'm guessing that wedding photography would generate good income. It's very demanding, though, as are the clients.

What you need is steady demand with a good paycheck. That will be tough to find.

There are hundreds of thousands of spectacular images available online, and I doubt those photographers got paid much, if anything, for them.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Sure fire way to make money - sell your cameras.

Not so sure way is to decide on just what area of the craft interests you and then study everything you can get your hands on to learn that craft. Be sure to go to a few hands-on training workshops that teach JUST that skill as one cannot learn everything from books and YouTube. People think they can but they are dead wrong. Figure a couple of years of study before you are halfway ready.

Join a professional organization or two. PPA offers classes and print competitions that can really help hone your skills. State organizations can offer some great training and network opportunities.

I think one can make money in almost any field of photography,but to make a living...tough now. Many REALLY talented photographers are just scraping by. In today's environment, you need to be really good and market yourself constantly.

The ones doing really well are incredibly talented and have superb business/marketing skills.

Any hack can make SOME money - as many are proving - but to make that good living is not at all easy. One cannot survive by charging $50.00 for a session AND all the images on a disk.

We always hear that crap about how,"I have a passion for photography,'" but how about having a passion for the photography INDUSTRY and becoming skilled and charging for profit. Think about that, too.

Bushpilot Loc: Minnesota

According to the great poet from Minnesota, Bob Dylan, he said,
"Stick with what you do best".

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

The Captain is correct on all counts. Nothing wrong with trying. The money is in commercial and editorial. Most of the movers and shakers in photography have studied photography. Not always necessary but gives you credibility. Then decide where you fit in. One of my favorite photographers is Dave Hill. Check out his work. He has a niche and it works for him. Good luck

Larrie Loc: NE Ohio

As others have mentioned Business and industry are the best money makers. This will take a knowledge of landscape for plant exteriors getting good shots of plant interiors , assembly lines. portraiture of execs and personnel individually or in groups and magazine quality shots of products . This all takes a degree of knowledge, imagination, specialized equipment and reputation. You can also go the usual route of portraits be it school seniors, family, individual, children, pets or boudoir. Here your going to be butting heads with a lot of other established photographers. Weddings can be profitable if you have the equipment and knowledge but they can be a disastrous pain. In everything else if you deliver a bunch of amateurish snapshots they can take it or leave it and seek elsewhere. With weddings if you don't deliver what the customer expects you can be sued out of existence There are no re-do's. Your location is in the middle of upper scale horse farms and breeders. Exploit that, either through landscapes of the farms and countryside, equestrian competition and portraits of horses. I know of many canine athletic venues in your immediate local from conformation dog shows to Agility and Fly-ball. Every year a major herding event happens in your backyard. All you need is ability and imagination

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Snap, I noticed the you list your occupation as "photographer". I would think that by the time one is practicing photography as an occupation one would already have the very questions that you are asking figured out. Or am I missing something? Just wondering