Making a living from Photography.

Funny old thread this one... I finished a contract about a year ago and promptly fell ill and had a major operation which took me out of circulation for a few months. It changed my view on what I want from life/a job, but to be honest despite me wanting too, I can't see photography paying anything like the professional wage I was on. I've been making some money recently from photography commissions and fine art photography sales, but am reluctant to go-for-it-big-time because of the unlikelihood of earning much from photography.

Oh.. I am a qualified (MBA) commercial guy by trade, have started and sold my stake in a successful business as well as experiencing things not going so well in another venture... so have given it reasoned thought!
 
id be happy earning no less than 15% short of what i do at the moment (though im hardly comfortable at the moment) as a minimum. ideally a lot more though. id be prepared to take a small pay cut and increase the hours doing something i love more, rather than spending 50-60hrs a week in an office for practically nothing...

but im only 25, dont have any plans for kids soon and am not too greedy.

maybe some day!
 
All those just looking at their needs now need to take a rethink.

You need enough coming in to be able to put by for when you are too old to work - pension of some sort, not necessarily a pension plan.
You need to put some by to have a buffer against unforseen circumstances - not necessarily an insurance.
You need to put some by for upgrading kit. Using it professionally it needs to be replaced at least every 5 or 6 years (probably sooner now).
You need to put some by to pay for vehicle replacement.

many of your replies are too simplistic and you will be in trouble within 2 years if you only think of your day to day costs.

Me? I get by on my 5th million.
 
Hehehe,

I don't have a pension so My main drive is to buils a business with 3 to 4 togs and support staff.

Not huge but not easy or cheap either.

soon as I went self employed 2 years back I helped a friend out on a shoot he was near retirement age. And 2 things occurred to me....

I dont want tobe rolling around on the floor at his age and what if Im ill?

I have regular clients and can not afford to not shoot or even re arrange the date as the diary is chocca.....

So to have a small team that enjoy what they do and can cover every hicup life can throw is the main drive.

So what I could be comfortable with 20k upwards to ever is possible...
 
Lensflare said:
All those just looking at their needs now need to take a rethink.

You need enough coming in to be able to put by for when you are too old to work - pension of some sort, not necessarily a pension plan.
You need to put some by to have a buffer against unforseen circumstances - not necessarily an insurance.
You need to put some by for upgrading kit. Using it professionally it needs to be replaced at least every 5 or 6 years (probably sooner now).
You need to put some by to pay for vehicle replacement.

many of your replies are too simplistic and you will be in trouble within 2 years if you only think of your day to day costs.

Me? I get by on my 5th million.
Click to expand...

Some peoples replies may be a little simplistic, but the majority of people are in no position to consider a lot of the things you mention. Some people, putting food on the table and paying the mortgage is a struggle...

In an ideal world, we could all afford replacent vehicles, and a nice lump sum for those rainy days. In the real world, very few are that fortunate.

Gary.
 
As a 1 man band doing something on an hourly rate the most you can earn is that hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours you work. This can apply to togging if you charge by the hour. If you charge by the photograph then you are not limited by the number of hours in the day but by the number of pictures you can sell. If you have done school pics for a while then you will know percentage wise how many pics you will sell for a given number of kids. You will also know how many kids you can photograph in a day. This means you can work out the maximum you could expect to earn in a year (assuming you take school holidays into account). If you want more than that and you still want to do school pics then you will need to hire in more staff and cream off the extra from their efforts.
 
gingerweasel said:
For a good lifestyle I would have to earn £18k plus the extra income from my wife. But that would give us plenty of spare cash so I guess that's the target, an £8k margin of error for those times when work dries up.

Do people think that £10k-£18k is a possibility taking into account that I need to take the kids to school, pick them up then be able to take the summer holidays off? I would imagine that would be asking a lot.


...
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Really depends on your total income i would have thought :shrug:
 
Lensflare said:
All those just looking at their needs now need to take a rethink.

You need enough coming in to be able to put by for when you are too old to work - pension of some sort, not necessarily a pension plan.
You need to put some by to have a buffer against unforseen circumstances - not necessarily an insurance.
You need to put some by for upgrading kit. Using it professionally it needs to be replaced at least every 5 or 6 years (probably sooner now).
You need to put some by to pay for vehicle replacement.

many of your replies are too simplistic and you will be in trouble within 2 years if you only think of your day to day costs.

Me? I get by on my 5th million.
Click to expand...


forgive my business ignorance, but surely you'd want to factor this into the running costs of the business? i would have thought equipment would essentially be an asset.

of course the other parts are true, but theres a few of us that cant afford to save huge amounts, and deal with the one off, occasional huge expenses as 'will be eating pasta for the next 6 weeks' situations.


or, at least thats how i deal with them ;)
 
Daryl said:
Hi guys, I was just wondering what you thought you would need to be 'Earning a good living' from photography. Everybodies life style is different...

So what Would like to earn a year from it to be happy with?

15k? 25k? 40k? what would you consider a living?
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I'm sorry but that does not seem like a hard quesiton to me....:thinking::thinking::thinking:
 
I do factor all the overheads into my pricing and the spreadsheet will be getting another workout over the Christmas break. Equipment? Bodies and lensed written off over different time scales, transport? check, consumables, check, materials, check......actually is quite a good spreadsheet.

The pension is not factored in because I have income elsewhere that is not age dependant plus two existing pensions frozen and index linked.
 
Daryl said:
Hi guys, I was just wondering what you thought you would need to be 'Earning a good living' from photography. Everybodies life style is different...

So what Would like to earn a year from it to be happy with?

15k? 25k? 40k? what would you consider a living?
Click to expand...

in 1980 i was on 30k...so today...say around 80K and a skoda thrown in
 
The attraction of earning a living from what may be a hobby at the moment, very soon ceases to be as an attractive occupation once reality sets in. I had a friend who said he always regretted taking up as an occupation what used to be a hobby.
 
Funny that... I've done photography for a living since 1986 working for all types of companies, togs and self employed... it is very busy... But the fun and the passion are still there. Plus you never stop learning doing this. If I had to have a day job.I would be a tog for someone or work in a pro lab.

Only job better than a tog is a Pilot...... ah the dream!
 
I recently went to a meeting about setting up a new business and for me i came up the aim of £6k for 2010....not sure if i will take this much but i will be happy to make £1k while i finish my degree...

after my degree i want to start making money...


...and £40k would be nice by the time i want kids ect (say 5 years?
 
EdinburghGary said:
I understood your original question and replied accordingly :) £10K per month, after tax, or £120K per year, after tax, would make me very happy based on that money coming from photography.

The thread went off on a tangent, but you can't take the strop with people for pointing out that the answer is HUGELY subjective and relative to ones existing commitments, income & lifestyle.

Gary.
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So how many portrait sittings would you look to do to earn that figure Gary. I estimate you would be looking for 4.5 per day?

stew
 
artona said:
So how many portrait sittings would you look to do to earn that figure Gary. I estimate you would be looking for 4.5 per day?

stew
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No idea mate, but you would need to be pretty full over the weekends, and have several weekday bookings too. Perhaps have more than one premises, and other photographers working for you...

Gary.
 
I know you will have worked it out carefully Gary. What have you based the 10k a month on or at the moment is that an eventual target?

stew
 
£10k is do-able. We hire photographers for several £k per job and sometimes those jobs only last 2 or 3 days.
 
I'd love to go pro, but as much as I hate it, my current job pays the bills, me and the family do ok. It's a regular income.
If I were to be made redundant I'd get a decent payoff - enough to set up on my own - GREAT. But what happens 12 months down the road if I'm not established/sucessful enough to earn a decent wage?
In monetry terms, I'd be looking to take home minimum £30-35K per year, which could be tricky, even if you get some good gigs such as school shoots.
 
GaryK26 said:
I'd love to go pro, but as much as I hate it, my current job pays the bills, me and the family do ok. It's a regular income.
If I were to be made redundant I'd get a decent payoff - enough to set up on my own - GREAT. But what happens 12 months down the road if I'm not established/sucessful enough to earn a decent wage?
In monetry terms, I'd be looking to take home minimum £30-35K per year, which could be tricky, even if you get some good gigs such as school shoots.
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This would be my reply also.

I've got a good income already, anything coming in from photography is a bonus... but my real aim photography wise is to do some form of good with it rather than make money.
 
GaryK26 said:
I'd love to go pro, but as much as I hate it, my current job pays the bills, me and the family do ok. It's a regular income.
If I were to be made redundant I'd get a decent payoff - enough to set up on my own - GREAT. But what happens 12 months down the road if I'm not established/sucessful enough to earn a decent wage?
In monetry terms, I'd be looking to take home minimum £30-35K per year, which could be tricky, even if you get some good gigs such as school shoots.
Click to expand...

Im the same Gary my "day job" pays the bills and is allowing me to explore full time photography but to make a living from it will be a big big challenge for me
 
Garyk26? I went and did it Gary 2 years ago. I kacked myself. Was I doing the right thing? Best thing I ever did . I only had 10 bookings and I filled the spare days with freelance work with some big firms. The freelance work brought in 3k a month plus fuel @ 40p a mile so you could make £200 a day.

If you want any help or pointers PM me. Glad to help.

Dont put off what you really want to do or you may never do it!

I thought if it didnt work I'd just go back to working for my previous employer. ( a photography company)

But it's hard bloody work and worth it.
 
Daryl said:
Garyk26? I went and did it Gary 2 years ago. I kacked myself. Was I doing the right thing? Best thing I ever did . I only had 10 bookings and I filled the spare days with freelance work with some big firms. The freelance work brought in 3k a month plus fuel @ 40p a mile so you could make £200 a day.

If you want any help or pointers PM me. Glad to help.

Dont put off what you really want to do or you may never do it!

I thought if it didnt work I'd just go back to working for my previous employer. ( a photography company)

But it's hard bloody work and worth it.
Click to expand...

make sure its what you really want to do...my take on work is to get maximum £££ for what i can do..my best at whatever...and if it isnt what i want to do..i still do it
correction ..all that is past tense now i am retired and a frustrated photographer and musician..but solvent with all the kids through university and earning well
i am a dull fellow make no mistake
 
Well I don't think that's dull at all :)

There came a point, for me, after the death of my husband that I thought..."Nope I really don't want to do this anymore because it's actually making me UNhappy" That's when I thought I needed more balance in my life and having a creative streak a mile wide, it's time to go and explore that bit of me that's had to take a back seat for way too long.

There is nothing dull about being responsible for the welfare of others too though :)
 
In the words of a naive young twenty something, money doesnt matter to me that much :D

I'm saying that now of course but I suppose I can when I dont have much responsibilty. I cant give a number but I would like to earn enough to keep me travelling and of course with some good kit as well ;) Material things dont matter to me and I find some of the numbers in this thread to be a bit too much.
 
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