How to Get Rich Shooting Photography

(6 - Professional Tips)

Guest Blogger Greg Daily

Everyone Can Be a Good Photographer, the Question is Can You Become Rich Shooting Photography?

I find it very interesting, especially now in the digital age that there are more and more people that call themselves “Professional Photographers.” I guess I should define my definition of a “Professional Photographer.” In my opinion, there are tons of incredible photographers that take amazing pictures and you might be one of them. But are you a professional photographer? A professional photographer is one that makes the majority of their money taking pictures. You can take pictures at a professional level and still not be a professional photographer. 

Looking back, I believe I figured out the secret to my success. I would take hundreds of pictures on a photography trip and come back with a small handful that were really quite good. I learned fairly quickly that I did not have to show the hundreds of photos that were a piece of …, well crap. The photo below is one that I took in 2003 and it was one of my best selling photos when I lived in Virginia. It was actually taken with a point and shoot digital 3.2 megapixel camera. I was not a professional photographer at that time, however this images hangs in multiple office buildings and homes in Virginia. 

As I gained experience and learned more about photography, my percentage of better to crappy photos increased. I no longer had to take as many bad photos before I got a good one. All photographers, whether they are just beginning or a professional, can take amazing wall hanging, award winning photography. I find that as you gain experience the number of photos you take as a percentage of good photos to bad photos increases over time. So if you are new to photography you might go out shooting and take 250 photos and come back with maybe 3 or 4 or even more photos that are amazing. Whereas once you gain more experience, you might take fewer photos and come back with the same number of amazing shots. So basically, you can fake it until you make it. 

Tip #1 Always Be Learning

There are a ton of resources that are focused on teaching you all about photography. Some of the resources are general in nature and others are very specific and technical. There are some great YouTube videos and some that are not so great. There are lots of sites that post reviews on all of the equipment from the cameras to all of the accessories. You can spend hours upon hours reading all of the articles and watching all of the videos out there and still not become a better photographer or inch towards becoming rich by shooting photography. Yes, having the basics down and knowing your gear is a good start. It is not until you spend time out in the field or studio, clicking your shutter that you will start to become a better photographer. 

In addition to online learning and gaining experience out in the field, I joined a camera club and through the speaker’s presentations and the competitions each month, I could not help but learn and become a better photographer. Thinking back, I believe that I learned more through the competitions than anything else. The competitions gave me an opportunity to not only hear the critiques the judges gave me about my images, but also the critiques from all of the other images in the completion. I also learned that a great image, and one that you would want to hang proudly on your wall, might not be an image that would do well in competition. So if you like the image, that is all that really matters. Camera clubs are also where I found many of my photography friends. 

The shot of the saxophone is one that I took specifically for a camera club competition. At this time I don’t remember if it earned a ribbon or what was even said about the image. The lesson learned was how to use light and experiment with table top photography. This one was taken in 2004 with the same point and shoot digital camera. 

Tip #2 Make new friends

Some of my best friends are photographers. We kind of flock together. When I first got into photography, well, I won’t go back that far but rather when I started to get serious about photography, I joined a photography club and found a lot of people to go shoot with. Over time they became some of my best friends.  We started taking day trips to take photos of flowers in bloom, old car junk yards, the Milky Way, new born fawns and a ton of other subject matter.  This photo below is one of a good friend of mine named Alan DeFelice. We met in our camera club in Virginia and have taken many trips together throughout the years. 

I locked arms with people that were much better than I was with photography. My interest was landscape photography, so I made friends with photographers that had the same shooting interest as I did. We took a ton of short trips and eventually long road trips together. What I liked the most was we all shared freely the back of our cameras with each other. We all showed each other what we were shooting and our camera settings. It is kind of funny that none of us wanted to drive because we wanted the option to go through our images to see what we got on our way to a restaurant or on our way back home. We would often also roll down the window and take pictures as we were driving. 

Tip #3 Share your work with others

If you are like me when you come back with a great photo, you get really excited and can’t wait to share them with your family and close friends. This is natural and expected and you should allow your passion to shine through with your photographic success. This however only scratches the surface of my tip for sharing your work with others. Your friends and family will be very kind to you and tell you that your photos are amazing and that you are one of the best photographers that they know. When you get their feedback it does make you feel really good and make you want to chase your dreams even more. 

If you only rely on your close friends and family’s feedback, you will not learn as much or become a better photographer. You need to share your photos with other photographers who are better than you to get their feedback on what you did right and where you can improve. Sometimes you can easily take a good picture and turn it into an incredible photo by just making a few adjustments. I have seen it time and time again with my photos and others, that if you crop part of the photo, it takes on a totally new look. Using software to edit your photos can also have a huge impact on the end result. From time to time I will cull through my images and remove them from my hard drive to save storage space. Recently I looked back at photos that were over 10 years old that I was going to delete. After looking closer, I decided with my editing skills I would work on a few of them. I am so glad that I did not delete them as they turned out to be some great images worth sharing. Originally, I did not have the skills and or the software was not as good as it is today. I was able to create magic with otherwise a really dull image. The images below highlight this example. 

Digital photography has opened up an entire new world for photographic opportunities. Social media is one of the best examples that I can give. Think about it; can you remember back when social media did not exist? Most of us now, can’t remember life without social media and the digital camera was a major force in driving this change. Without the digital camera, we most likely would not have Facebook, Instagram and all of the other social media platforms that rely on pictures to tell a story.  

Tip #4 Help newbies 

Looking back at all of the help that was given to me over the years, I feel guilty if I am not helping others who ask me for their help. It might be teaching someone how to go from automatic to manual settings. I might be critiquing an image for them or even going out with them on photo shoots and showing them my settings and suggesting what they could do to get a better image. I have seen friends that were fairly new with photography, excel over the years and now they are teaching others as well. I like to think that I had a little help in cultivating their passion and propelling them forward with their level of expertise. If nothing else it feels good to help others. 

You should be patient with those that are just learning and remember that you were a beginner at one point in time as well. What I found that was useful was to teach the beginners slowly. Show them one or two new things at a time. Let them take a few pictures and then look at the back of their camera to see what they are shooting and then give them praise and then some recommendations on how to improve the shot. If you give them too much information upfront it can be intimidating and they can quickly loose interest. Who knows, but over time they might become the teacher and you the student. 

Tip #5 Embrace the Mistakes Made Along the Way

We all make mistakes and I am no different than others. Mistakes are learning experiences no matter if they are made in your personal or professional life, your hobbies or with your best friends. Some mistakes you can recover quickly from or they don’t really matter, and others you might not be able to recover from but you will learn. When I first started really being passionate about photography I would go on a road trip and take tons of photos. I would come back and upload all of the images and find a few that I liked and I shared the best ones with my friends and family. This typically was a great experience, however there were many mistakes made with this process. 

My first mistake which lead to a ton of others, was that I took way too many photos and not to mention that most of them were pretty bad. As a beginner or even a professional photographer, don’t expect all of your photos to be great. The mistake was made when I did not take time to think about my exposure, aperture or compensation. I needed to slow down and pay more attention to what I was actually doing. 

This mistake or lack of experience led me to another one of the more common errors photographers make. Many photographers spend too much time editing photos, I am guilty as charged. Eventually, I realized that it is best to move on to the next photo versus trying to edit one photo to perfection. 

The other issue that rears its ugly head is the storage of all of your photos. Count me guilty again!  I was one that worked on the photos I liked and then forgot about all of the others. Eventually I had over 80,000 mostly useless photos that were not cataloged or key worded. I knew I had a huge task on my hands as I needed to weed through all of the images, keyword them, rate them and eventually delete most of them. It took quite a long time to accomplish that task as I went from over 80,000 to under 20,000. Don’t ask me how long it took to do this as I had images on multiple hard drives and some were duplicates. 

My suggestion is to delete photos along the way that you know are bad and will never use or display. One word of caution, if the photo has a great composition but is over or under exposed or the colors are just not right, you might want to keep that photo. Your editing skills will improve and you might be able to do some magic with it at some point in time. Some people, especially those with fast camera might click and spray. Basically, they will take 10 or more shots in just a matter of seconds. Their hope is to get one shot that works. If this is you, take time to find the one shot but then delete the others from your hard drive, you will thank yourself later. 

Tip #6 Enjoy the types of photography that you do

If you are like me, my focus area and interest has morphed over the years. I have always been passionate about landscapes and cityscape photography. I have absolutely no desire to shoot weddings or family portraits. I have shot them over the past years as a favor and a gift and I think I do a pretty good job, but it is not where my passion is at this point in time. These are photos that I took at a friend’s wedding last year. 

I use to always say I don’t shoot anything that moves other than plants with the wind and animals. I am however now photographing people.  I get excited when I have an opportunity to help a company or individual with their branding by doing a lifestyle / personal branding photo shoot. 

If you are trying to make a living as a photographer, my recommendation is to find a niche that you are good with and one that you enjoy, and then become excellent in that space. You most likely will find more opportunities by narrowing your focus rather than your focus being broad.   

If you follow these 6 professional tips, you will become rich shooting photography. Notice I did not say wealthy. You might not make a dime, but you will become rich shooting photography with all that you learn, the friends that you have made, the satisfaction you get showing off your work and helping others along the way and most importantly enjoying what you do. Who knows, if you keep it up you can turn your passion into your profession like I did. 

Greg Daily is an architectural design, luxury real estate and branding photographer based in Austin, Texas. Greg’s portfolio includes his fine art images that are available in prints and for commercial and licensing use. You can connect with Greg at https://mytexasphotographer.com/.