Is there any way to make money off photography?

[gfrach]

I've got a few nice images and my husband has asked several times if I can make any money with my new hobby. I laugh when he asks because I seriously doubt it (I'm an amateur after all!!!) but I thought I'd ask here anyway.

Thanks!

[karunamayi]

actually, my dad's wife is the president of the local Lion's club and my dad is getting more and more photography contracts through them. Photographing functions, etc...

Are you a member of any organizations?

[gfrach]

Oh, that's not the kind of photography I do. I suck at photographing people. (Sad, but true.)

[aleutsi]

I've got a few nice images and my husband has asked several times if I can make any money with my new hobby. I laugh when he asks because I seriously doubt it (I'm an amateur after all!!!) but I thought I'd ask here anyway.

Thanks!

My husband asked the same thing of me. I thought of blowing them up and framing them and then selling them at craft shows, or trying to get in with our Arts Festival. But I sadly realized that I can't do much with my images because my camera doesn't have that many megapixels - they don't enlarge well. So, I'm practicing with it until I can get a higher mp camera.

Also, while I really like some of my images - I'm not so sure they would be worth anything. Your's however, look way better than mine! So I'm sure you could sell them.

[~PQ]

I have thought about doing notecards.

[Sue]

I have thought about doing notecards.

Says the woman who ahs been looking into it for over a year, and needs to get off her butt! LOL!

[gfrach]

I'm sure you could sell them.

Thank you! That's such a nice thing to say! I go back and forth between thinking I do pretty well at photography and thinking I suck.

I bet you could do notecards with the low megapixels, just nothing much bigger. And you have some wonderful images!

[gfrach]

I'll have to look into this--we have some local markets that could be a place for this.

[Nancy]

My mom does this in local stores, she has both postcard type things and then actual cards with the photo inserted into it. She also has framed prints in several galleries around town, and some in a larger city airport (chosen in a contest I think). She has sold many of her framed prints at local art type things (like the garden club has a tour each year).

I say this as gently as possible though....she does NOT make a profit on this! She does it for the joy and pursuit, her work is nature oriented (sunsets, butterflies, flowers) and she just enjoys sharing it with others, and she takes pride in it. It's sort of like my pesto and bread business, I don't really make money, but I love that my bread is sold locally, it just feels cool. Surely it would be nice for her if income did come in, but add in the price of equipment, printing, buying the postcards, time involved in getting stuff out there, framing, etc, and it adds up. I'll have to ask her specifically but I do believe she breaks even with it.

Now, she did get approached by a major hotel chain that saw her photos....she put in a bid for duplicating her photos in all the rooms! If that happens surely there will be some profit, but that was kind of a fluke deal and nothing that will probably happen again.

[Pensive]

When we were in Charleston, I noticed someone was selling prints there and they weren't any different to many I've seen on Flickr (meaning that many of you could take photographs of that same quality). They had them matted but not framed and they were selling them for like $15 each (for a matted 5 by 7).

Rach, I think you are an awesome photographer, seriously.

Someone in my class brought in notecards for photograph insertion. The website where he got them from was: http://photographersedge.com/

[gfrach]

say this as gently as possible though....she does NOT make a profit on this!

Does she at least break even?

I do appreciate hearing this from you, Nancy, and wish your mom luck in getting her photos in that hotel chain!

[gfrach]

Oh, thank you, K! It really means a lot for you to say that. Thanks for the link. I'm off to check them out. Do you think it would it be better to have them so you can insert your photos in or so you can print directly on the card itself?