Kevin Skinner

Terrific entry, Kevin! I can only speak for myself, but I say right in my iStock profile, “If I did this for a living, it wouldn’t be fun any more.” I actually love my “day job” and were I making triple digits from photography, I would still do what I do for a living. This is what I want: to make enough money from my photography to pay for itself. I just don’t know how to begin marketing my images so someone would pay for them. If I could figure out how to market 4 or 5 prints sales a month, I could begin to acquire the photo equipment I want so much! (but maybe I’m ahead of myself and need to produce images WORTH marketing, eh?) :P

I completely understand Kevin! Once upon a time I was an interior decorator. Perfect job!! I get to shop, design beautiful things etc. Then I came upon the client and their taste! Really too the wind out of it all. Had one somewhat understanding client who laughed one day saying she always watched my face and when she saw a look of complete horror, she knew whe had gone too far. I actually removed myself a couple of times because I didn’t want my name associated with the finished product. I want to retire and would love to use my love for photography to help out along the way. Kevin is right I think we just need to find a good way of marketing to get people who like our work. Otherwise it’s not worth it.

You are absolutely right, the world of the professional designer is a complex and often trying one, can be rewarding but often very frustrating, I have to use other outlets for personal creativity ...don’t buy many mags but this issue is well worth it. thanks for the article- Peter

I agree that I would have to be financially secure – I wouldn’t want to be doing commissions etc just to pay the bills. Then I could pick and choose assignments and still take photos of odd things that catch my eye.

I am lucky enough to sell some of my work both through the net and through local outlets but its nowhere near enough to live on…then again I already have a job I love, so maybe I am just greedy!

Interesting question you have raised kevin.
Many of the points you have mentioned really struck a chord with me.
Having studied photography at college for a couple years, I was taken on as a staff photographer for a well known Scottish tabloid newspaper, shortly after I graduated from college.
If I am honest, it was never the route that I had planned on taking with my photography career but it seemed like too good an opportunity to turn down.
The money was good, my equipment was supplied by my employer (huge bonus) and also very important to me at that time was getting an all important foot in the ‘photography door’.
Initially things were great. I was getting paid for taking photographs, seeing my images and byline in the paper every week was a real buzz at first and I was gaining valuable experience.
After a few years my enthusiasm started to wane significantly.
Taking pictures for someone else, the way they wanted them to be taken, with unrealistic dealines and of subjects that for the vast majority of the time I had absolutely no interest in, was starting to become a chore.
As time went on my passion for photography had all but disappeared. As a result, I was begining to find it difficult to consistanty produce images of a standard that I felt satisfied with and this in turn started to affect my confidence in the work I was producing. With my confidence low, I found myself almost overwhelmed with worry while out on assignments and that was severely affecting any creative processes that I had left. NOT GOOD!
There were a few aspects of the job that I still enjoyed, but these were insignificant compared to everything else.
I had stopped doing any personal projects (except covering gigs/concerts). The last thing I wanted to do after finishing work was pick up a camera and take more photographs.
After seven years, I decided that it was time to move on before I had become completely disenchanted with photography altogether and while I was still sane.

I left the paper 18 months ago and barely picked up a camera for 12 months.
I am glad to say that over the last six months or so I have gradually regained a huge amount of my enthusiasm for photography and I am just happy to be to be doing my own thing for a wee while.

Obviously, this is just my own personal experience.

It must be wonderful for any professional photographer lucky and talented enough to be able to specialize and be successful in an area of photography in which they are passionate and enthusiastic. Even for the very best in any given field, it still takes a lot of dedication and sheer hard graft.

An encouraging and reassuring observation Kevin.

I’m just off now to buy a copy of the magazine.

Kevin, My photography teacher told us right up front, that if we love photography never do weddings for a living! I do not love my day job, but am happy to have one. It’s the other things in my life, my belief in the Lord, my family, and my photography that keep me going.
I always try to remember the old addage, “Bloom where you are planted” !
I think when we are striving towards a goal, we are happier and appreciate it more, than if it is just handed to us.
Take care, all, Linda

I asked this exact question of myself when starting my bachelor of music degree, will I kill my passion for music if I make it my career. After doing it for 15 years I can definitely say that it largely has and I now derive much more pleasure from photography than I do music, which is a little sad. I’ve also learnt to relish the limitations of being a family man. Basically I can only get away on 3 maybe 4 day trips a few times a year which has tended to focus my attention on locations closer to home. Because of this I have now explored these areas as well as anyone and have gotten some unique pictures along the way. At the moment I’m putting together a book on one of these areas and it has been liberating to not work to a deadline and keep going until I’ve got everything just right.

Great post thanks agree whole heartedly

It has crossed my mind, but I haven’t really thought about it seriously, more daydreaming than anything else really, as I know I wouldn’t be able to live easily. However, one thing that has crossed my mind, is to find ways to build up enough funds to be able to retire early, then I could use it to supplement my income, instead of being a sole income (much as I’d like to do now in a way).
A while back, I had a big think about why my work wasn’t selling, the answer is obvious of course, specialising in nature photography, means that there is alot of competition, so it is a saturated market. I then thought about photographing what I tend to refer to as stock (basically still life concept images, that I find boring). I quickly decided that the day I stopped photographing what I like photographing, would probably be the same day I put the camera down.
Then there is the other side of things. I have had an interest in computing for several years and used to help run a computer help site (technically I’m still there), but when it became part of my role at work, the appeal waned. The concern is, that a similar thing may happen with photography if it became my career.
I’m off into town in a minute, now that the gas man has gone, so I’ll have to buy a copy. It’s a magazine I get occasionally when there is something of interest, rather than on a regular basis.

I understand the sentiments completely. I want to keep photography as a passion and not make it a chore. Thanks for sharing this and for the very interesting ensuing discussion.

Nice article Kevin and I tend to agree with what you say.

My thoughts? Well if I could make a living from landscape photography then I would certainly love to do that. I do sell the odd image at the moment and get great pleasure from knowing that someone rates one of my images enough to pay money for it but to be honest ‘selling’ is never going to be my strong point.

Other options? Wedding photography could make one a decent living but I would never go there and I am not really interested in sports or newspaper photography so I would have to rule those out as well. Now teaching photography really interests me but I feel obliged to undertake a degree course before starting down that road. I suppose that what I am doing is concentrating on the negatives (no pun intended). It is easy to come up with reasons why not to do something although I know that to succeed one has to have a positive attitude or it will never happen. I am positive but I think realistic as well and I am of the opinion that being a pro landscape photographer must be the hardest thing to break into.

Hi Kevin

brilliant article.

Definition of a pro photgrapher – if your annual earnings from photography are equal to aroun 10% of your annual income then you are classed as a pro.

I hate my day job (been in it for 20 years), fortunately my day job is sales and marketing and this helps in my inspiration to suceed as a pro photographer. My day job at the moment pays my bills and the income from my photography through

Calendars, Greetings Cards, Prints, Pet Portraits and now weddings and events help to raise my profile and upgrade all my kit, which in turn allows me to do other things with my photography.

My aim is that by the end of 2010 I am earning more than enough to be comfortable and pay the bills from photography. I will never loose my passion for doing Pet Portraits or taking landscape and citycape photographs of Edinburgh.

I do know a pro photographer whose was commissioned for a 3 month photo assignment – photographing every single item and component which went to make up a washing machine. Very high income but very low self esteem, quit and vowed never to do again, He is now a tutor at Edinburgh’s Telford College – Photography Department, earning 75% less than what he was used to but now he is happy.

There must me a moral to the story….but he gave me great encouragement to succeed in my pursuit of photography, my dreams and ambitions,

If I never make it as a full time pro at least I will have had lots of fun and a massive portfolio at the end of it.

Just my thoughts on becoming a pro

Chris