Jumping From Hobby To Buisness

How did your transition happen, I have studied the market place and the market seems saturated with photographers good and bad, As it is an art form and the creativity is of an individual how difficult is it to make the transformation. I have several friends who are pro photographers, and even they agree with me its getting harder and harder, where finding that people are not prepared to pay for the work taken, Its the same with me as i have a it and webdesign buisness and again the market is saturated, my money comes from the computer repairs, with the odd websight thrown in

I studied and then became one. I dont know if that is a transition, though.

Things are tough, local papers wont pay since they can get so much mediocre and poor work for free.

Weddings are tougher than ever because people expect more.

I think that event photography is still profitable because once you have presented the prints and the subjects have lubricated their wallets with copious amounts of alcohol the female partner wants a pic of herself in her new dress - the pictures have to be shot somewhat better than from a photo-booth though.

There remains the rest where no editor is going to take a chance on someone without any tear-sheets.

All the other things like vanity publishing will not earn you a living.

If you cant offer something extra dont bother.

I didn't realise local papers didn't pay for much now.

It must be tough out there trying to make a living. I would have hoped that the small ray of hope would be that young people seem keener to have studio shots - or at least they few I know seem to think it a good idea to have some decent shots of themselves.

One of my neighbours is a pro doing a mix of product shots and weddings but I am at a loss to understand how he makes any real money. Stunningly for weddings he takes 200/300 shots in JPEG and provides these on a CD. I can only suppose he's cheap. Nice guy that's for sure but I'd have thought people expect far more than that.

Mike

Lets just say that I do not do weddings like that. I or we, depending on the size of the wedding, take enough photographs as is nessecary and then only show them on a dvd with our copyright over the images. They choose what they want and we produce either photobooks or albums (which are no way as popular nowadays). We never give cd's with images as we feel that a job should be done properly from start to finish. Presentation of the photographs is of the utmost importance.
We get the photographs printed professionally and see it all the way through. Better than the newly wedded Mr & Mrs Smith getting our hard work printed at Snappy Snaps then complaining that the photographs don't look as good as they should.

I/we (my business partner) have not had any problems this year, so far. We have had alot of bookings for the events work and a good number of weddings. I have had a very healthy number of bookings for my portraiture work.
We do cover a wide area though so maybe that has an effect. I live in Bristol, my partner lives in Oxford and I have a lot of contacts in London.

We don't spend a lot on advertising as most is word of mouth.

Karl, maybe it's the line of work you are in. I don't want to sound horrible here but what with the online web design packages out there such as the photographer friendly "Clikpic" or the universal "Moonfruit" that makes webdesign a doddle, people are turning to them rather than the professionals.
I am afraid thats what I did. I was paying my webdesigner £600 p/a that was with a discount. I wasn't happy so I went with an online builder and I haven't looked back.
Computer repairs aren't as popular any more either. A company I know are struggling as computers are becoming so cheap, people are thinking "if it breaks then buy a new one". Thats the way things are going now.


Paul

I think I have to agree with Paul.
People are doing more things for themselfs rather than paying people to do it for them.
People are being far more carefull with their money.
I also have done webdesign (intermediatly i aint exactly a pro)
Computer repairs, PAT testing and god knows what other things and Ive found ive been very much pushed out of business. Luckily they were all foreigners any ways so it wasnt important.
But like Paul said its so easy for people to do it for themselfs now.
Moonfruit and other web builders offer a cheap and easy method for them to do what they want without needing html skills.
Same as computers help people develop and print off photos for themselfs.
Ime pretty sure standard photo printing is pretty much dead for the casual photographer.
Afterall why bother spening money to find that half of ure pics havent come out and once they are printed off and in ure album you cant do anything with em.
Keep them on ure PC and they can be organised, edited and printed off if you wish.

Aint computers marvelous? Cant live with them, Cant live without them!

My Dad used the phrase many years ago,

Women son You cant live with them and cant live without them, and it's the only right thing he ever said.

No that sounded fine, I am constanly busy doing data recovery, system repairs and maintinence,also have a graphic desighn company and we do a lot of fliers and posters buisness startup packs and stationrey, We Dont advertise any more , I have spent thousands in the past in yellow pages etc, But it got me nothing,But still i thinks its harder in everything now as the market is saturated. The webdesighn bubble has burst,yes some people will pay a lot for sight but then they are very specific