PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Hi guys, if you had the time and inclination would you be tempted to try photography full time ?

If you would then what would you say is the easiest field of photography to break into ?

Any of you guys tried it and was successful or failed ??

many thanks,

DERYN

Yes I did.
There is no field of photography that is easy to do well.
Quite a few of us round here make a living from it.

No. I enjoy photography as a hobby and would have no wish to develop it into work - it'd sap the fun out of it for me.

I'm in this camp too, but I keep getting tempted!

Weddings have an appeal as I have the mentality from my youth, my dad did video, so I have over 150 weddings under my belt from my teens. The money's good too which is where the temptation is!

Also I have my trailer out the back which I used to do markets from, and it is kitted out enough with slatwall, till, we have a mobile credit card machine, the cameras, computers, printer etc. The idea here is to possibly do event photography from it, margins are high, we have the kit, our outlay to start would be minimal.

I just don't know wether doing either of these options will take the joy out of our hobby. It did with phones, I couldn't care much for them anymore, I just have to because that's what pays the mortgage!

Having just got married and living in a flat, we do want to get a new house as the family home, and both of these options would help towards that, I'm just not sure if I want to do it with photography!

I would love to do photography for a living.

However, I need to pay the bills and eat.

I think I'd fall into this camp too

I agree with this... unless of course I was a fine art photographer with the freedom to explore my own style, and commanding huge prices for my prints! Well, we can all dream... that's half the fun!

I have sold a few prints via my sister's gallery - The Little Gallery in Belper, Derbys. She's got an exhibition of photography on at the moment; prints by her fiancee Richard Cooper. PLUG: link

It would for me to.
I pick my camera up when I feel like it and it would be a pain having to "do it" when I wanted to do other things,I am sometimes asked why I do not sell some images, I feel that if some one likes them enough to want to hang them on the wall they are welcome to them.
If I am happy with an image that's enough for me and if doing it for money it is others you have to please and that takes the fun out of it for me.

Being retired I have no spare time to devote to working for a living.

I'll Second That.

Photography for work and play, Love it.

I wouldn't mind the change... but I reckon I'm better at system design & firmware programming

Don't forget that if you intend to "dip your toe" in the waters of semi/professional photography it's a good idea to register with your local tax office for self-employment Then, if things go well you should have fewer issues with your returns.

Matt

The Inland revenue run courses (free) on becoming self employed which are both friendly and helpful. You can go on a course before you start trading if you want to.

I would say it has never been more difficult to make a living at this.
Everyone and his wife and kids (even dogs now!) has a camera, they all love their own pictures.
The vast majority just email and facebook their pictures instead of printing them. Then there are cheap image libraries popping up all over etc.

If your images stand out and you are good at marketing and charging money for your work, you might still make it. But personally, I just see it as a way of adding value to the day job. My web/graphics work often requires me to take pictures and sometimes I'm asked to do something for an office wall, but it just goes on the bill.

Seconded