Full-Time Photography - My Thoughts after 14+ Months
When I first started this new blog, I started so there could be a free guide to anyone who wanted to start a business in any industry, not just a business in the photography industry.
After all, there are certain things that apply not just to the photography industry, but to any industry - accounting practices, marketing tactics, etc. - that can be applied across the board no matter what type of business you want to start.
However, my experience in starting and growing a business is in the photoraphy industry. To me, this means I do need to throw some more niched-down posts out here and there to talk about my experiences in this industry, as well as just some generic thoughts on the topic. That’s what we’re going to get into today.
It won’t be organized and broken down with headers like the other two posts I’ve done on this blog. Instead, it’ll just be me musing through what my thoughts are on working in photography full-time after 14+ months. Sharing these thoughts is important, at least in my mind, because any aspiring creative should have somewhere to turn and reference as they begin their journey (or as a point of reference at more advanced stages).
So, let’s dive in -
First, let me start with a little background. November 2022 was when I first took photography full-time. Before then, I had been playing with a camera as a hobby/side hustle for about five years.
I wasn’t worried about generating lots of money from my photography, as I had traditional jobs at the time. Photography was mostly just a way to spend my free time and relax before or after going to work.
One of the jobs I had was in marketing for a small local distillery, which I used to get some experience in food and beverage photography (though, admittedly, I wasn’t very good at it). I parlayed this, as well as the bartending experience I picked up as the job evolved, into creating a mixology blog. That blog and website have since been shut down, as I felt I couldn’t dedicate the time it deserved to truly grow and develop to its fullest potential.
When I left the distillery, I got my real estate license and began working as a property manager/rental agent for a brokerage here in Rehoboth Beach. As part of my work in that position, I started to gain some experience with real estate photography, as I would be tasked with getting photos of some of the homes we rented out. Eventually, I transitioned to an administrative role with the brokerage.
While working these jobs, I continued to pursue landscape and wildlife photography in my free time, and would sell the occasional print. It was something I enjoyed and took seriously, but never to the point that I thought it could (or would) become my full-time career.
After being in that administrative job for about a year and a half, I was let go. The brokerage I was with had been bought out, and the new regime informed me eleven months in that I could go back to the property management position or leave the company - I chose to leave, as I didn’t want to deal with the stresses that came with the property management position again. That was September 2022, and I initially wasn’t given an end-date for my time with the brokerage aside from “by the end of the year”, so I quietly began notifying certain people within the company that I would be leaving.
One of those people was the broker who recruited me to the company. She and I worked pretty closely over the three plus years I was there, so I felt she deserved to know what was going on.
During that conversation, she asked if I knew what I was going to do when it was all said and done, to which I replied I hadn’t thought about it much but would figure it out.
She was the one who recommended I take photography full-time, and consider doing real estate listing photography, as I could make as much or as little as I wanted with it. I said it was something I’d thought about, but was hesitant because of the cost of getting the necessary equipment.
Conveniently, it was shortly after this conversation that I started to see TikToks from Eli Jones, a very successful real estate photographer in the Dallas - Fort Worth area, outlining everything he did to start and grow his business.
After a little consideration, I decided that was the route I wanted to take. Between that and the nature photography, I had two sources of income at my fingertips at very little up-front cost (aside from the two or three pieces of equipment I didn’t have for the real estate photography at the time).
Fast forward to now, and I did a little under $30,000 in business in 2023. That’s not a great number, but I’m still proud of it considering I started from nothing. This year, my goal is to double what I did last year, and now that I’ve become established, I genuinely believe it is feasible.
Now that you have the background on how I got to where I am, let’s shift gears and talk about my thoughts on working as a full-time photographer.
First, if you’re starting out and you’re primarily a landscape or nature photographer like I was, then you’re going to want to consider adding another specialty to generate consistent income.
I’m not saying you can’t make money selling prints, calendars, and other products. There is certainly potential to do so. What I’m saying is that I don’t think it is a consistent enough income to sustain yourself. Of my income from 2023, 90 to 95% of it was generated from real estate photography. The rest was from odd jobs like dogsitting for a family friend and print sales. The print sales mostly occurred during the holiday season, so despite the efforts I put into selling prints last year, I didn’t see any results until the year was almost over.
Down the road, my feelings may change on this, but I can’t comment on it outside the experiences I’ve had to date. There are some new strategies I’m trying out this year to boost my income from print sales, which I’ll comment on later after I’ve had time to play with them. As of writing, though, I very much believe you have to have a second specialty - be it portraits or weddings, or even real estate like me - if you want to sustain a career in this industry.
Next, you’ve got to be willing to put in A LOT of work in this industry. You need to create for social media so you can stay in front of the audience you’ve already developed. You need to identify and market yourself to new potential clients and customers. The list goes on and on.
Photography is not an industry, to me, that is for the faint of heart. You will have busy months, you will have slow months. Regardless of what each month looks like, you have to keep hustling to grow your business and stay relevant. Otherwise, you risk getting left behind.
Finally, you have to be willing to put the blinders on to what others are doing. Personally, I don’t like to view other photographers as competition to my business - it is already a very niched and specialized industry, I feel we need to work together to challenge one another to be better and create a referral network so we can all share our specialties if approached for something we don’t offer (ex - I don’t offer portraits, and always refer those inquiries to other people).
That said, there will always be someone who’s doing better than you or trying to one-up you. Someone will always be there to belittle you. Unfortunately, that’s human nature. It happened to me when I announced that I was going full-time, and then another local photographer did it recently after seeing how well a post of mine did on Facebook. There will come a time when you need to put the blinders on and tune out those sorts of people, which is precisely what I did both times it happened to me.
It isn’t easy, but you need to do it for your sanity. Watch the people who inspire you and challenge you to be the best version of yourself, ignore the trolls and haters.
After 14+ months as a full-time photographer, these are the things I have learned that I felt most compelled to share. I’m still learning and growing, and I’ll be sure to share more lessons with you in the future. If you have any lessons you’ve learned starting your photography business that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them - you can leave them as a comment directly on this blog post, or you can send them to me in an email at tyler@tylersmileyphotography.com.
Thanks for taking the time to check out this post, and have a great day!
- Tyler