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Originally Posted by Oldbabe
I love photography and I REALLY love digital photography and using Photoshop.
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I think you quoted me!
My husband and I are "professional-level" but we don't run it as a business. Nature photography is highly competitive (very crowded) and the business side of it can really drag you down - requiring a lot of marketing. Many of our friends use a stock agency and make some money at it on the side which helps fund their hobby somewhat. But still it took them many years and a lot of work to become well established. We really enjoy the luxury of NOT trying to make any money at photography at all, but instead focus on the aspects we enjoy the most. For us photography is all about having great fun in the field, capturing/creating powerful images, and then sharing them.
People want to buy our photographs all the time, but we really love giving away the fine prints (the art of digital printing is also a major area we developed expertise in). More and more state parks are displaying our stuff - all donated of course.
John Shaw wrote a book about the nature photography business. That might be a good place to start.
Understand our bias - we are philosophically opposed to "work for hire" so that definitely colors the path we follow. I suppose we are afraid that turning our beloved hobby/avocation into a business would "ruin" it. I suspect in our case we would be right. We don't think our "rules" apply to anyone else, however!
Audrey
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