Hi, I’m Adam and welcome back to first man photography and today
is a big day for me and I will tell you that story as we also
discuss can you actually make a living from photography in 2023?
Before we get going this video is sponsored by squarespace,
if you need a domain name a website or an online store make your next move with squarespace.
When I meet people and tell them I’m full time photographer and filmmaker,
pretty much 100% of the time they will ask me how I make money. Now I don’t
really mind this because I guess it’s pretty unusual but my answer is nearly always the
same in that I simply cast the net as wide as possible, see what sticks, and then do that.
So I’ll give you a very brief run down of my past and present revenue streams, which ones worked,
which ones didn’t and then later we’ll look at what I’d do if I was starting from scratch today.
The first time I ever made any real money from taking pictures was doing wedding photography.
Even in 2023 this is still a viable option and my standard fee was £2000. It’s very
decent money but in the end I gave it up because, although I loved the actual day,
everything else around it was pretty thankless. Also the truth is from an artistic point of view,
absolutely no one else cares about your work other than the people in the pictures.
Commissions is next. I am landscape photographer so this happens occasionally
and it’s nice when it does, but these days it’s happening less and less and
the price people are willing to pay has also dropped off a cliff.
Corporate Assignments comes next. Doing corporate work is nice when you can get it and by far earns
the most money but it’s getting harder and harder to get these opportunities,
especially in landscape photography. Marketing budgets have dried up,
there is a huge supply of brilliant photographers around and companies
are very aggressive on price. If I was just starting out today I wouldn’t even bother
trying to break into this area and the reason for this will become very clear later on.
I’ve made money from Stock photography. This is the woolly mammoth of the photography world.
Used to be huge, but is now completely extinct. Don’t waste your time on it.
Workshops, Tours & Tuition.
I stopped doing workshops and tours a couple of years ago now,
not because I didn’t enjoy them, but mainly because I felt very uncomfortable charging
the amount of money required to make it worth my time. The last few years
have also proven that this is a very fragile revenue stream. These services are very much
a luxury and as the economy continues to tank and people switch only to essential spending,
the market for workshops is gonna shrivel up to nothing. If your plan to become a
full time landscape photographer is based on running workshops, I would be extremely cautious.
We’ll talk a bit more about books, prints and calendar sales in the next section but by far,
the revenue stream that has proven most resilient for me over the years is YouTube.
We’re often faced with people saying we’re not proper photographers because we’re on
YouTube but I just don’t care anymore. I go out and make landscape photographs, share the
adventure with you and that generates revenue through advertising. It’s far from a perfect
system but it works and it’s not going away anytime soon.
If you’re starting out today, video creation has to be on your radar. The stories behind the
photographs are going to become increasingly important as Ai takes over and apart from
anything, connecting directly with your audience like this is just a beautiful thing. And also,
I was bloody terrible when I first started talking to camera,
but practice and not caring what people think will help you go far.
Probably
the most exciting time in my photography career was when I got this studio. My imagination ran
wild, the creative opportunities felt endless and after months of enforced homeschooling of my kids,
it pretty much saved my business by having a space to make videos again.
But in less than three weeks I am leaving. I had loads of plans for this space, doing studio
photography, restarting a podcast, running print workshops, I wanted it to be a fun social space
but none of that, for various reasons, has really happened. To be honest for the last 12 months it’s
just felt like an office rather than a studio and it kinda started sucking my creativity dry. On
top of that I’ve been getting fit again recently and the adventures, landscape photography, hiking
and camping are my direction moving forward and the studio is now an expense I just don’t need.
I have no regrets though, I cast the net wide, did something I always wanted to do,
and for the moment it hasn’t stuck so I’m moving on. And the revenue that goes into this place
can now be put directly into making this content even better. I’ve still got two or three videos
left to film in here but I’m already well on the way to moving out. And despite this main shot,
the place is in absolute chaos, I’ve got a lot of work still to do.
If you are considering starting any business, or even just making a bit of money on the side,
thinking about the actual value you provide is extremely important. Now in the past,
the value that a professional photographer provided to the client was very obvious, it was
the photograph itself. This would often cost the client thousands of pounds, take up a significant
amount of time and there was no guarantee they would even be happy with the end product.
What Ai is going to do, and we’re already well on the way,
is reduce the price of obtaining amazing images down to zero. They
will made instantly and for free, just by typing a few words into a website.
This is midjourney and already does a shockingly good job at creating any image
you can imagine. In just a few years time all of these images will be completely photorealistic and
advertising and marketing people won’t need to spend a penny on hiring a photographer.
I’ve made a few videos about Ai now but the fact is, it’s here and no amount of
complaining is going to put that genie back in the bottle. It’s equal parts
terrifying and exciting but as creative people, especially if we want to make a living at it,
we really need to consider how we’re actually going to create value for people.
I’m gonna share some strategies on how to make it in 2023 in a minute, but as you know this video
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Right, here’s the strategy and it’s very simple.
One - provide value to people Two - Do this by telling good stories
Three - Work really hard, if you want it, it’s out there.
I read a good quote the other day that said, if you can teach somebody to do your job,
then at some point, Ai is going to do that job.
So lets assume you’ve made the leap to being full time, could you ever teach someone to create like
you do, tell stories like you do, entertain like you do or have opinions like you do. Of course
not. You are your biggest asset and if you double down on that Ai can never replace you. I’m also
pretty convinced there are creative people out there who are gonna use all this new technology
to make things at are completely authentic and brilliant, things we can’t even imagine yet.
If you’re like me though and you make landscape photographs of the actual scene in front of you,
then telling a good story around the image is going to become increasingly
important in providing that sense of value in your work. This doesn’t have
to be video. I think there’s still room for more photography podcasts,
I read quite a few blogs where the photographer shares thoughts that go beyond just how the
photo was captured and instead discuss the why and the human element involved.
Another essential tactic for full time artists these days is to understand the
various content models available for monetising digital content. There are basically three:
The Ad driven revenue model which YouTube is part of.
Subscription based models like Netflix
Value for value, which is where the content is provided upfront and then
people are encouraged to give value back in return in the form of donations. My Raw
Room platform is an example of this where you can watch these same videos without the ads.
I’ve made a full video about this before but they all have their
positives and negatives and if you make digital content it’s well worth
looking at and deciding which one or combination will work best for you.
Now my favourite thing with artists is when they bring their work from the digital space,
back into the physical world and then sell it. For musicians this is in the form of playing
a gig for people. But for photographers it means printing their work. If you’re sat there thinking,
what’s Adam on about, how can you tell a story with a still image. Well what about
doing a book then? I got this one recently from Richard Fox, it’s utterly fantastic and
as well looking at the amazing photographs, his writing also taught me about all the
different kinds of mist. Richard isn’t full time either and he’s still getting after it.
Now one thing is for certain, if you want to make it as a full time photographer in 2023, it is not
gonna be easy. I find it really fucking hard, but by putting in the graft and telling a good story
to people it provides them with a tremendous amount of value and for me at least, that
delivers a deep sense of meaning and fulfilment. Right I’ve got packing to do. See you later.