I want to make my photography a full time job

I'm new to the professional aspects of photography and im just wondering if you all "got rich" or make your living solely on being a photographer? Right now im working a job that pays really well and I never live paycheck to paycheck, but I want to eventually just do photography and im wondering if its a strong enough field to help support the family. I mean you all began somewhere right? Basically what I want to hear is that once I get the ball rolling...money will start pouring in.
There's enough money in this field for everyone to make plenty. You just need to market yourself well and make connections.
 
If you want to work ONLY on weekends dedicating, your weekend time to work that's one thing to consider. It gets old very fast as you photograph families making memories as your own family can't because you are working and they are deprived. Not just that but the field is extremely saturated not just by every tom, dick, & harry that is a "photographer" but phones now a days are taking great portraits doing 90% of what a dslr is doing in most normal situatinos. I used to wield 2 massive lenses on both sides like akimbo mini guns, now I just feel like a clown. Photography is song and dancing a lot, and you really go have the passion and energy to do it on weekends all evening and that's even IF you manage to get hired in a field and app like instagram with has nothing but "artists" and photographers etc flooded sorry spelling on phone lol
 
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I have no idea as I am just an enthusiast. But it seems with the internet, dwindling print media and so on, there does not seem many opportunities for young people now. I guess you could carve out a niche business in weddings,portraiture, product photography etc,
I would say that the field of photography is huge and if you want to build a business you can. There is even space for more lucrative jobs out there if you want to spend the time carving out a niche for yourself. An iPhone cannot and will never be able to do what cameras can. The hardest part of being a photographer really is the same as any other entrepreneurial job: you have to find a way to demonstrate to other people what it is you do and do so preferably at scale. And ideally also do so in a way that isn't merely the same as the things 1000 people have already seen before (which is actually more for your sake than it is for your clients. Though at the supreme high end this matters more, for just general business it actually matters far less than most think it does).

The most lucrative work also in general means you're playing a game of giving up control (that is to say, your artistic sensibilities at least to a certain degree) vs whatever someone else wants you to do.

Certainly in the commercial world, it's all about carving yourself out a niche, getting your work in front of decision makers, being consistent and knowing how to present yourself and your work well. And all of that is actually far more important than whether or not you have the coolest looking/most creative images, at least in terms of getting yourself paying work. Normal people, even agencies don't look at work the same way as "artists" do. It's about representing products and companies well, being easy/good to work with, and again, consistency. People care far more about getting what they think they're buying rather than anything else.

If you want to work as a family photographer, in a lot of ways that's a lot more straight-forward. Then it's just about word of mouth, again being consistent, and grinding out your time until you are well known enough that you can raise your rates. At every step you're building a client base and as you raise your rates some people will come with you and some people won't. You just have to realize that you'll never convert a $300 client into a $2000+ client. If you understand that to begin with, then you know you're constantly building and looking for clientele that want to buy what you're selling and the only way you can do that is from putting in the time, producing a consistent body of work, and constantly putting yourself in front of people.

That also likely means doing jobs that you are getting paid less for than it's worth. That may even mean scooping up a lot of free jobs to start with. But as soon as you can do what you do and it looks around 70-80% as good as everyone else's and you know the technical well enough, then it's 100% about building a client base and not at all about your images looking so much better than everyone else. As soon as your schedule is consistently full, raise your rates. Then build a client base again until your schedule is full again, and then raise your rates again. Repeat until you're at the top. (EG: wedding photography, being booked with 1-2 weddings every weekend. Once that happens raise all the pricing on packages, work towards finding that higher paying clientele until you're completely busy again, and then repeat).
Don't get me wrong, having a calling card and being differentiated helps, because that's how you sell yourself and present yourself. But too many photographers put their focus on that rather than advertising, when really 80%+ is advertising yourself and 20% or less of your time should be spent building the "art". There are tons of people that are "so-so" at photography making 6 figures a year because they built their business. However photography definitely is an art and a craft, and people who lean on the art side will have a hard time compromising there.

It is 100% for sure a business and needs to be treated like a business. And that's something a lot of very excellent photographers have a problem with.

So you have to ask how much does making it your career matter, or is it about the art?
but you need business skills and cash to do this.
Business skills yes, equipment/cash, probably a lot less than you think.

You can shoot an entire wedding with one camera and one lens. You'll be limited on what you can "get", but you simply reflect that in your pricing. If you're just trying to start and get a body of work up as well as practice/get better etc. then it's more than enough.

I would say the best wedding photography I personally enjoy was shot in a photo-journalistic style with a guy with two bodies, a 35mm prime on one and an 85mm prime on the other (and a dual sling of course). I'm basically saying you could buy an FF camera and a 35mm lens and get at least half-the shots someone like that can (I mean, skill permitting). And if you know how to move your feet (which is an incredibly important skill), then this "limitation" is actually not that big of a limitation. And it's actually the exact same way here with portrait photography. You could start an entire portrait business based off of one camera body and either a 35mm or 50mm lens.

And the people I'm talking about were doing this 10+ years ago on cameras we would consider "outdated" today (Canon 5D2). If you're hyper business oriented, you're not interested in camera specs. You could buy 2x A7r3 on the used market, a 35mm f/1.8, and the 85mm f/1.8 for just over $3000 total. Which might sound like a lot, but it's really not. When considering that just one brand new A7r5 is $3500. AND you could just buy one body and one lens. Then the second lens. Then the second body as you make money.
If that's too much, then buy A7III's instead. Or if you really don't mind working with old gear you could buy Canon 5D3's for $500 each. However older gear will make your life harder when trying to upgrade and they have significant downsides like much worse high ISO and much worse AF. However the point I hope is clear: there is a million ways to slice this if you're flexible and you don't think you "have to" have a certain piece of gear and you look at your equipment as tools and not toys.

Whatever you do, I recommend not going into debt to buy gear. Use your gear for a long time. Don't follow specs or trends. And buy what you need, avoid GAS.
I ask this because I was chatting to a friend who is a veteran journalist who in recent times is expected to take photos as well. He is a lousy photographer, plus they issue very entry level equipment, he is pulling the pin and becoming a high school teacher.
I'm an example of a bad/poor photographer, because the deeper I've gotten in, the more I realize the type of work I want to do isn't enough to dig a career out of. And I don't really want to shoot other stuff to pay for it (like weddings or family photography). To a large degree, how far you can climb is wholly dependent on how tenacious you are and how much garbage you can take.

I'm actually moving into a different 'career' and I plan to continue shooting non-profit work, because that's all I really want to do in the space, that and maybe slowly build a YouTube channel. If that becomes successful then I'll move back into photography "full time", but that's a long shot that I'm not depending on. YouTube is similar to the rest of the stuff I mentioned above, because you're "selling a product", just packaged in a different way. And it's a different business dependent on things like viewership, sponsors, and external sources of revenue like selling product (merch) or Patreon.

Anyway, I think I potentially have a lot to say on YouTube, but I'm still figuring out how I want to do that, because I'm not necessarily interested in "showing me", which is a huge disadvantage. So I've been watching other creatives in the space that use different styles to present their work without needing a talking head. Anyway, I'm going far afield here, but it's still relevant in the sense that each photographer/cinematographer has to figure out how to make what they want "work" in the space. And being smart about that is also critical to success.

I am speaking from experience though if that matters. I have worked on sets. Been on big jobs. Have worked with industry people. And I know people now that are essentially doing the things I'm telling you to do. One guy just started his cinematography career about 1.5 years ago, and is absolutely crushing it. He finished film school a bit late (23?), which is still incredibly young. He has a big career in front of him. Within a few years I'm certain that there will be lots of people who know who he is.
 
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