how can i make money?

hi guys,

i was wondering how many of you have sold some of your photos, and, if you have, has it been stock photography, portraits, etc?

i'm a freelance translator and my jobs are far apart, meaning that i get paid every 3 months or so. i can't have a regular job because i take care of my grandparents and the schedule doesn't allow for a regular job.

in the meantime, between translating jobs, i'd like to make some money with my photography, but i'm having a really hard time figuring out HOW. argentina isn't a very rich country, so people don't want to spend a lot of money on photography, since they consider it something that almost everyone is good at or at least something to which everyone has access, so why pay for it?

ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated, as it has been really hard to stay afloat financially as of late, and, in fact, i've NOT been staying afloat.
thanks in advance for your help : )
--



http://flickr.com/photos/80517818@N00/

A large part of my income from the last several years has been from Real Estate photos. Perhaps you know a broker who could use some better than average photos. Or you could befriend one. Perhaps someone you know is selling a home. Offer to do a set of interiors and exteriors for them. Just present the images to the listing broker as a friend of the seller; then when your photos "sell" the house, tell the broker you're available for other listed homes.

I've also worked for a while as a Freelance Photographer/Reporter for some smallish local newspapers.
Advertise that you'll take photos for EBay items?
--
http://jmj575m.smugmug.com



All the Best,

JMJ

--Depending where you live and what is your field of inrest in photography main thing is skill if you have it and can produce exellent image marketing and developing paid jobs is always posible if you can looked around.
You need to start researching your market and to see what other paid photogs do.
Like every buissnes you need to get plan what you like to do.
This are few ideas you can look into it

1.Post cards printing companys go to any store that sales them and look where they printed contact this companys and ask whet they are currently looking for see if you have in your stock submit some pics see what happens
besides turist atractions humor post cards sale everywhere
2.universitys need pics slides for thiers classes see whet they need

3.law enforcmant need photogs that can swing by at 2AM to snap few pics of dead bodys develop cotact and see whet you need to get on list
4.weddings even poor peopel need some memorys from thier wedding

5.Check with local privet investigators if they need survilance pics even if you need certification for this its worth to check it out
6.Enivroment buissnes pics for marketing that some companys need
7.Industrial catalog machinery pics for manufacturers and company events

8 always keep camera with you and when you see accident or fire snap some pics and call local news paper tale them that you have pics and if they need some get some statemants from wittnesess so you can get paid for story as well

9 use your main profession and develop long term project on a book with your pictures at some point you maybe able to get published

10 think outside of box and make lot of pictures 20-40 thousends in a year be organized know where they are and looked into local law regarding this field
11 promot and market yourself your name

12 be positive and tray to make many new personal contacts and every time in 10-15 sec say that you are photographer and what field you cover
13 make a buissnes cards get gallery or web site

14 Selling pictures if a tuff job with many rejections in a procces but be determin and your perservirenc will pay in long run.
15 Good luck.
Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

--Don't take this a wrong way I just looked at your gallery but if you like to start making monye with your pics you need to star new gallery and make topic related folders to showcase your skills and abilitys.

You need to cover for naxt few years wide field of topics.You look like some body that is comftoble to shoot peopel but you need to do other filed as well and brows thru magazines and books and see other photographers work and tray to see if you can make very close or same looking pics couse they sold that.Loook into political organization if they need somebody to cover thier events.
Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

hmm, i guess i don't take your comment the wrong way.

my flickr account is just my flickr account, meaning thar i never intended for it to be like a portfolio of pictures to sell as stock photography or something.

i study photojournalism and some of my flickr photos are related to that, and the others are of family and friends. again, i never intended to give those pictures any commercial use, so of course i would have a different gallery if i intended to sell pictures.
--



http://flickr.com/photos/80517818@N00/

thanks for the tips, i will look into what you suggested : )
--



http://flickr.com/photos/80517818@N00/

I have a translation business - what are your rates for English-Spanish and Spanish-English translations? Any areas of expertise (technical, medical, legal, etc.?) Please e-mail to me at: [email protected]
Muchas gracias!

i charge 10 cents a word. i'll email you in the morning with some samples of my work.
thanks...
--



http://flickr.com/photos/80517818@N00/

hola, aprovechando que sos argentina te contesto en castellano.

yo la opción que encontré para hacer algo de plata sacando fotos es venderlas a traves de sitios de microstock (tipo getty o el imagebank, pero de bajo costo, pero pagan mucho menos, y se vende mas). los sitios en los que estoy son: Shutterstock, Dreamstime e Istockphoto. hay un montón más, pero los dos primeros son los que mejor me resultaron (en ese orden), istock es medio/bastante elitista y me revota casi todo lo que subo auqnue a otra gente le va muy bien (vos con una D50 no deberías tener problemas, a mi con una canon a80 se me complica bastante y por ahora estoy subiendo ilustraciones, que pronto me van a pagar alguna camara decente para empezar a subir fotos).

-Shutterstock te paga U$S 0.25 cada vez q vendes una foto (parece poco, pero se vende bastante, hice U$S 180 el mes pasado)

-Dreamstime te paga U$S 0.50 ó U$S 1 , según el tamaño de la foto (U$S 2 si subiste el RAW o una ilustración en vectores)

-Istock creo que entre 0.40 y U$S 2, pero la verdad ese sitio no termino de entenderlo.
te dejo los links:
http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=5128
http://www.dreamstime.com/res56054
http://istockphoto.com/index.php?refnum=b79

(registrandote usando esos links me pagan una comisión. shutterstock, por ejemplo son 0.03 cada 0.25 que vos hagas, a vos te pagan lo mismo uses o no los links para referidos. si te anotas en alguno primero leete bien las condiciones, los foros y galerias antes subir algo para ver bien que tipo de cosas busca cada sitio, en general te hacen subir algo, tipo 10 fotos para evaluarte a ver si te aceptan).
mas info y mas links acá: http://www.microstockgroup.com/forum/
cualquier cosa chiflá.

saludos desde floresta,
germán

coqui mackey said:

hi guys,
i was wondering how many of you have sold some of your photos, and,
if you have, has it been stock photography, portraits, etc?
i'm a freelance translator and my jobs are far apart, meaning that
i get paid every 3 months or so. i can't have a regular job because
i take care of my grandparents and the schedule doesn't allow for a
regular job.
in the meantime, between translating jobs, i'd like to make some
money with my photography, but i'm having a really hard time
figuring out HOW. argentina isn't a very rich country, so people
don't want to spend a lot of money on photography, since they
consider it something that almost everyone is good at or at least
something to which everyone has access, so why pay for it?
ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated, as it has been really hard
to stay afloat financially as of late, and, in fact, i've NOT been
staying afloat.
thanks in advance for your help : )
--



http://flickr.com/photos/80517818@N00/

Click to expand...

Hi Coqui,

Get yourself some cards that have a web address where people can go to download photos. Go where tourists go and offer to take photos for them.

Visit restaurants that will let you take photos for their guests.

Find out what events may be happening near you and offer your services. The out of town conferences are the ones to hit.

Newspapers almost always need help around the holidays.

I dont know how it is where you live and my ideas may not work for you. Just trying to help anyway.

How are you going to get the photos to your customers? Thats the biggest thing. Are you going to be able to put them on the web somewhere so the customer can download them?

Are you listed with all the tourist agencies around you as an available translator for those that don't speak your language?

Sorry to hear about your situation! I'll pray that things turn around for you!

If I come up with any other ideas I'll let you know!
--
John

http://www.eyeunit.com/

D50
18-55 AF-S ED 1:3.5-5.6
50mm f1.8D AF Prime
60mm f2.8D AF Micro
85mm f1.8D AF Prime
70-300mm 1:4-5.6D AF ED

hola germán,

excelentes tus recomendaciones... estoy muy contenta de tener una opción así... a este tipo de cosa me refería cuando pedí consejos : )

me operaron de emergencia la semana pasada así q recién ahora me voy a poder dedicar a ver bien en q consisten estos sitios.

tuviste que pagar algo? o te dejan subir, y si podés vender, recién ahí te cobran la comisión?

yo también vivía en floresta. de hecho, me crié ahí y viví ahí hasta diciembre del año pasado. ramón falcón al 4000. a una cuadra del olimpo, lamentablemente.
en fin : )

gracias por los consejos. me alegro de q me haya contestado un argentino, porque a veces uno dice "no tengo plata, qué puedo hacer?" y en el foro te aconsejan que inviertas en una d200 para maximizar tu calidad o algo así. dos realidades muy distintas, no?
saludos : )
coqui
--



http://flickr.com/photos/80517818@N00/

--One more thing you can get into is working as a photo guaid for turists and advance photograpfers to get them into interesting places safe.
Mironv
http://mironv.smugmug.com/

How about photographing the contents of homes to prove ownership of items for insurance purposes (fire, theft, flood)?

--
ranny9

I'm sorry I'm not a professional so I really don't have advice for you, but wow your pictures are amazing! I saw that you shoot with a D50 but what lens(s) do you shoot with primarily? The sharpness and the texture of the skin on those people are amazing. What in camera settings do you typically use. Thanks so much.

------------
MO

Create a new gallery of pics that are representative of the type of pics that a client would need (based on the subjects in posts below) and Mirnov's points to show you can "do the job".
gk
--
'I'm not as smart today as I will be tomorrow.'

Coqui,

I have looked over your gallery and I like your photos and composition. I have enjoyed your photos so much that I have showed my 14 year old daughter your site and have tried to explain to her what makes them so special. She has as artistic eye just like you and I am trying to help her to develop that into something very special.

Good luck in your future venture, maybe this other post will help. It is from someone you does stock photography. Since I can't read spanish I am not sure if one of the other posters have talked about this yet. Take a look at this dpreview post, and again good luck.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1034&thread=20512509
--
-------
Bill

I do and been doing it for the past year. I got started by going to a local church and taking pic's of a car show they were having. They seen me with a d70 and ask me to take pic's for there friend day service. I been doing it ever since. It brings in some extra cash. Also, I take the pic's, PP them, burn them to disk and give them the disk for a small fee. They take care of the printing. Granted I was at the right place at the right time with the right camera, but there is no reason why you can't go to a church and ask. Do a free photo shoot for them and give them the pic's. And say, if you need more work, here what I charge. I gave the car show pic's to the church for free as a thank you.

Mark

coqui mackey said:

hi guys,
i was wondering how many of you have sold some of your photos, and,
if you have, has it been stock photography, portraits, etc?
i'm a freelance translator and my jobs are far apart, meaning that
i get paid every 3 months or so. i can't have a regular job because
i take care of my grandparents and the schedule doesn't allow for a
regular job.
in the meantime, between translating jobs, i'd like to make some
money with my photography, but i'm having a really hard time
figuring out HOW. argentina isn't a very rich country, so people
don't want to spend a lot of money on photography, since they
consider it something that almost everyone is good at or at least
something to which everyone has access, so why pay for it?
ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated, as it has been really hard
to stay afloat financially as of late, and, in fact, i've NOT been
staying afloat.
thanks in advance for your help : )
--



http://flickr.com/photos/80517818@N00/

Click to expand...

--



Church Event Photographer

Full time auto tech, part time photographer. Just wished it were the other way around. Mark Thompson/MTT
Louisville, KY. USA

http://mtt.smugmug.com/

hola,

no tenes que pagar nada para estar en esos sitios, es como que ellos venden las fotos y te dan un porcentaje del precio. cuando llegás a una cierta cantidad de plata (generalmente USD 100) te pagan, te mandan un cheque (lo cambiás en casa piano) o por algún medio electrónico (paypal o moneybookers generalmente). (Guarda con eso xq los cheques pueden "perderse" en el correo de acá, ya me pasó y ahora estoy por pasarme a moneybookers cuando entienda bien como es que funciona y del banco puedan explicarme que tengo que hacer).

Fijate bien las normas de cada sitio antes de subir algo. Shutterstock, que es al que mas tiempo le dedico, te pide que subas 10 fotos de muestra (lo mejor que tangas, variadas) para "ver si te aceptan". leete bien las condiciones y los foros de cada sitio antes de subir algo para no mandarte ninguna macana (por ejemplo, como las fotos se van a usar para publicidades o folletos, cualquier foto de personas tiene que tener un "model release", que es algo así como una autorización de la persona en la foto para que vos la vendas, no podés subir fotos de nada que esté registrado, ni que figure ninguna marca, entre otras cosas). tambien las fotos tienen que ser mas bien "usables" para fines publicitarios, más que artísticas o periodisticas, y el estilo de foto que te aceptan en cada sitio tambien varía según el estilo que busca cada sitio (todo esto parece un quilombo, pero te acostumbrás).

espero que la operación haya resultado bien, aunque si me respondiste supongo que no debe haber habido problemas.

yo en floresta estoy para el otro lado, cerca de la cancha de all boys (estoy en monte castro en realidad, pero generalmente digo floresta xq a monte castro no lo conoce nadie).

y con una d200 definivamente podrías maximizar la calidad de las imágenes, pero la diferencia es que allá ahorran un par de meses y se la compran, acá tenes que vender un riñón o asaltar un banco.

saludos,

atte, germán

pd: como este foro no me manda un mail cuando alguien te responde (o yo no encontré como ponerlo) te dejo mi mail por las dudas: berra(arroba)fibertel.com.ar

coqui mackey said:

hola germán,
excelentes tus recomendaciones... estoy muy contenta de tener una
opción así... a este tipo de cosa me refería cuando pedí consejos :
)
me operaron de emergencia la semana pasada así q recién ahora me
voy a poder dedicar a ver bien en q consisten estos sitios.
tuviste que pagar algo? o te dejan subir, y si podés vender, recién
ahí te cobran la comisión?
yo también vivía en floresta. de hecho, me crié ahí y viví ahí
hasta diciembre del año pasado. ramón falcón al 4000. a una cuadra
del olimpo, lamentablemente.
en fin : )
gracias por los consejos. me alegro de q me haya contestado un
argentino, porque a veces uno dice "no tengo plata, qué puedo
hacer?" y en el foro te aconsejan que inviertas en una d200 para
maximizar tu calidad o algo así. dos realidades muy distintas, no?
saludos : )
coqui
--



http://flickr.com/photos/80517818@N00/

Click to expand...

The people I know who make money in photography take photos of children and their sports team, the individual and team photo. It is a lot of work but all parents what a photo of their child to remember that time in their life. Of course here there are so many sports like football, baseball, La Cross etc.
Douglas Film

Hola, me llamo Carlos y vivo en Mendoza, somos pocos los argentinos por acá. Si algún día andás por Mendoza, o cerca, avisá y nos hacemos un safari por la zona. Yo tengo una hermana que vive en Capital (en Liniers), pero por ahora no voy a andar por allá, seguramente el año que viene. Hace poco me regalaron entradas para la Expoimagen 2006, me hubiera gustado ir, pero no hubo tiempo (ni guita...)