Photography: Hobby, Side Hustle or Full-Time Career?

Q: How do you make a small fortune as a professional photographer?


A: Start with a large one.

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Originally Posted by bdkphoto

I seem to recall that you were gallery (container) sitting at Photoville in Brooklyn a while back for one of your clients - I stopped by to check out her work and to say hi - sadly you were off somewhere else so I didn't get to say hello. I had the pleasure of exhibiting there a few times with ASMP.

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That would have been Rita Leistner, I was suppose to be there but got sidetracked with another project

Photography has been a lifelong hobby for me.

It is my career (mostly weddings and portraits), but large format is the hobby side of my photography pursuits. It's actually why I got into LF in the first place - to create separation between "work" and "play", as I felt myself loosing some of that spark. LF has really reignited it!

I have been a professional photographer in the publishing industry since 2002. For the first 16 years I was a newspaper photographer, but was laid off like so many others. Fortunately, I always did freelance work on the side, including for a magazine publishing company based in Tennessee that I now work for. I specialize in agricultural, economic development and some travel work throughout the continental US. I spend every other week shooting on location, then editing and setting up shoots the next week.

I learned photography when it was still in the darkroom, but went completely digital when I started my career. Digital work never feels "finished" like film work, and the craft of photography felt sometimes lacking in a traditional way. So about 14 years ago I started shooting medium format and then moved to 4x5 10 years ago. I do a lot of camping with my wife and kiddos in National Parks and spend dawn and dusk shooting color 4x5. LF is mostly a hobby, but I have done some portrait and architectural work for freelance work. Like others who are professionals, LF is a wonderful way to think outside of the box that you are normally in with your work side of image making.

My website is www.nathanlambrecht.com for anyone interested. Those of you who have a website please post a link to yours, large format or otherwise.

I've seen numerous people earning thousands of dollars through professional photography. This inspired me, and I’ve decided to pursue it as a profession. Currently, I’m working as a writer, but I’m shifting my focus to photography. Let’s see how my journey in this field unfolds.

I started working full-time as a newspaper photographer when I was a junior in college and have been doing it professionally ever since. I now have a gallery in Woodstock, VT, and run workshops around the world. Photography has let me do things a small town boy could never have dreamed of and the dream continues as I'm building a large darkroom where I can make 40X60 prints. A mentor long ago told me that if somebody is doing it, so can I. He was right!

You could say that photography has been my life. After community college, went to work in a custom lab. Then spent two years as a portrait photographer (high-school seniors), and another stint in a lab as a custom printer. Then was hired by Eastman Kodak as an industrial/technical photographer, where I worked for the next 25 years. All the while pursuing my personal photography, and after 1997, shooting for architects as a 'side hustle'. When my employer (by then it was ITT) let me go, I moved to Washington DC, got married, and worked assisting established architecture shooters (among other things). We moved to Tucson in '17, where my wife is Head of Conservation at the Center for Creative Photography (so it's a family profession). Since then I've done some professional work, mostly artwork documentation, but have been able to concentrate on my personal landscape photography. And I'm not done yet!

Started as a hobyy as a 6yr old kid, built a darkroom at 17 when it became a passion, but I always wanted to be an architect. When I graduated architecture there were no jobs in architecture, I crazily bought a 5x4 camera and began commercial architectural photography, I kept my head above water for about 18 months before going back to do my post grad archtitecture and when I used photography as part of my study and practice as a architect. sold the LF kit when kids arrived and got back into it about 8yrs ago. I started my own architectural heritage conservation practice 18 months ago and I'm beginning to integrate the photography with architecture, now that's got a little momentum. It's fun but still a self funded pursuit / art practice rather than a commercial enterprise.

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Originally Posted by phdgent

I was 16 years when I developed my first film.
At 19 I went to the Royal Academy for Fine Arts to get a diploma in photography, which was mandatory to become a free lancer as a certificate of establishment was required for having the right to practice photography commercially.
The first year at the Academy was a true disaster, as being an artist was what counted there, which was not my cup of tea...

So I went to the institute for graphic techniques to get te required diploma, which was a success as there things were 'down to earth': chemistry, densitometry, optica, lightning techniques, darkroom practice etcetera...

When studying was finally finished, I became an intern in the Museum for Fine Arts, in the Museum of Industrial Archaeology and in a governmental project for nature preservation, all together for 4 years.

Then 'reality stroke' and I became an independent photographer with a nice studio and stayed it for 35 years, now I am retired (and a bit tired).

It begun in the industry, mainly power plants, and ended in the editorial photography illustrating about 70 books about a large diversity of themes (https://www.photoeil.be/bibliography.html).

But one thing I have to get off my chest, professional digital photography was hell!
So I have dumped it and the darkroom is my kingdom now.

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Interesting journey, I'll have a look at your website!