Many don’t know how much money there really is to make in micro stock photography.  These sites allow for the average photographer to compete with the big professional photographers by selling their pictures online to designers and businesses.  These images usually sell for an average of about $1 per image and many photographers on Istock, Shutterstock and Dreamstime have hundreds of donwloads per day.  That is well over $200 a day with just the pictures that are sitting on those websites.

There was a recent study done with some of the top sellers on Istock and it was found that some of photogs on there were making in excess of $10,000 per month.  That’s not a bad living, especially considering that many of them had other sources of income as well.

And that’s one of the great things about micro stock.  You can make money while shooting weddings, events, or whatever and still be making money while you sleep with your images sitting on Dreamstime and Istockphoto.

There are many designers who just got sick and tired of trying to find the perfect image and decided to take them themselves.  Some have even quit their full time jobs to shoot micro stock photography and are seeing huge success.  But with more people entering the market you need to be better than ever to stand out from among all of the talent that is already there.

There are still others making thousands of dollars just by selling their photos one download at a time.  It is exciting work as you can travel anywhere to find just the right image that you know will sell and it can take a fair amount of patience as well.  Once you figure out which pictures will be accepted you need to know what pictures will also sell like crazy.  If you can find that hot picture that all of the designers want than you can do very well.  Get ten of these top sellers and you will be well on your way to quitting your own day job to work with micro stock photography.

Event photography is a huge business today and always will be.  Sure, everyone has a camera these days but very few actually know how to use them.  It amazes me how many times people will come up to me and ask me how to use their camera which costs them almost $1,000.

People just seem to think that an expensive camera will create great pictures, but only people create great pictures.  More goes into a great image rather than just sharpness and beautiful color saturation.

The kinds of events that will pay you the most are weddings, baptisms, graduations, birthday parties, corporate events, grand openings, and a bunch more that you will be faced with.

Many people wonder how to price their photography, but with event photography you will want to make money by the hour.  it is not uncommon to charge at least $50 per hour, and that is at the VERY least.  You can often charge $100 and up per hour for your time, and then charge extra for any prints that are ordered.

I use a program called Printroom to make it easy for clients to select, order, and pay for the pictures they want from their event.  You can even set up each event with a password so only your clients can view the pictures.

There is a lot of money in event photography so I hope many of you will look in that direction.  Shoot the first few events for free so you can gain some more experience and get some more exposure as well.  The more you shoot the more people will recognize you and refer you to other clients that will be for paying jobs.

Building up your portfolio is a crucial part of the process of making money with your camera, so focus on this above all else for your event photography endeavors.  It will amaze you at how much money there is to be made with your camera, so stay confident in your pricing and don’t sell yourself short.