people with day jobs?

[TheRandomPhotographer]

Originally Posted by hue-e

How do you balance your day jobs with photo gigs? It seems finding processing time is such a challenge.

I mean, I'm sure I'm just overwhelmed with the holidays, some design freelance and getting two portrait gigs and a product gig out the door before the end of the month, but seriously?... do I just keep working till midnight every night or take vacation time and get it all done?

guess I'm not really looking for an answer, just venting... ugh.

you think you have it bad? I cant even get off the ground

i preform inspections for the petroleum/petrochem indusrty all across the US and the bulk of my work is local Houston callout and it typically is last minute stuff and those jobs will consume 60-90 hours a week

with that said i REALLY WISH i could get my automotive gig rolling(no pun intended) but i dont want to burn a bridge before i build it, if you know what i mean. im able to apply what is in my imagination as far as composition goes but i cant do that because i cant plan/schedule a day to shoot for a client.

I guess im just practicing for my retirement from this industry when im 40-ish and have a substantial bankroll for those slow weeks.

/rant

[texxter]

From what I have heard, stock is pretty much dead.

According to those who've been around for a while, stock used to be an easy way to make lots of money. Leftovers from assignments and stock productions would provide a steady income because the value of stock was very high. That is gone and stock is now a different business - it's about volume and competition is brutal. Yet, there is money to be made if you play it right. If you used to spend $1,000 to produce a set of ten lifestyle images, not you have to do it for $0 and sell it across multiple stock sites, and produce ten or one hundred times more images. There are people making a living out of stock today - but it's not easy. I do it very part-time and do earn some money, but I spend very little on production work. If I were to do it full-time I could make a retirement-level income.

[hue-e]

I remember when stock images were anywhere from $250 to $350 and up for just one image. these days it's more like $10 to $20 each... and the hosting site keeps a decent portion of that.

I imagine if you wanted to go the stock route, you'd maybe get 2hrs of sleep a night, in your single room studio apartment, after a delicious meal consisting of ramen noodles.

[texxter]

Originally Posted by hue-e

I remember when stock images were anywhere from $250 to $350 and up for just one image. these days it's more like $10 to $20 each... and the hosting site keeps a decent portion of that.

I imagine if you wanted to go the stock route, you'd maybe get 2hrs of sleep a night, in your single room studio apartment, after a delicious meal consisting of ramen noodles.

Getty licenses some of my images for $450 and I get 20-25% of that. If I had a portfolio of 1,000 good images with Getty I would make 5,000+ per month before tax. Getting 1,000 images on Getty is not an easy task.

[hue-e]

jfc... you only get that much for your image? that alone would make me not want to do that. imo, that percentage should be the other way around.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by hue-e

jfc... you only get that much for your image? that alone would make me not want to do that. imo, that percentage should be the other way around.

I agree. A 60/40 split with Getty getting the 60 would be a lot more fair, I think.

[hue-e]

well yeah, they didn't buy the gear, that took the photo, that you processed and hold intellectual property on.

sometimes I hate how crooked the art world is... it's always the people selling the art, not creating it, that profit the most. and I'm not just talking about photos, art galleries are pretty much the same... hence the starving artist.

[janikphoto]

I thought Getty got 60%, but I haven't checked stock cuts in several years... They must've been slowly eating up more and more of the cut. As mentioned above, stock isn't dead. You just have a lot more images to compete with now, which brings down each individual's sales... but the industry as a whole is doing well. And for the last several years, there have been photogs making some big budget photos specifically to put up on stock... it's no longer a place to sell your leftovers.

[ronocnikral]

i guess i struggle to understand the OP's motivation. if it's not for money and one is burning out, what is the point?

there are jobs, and there are hobbies. there are different reasons for doing each.