Making money with photography
(Image from Pixabay)
My passion for photography
Photography is one of my passions. Ever since I bought my own camera (about 20 years ago) I just love taking photographs. I see things around me in photographs.
Over the years I have taken thousands of photos with many different cameras and smartphones. I have an archive of over 40.000 photos that I created over the years. My favourite subjects is nature; which mostly are birds, insects, flowers and landscapes. But sometimes I step out of this comfort zone and shoot some other stuff too.
One of the fun things of photography is that you can do it everywhere. I often take my camera with me on walks in nature, but I also photograph the nature in my own backyard.
Although I have about 20 years of experience I’ve never outgrown my amateur status. But I do consider myself an experienced amateur.
An expensive hobby
Although better equipment doesn't always mean better photos (it's often better to invest in photography skills then gear) I did walk into the shortcomings of my first point en shoot camera.
So I decided to upgrade my gear. And then you find out that photography can be an expensive hobby. Good quality equipement costs a fortune.
That's why I decided to look for a way how my hobby could cover some of the expenses.
Stock photography
In my search I stumbled upon stockphotography. Stockphotos are used for websites and magazines for instance. Every photographer can sumbit photos which are sold for quite small amounts (often under a dollar).
When I finally managed to register an account at stockphoto sites iStockphoto and Shutterstock I started building up my portfolio.
I soon discovered that the it weren't the nature shots people bought the most. Top sellers were photos of technology and isolated objects.
So I decided to invest in a small light tent and expanded my portfolio.
Although I made quite some sales the photography part was quite boring. A lot of time went into setting up the gear, retouching the photos in photoshop afterwards adding tags and other boring stuff.
After a while I couldn't really bring it up anymore to update my portfolio.
Photography on Hive
And then we make a giant leap; I discovered Hive. It was August 2020 when I stumbled upon Hive. The different photography communities and photographers being paid for photography posts got me enthusiastic right away.
My enthusiasm grew even bigger after my first post which received 123 likes and 2.76 Hive.
Back then I didn't knew it had to do with a vote of a Hive curator and the audit trail behind it.
The enthusiasm decreased when following blogs I created weren't valuated as much as the first one.
But I didn't give up. I started building my own network and kept posting photos.
At the moment I frequently post my daily photo in the "Picture a day" community (https://peakd.com/c/hive-127238/created) which is really nice to follow by the way!
The income is still quite small (most posts get less than one Hive) but all small amounts add up and slowly increases just like the number of followers.
Besides it's a small effort, I can make the photos I like and I'm getting some nice reactions on them too.
Photography on Noise.Cash
And then there was this other platform where I registered in January; Noice.Cash.
A lot of people used this Twitter-like micro blogging platform for posting ramdom photos they ripped from the internet, but I decided to place some of my own.
Posts in Noise.Cash get rewarded with Bitcoin Cash tips.
My first post was quite dissapointing. One of my favourite photos only received 4 likes and no tips. But I had learned from my experiences on Hive and started to build up a network of people that were interested in photography.
So I kept posting photos, promoted my profile and engaged with Leofinance members on the Noise.Cash platform. This tactic seemed to pay out.
I started gaining followers and tips were getting in. I started organising photography contests and the newly released renoise function helped getting even more followers.
At the moment I'm over 850 followers. And that in just under four months.
Each photo I post generates over $0.40 at the moment, but most of them a bit more.
This recent post of a Honey Bee received 0.82 USD tips, 39 likes and 10 replies.
And I post multiple photos a day, so the numbers do add up.
I managed to collect over 0.25 Bitcoin Cash at the moment which represents a value of over 240 USD at the moment.
Not bad for posting updates of my hobby!
Check out my profile on Noise.Cash:
https://noise.cash/u/FriendlyMoose
I'm also waiting for #Projectblank to launch so I will have a third platform to share my photos.
Conclusion
Yes, you can make money with photography online. Even when you're an amateur like me and don't have really fancy equipment. Don't let the disappointment get you when you start with it. It takes time, consistency and engagement to create a network of people that are interested in your work.
The amounts may be small, but hey; what do you get for posting your photos on Facebook or Twitter?
The numbers do add up in the end and when the number of followers increases, the tips probably will as well.
👍 Upvotes are appreciated 👍
Follow me on Hive: https://peakd.com/@friendlymoose
Follow me on Noise.Cash: https://noise.cash/u/FriendlyMoose
NFT's of my photos are on wax.atomichub.io
friendlymoose#5717
FriendlyMoose
I'm crypto and security enthousiast with a passion for photography that likes to play games.
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BEER.I have noticed your noise blog and I have subscribed but I have noticed that you link to your posts on other sites like leofinance. I thought noise penalized you if you did. I'm wrong?
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A while ago they threatened to penalize people that promoted other platforms than theirs because they promote Bitcoin Cash. But there was a lot of resistance, so they didn't actually pursue this.
At least; I'm still receiving the same amount of tips as I did before.
I promote my posts two ways; I bring Noise.Cash people to Hive and the other way around.
These two platforms are totally different.
Great article!
I also start following you on Noise.Cash! :)
Could you explain whats project blank?
Thanks!
Projectblank is the microblogging platform that the Leofinance crew is developing at the moment.
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Ah that's good to know! Thank you, also for the rating 😄
really like your photos as well as your photo-contests on noise.cash, keep up and more success will follow! and even more important: preserve your fun! ;)
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Thanks!
Indeed the fun is the most important. Making some money comes second.
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Damn, a complete budget gear could cost between 1200-1500€
Canon 250D + 18-55mm = ~550€
70-300 mm with image stabilization = ~500€
10-18 mm = ~250€
Add sd card, backpacks, and other addons... xD
I'm trying to survive with the 18-55mm but I can feel its limitations.
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Tell me about it, it's awful ... but yeah, the costs are really high. Photography IS an expensive hobby.
I don't know what you experience as limitations of the 18-55mm, but if it's the depth of field, you could maybe get yourself a 'nifty-fifty', 'plastic-fantastic' ... I mean the 50mm 1.8
It's a great lens for not so much money!
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I experience limitations mostly with the kind of pictures I try to shot. For example, animals or sports, where I feel I need more zooming, I can't count the times a bird scape from me lol.
Also, shutter speed, a lot of blurry images because it doesn't have image stabilization. And what you mention, depth of field. But I think all of that happens because I try to do everything with the same lens. I need the right lens for the right moment.
I have the 50mm on my wish like, so don't worry haha.
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Can't you just manually raise the shutter speed or is it in low light situations? You could try that and play something with raising your ISO levels or changing the brightness afterwards on the computer.
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Yep, I did tried different options, sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t xD
I don’t like too much ISO because noise, I like between 100-800. But yeah, sometimes you need to slow shutter speed to get more light.
What I didn’t try is to edit on the computer, is still a subject to learn for me. I think there are a lot of good quality software that do an amazing job.
Well, all of this is part of the fun too :P
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Especially when you shoot in RAW you can adjust a lot afterwards on the computer.
I'm using The gimp, an open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It is quite complicated because there are just so many options, but there are a lot of tutorials which can help you out.
I had a 50 mm prime when I had my old Nikon D80. It a great lens to for making beautiful portraits. But apart from my kids I hardly make portraits.
I bought the 55-200 recently for my nature photography.
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Is kinda hard to ask people you don’t know for a portrait haha.
Normally, I use my friends.
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I have a Canon M50 with a 18-55 kit lens. I recently bought a 55-200 zoom lens because I like nature photography.
I also have a rather cheap clip-on lens for my smartphone for some macro photography.
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Seeing this post awakens something in me, I used to photograph everywhere and really enjoyed it very much. Lately the motivation to go out is completely gone and that's a shame. I need to get back at it, and step up my game again where it comes to photography. Get those creative juices flowing ...
Thank you for sharing your story. And amazing that you achieved this in this short time! I have to go and check out Noise Cash too I guess!
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How nice I have inspired you! You should pick it up indeed!
Just start posting in the Picture a day community and eventually Noise.Cash.
I'll see your photos there!
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Very nice! My dad is a freelance photographer and he really enjoys doing the nature type stuff more than anything else. He was lucky enough to have a couple of magazine covers at one point. We used to have a black and white darkroom in our house. Talk about an expensive hobby! He had all the medium format portrait cameras and that stuff too. It was pretty cool.
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The front of a magazine, that's really cool.
Photography surely got a bit easier than it used to be.
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Heck yeah. I remember he used to have to send pictures out for retouching because they would have to physically alter them. Crazy stuff. So much easier now!
Have you tried to withdraw your BCH? Curious if it works for you...
I'm an amateur photographer as well, just didn't had too much time lately to enjoy it.
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I moved it twice. Moving it from my Trust wallet was a problem because of the large amount of small transactions.
I have it in my Coinbase wallet now. This is a supported wallet, so I hope that doesn't cause any problems at the moment I want to withdraw it.
But I'll HODL it for a while :)
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Mine is locked on Exodus due to the small amount transactions.
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I've moved mine in tens of smaller transactions. I lost some money on fees, but was able to move most of it.
Did you already try that?
Nope. Will have to try it.
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I hope it works for you too.
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I didn't know Noise Cash and will research it. Have you ever thought about selling your images as NFTs? Are you familiar with the topic?
I've tried something with NFT's on WAX, but I find it very difficult to put a price tag on them.
https://wax.atomichub.io/market?seller=xt1ay.wam
I didn't know about this site yet. I recently landed on Hic et Nunc and have already made two sales there. It seems like a good network for those just starting out.... https://www.hicetnunc.xyz/tz/tz1dhpGtJX3vJEYU1iHkyXaTsd6Ksfnciu2c
An archive of over 40.000 photos?! That's a lot! Shows that you love photography indeed.
I am encouraged by your article because sometimes, one can get discouraged if it seems as if one's work is not appreciated on social platforms such as Hive.
You have come a long way. Keep doing what you love best! 🙂
I'm happy this blog has encouraged you. It's mostly not the fact that your work isn't appreciated, but more that you haven't reached your audience yet.
Just keep on going. Commitment and engagement are key!
This actually makes sense - reaching one's audience. I'd never seen it like that before. Thanks! 🙂
Yes. I post mine as “stockphotos”..... It’s a great gig.
You can surely make some serious money, but
unfortunately my nature shots weren't accepted at the stocksites I had registered.
What kind of stoxkphotos do you make?
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I meant to say post them .... on all of the many Various blockchains, earning little bits of crypto that I convert into Bitcoin and Ethereum on ionomy.com ...it has added up to over $100,000 over the last 4 years.
Ah, that's an amazing amount. Very cool! I just started my journey a couple of months ago.
Well I have been sharing my Artwork, photography, videos since June 2017 on Steemit... then on Hive and now mostly Noise.Cash too... my Gains are mostly due to appreciating Crypto like BTC, ETH, BCH and Dogecoin. Noise.Cash is fantastic Noise.Cash is fantastic
I must say I'm doing well on Noise.Cash too. I almost have 1000 followers already.
Do you have the same username there?
The trick is buying BTC, ETH etc on the dips.
Thanks for the tip. My modest amount is in BCH, CUB and Staked Hive and Leo.
But maybe I should also start buying these in the dips.
People don’t realize that a few pennies of BitcoinCash eventually adds up to thousands of dollars
I'm working towards the 1BCH club. I'm at 0.29 now almost all from photo posts.