Here’s How I Failed at Full-Time Photography

Here's how I failed at becoming a full-time photographer.

In 2021, I quit my job, moved out of my apartment, and embarked on a 13-month full-time travel and photography journey. I had hoped to prolong this time by increasing my photography income, but after 13 months, the savings I had dedicated to this adventure had run out.

There are a few reasons this endeavor wasn't a financial success.

Too Many Changes at Once

Before I began my travels, I had gradually established my photography business as a side venture, in addition to my primary job as a software developer, over more than ten years. It didn't make me rich, but it financed most of my travels and my photography equipment, with a small profit on top. And the best thing is that, since I didn't have to pay my other bills with my photography, it was still a lot of fun.

However, time-wise, I was limited, and my income from photography had stagnated for a few years. And because my girlfriend and I had planned to spend a year traveling for some time already, this was the perfect opportunity to make landscape photography my main job. I thought that by devoting all my effort to photography, I'd be able to build my business to a point where it could sustain my new nomadic life.

It might have worked better without all the other changes. But especially the part about full-time travel became a huge hindrance in focusing on my photography. Constantly planning the next trip and the next place to stay takes a lot of time, especially if you are a landscape photographer who also has to research photo locations for every destination. It ate up most of my office hours on the road, and I wasn't able to work on all the other aspects of running a successful photography business.

Therefore, a better approach to transitioning into full-time photography would have been to do so gradually. I could have reduced the time spent on my main job first and allocated it to my photography instead. And while some people can make the nomadic lifestyle work, for me, this change was one of the biggest obstacles. Don't get me wrong, all those travels were a lot of fun. But it also made it hard to focus on the business side of photography.

More Photos Don’t Mean More Income

And this business side of photography is more than taking photos. I thought taking more pictures, putting them up for sale through agencies and for print, publishing regular YouTube videos, and increasing my social media presence would also increase sales. But this part made zero difference.

I photographed nearly every sunrise and sunset, documenting most of them on social media and in my YouTube videos. Yet my subscriber count didn't budge. Up to that time, I had produced nearly one video a week without much success for four years; now, I was creating two videos a week without success. Guess what: just doing more of the thing that doesn't make you successful doesn't make you successful. Although the common advice is to just keep posting regularly, in a saturated market, this only works for a few. I had already expected that, but it was still an interesting experiment.

Now, what about the fact that more photos don't necessarily equal more sales? At least not without the proper marketing. Becoming a good marketer is perhaps the most critical aspect of running a successful photography business. If I had invested the time I spent taking more photos in learning about marketing and creating a strategy that fits my photography, I would have certainly earned more money.

But to be honest, my dream was not to spend more time in front of my laptop creating leads and working on my sales. The dream was to travel and capture unforgettable moments in photos.

Not Taking It Seriously Enough

When I quit my job, I had already planned to return to software development after some time. Although it's a nine-to-five job, I like it, and nowadays, solving problems in that field has become as much of a creative outlet for me as my photography.

So photography, even during those 13 months of travel, has never really been a Plan A. While I never lacked the dedication to get up in the middle of the night and head out to take a photo, I certainly lacked the dedication to spend time in the office. In the back of my mind, I always knew I would return to being a software developer once the money ran out, so it was easy to say no to the less enjoyable aspects of being a full-time photographer.

On the other hand, had I had to make it work and treated it as a job on which I had to depend, there would have been no excuses.

It’s Not Only About Photography

Ultimately, becoming a full-time photographer is more about building a business than it is about photography itself. Before this year of travel, I worked 40 hours a week in my nine-to-five job and spent my weekends on photography.

If I had wanted to make this work, I should have treated photography as a business and replaced most of those 40 hours by focusing on it and becoming a pro at building a business. Having a passion for photography is not enough.

The Market Is Saturated

There is no denying that the photography market of today is highly saturated. So, selling your photography is becoming increasingly complex. What worked ten years ago may not work today, and what works today may not work ten years from now. So, you must be prepared to adapt constantly.

For example, seven years ago, I made most of my photographic income by selling photography licenses through agencies. By now, around 25% of that income remains. Another thing that could earn you good money was photography workshops. While this market is still expanding, it is already becoming more challenging for less well-known photographers like me to book a workshop in full.

Conclusion

It's essential to recognize that traveling the world, photographing exotic places, and sharing those images on social media will not necessarily make you a successful photographer, even if you are skilled at the craft of photography. It's the unseen work that eventually pays your bills.

That's why, for me, a solid nine-to-five isn't such a bad thing after all. It allows me to focus entirely on my photography when I'm traveling and out in the field without worrying about the next sale I might or might not create from the photos I capture.

Although it didn't work for me, if you know what you're getting into, you can still be successful as a photographer. There are enough examples. Just don't take such a naive approach as I did.