Professional Photography

I'm wondering if Professional Photography is a work camping opportunity?

What type of photography?? Weddings? Portrait? Landscape and wildlife?

Wedding and portrait photography require  a lot of word of mouth advertising and a studio.

Landscape and wildlife might be possible, if you are both lucky and good. But, where will you sell the pictures?

A forum member, Wigpro, is as close to being a professional photographer and an RV'er that I know. PM him and I am sure he has more knowledge in this area than I do.

I'm not sure I understand the question.....
but it seems to me that halfwright is all right
wouldn't be much of a chance for word of mouth advertising that would seem necessary for portrait and repeat business....
Although I'd imagine you'd pick up a job or two if you stop in a place for a month or more and advertise a bit..... with competitive prices.

BUT travelling would give lots of opportunity for landscape type stuff.....
and then you could get on those art show circuits and set up a tent to sell the stuff.

Another thought..... might be some business license snags doing this kind of stuff....

One caveat - most private campgrounds and Federal (BLM lands) prohibit advertising or openly conducting business. Don't have signs at your camp site or on your vehicles. Others can shed more light on this.

I had a web site called "Graphics Depot" for eight years where I sold photographs and software. Then in 2003 I hit the road to start ten years of full timing. After one year I closed down the web site. This was before WiFi was commonly available and after the dot com bust. Business was in decline due to the dot com bust and it was a pain trying to find a library every time I wanted to use the Internet. In today's booming economy and with the availability of WiFi everywhere it would be a lot easier. But I still would not do it because running a business takes away too much time from the fun of RVing and photography. Photography is a blast until it is a job, then it is a job. But you will never know if it will work for you until you try. Just keep it under the radar since almost all RV parks really frown on commercial enterprises.

I just happened to remember my grandfather was a professional photographer. I don't believe he did any work in campgrounds because it was in the year 1900.  ;D

Max,

Are you looking for an income opportunity while you are traveling, or do you want to travel to an income opportunity? Workcamping, by definition, would be more the latter, but they would be two different things.

What's the focus of your question?

Kim

skyking4ar2 said:

Are you looking for an income opportunity while you are traveling, or do you want to travel to an income opportunity? Workcamping, by definition, would be more the latter, but they would be two different things.

What's the focus of your question?

Kim

Click to expand...

Sorry my question was so vague.

Thanks Kim, I think you correctly questioned my/our motivation.  We are looking for extra income that will further our travel adventures.  We don't need to rely on income from photography to make ends meet but we would love to earn extra income to further our travels.  We also see photography as a way to meet new and interesting people, and to help others meet their career goals.  At this point in our lives we are free to travel nationally and internationally.  I suppose workamping would be considered a long term commitment.

I am primarily a formally trained professional portraiture and commercial photographer.  DH has received formal training as a photographer's assistant.  I consider my skills in editing and compositing above average.  There is always more to learn.

I don't think there is much income to be generated from landscape or nature photography.  Nor do I believe there is much income from the the art fair/craft circuit or stock photography.  Tomorrow night we are attending the opening of a photography exhibit titled "Patterns in Nature."  Hopefully we will have a chance to talk with Jim Brandenburg who is a fairly well known Minnesota nature photographer, photography author, and the juror of the event.  I will ask his opinion on this. 

So ... I was pondering whether there might be private campgrounds, city, county, state, or federal governments that need images to update their websites.  We plan to add hybrid photography to our services.  Hybrid photography is a combination of photography stills, video clips, music, and sometimes graphics.  Our services might also be of interest to businesses, independent sales people as well as other photographers who are either overbooked and/or who do not have the equipment or skills to do hybrid photography.

Max,

I think there is a natural conflict between workcamping and the itch to travel and that is not to say that is a bad thing. For some, workcamping is a requirement to stay out on the road, for others it is a supplement to their income, and for others it satisfies a need to be busy and productive in an enjoyable atmosphere.

That said, thousands of people successfully meet any or all three of those needs in some form or fashion or there would not be workcampers.

It?s an extremely personal decision and nobody can say you are right or wrong in your choices. Only you can measure that.

Good cooks often think of opening a catering service, programmers think of being in the web design business, accomplished mechanics want to open their own shops, pilots want to be charter pilots and wander the world getting paid to do so.

The reality is that if you are good at what you do, bury your nose in turning over rocks to find the business opportunities, and then service your customers well, you will never lack for income. And that is true, full or part time. People want quality work and they will pay for it.

In the case of those of us on the road, that conflict between building the business and enjoying the traveling is a constant source of give and take. We originally thought that we would enjoy workcamping at some point but quickly realized how that tied us down and defeated the purpose of traveling and seeing the world. Fortunately for us, my work lends itself well to being on the road, and there are just a few conflicts we just take in stride.

Your specialty might lend itself to contract work with ad firms, Internet marketers, etc. who have a need for your product, but don?t need in house staff. Think a little outside the box and since you are unconventional in your living style, find someone who can benefit from that.

Excellent work and good customer service never go out of style. Play to that. Somebody out there needs you!

Kim

Thanks Kim.  Your response was encouraging and helpful.  We have to get some portable lighting and backgrounds together, set up a website and then we can start turning over rocks. This fall we plan on staying in Minnesota but hopefully next spring we will be ready to take our show on the road part time. 

My specialty is macro photography down to 16x lifesize. I have been approached to do it and it was made clear I could make more if I would travel to them.  It's an option if I ever decide to use the photography to generate income more than occasionally like I do now.

The thing is doing it as work kills the hobby for me. Sometimes I shoot daily, other times I barely pick up the camera for months, I like it to be on my terms.

This will be somewhat of a long winded explanation of my desire for photography and how I moved it into my full time RV Lifestyle. I was a professionally trained photographer back in the old film days in the 1970's...I quickly realized my desire to make a good living from photography required  studio and shooting weddings and portraits which I despised....oh I did it for a while more as a hobby than as a full time business. I instead moved into commercial printing and graphic design.

I always had the itch to travel and have done so all my life....when the digital age came along, I moved into it with great interest. I may never achieve the status I dreamed of as a young adult - Ansel Adams etc....but wonderful landscapes and picturesque spots in the world has always been my desire. As a graphic designer I moved into web design and that is the main stay of my extra income, of course supplemented by my photography. My "art" photography is mine and it gets shared on my blog and in small personal publications which I sometimes sell...calendars, some post cards etc. But my primary source of extra revenue is still web design and internet marketing.

I was fortunate to find a place to winter which utilizes my services - I did a total rebuild on their website and created an activity blog which is active during the winter "snowbird season". No real pay but get my site and electric and propane...so virtually free which allows me to stay for the winter with little or no cost....it works for me and works for the park from a marketing standpoint.

Many, many, campgrounds and RV Resorts could use some new web design and a more active internet marketing presence and of course some new updated photographs and graphics....so it may be a way to help you make it work, maybe not in "real income" but money you don't have to spend is just the same.....I am always on the look-out for RV Parks with a terrible web site, be careful, some have been built by the owner and they have a fondness for their lack of graphics design and creativity....I really upset an RV Park owner once by starting the conversation on how bad his site looked and worked.

Good Luck - my website and contact info is in my signature - or you can PM me any specific questions or keep the thread going for others to read...

Jim

Another long response.

Wigpro said:

I quickly realized my desire to make a good living from photography required  studio and shooting weddings and portraits which I despised.... Jim

Click to expand...

I enjoy working with people so business portraiture and business environmental (location) photography is something I like.  One idea is to contact real estate companies, bankers, law firms, medical and dental clinics, etc. letting them know when we will be in their area and arranging a 1/2 day shoot for small groups of people.  The employee images would have similar lighting and backgrounds which would provide a cohesive look for the business website.  In other words, the business website would not have a selfie of one person, an outdated classic business portrait for another person, and a trendy high key portrait of still another.  The individuals would also get edited digital files sized so that they can be used on LinkedIn, Facebook, cell phones, business cards, etc.

Although I have received training as a wedding photographer I am only interested in acting as a second shooter for wedding "details" and providing "hybrid" photography services to primary wedding photographers who might not have the equipment, knowledge, or time to do hybrid photography.

I am fortunate to have my own trained Photographer's Assistant who travels with me.  (That would be my DH :-*)  I would not take any of this on without his participation. 

There are more and more options for lightweight lighting setups.  We are in the process of researching Paul C Buff Einsteins, Mini-Vagabond batteries, and Buff lighting modifiers (pop-up softboxes... yeah!)  Those coupled with two Canon 600EX-RT speedlites and the right radio transmitter/receiving system so all the lights will work together, will give us lots of portable lighting options. 

We play well with other Pro-Photographers.  We also like shooting Senior High Students, Tweens, Athletes, Models, Musicians, Dancers, and Actors.  We are open to assisting other photographers, and bartering our services for RV sites, lodging, horseback riding, tours, guide services, entertainment, food, ... 

Along the way I would like to capture some short landscape and nature video clips to use with my new found fascination with hybrid photography.  I attended a Suzette Allen seminar a few months ago and fell in love with idea of adding hybrid photography to our services.  Following is a link to one of Suzette's Senior High Shoots where she nicely transitions between stills, short video clips, and incorporates music. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z65_yo-Nz60

I would like to use the same concept for campgrounds but incorporate short video clips of moving nature or water scenes, birds, wild flowers, campfires, etc with appropriate sounds or background music.     

In summary our goal is to travel, meet new people, experience new things, and to occasionally pick up some freelance photography assignments along the way.  I suppose that isn't really "workamping." 

Another idea flashed through my head.  I wondered if the Kampgrounds of America has a recommended or preferred photography vendor list? 

SeilerBird said:

Photography is a blast until it is a job, then it is a job. But you will never know if it will work for you until you try. Just keep it under the radar since almost all RV parks really frown on commercial enterprises.

Click to expand...

Seiler,  My situation is fairly unusual.  Photography has never been my hobby.  I decided on photography as a business venture and then got formal training.  Also I want RV parks to know I am a professional photographer.  I will not be soliciting business from the parks' guests but I would like the park to consider using my services for their business needs.