Not the Pulp

It's a big world out there. And strangely I think there might be enough room for all of us.

Strange as it may sound. There are many niches for photographers to snuggle into and make a penny. I mean, look at all the stock photo sites out there. I have no experience in stock photography, but I hear that it's changed a great deal lately. There's a great post about it at Strobist. We are in demand, but there's always a catch.

Some of the basic stuff you can do from your own home (most photo can be done from home) isn't too tough. A flash or two, a good background and some tricks.

Macro studio product shots

This stuff is pretty simple. I just shot this about 10 minutes ago with two flashes. No umbrellas, no reflectors, no fancy backgrounds. Just knowledge of shutter speed, aperture, and my manual flashes.

This isn't really stock photography until you start taking pictures of things that don't have any sort of orientation to a company. This picture obviously contains an item that is copy written/trademarked by movie peoples. It's the lighting and the cleanliness that matters for this example. There are a million ways to light a little thing and make it look like it could be in an ad.

This is the same kind of shot in many ways as the helmet above. Still has that silly Motorola and probably Verizon title in there that'd get me in trouble if I tried to sell the picture.

But if I ever need to sell this phone on eBay... Oh, man! But I digest.

Getting yourself to learn small subject photography can net you some small amounts of money if you play your cards right.

Check out this to get an idea of things that don't have any preordained association. This is also a great example of a journalist taking pictures that could probably pretty easily be used as stock photos instead. The cake still has the same lighting fundamentals.

Portraits of all kinds

I frequently ask friends' bands if I can photograph them while they play. Then, if they want the pictures I offer them an extremely low price for said images. Usually I'm losing out on this deal because I'm making no money, but taking pictures in which you have real subjects doing real things is always nice.

These are more candid portraits, but they're still worthy of making a profit if a band sees your images somewhere and needs some album art. Hell, at the least you get to meet some bands! Be warned, this sounds better than it does. Band photography is a pretty sought after job and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people out there taking great shots and making nothing from it.

Personal portraits. Plain and simple really. People hire you to take pictures of them and their loved ones and you collect money for performing said photography. A lot of portraits can be taken on location, but if you've got a nice house with a clean well lit living room, you've got yourself a nice location (not everyone wants to have their picture taken in front of a fake backdrop.

So where does this all come into the photojournalism student/beginner? Well I can tell you from experience that to the layman, a photographer is a photographer no matter what their career. I've been asked to take portraits of people's kids even though I have no real experience in photographing children (they're fussy as I found out). And it's not illegal to maintain a small stock photography career on the side. Although it can eat up a lot of your time.

What I'm getting at is that a photographer is a photographer. You know a piece of machinery pretty darn well and you can use it in a lot of conditions. It's up to you how you want to use your knowledge. Practice like crazy and you'll find your favorite things.