... or "How I Missed Recognizing My First Paid Photo Gigs!"
I've been waiting with anticipation to be able to write about my "First Paid Photo Job"....
waiting....
waiting....
and
waiting....
Waiting for some glamorous and fun gig that would require a special lens or special skill as a photographer to pull off some stunning photos that would "WOW the world" and provide me with the salary I know I deserve (ha)!
And while I was waiting, nose in the air, I was"poo-pooing" the very photos that WERE actually making some money!
So if I'm going to be truthful and stick to the "letter of the law" or in this case the letter of what is considered "payment," then I must take my nose out of the air and put it right here in front of this computer and type this blog post in humility and gratitude that I actually have some income from my photography!
That is, after all, the whole point of doing photography as an income-producing activity!
I'll write about these in the order they have happened, so the "penny shots" come first.
I have been interested in trying my hand (or trigger-finger and photo-eye) at stock photography and have had some photos accepted recently by two stock photo companies. None of those photos have sold anything yet.
But before taking on the paying stock companies, I had found another "free" stock photo company that gives photographers the opportunity to offer some photos for free download, up to a certain size. They also sell the photos at larger sizes. Since I had not yet made the jump into selling stock photos, I decided to put several dozen photos on this "free for download" site and see how they did. (The site is PublicDomainPictures.net)
Well! Almost immediately people began to download quite a few of the photos I had submitted. And a handful of them have now been downloaded more than 40 times each (the most popular photo has been downloaded 103 times and counting).
Then in October I received an email letting me know that a customer had paid for a larger size download of one of my photos (the one of Beit She'an's Roman ruins above).
My share of the payout?
A whopping 6 cents!!
Yes, that's $0.06.
Was I disappointed? Actually...no! I was thrilled that someone would give me a penny or six for my shots. I thought that if someone would pay for a photo on a FREE download site, then maybe I do have a shot at this stock photography thing after all.
Sure enough, about a week later I received another email saying another one of my photos had sold... again for 6 cents. This one (which, by the way, is the one that has over 100 free downloads)...
And then last month I received yet another email letting me know another photo had sold for 6 cents. This one of a Redbud tree (Oklahoma's state tree) covered in ice by a late ice storm in the spring (Oklahoma's state weather pattern, after tornadoes)...
Okay...
have you been keeping track of my earnings so far in this stock photo endeavor?
Yes! That's right! I've made 18 cents!!
And that's just fine with me...for now! Every 6-cent photo that sells on a FREE photo website gives me hope that the photos I am putting on the income-producing stock photo sites WILL sell and give me yet another stream of income, albeit unpredictable and small (for now). There IS hope!
But wait! That's not all!
Besides the FIRST $0.18 of photography income since my decision to take the plunge into photography-as-an-income, I also landed a temporary contract with a national marketing research company photographing self-storage units in and around central Oklahoma.
For about 13 day's worth of driving and photographing multiple self-storage businesses from all different angles, I was paid enough to cover my bills for one month, and then some.
Now, this for sure is not glamorous work, not even skilled work. It just required a camera, decent weather, and lots of time to drive and walk. I did not have to do any photo editing - they wanted all the photos submitted as shot.
And while this type of assignment does not involve glamour or glitz (or even editing software), it DOES pay the bills with plenty of time left over for me to continue practicing, learning, building my portfolio, and contacting possible clients.
I envision this type of "grunt work" photography to be the very thing that keeps me alive during this coming year while I build and hone my business and photography skills.
Bring it on!
And...
I have been contacted this week by a friend who wants to use ME to shoot her son's high school senior photos next week!
Now I'm very glad to have the freedom over the next few days to practice my portrait photography without the pressure of unpaid bills hanging over my head and weighing me down.
There IS something to be said for grunt work photography and 6-cent stock photos!
Penny for your shots, anyone?