How did you get past $50k a year using only your camera?

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>>4403987 (OP)
I really like what you've done here.

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>buy camera
>work my 60k a year job
>enjoy photography as a hobby
>not be American so know there's more to life and hobbies than money

>>4404025
What the fuck bro. Are you retarded? You must be some poor fag third worlder bro. You probably don't even get emotionally hysterical over dichotomies that you made up in your head. Fag.

>>4403987 (OP)
>take photos
>upload to shutterstock
>sell 6 billion photos per year
>make $50,001
sinple really

>>4404025
$60k, lol.
>imagine bragging about your 60k job

>>4404142
>bragging
I'm not retard, that's low
I work in a warehouse with dumb cunts and hate my life
But check this sick technic model I made

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>>4404025
The yuropoor/turd worlder is physically incapable of going a single second without obsessively seething about America. Lol, lmao even.

>>4403987 (OP)
>be teenager in 2012
>buy shitty canon dslr cause you join yearbook
>get paid to take friends graduation photos
>start getting wedding gigs from facebook page
>go to community college and shoot weddings while living at home
>transfer to university and study computer science
>befriend business major and hospitality major instagram girlies
>flirt with cute hospitality major by offering to do a portrait photoshoot of her
>fall in love with her. Date her for a year
>you and her shoot lesbian weddings in liberal college town and live ina cheap studio apartment
>accidentally fall in love with her best friend. >learn that she never stopped texting her ex boyfriend and has deleted all the text messages
>You both start messy throuple with best friend
>sober up during the pandemic lockdowns
>end it with both of them. Sadly masturbate for 3 months
>vow to never shoot a camera again
>Bump into girlie you met at wedding you shot 2 years. Asks if your still dating that "blonde uggo"
>start dating new girl
>graduate with less than 5k in college debt and a bachelors in engineering because I worked weddings through college
>land first real job at military contractor earning 75k
>marry cute girlfiend
>hire photographer for the wedding
>takes terrible photos and charges us 2000$
>get so annoyed at the bad photos I decide to buy one of those mirrorless cameras I have heard about
>wake up a couple days later grateful I don't have to shoot weddings with a DSLR anymore

Anon I mean this from the bottom of my heart. unless you have rich parents with connections you will never make a good living with a camera. Use it to get a real job and shoot pictures on weekends. Photographer is an activity, not a job.

>>4404185
that is a pretty sick model indeed anon, use it in your photography! use scale to make it look big or something like that

idk what anyone is smoking but 50k USD is very good money if you're not living in some shithole like California, London or New York.

Rent is about 300usd a month where im at

>>4404195
>and then I woke up covered in my own shit

>>4404195
In many ways photography is the art form that relies on the challenge of using its subject as opposed to creating the subject. If it was painting you can draw as many hot girls as possible. In photography you got to find one and make her comfortable in front of the camera.

>>4404277
Can you show me examples where you've done this?

>>4404279
Let me give a bit of a background. The OP image was from the internet. I have been doing this as a hobby for a while and still am terrible. The closest I have gone to photographing people not of my family is doing three commercials for people. The only thing I have gotten good so far is exposing to where you can tell what the subject is. Now everything else, I'm fucking terrible at. I tried to get an edgy suicide short film made when I was 21 and it failed miserably. My camera work has gotten better, but at this rate I don't see it going anywhere professionally. At the height of it, it'll be like those boring sailboat paintings you'd see at a crafts store everyone walks by and ignore. It's the reason why my current college major is in math as it is just by numbers rather than by creativity. I can show you my imgur page. Though to be honest I'm willing to do it only if by heart you're interested.

>zach is the real life terminally uncreative, perpetually oblivious autist art douches cringe about whenever they're mad that someone is buying a nicer camera than theirs (and dared to call theirs crap)
>he's totally incapable of gearfagging
>literally cant comprehend gearfagging
>has no creative vision and therefore is incapable of demanding anything beyond what his camera shits out
>can't dream of how new gear might make things look
>his biggest gear related decision in the past year was organizing his camera kit more neatly

>really good at math tho

>>4404299
>doing this as a hobby
>no photos
????

>>4404316
Here are all my photos
https://imgur.com/user/Zack194/posts

>>4404305
First point is untrue, others are true. I'm a very emotional person, but deep down inside I don't care what you spend your money on. I'm only offended if you care what I spend my money on okay. 2 thousands dollars is a lot for a camera and if you have one you're proud of its a bit different.

>>4404064
I did a couple erotic/lingerie shoots for a few OF girls. I hate it when they add a crappy snapchat filter that fucks up the color and morphs their face. I'd rather be uncredited for the rest of my life.

I did:
>start working at camera shop, use employee purchasing to stock up on gear & start shooting small stuff on the side (2009-2012ish)
>move to smaller touristy town to manage a small camera shop, start doing family shoots, then engagements, then weddings (2017-2019ish)
>get consistent with weddings and start shooting in neighboring states, and a few travel weddings, also expand to include boudoir, family, baby, etc (2020-now)
Weddings or social media photo/video are probably the easiest to make decent money. I am winding the business down this year though, kind of over the industry, but mostly over the hustle. Booked through July and taking site / socials down after, but probably do things here and there. I just want to go back to being generic office worker that takes pictures on the side.

>>4404350
grim

>>4404350
Show us 1-3 of your favorite photos.

>>4404350
>terrible composition
>nothing subject
>brown
>poor person roof
LMFAO
Why are you even namefagging, then again you can't do that right, but you can't take good photos

>>4404465
I'll show you Mr. Toad.

>>4404467
Yeah well I love it like a guy who loves cooking steak for himself as opposed to everyone else.

>>4404350
you are so awesome

You are very brave to show your gallery here. I think the main problem is that you lack intent when taking pictures, and try to keep a standard of quality : share only your best ones.

>>4404475
Nah just call me based.

>>4404444
>4404444
neat

>>4404185
works in a warehouse with retards.
>I'm not a retard.
Sure you're not Bud.
>look at my toys.

>>4404236
>300/mo
where is that?

>>4404553
>hates lego
Holy soulless

>>4404468
>Blown highlights
>Missed focus
>Unremarkable centered composition
Well, it's not the worst I've ever seen on this board, but I sure hope that's not in your top 3.

>>4404598
I'll show you this one instead.

>>4404195
I'm in college and I also just bought a shitty canon dslr to do grad photos but I also got offered a wedding gig already
any tips for me?

>>4404804
Yeah stay away from alcohol

>>4404805
do you have any stories about this

>>4404806
>be me
>cope with alcohol
>alcohol stopped working
>trying to turn life around at 29
As for photography tips try to be always thinking about 90 seconds ahead

>>4404807
kek I thought you meant you got drunk while working a wedding
I drink a lot but I don't do it to cope. I used to though.

>90 seconds ahead
that sounds stressful
are there any events similar to weddings where I can practice the same kind of photography?

>>4404809
Maybe concerts, live events, shit that's dynamic

>>4404810
Actually, being in college I have a fair bit of access to stuff like house shows. I might try taking photos if I can find one soon

>>4404817
You can practice on birds and squirrels with a telephoto lens. I manage to have some success with it. Truthfully photographing people, I feel you that that is a horror, but nature you can do.

>>4404821
Your nature photos lack any creativity or soul.

>>4404823
Well I like it and some people like it, that's all that counts.

>>4404828
Hi there newfaggot, 4chan is an anonymous forum and you don't need to put your name in the field
It's there for single threads if it's important to identify someone, like when Kamiya came here and such
Otherwise it's not necessary and even against 4chan culture

>>4404828
That attitude won't get you anywhere.

>>4404829
I'd rather be honest than wear a mask
>>4404831
True, but I love doing what I do.

>>4404834
>>4404829

>>4404834
Why do you attempt to give advice when your photos are objectively terrible? Your inexperience and lack of skill shows itself in every one of your posts.

>>4404835
That's your problem not mine.

>>4404837
>>4404829

>>4404836
Because I want to help people learn from my mistakes? Without idiots like me making mistakes and you learning from them people would have eaten poisonous berries in the wilderness when we were cavemen.

>>4404836
I'd like to think he is subtly mocking the other name/tripfags

>here's your super masterpiece from an unofficial magnum (self assessed) photographer bro
>>4404467

>>4404839
You're so absolutely and truly inexperienced that you do not even recognize or understand the problems with your own kindergarten level snapshitting.
You aren't saving anyone time because most people serious about photography quickly move past the phase you've been stuck in for years.

>>4404849
And?

>>4404849
is this your first zach experience anon? he's our resident, uh, well i'm not quite sure what the fuck you'd call him but he's been doing this schtick for ages.

>>4404956
Yeah and people like you are verbally abusive about technique but lack the ability to be considerate towards others who are trying to be creative. You're essentially a snob who only talks about his luxury goods, not really someone whom most people don't want to be around with. Now people on this forum sure they'd fuck you like you were Megan Fox. But out in the real world and you act like how you are with me with someone else you'd immediately get fired. You're lucky you can piss on me since I'm weak enough to be pissed on, but I'm telling you had the way you treated me been someone else, you would have been SOL out of work for a while. And I don't mean little bits and pieces jokingly, no full 100% had you treated people the way you do with me you would have been fired. And employers care more about attitude than skill.

>>4404956
I genuinely can't tell if this guy is trolling or he's actually... I mean I guess retarded works. I don't think the English language really has a word for his behavior.

>>4404870
Short term memory problems? You're inadvertently misleading people by spouting off this nonsensical "advice" that amounts to little more than your own personal war with the absolute basics of photography.

>>4404956
Nah, but it's still funny. He deserves it too.

>>4404350
>mom's phone photos

>>4404957
kill yourself

>>4405048
Cool, obviously wishing death on someone has something to do with photography. You could have shoot yourself and that could have had some photography mentioning, but no you still didn't. Goes to show you the mods here are worse than corrupt police officers in Mexico.

>>4405012
Anon... With this time speaking how God awful my advice is, you could have outright done this:
>OH LOOK I ACTUALLY TOOK A REAL PHOTO OF A SQUIRREL COMPARED TO THAT WEEB ZACH!

But instead while all those squirrels are running around your yard you chose not to.

>>4405053
Already been done, bro. The same could be said for you as well. I would even say that you should be taking your own advice and practicing rather than wasting your time attempting to give people terrible advice.
My advice? Try something other than center composition for once in your life.

>>4405052
You could have said shoot yourself*

>>4405059
More shitty advice.

>>4405060
You know shoot yourself a photo?

>>4405062
I told you that you were just attempting to inflict violence upon all of us.

>>4405063
No... When you grab a smartphone and give yourself a selfie when you go out hiking that ain't violence.

>>4405064
You are one violent sob.

Tell you what here's a photo I took of an egg.

>>4405066
Your incompetence is truly violent.

>>4403987 (OP)
Feet pics

>>4405066
Nice egg bro

>>4404804
Charge less than less than other people but more than you think. There is no such thing as "cheap" wedding photography since it's somebody's special day.

Always have them sign a contract/release to cover your ass. Most people were fine but there is always a crazy bitches who expect you to remove the last 10 years of Oreos and dirty sodas

Shoot raw and don't white balance properly. Find the correct white balance and go a warmer from there. They want to feel love from looking at their photos and a warm picture is going to be better about that.

Always shoot with a device that has 2 sd card slots and try to avoid wide angles that might widen the face.

For portraits and group photos reduce the clarity by around 10 to 15%. It's just enough to hide pores but keep them looking human. Same goes for color balancing.

Last one is most important. Don't do gigs for friends and if you do be ready to lose them as a friend. I currently work with governmental departments in multiple countries dealing with very sensitive data and systems and it pales in comparison to the insane expectations and requests that came from bridezillas.

Oh and also if it's a straight couple act a little gay. For some reason they'll be nicer to you and trust you more.

>>4403987 (OP)
when I started taking really boring photos like corporate headshots, cliche high school graduation portraits with canned poses, etc.
Shit prints money once you start getting a consistent basis of referrals, that took a little while to build up, but bloomed out of my attempts to actually treat photography as an art.
45 minutes of actual shooting and an hour or two of editing for this assembly line BS is way easier to make money than spending days on a shoot and weeks editing.
The vast majority of people I'm making <$300 each, but once or twice a month I sell like a $1,000 or $1,500 package to some rich mom who wants to send a framed photo of a generic ass graduation photo to everyone in the family, and that's what pushes me from like $30kish to $50kish.

>>4405067
I bet when cops make routine stops of you you go full Karen.

>>4405149
You're the kind of person that let's police trample on your rights. I bet you would stop taking violently terrible pictures if they asked you to stop.

>>4405154
What?

Anyone ever done stock?
I have lots of down time off work and get bored on my days off, might be fun to make a few dollars a month.....

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>>4404350
brother wtf is this shit?
are you using a digital camera from 2003?

>>4405249
2010.

>>4405159
The trick is obvious but people don't really ever try for whatever reason -- don't do typical stock photography, take photos of things that people would actually find useful, but things that aren't accessible to the internet at large.
A good example is go around local nearby small towns with obscure tourist abstractions, like some Amish town or something. Instead of competing with 10,000s of gimmicky stock photographers taking photos of an Amish dude, you'll be one of like five photographers who've taken stock photos of a particular street.

>>4404350
Thanks for posting the link. What camera(s) do you use by the way?

>>4405304
yeah that's what I was sorta thinking, maybe get the drone up and get some vidya too.

there is a fuck tonne of building projects happening here so I'm thinking that could be handy, you can't really go back in time once its done

>>4404350
Are you trolling?
These are snapshots. Straight up. Very little artistic value.
If that brings you joy, more power to you, but if you want to be serious about photography you should really like... study photography.
The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman is a good start.
I would also find a photographer that resonates with you. Buy a photo book of their's and practice emulating their style. Try to straight up copy the photos they've taken. Then learn to critique photos (there are books on this topic) and figure out why your photos aren't hitting like their's.

>>4405311
They'll get good eventually.

>>4405309
Canon T2i and Samsung S20 phone.

>>4405311
Apart from that here's a famous artist that made stick figure drawings to remind you a snapshot can be art like just a basic stick figure drawing can, and this guy's work is in the millions.

Apart from that I'm still going to continue taking these "snapshots" of wild animals to get better at photos since I enjoy photographing wildlife.

If you and every other person with a camera wants to treat me like a toilet, so be it piss on it, not my problem, but I'm going to continue using my camera.

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>>4405317
Sure, snapshots can be artistic. That doesn't mean snapshots are generally going to have artistic value to most people. You have to have some artistic vision behind it -- snapshots elaborating on a theme, for example. A curated set of snapshots. Etc.
I didn't see anything like that in your photos.

I didn't treat you like a toilet. I gave you a good recommendation. The Photographer's Eye is an approachable book, that gives a good surface level overview of various aesthetic elements of an image with potential to dive into the profound with your initiative.
Seriously, get a book about photography that goes into elements of composition -- how does rhythmic occurrence of patterns contribute to the aesthetic appeal of a photo? How can you creatively balance subjects in a frame? How do leading lines emphasize a subject, or even create a subject?

Just taking photos of wildlife isn't going to make you better on its own. You need to practice *with intent*. Take your photos of wildlife, but set some time apart in your photo sessions trying to challenge yourself, ideally with guided learning from a book.

Who is a photographer that resonates with you?

>>4403987 (OP)
>worked weekends at places like them parks or events
>dumped those weekend earnings into the stock market
>got lucky when some shitty stock i owned 1500 shares in at $0.15 went to $3
>pulled out all my original money from other stocks and just kept using that money to grow more
I was also working a 85k per year job, so I was well covered in all areas. The dream is to buy a house completely outright in the next 5 - 10 years.

>>4405319
I don't have any so far. I'm mostly hoping my photography matches the look of the Coen Brothers films and Darren Aronfsky.

>>4405432
Low hanging fruit here, but check out Bruce Gilden.
Coen Brothers use wide angle lenses and get pretty close, with the intent of creating character, exaggerating who the character is. They put the characters through absurd or trying situations, and use that close-up-wide-angle to really pry the emotion out of the moment (or just to make it more weird and awkward).
That is exactly what Bruce Gilden is all about.

If you don't know who Bruce Gilden is, do a google about him, and tell me what you think. Are his photographs something that resonate with you?

>>4405439
Zach would never in 1 million years ever be able to emulated gilden or any "real" or imagined "artistic" photographer.

>>4405249
You can get nice results with a camera from 2006 or before. I am not sure what Zach is doing so wrong with his processing

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>>4405445
He crops the shit out of pictures, shoots iso 6400, and f22

>>4405458
You know even if it isn't the film look, it still isn't that bad of an image. I mean really you're so invested in anger that you start thinking of birds, flowers, squirrels, bees, and a lot of other animals, that you stop thinking of what bad thing you had today? Sounds to me like I did my job.

>>4405545
I'm simply pointing out your poor technique. There is no emotion. Maybe a little dissapointment, but no real emotion.

>>4405546
I think you're making that up out of cynicism.

>>4405445
The answer is almost always a mixture of boring subjects and not getting close enough. Get close to interesting people and things. You can do both those things with garbage.

>>4405556
Factually incorrect.

>>4405561
Yep, and you're not ever going to look at yourself in the mirror but instead ask others to do as such.

>>4405567
Projecting? You have one of the worst attitudes towards criticism I've ever seen on here.

I judge my own photos every time I review, edit, look at them.

>>4404063
why not $50,000.01 ?

>>4405569
Oh bull. You're one of those classy types who acts like he is high ranking so that what extreme your photo is is a little for me, so for little bad in my photos is an extreme to you. The only way I can find fault in your photos is had it been a hell of a lot worse than me. Those classy types I've encountered on other parts of this site where they say douchey things like Calculus 2 is like kindergarten math or some shit like that.

>>4405577
what

>>4405577
You're just coping now.

>>4405578
Yeah I bet you'd say some shit with your images in how good they are you'd say, "oh it just comes natural this is my 3rd one so far." I bet you used some fucking Leica and had photoshop with a subscription because Daddy's a fucking CEO. Look at the rest of us anon, do we have cool ass cousins offering us to do their weddings, friends who say oh bro you're badass for that fast shutter speed image of beer chugging down, or some shit like a 40 year old finding special in us to hire us on a photography company that throws 99% of its applicants in the trash? Anon I spent most of my fucking life in a home with barely any friends and who share no interest in my art. In fact I tried to use theater actors for a short film I was serious about but they treated me like I wanted to rape the girl there to make a snuff porno or some stupid shit. I can't take photos of girls like you do and I can't do what you do anon. You think I don't have what you have, but you're some god damn tall, dark, and handsome prince who managed to make it farther than me. And don't give me shit like I come from a middle class family when your house is as big as a mansion where you grew up.

>>4405582
you are actually incoherent.

>>4405582
What the fuck is wrong with you. You're not making it to 50k irrespective of your photos