If you have a half decent camera and a passion of taking photos then you can easily turn a hobby into a great source of side income. There are literally millions of photo opportunities all around you, and you can bet someone in the world will pay for a photo you may have taken, whether it was during a once in a lifetime trip through the amazon jungles or merely snapping some lame ducks in a pond. If you do carry a camera around with you, (like myself), some subjects to look out for on your travels are:
1. Money
Check out any scam website that offers you the secrets of infinite wealth if only you’ll pay for the super special ebook it’s offering and you’ll more than likely see pictures of $100 notes and numerous coins seductively laid out across the top of the site. The con artists who set up these sites need money pictures! You could provide them, simply grab together some of your own cash (if needs be just withdraw a sizable amount from your bank account and lodge it again later), lay it out on a plain table, make sure there is good lighting, and snap away. If you can get these images into public viewing on the internet they can sell for big bucks!
2. Nature
Leaves, trees, the horizon, old stone walls (sorta nature), sunrises, sunsets, lakes, beaches, even rubbish dumps can stir the emotions of many and bring in plenty of extra cash. It’s often a good thing in these cases to use your macro setting and get really close to your subject to capture an original shot from a unique angle. There are bazillions of pictures of trees and flowers that could all be dumped in the category of ‘that’s nice’. You’ll need to think a little before going ahead with such shots.
3. Technology
Photos of the latest technologies are big business, just look in an argos catalogue! Where do you think all those photos come from? That’s right, budding and professional photographers like yourself. If you own an ipod (or other music player), a laptop, mobile phone or new TV then it can be worthwhile to take some time aside and get some really great looking images of them – the snazzier the better, after all in the materialistic world looks sell!
4. Faces, people.
Some of the most famous images ever taken are of people displaying emotions of joy, sadness, regret, surprise, hatred, shock… I could go on but you get the picture. The trick to a really great image is that the person / people are unaware they are being photographed – informing them will ruin any natural emotions you were hoping to capture – you’d probably be left with a stupid dumb-ass smile instead. One slightly sensitive issue when taking photos of people (apart from them going nuts because you’ve intruded on their privacy) is that if you plan to sell it then the model (whoever was in the picture) has certain rights over how their likeness will be used by you. In short you may need for them to sign a model release form – there plenty more on the subject over at Dan Heller Photography.
5. Buildings and Landscapes
This is a good one; no matter where you are living there will almost certainly be at least a couple of buildings or landmarks that are unique to your village, town or city – for example I live mostly in Dublin and its crowning glory is the useless 120-meter high Dublin Spire in the middle of the main street, here’s an image courtesy of wikipedia. Some of its more common names are The Pole in the Hole, The Spire in the Mire, and The Rod up to God. It’s absolutely nothing special to me since I pass by it nearly every day but I’m sure people who drive over the Golden Gate Bridge to work everyday say the same about that.
I haven’t talked about what you can actually do to start selling once you’ve built up a handy portfolio of images – I’ll leave that for a later post, right now your goal should be to take as many great photos as you can. The initial work you put in now will pay dividends in the future.
