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Serious Hobbiest Going Pro


SDMPhotography
Go to solution Solved by RMalayeri,

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I have been photographing wildlife for about 6 years & I find myself in a unique and rare situation of having many more good shots that bad ones. That said, I will take about 10% of the credit and gladly give the rest to my Sony a1. I will admit it took me a good two years to really learn the camera so that I know how to use the many functions to get the shots that I want.

I think I can go pro on a basic level, meaning I want to do some kind of book maybe focusing on a series of my photos. I don't think it will be easy but I want to try it.

Any advice from anyone?

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What kind of advice are you looking for @SDMPhotography? Lenses, publishing options, locations...? 

I love my #Alpha 1 (Alpha1) as well and use it for all of my professional work.

For birding advice, you may look to consult some of the experts in the field? 

Checkout some of my favorite bird photos, taken with my A1 & #FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS 

358iB13BD407E9FF0465.thumb.jpg.1efc4d27cf6e493d28da2fcd0a6ef6ee.jpg

359i95A6DBE899B93AAA.thumb.jpg.e89eb33f2866c122b34ceaef93d18570.jpg

360i1B4CC9A4BD567CFD.thumb.jpg.f5b64f1de3a5eea442773bb3b230eb12.jpg

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It's wonderful that is is going so well for you, the right camera certainly makes a big difference. Publishing a photo book these days can be quite difficult. I know people who have had books published with reputable publishers and have had to raise money to contribute toward costs. I also know seven people who have self published and that seems like a good option for many people. You can print as many or as few as you would like. There are a bunch of vendors who can do that, Blurb for example. However makes sure you feel good about the quality of the printer before you take that route. Good luck!

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It's wonderful that is is going so well for you, the right camera certainly makes a big difference. Publishing a photo book these days can be quite difficult. I know people who have had books published with reputable publishers and have had to raise money to contribute toward costs. I also know seven people who have self published and that seems like a good option for many people. You can print as many or as few as you would like. There are a bunch of vendors who can do that, Blurb for example. However makes sure you feel good about the quality of the printer before you take that route. Good luck!

Tony, thank you - this is excellent advice & I will probably have to do that. I want to do a book featuring commentary, descriptions & photos of the 21 species of lemurs I shot in Madagascar earlier this year. With self publishing am I responsible for the layouts, do you know?

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What kind of advice are you looking for @SDMPhotography? Lenses, publishing options, locations...? 

 

I love my #Alpha 1 (Alpha1) as well and use it for all of my professional work.

For birding advice, you may look to consult some of the experts in the field? 

 

Checkout some of my favorite bird photos, taken with my A1 & #FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS 

 

 

358iB13BD407E9FF0465.thumb.jpg.c7f0caef940c9a28eaba2fc5e2e6615d.jpg

359i95A6DBE899B93AAA.thumb.jpg.5bdfb6c6d1445201a2667b85ca0f898e.jpg

360i1B4CC9A4BD567CFD.thumb.jpg.ee50d96d6598af6fb84d6208e4a8b129.jpg

Hello R.

First let me say, your photos are beautiful. I have shot my share of birds but bird photography is not my passion - I shoot wildlife, usually in different countries in Africa. I really like the new 70-200 G OSS lens for what I do but I also use the same 200-600 lens you have. I have an a9 for a second camera with which I shot APSC in Kenya. I am needing publishing advice. However, you can critique my work on Instagram @sdmarianne - I  am happy to have feedback.

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Tony, thank you - this is excellent advice & I will probably have to do that. I want to do a book featuring commentary, descriptions & photos of the 21 species of lemurs I shot in Madagascar earlier this year. With self publishing am I responsible for the layouts, do you know?

Typically you would do the layouts yourself, most of the self publishing companies offer templates to help though. 

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Beautiful images... turning pro means wearing many hats during the course of a day. I'm with Tony on books, sadly they are a dying entity in today's world but electronic books are booming. Perhaps a mixture of the two might be the way to go. If you treat the business like a business and stay dedicated to improving and moving forward you will make it. Best of luck. Reach out if you have any questions.

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The A1 is a great camera but don't cut yourself short - a good eye and patience go along way with wildlife photography, and it's more than just the gear! If you're looking to publish a book, perhaps consider doing an e-book. It's much easier to handle, publish, and often has higher margin returns since there's no real overhead. Either way, good luck with your endeavor! 

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Hi. Sorry, I'm a little late to the topic, but I just saw it. 

I guess I would ask yourself what market there is for a professional wildlife photographer? Who does this that you know of - and is able to sustain a livelihood from it. Did researching this as a business draw you in, or do you just feel that you're good at it so there must be a business?

From there, I would research wildlife photographers website's and Google, to see what they're doing. 

I don't say this in any way to be discouraging... I only suggest the following two things to help set expectations, as I don't believe that "professional" wildlife photography (the business of just simply taking photos and selling them) is a growing business:

  1. Just about every "pro" wildlife photographer you'll find teaches. They have realized that is the best way to make an income in this field. So at that point, your photography matters a little less and your speaking, teaching and business skills at running a website, creating video courses, running workshops becomes important. So if that's the route you want to go, those are areas to look to improve. 
  2. Regarding books... I just surfed through Amazon and most wildlife photography books rank in the 500,000+ of books in their categories (even ones with Nat Geo on the name) . Definitely something to think about. As an example, Mark Smith (also Sony shooter) is an EXCEPTIONAL photographer. He recently published a book on Osprey's, which is on Amazon. It's ranked over 1 million in books right now, and it's a fairly recent book, with flat out jaw-dropping photography in it. 

    Now, Mark also teaches workshops and seems to be booked up often and it looks like he has a very successful business doing it. So I don't think he wrote the book exclusively to make money, as much as he did as a project that he just personally wanted to do. But back to your point... you want to go pro and your first instinct was to publish a book. So I'd look to others who have written them to see how successful they are and if that book can sustain a "pro" income. 

    Anyway, just some thoughts. Again, I don't want to discourage you, but hopefully set expectations that I don't see a lot of "pro" wildlife photographers out there making a business just taking and publishing photos. Most (yes not all) have other means of income and that usually comes in the form of teaching in some way these days. 

    Good luck and always happy to help if you want to reach out. 

    Matt (Mattk.com) 

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