If you’re a talented photographer who enjoys taking pictures of wildlife as an amateur, you’re already in a good place to start making money professionally from your work. You just need to know how to go about it.
Thankfully, there are many ways you can earn money as a wildlife photographer. Most people work with a combination of all the below to make their business work.
Sell to Photo Depositories
Selling stock photos has been a mainstay for photographers for a long time, but now finding those stock photo depositories is a lot easier to do without an agent. You can work with any of the online repositories that you like if you agree with their payment methods and rules.
Work with a Photography Agency
Alternatively, a way to start selling your photos without having to do all the work yourself is to work with an agency. A talent agency will work to sell your work to clients for a percentage of sales. You can find an agency by looking at The Agent List online.
Sell to Print and Online Publications
You can approach print and online publishers with your offers of wildlife photography by sending them a sample of your work. You can also let your agent help you with this to cover more territory.
Sell from Your Own Website
Regardless of how you sell most of your work, always set up a website so that people can find you this way. If you sell images directly to customers from the website, that is also an excellent way to add an income stream without much extra work.
Put Your Work on a Middleman Site
Sites like Art.com, Deviantart.com, and Artweb.com are great opportunities when you’re just starting out. They have a built-in audience. You probably won’t make as much per photo on these types of sites, but it can add up to a nice side income without too much extra work.
Sell as Framed Fine Art Prints
One of the ways to make the most money is to set up your wildlife images as fine art prints. Having said that, making fine art prints requires a lot of knowledge about printing. You can use a third-party printer to help you, or you can do it all yourself.
Work on Spec for Your Clients
You can also be “for hire” to take pictures on spec for clients. Maybe your clients need specific images for a brochure. Some of your clients might be entire cities, tourist boards, and local business owners who work with wildlife.
Publish Coffee Table Books
You can also combine your images together to create an entertaining coffee table book that is good for gifts. For example, if your recent safari trip included pictures of elephants, you can make a book of elephants.
Market Your Work
Nothing happens if no one knows you’re out there. Using your website, social media, and advertising to showcase your work is an excellent way to ensure that the word gets out about you and your wildlife photography.
Put Your Photos On Print On Demand Products
You can quickly and freely add your photos on thousands of products such as t-shirts, pillow covers, neckties and so on. Websites like Zazzle.com allows you to earn royalties by selling your images on print-on-demand products.
You’ll be able to start making money almost right away by selling stock photography along with fine art prints of your best shots. As you market those offerings, you’ll become more popular and start selling more of your work, until you are finally making a full-time living in your new business.
