Stock Photo Agencies

One way to get started making money is with stock photo agencies. Go to their site and sign up. To be a photographer, you usually have to take a test. Easy enough as long as you read the information they give you. Start uploading photos, but be sure to read all the instructions. Remember, there are a lot of other people doing this besides you.

It may take a few days to find out if they accept your photos or not. Be prepared for rejections. If you read the reason why they declined a photo(s) you can use that to improve on your future photos. Don't upload everything you got! Take it slow and easy.

After a while, you will have quite a collection of approved photos on their site, and hopefully by then you will see the money coming in. The more photos you have on that site, the better your chances on making money.

When you've been with them a month or two, and you aren't quite earning as much as you thought you would...remember that you are making money on pictures that would have been sitting in your computer taking up valuable space.

Keep submitting, building your number of available photos. Don't get mad and quit. One day you could be making enough money with stock photo agencies that you will be able to quit your day job. But you have to stick with it and be in it for the long haul.

In the meantime, you can put the money you earn to good use. Pay down that credit card balance, save up for a better camera, make an extra house payment.

Making money with photography

So, you want to make money with photography? One thing you have to understand is that you are going to hear a lot of criticism on your work before you get to the level of pro. And you will have to accept it and not take it so personal.

How and why would you do that? You steel yourself for the criticism and revel in the praise. You need the criticism in order to know what areas you need to improve on. If they tell you your picture isn't crisp enough, sharp enough, or your highlights are blown....whatever it is, you read up on that and you apply what you learned to future photographs.

That is how you take photos that are good enough for someone to be willing to pay you for it. If you want it bad enough, you keep going and never give up. Do that and you will succeed.

Uh-oh!

When I see pictures like this one, I know right away my white balance needs resetting. The wall is supposed to be off-white, not beige. Using the flash on my camera did not correct or even help the situation. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.