Easy Ways to Make Money Taking Pictures with Your Phone

Have you ever thought, “How Could I Make Money with my Photography” or “How Beginners with a Good Camera Make Money?” If you have, I've got the best video for you. This video will explain how to make money from photography in 2022!

I'm pleased to welcome you to my website. My name is Steve Last, and I wanted to share a simple, yet exciting, video from Natalie Keeton with you today.

For photographers it's not all about the money, they have an engrossing hobby after all. But, photography skills earn millions of people money every day, and by reading on, you might even discover how to earn $100 every day from your photography skills almost effortlessly!

I wish you a pleasant viewing experience.

Let us begin…

Watch the video on Youtube here.

Natalie Keaton is here and today we're going to talk about how to make money from photography.  These are side, hustle ideas so that you can learn how to make good cash money with photography.

Ok. So, let's be real, maybe it's your dream to have a photography business one day or maybe you're, just looking for side hustles to make extra money with your camera?

Either way by the end of this article you'll have 10 different ways to start earning cash money.

These are:

1. Become an Assistant Photographer
2. Local Facebook Modelling & Other Groups
3. Word of Mouth
4. Stock Website Photographs and Photographing Architecture
5. Photo Editing on Fiverr
6. Selling Your Photos Prints
7. Real Estate Sales Photography
8. Knock on Doors
9. Becoming a Photographer for Airbnb
10. Use Your Photos to Create Airbnb Experiences

I've actually used some of these tips to make consistent income for nearly a decade. Now, and eventually, I built my own six-figure photography business. So these are no jokes, these are valuable tips. Be sure to watch all the way to the end because I'm going to reveal my most unique photography tips.

List of 10 Ways to Make Money from Photography

The following is our transcription of Natalie's video. Please do watch the inspiring video as well as read this!

1. Become an Assistant Photographer

So, let's get started one of the most obvious photography side-hustles there are is probably becoming an assistant photographer, but this is the one that I use the most throughout my career to make consistent income and as my mom can attest, I started off in college. This is actually the first gig I ever had in photography was being an assistant shooter for a wedding photographer, and the way it happened was my friend actually called me up.

Who was a second photographer at the time it was like: “Hey, you're, creative! I can't make this wedding. Do you think you can fill in? I was like; “Absolutely I will!”

Like: “Yeah I'll make $25 an hour!” So I was saying; “Great. Let's do it!”

I ended up going and the first photographer saw how passionate and into it I was. He actually hired me. I ended up working for him for like six or seven years. That's quite a long time, and eventually, that one gig turned into a whole entire business that I now support myself with.

So it's kind of crazy to think that this college job, kept me through college.

I literally worked eight hours in one weekend on a wedding shoot and made as much as most students working 20 hours part-time on minimum wages. I turned my photography into a career, even though I have a degree.

So it's one of those things like you never really know what will happen. It was a great way to learn photography because you're working under someone. A person that's hyper-specialized in their niche and knows the industry in and out.

So not only are you getting paid but you're also learning as well. It's hands-down the best way to get your foot in the door.

2. Local Facebook Groups

I have had success with Facebook groups join a bunch of local Facebook groups in your area because there are always photographers seeking other photographers. Or, there are things like Moms looking for baby pictures or family pictures.

Find Model Groups and not only get photoshoots they will pay for. It's also a great way to find models that maybe will work for free and you can just go out and get some “bang in” shots and have a great portfolio.

So Facebook groups are an amazing resource that I didn't discover until a couple of years ago, but it's so worth checking out alright.

3. Word of Mouth

So in the next photography side hustle, we are actually going to discuss is the word of mouth my mom, who is my biggest fan just spread.

The good word around town is that I am a photographer and you want to believe just the amount in the diversity of opportunities that I got.

Let's talk a little bit more about that. Basically, I just gave her my price sheets to show, and I did a little video clip of my photography. She talked to her dog groomer, her hairdresser people.

Now  I work with just about everywhere.

4. Stock Website Photographs and Photographing Architecture

You know just my career so far was that I was really open when I was in the corporate world that photography was my favourite thing in the world and when I was an ARC landscape, architect or marketing for a landscape architecture company, they would actually send me out to do architecture photos for high design firms.

So I built up this huge portfolio for architecture on stock photo sites and I was just an intern or just getting started in my corporate gig and I just diversified my portfolio.

I don't think you're gonna get rich off from uploading stock photos by any means, but I think it's a great opportunity to take the photos that you already have and put them online and see like just see where they go. I know that some people have had a lot of success with it.

Some people say it's oversaturated, but I want to make a video and kind of really test it out as a professional photographer, but it's probably one of the most passive ways to make income in photography. So I think it's worth mentioning.

5. Photo Editing on Fiverr

Another option is Fiverr editing and this isn't necessarily you getting out and shooting.

But it's you editing other people's work and that's that you actually learn a lot whenever you edit your photos. You learn what works. What doesn't look good that you can't fix on the computer? So, I think if you have lightroom 5 or another editing app. So, if you have the ability to use a graphics editor, photo editing is a quick and easy way to start making money by practicing your editing skills.

6. Selling Your Photos Prints

Another thing I'm interested in doing is to start selling prints, and I really think that this is when you become more advanced as a photographer, that you can sell prints that can be scaled and printed out at a large size may be having a full-frame camera is very important.

As is knowing how to shoot in manual mode, so if you're still trying to figure out how to shoot in manual. I have a video right here where you can take a look and maybe start producing some prints that you can start selling out there on your website. I'm going to start implementing this for my business because I think it's another great passive way to make income.

I love landscape photography and I would love to make a couple of bucks here or there taking the photos. If someone wants to you know, hang my work in their home, so speaking of architecture, photography.

But, another great one, that's maybe even more accessible is real-estate photography.

7. Real Estate Sales Photography

You know at least one real estate agent and don't be shy. Ask them: “Hey, could you just visit a house and shoot a couple of photos for your portfolio?” The chances are they're going to let you because that's like two hundred and fifty bucks they're saving?

So it's a great way to get your foot into the door for real estate. You might need an existing portfolio or just be willing to work a little bit for free, but eventually, you can make money pretty quickly with real estate photography.

All you really need is a camera, a wide-angle lens, and a tripod. It is a great way to start making money with photography on a regular basis. So this next photography, side hustle, is one that I personally struggle with, but I think it's such a great business tip, even if you aren't doing photography.

8. Knock on Doors

I think everybody should know how to go and just knock on doors. You should be able to own who you are not be shy about it and find the clients that you're looking for.

Sometimes clients, don't even know that you're there unless you tell them or if you pay for advertising.

You got to go knocking to get those jobs!

When those jobs start coming. That word of mouth starts, you know, snowballing into more and more and more prospects. Then the phone starts ringing. But you got to put in the legwork to get there.

So knocking on doors is a skill that if you want to eventually be a business owner of any type you need to develop, so you diversify streams of income or just break into a market in general.

9. Becoming a Photographer for Airbnb

So my most unique photography side hustle that you probably have never heard of yet it's becoming a photographer for Airbnb. I just applied to become one because I want to see where it takes me. So I'm curious because I already have a house and I Airbnb it out. So I'm all about Airbnb.

So that's my most unique opportunity that I don't think many people talk about there's.

10. Use Your Photos to Create Airbnb Experiences

Also, there are things called “Airbnb experiences”. You literally can set these up like it's kind of like being a tour guide. You can set up these tours across your home city.

In these photography tours, you lead a group of people to the most Instagramable spots in your city. This is a great way to make extra money. You don't even really probably need to know that much about photography. You just need to know where the good areas are.

So Airbnb is a great option. There are multiple ways to build a portfolio and make money on Airbnb. Maybe you can start with experiences and then move on to becoming an actual listing photographer.

A Conclusion to “How to make money from photography”

So now you know exactly how to start making money from photography with ten different side hustles next week, we're going to cover the essential gear that you need to become a professional photographer.

Mistakes to Avoid When Starting to Make Money from Photography

The following are tips from a video by Peter McKinnon. Watch his video on youtube here.

Mistakes to avoid as a young entrepreneur, photographer or filmmaker, setting out into the world to try and make this a career, or trying to make some money from it.

Maybe it's just some extra cash on the weekend or a full-blown paycheck. These are a couple of things I've compiled that I wish I had when I started or wish that I did better. And we're going to start with those.

So the list goes on and on and on and on.

Those things are valuable. So once you start charging for your work, make sure you're charging enough, I mean you think about it like some of these cameras are thousands and thousands of dollars.

Make Sure you Charge Enough

You're gonna go do some portrait shots and you're only gonna charge 100 bucks or 200 bucks for a quick portrait session, what does that say about you as a photographer and the quality of work that you put out, and two how has that ever actually going to make you money or pay back your gear or actually get you ahead in this game.

So make sure you're charging enough. Sometimes you can throw numbers out there that might even seem a little crazy to you and that client comes back and goes yeah alright no problem and you think to yourself, oh, oh, I did (stutters) (gasps).

It can be very exciting.

But it's something that you got to take seriously. So really sit down and factor in all of those things I listed to know what your time is worth and charge accordingly. Point number three is coming up. (upbeat instrumental music).

Checklists

Point number three is checklists. I can't stress this enough.

So if you're going on a shoot, let's just say you're shooting a wedding, you've got the contract in place. You've charged the fee rate you wanted to. But now comes the actual shoot day.

I always recommend getting a checklist from the client of everything they want to be done. That way, you can reference that throughout the day throughout the shoot, and you know, you've got everything. If that client fails to provide you with something on that checklist it is not your fault.

For example, let's just say you're shooting a wedding, you've got that checklist.

Get the shot of the dress. Get the drinks in the morning, and the gifts, the first look blah, blah, blah, blah! You're knocking off all those things from the checklist. But it may be two weeks later, that client comes back and says:

“Aunt Margaret never had her portrait taken with us.

We're very upset about this.

And she flew all the way here from Australia. And we're not going to see her ever again.

And you didn't even take photos.”

And then you can pull out that checklist that you had that client make for you and sign off on. You really do have to point out that you could not have known unless told about this requirement.

At this point you just have to say;

“Look, you didn't tell me to take any pictures of this aunt from Australia, it's nowhere on this list. So how was I supposed to know that?”

So the Contract is there to protect you as well as your client. It's there to help you make sure that you get everything that client wants. That's a good thing. But, equally, it makes it clear the boundaries of any reasonable complaint, should for example they feel upset about missing out on a visual record of a relative.

Photo Shoot Contracts

Contracts are so important. They are no fun at all to make. They're no fun to read. And they're no fun to sign. But they are there to protect you.

No matter who you are shooting for.

Listen to me, no matter who you're shooting for. If it's a friend, if it's family, it doesn't matter. Get a contract, and lay out everything that you hope to do for that person. Both of you sign it, date it, whatever. If there's compensation, both of those things are agreed upon, you both signed, and it's done.

That way if anything comes up if extra work is piled on, if you didn't do enough work, both parties have a signed document clearly outlining what the expectations are.

Because I find that the biggest loophole that's the biggest mistake is expectations are always different from one person to the other. If those expectations are set out clearly at the very beginning and they're followed through to the end you have a fallback.

So, if your customer says they are unhappy about the result, you can see where you may have underperformed on your promises. If you have done all that is called for in the contract, very often an amicable outcome can be achieved.

So if you don't have a contract, download a sample template, check it out, read it, and maybe fill in your own stuff.

Do whatever you gotta do. Take it to a lawyer, and get a friend to look at it. Get your parents to look at it. Get your older siblings to look at it, whatever. Start with something.

  Here's an Even Faster Way to Make $100+ a Day!