this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Photography
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Industrial photography.
Once I got looped into that, it basically became my entire portfolio.
I've been published in local, regional, national, and international publications, but only for my industrial photography. Companies want pretty pictures for their websites and newsletters and they have no idea what something like that costs and will gladly overpay. Local governments, chambers of commerce, economic development organization, etc want pictures for their newsletters and press releases of economic growth. Newspapers and magazines want pictures for their articles, especially now that the economy is such a frequent topic of discussion.
I have yet to meet a fellow industrial photographer, but these industries talk among themselves and when one of them asks "who did the picture for your website?" My phone starts ringing.
It can be challenging; the speed, actions, and lighting will have you constantly adjusting your settings and lenses. It helps to know how industry functions, so you can talk to the people on the production floor, as well as management that's guiding you around. From an artistic perspective, it can also be difficult to get a picture to tell a story because there are these massive machines and people buzzing between them to attend them. One of my recent favorite shots was of a worker next to a massive drill press, he had his tool box open and inside were pictures of his family. I framed the shot to show him doing his work as well as capturing the pictures inside his tool box. I love those kind of shots, those that reveal the humanity among these giant machines. It got published in a local magazine with 22,000 subscribers. The magazine went and interviewed the worker. The industry was happy to be spotlighted, the worker was happy to be recognized, the magazine was happy to have content, and I was happy with my paycheck.
It's a difficult niche to break in to. You've got to build relationships and trust. I worked with my local economic development office. Contacted the director, showed him my portfolio (which at the time didn't include industrial photography), and told him "if any of the industries you deal with needs photography, I'd be happy to help." At first, he paid for my photography, sort of as a service they were providing for local industries. It wasn't great pay, but it wasn't bad either. But, it was good work, so he'd call me again and again. Eventually the industries just contacted me directly after they'd seen my work for other local industries. It just took of from there.
Photography isn't my main job, I've always subscribed to the notion that people need three hobbies; one for health, one for wealth, and one for relaxation. Photography is my wealth hobby, and since the demand for industrial photography is fairly low (like once a month, at best). It isn't something I could do full time, but it has paid for all of my gear plus extra, so I'll continue to do it, because it's worth taking a day off from my regular job to do.
They're definitely not overpaying. The more money involved, the higher the price of advertisement tends to get. These industrial businesses are moving hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars a month.
Chances are you're actually underselling yourself.
The manufacturing sector has tons of businesses with just one location and 50 employees. Most of my clients have been in that category. I've also worked with multinational corporations, who you definitely can charge a lot more, but the bread and butter is family owned operations who don't have a marketing or PR department and have no clue who to call when they want pictures, so they usually call the local chamber of commerce or economic development office for advice. That's why its important to build relationships with those groups, you want them to refer you to those industries.