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Watermarks didn’t stop anything. People used Photoshop to remove them or cropped them out of the picture. Some people didn’t care about the watermark at all and used the picture with it visible.

You mentioned ASMP. Did you join as a member and put your information in the Find an Assistant database? If an ASMP photographer wants to hire an assistant that they aren't already connected with, that's where they are going to look.

Same applies to APA. These are paid professional membership organizations. Networking happens within the organization. If everyone goes outside of the organization, the the benefits of membership are reduced.

Wonderful Machine reps photographers. Many of those photographers are members of ASMP, APA, and other professional organizations. It is not to their benefit to respond to solicitation emails from you, much less to hire you instead of hiring someone from within their professional organizations.

I use manual focus whenever I use a tripod, which is 90% of the time.

have like 15TB of space, so I can keep all the shots with no issue, but this surely isn’t sustainable forever.

I have 35TB of storage, 100,000 pictures on the drives, and probably room for that many more. I was tempted last year to go back and delete all non-delivered pictures from all projects more than 10 years old, but that seems like such a hassle. It's easier to spend another $150 on a new drive.

I’ve shot hundreds of business events and have never been asked to sign an NDA or relinquish copyright. This isn’t the type of picture I’m ever going to use again or license to anyone other than maybe an editorial publication if they were writing about that event, but I imagine the NDA would stop me from doing that. I wouldn’t have a problem relinquishing copyright for a fee. I’ve done it on other types of projects.

Business events are the only type of photography where I use an hourly rate. I charge a minimum amount just to show up and provide an initial amount of coverage, then charge by the hour after that initial time has elapsed. If the event takes a full day, then I switch to a day rate. If the event spans multiple days, I still use the day rate but might apply a slight price reduction depending on my sense for what their budget can tolerate. I only do minimal amounts of post production for business events and do not charge extra for it.

Ecola State Park is pretty close and has some great scenery.

Anybody who’s been in this industry and have experience making money from photography, is it worth pursuing?

If you have any marketable skills, self employment is always worth pursuing. Photography is a marketable skill.

How's the money?

Pay ranges from $20,000 to $200,000 - mostly dependent on you.

would you say it's enough to sustain financial independence and is there any hope to go further and even think of a above normal life?

Yes, if you have the skill set to get you there.

From a business standpoint is there any potential or is it oversaturated?

Is what oversaturated? Pet photography? Real estate photography? $500 weddings? $5000 weddings? Those are all very different things that require different skills on your part and target very different clients.