Jan 3, 2026 9:00 PM PST

Photography is not a business

I wanted to write about something really controversial in the photographic community, especially among the less talented and money hungry beginners who think that by owning a fancy camera a professional’s fee is owed to them for their mediocre work.

I love digital photography. It has opened doors for me and given me opportunities that were just not possible with my preferred method of photography which is film. The reasons why I prefer film will be explained in a later post.

I mention digital because it has really opened the doors for many people who would otherwise never have even considered photography as a hobby let alone a business.

I got into a heated debate with an extremely amateur photographer regarding the actual business of photography. While he maintained that professional gear is not needed to make a decent image (to which I agree to a certain point) he doubled down that to become a professional, good gear was not needed to which I flat out rejected and provided many examples as to why professional gear is needed if you are going to be a professional. To most this makes sense.

I want to pause here and add a couple of things. Normally I would not take the time to argue online about anything since this is a practice I have long since stopped engaging in. However, since this person and I had somewhat of an established online rapport, I felt the need to correct him and point him in the right direction. I took this liberty because he has already sent me examples of his work to get my opinion (mind you out of the blue) and to pick my brain about certain things.

What I need to add is that this gentleman was an amateur thinking he knew way more than he did including the business of photography. Also note that his work is really sub par in a community that accepts sub par work. This certain community I was engaging with does not have any good photographers but because they own certain gear and because they have been self-taught shooting a certain way for so long, they think that gives them some authority over what is good photography when this could not be further from the truth. The photography on display on the community forum and on display on their particular pages is absolutely amateur in quality. I’ve been involved in photography for a long time educating myself with books, classes, workshops, assisting established professionals and producing my own work. I know a good photograph when I see one and can name pioneers in the field that have shaped the world of photography as we know it. These poor bastards don’t have this kind of background and it shows.

With all that said, I should have known better than to try and convince the unwilling-to-learn-know-it-all in a debate since ultimately that person is going to fail given his current attitude. I need to also point out there were many other examples of him trying to convince me of how much he knew about everything and yet knew pretty much nothing. From trying to explain ambient light and reflections to the type of work boots needed on a construction site. Silly things like that that were entertaining at first then ended up being really annoying.

The point is that I should have never engaged much like the parable of the donkey, the tiger and the lion.

Today I watched a video about why photographers are quitting photography and especially the wedding business. I won’t recap the entire video but it mostly talked about lack of marketing and never mentions lack of talent or preparation. This video reminded me of the argument and had the need to just explain one major possibility why a photography business usually fails. I have time to kill.

Here is a big reality to starting any business and not just photography (but I will use photography as the main example): it is not enough to produce professional work. Eventually you must invest in professional equipment to create the assembly line to manufacture professional quality work on a consistent basis.

If you want to open a restaurant, you cannot use a home stove to produce quality food over and over. The home equipment will break down too fast in an industrial environment. Professional photography is an industrial environment and that is what people fail to realize.

If you have a professional camera (by the way, one camera and lens will not cut it as a pro) you will need something high end to process the thousands of photos that pro camera makes. That is usually the first bottle neck to this. People do not realize the processing power it takes to process, edit, grade, render, and deliver the content you have made. Add video to that and you have entered into another level of required power.

Add lighting equipment, storage, and very importantly, reliable transportation to carry all of that gear and you now have a bank account to worry about.

Creating the assembly line required to consistently churn out pro work is absolutely necessary to create a profitable and sustainable business. Also remember that a lot of this gear is consumable meaning wear and tear and eventual replacement. Your fees must include this and we haven’t even talked about the photographer’s talent or in most cases lake thereof.

I have come across many mediocre photographers that are great business people and can sell the little talent and experience they have to people who really cannot tell the difference. I have also come across very decent photographers that punch way above their creative weight and sell to an exclusive set of clients that are willing to pay very high fees because the photographer has been recommended continually by word of mouth to other people in the same social circle. I mention this second photographer because despite being a great salesperson, there is better quality in their work than the mid tier photographer. This second photographer has been able to emulate the higher end photographers’ work to some extent offering a slightly better rate than the high end artist.

That leaves the photographer that wants to make money in this genre (because it can be lucrative) yet does not have the salesperson quality of the previous examples.

That photographer is not going to make it. All the marketing in the world (which will have to come out of the expenses) is not going to make a mediocre let alone a sub par photographer a sustainable and profitable business in an open market. I can see it working in a very small market but the work will run out and the business will slow to the occasional event for less than professional rates.

Let’s take food / restaurant photography for instance.

In a simple shoot, let’s say tacos stands/trucks, a photographer with professional gear can show up, set up, work, process, and deliver all in one sitting and on location. Work is done and delivered and on to the next truck. There can be multiple shoots lined up in the same day delivered and paid for without breaking a sweat.

The amateur will have to figure out how to get there if reliable transportation is not available, take a lot longer to set up, go home to edit slowly, deliver the content then wait for payment if nothing was agreed on beforehand. Remember that most amateurs are not thinking about contracts and rates.

There is so much more work involved in the amateur’s process that the rate cannot be justified. Meanwhile the pro has ended the day with nothing pending in this situation.

I chose this example because it may more easily show the extreme difference between the professional and the ill prepared amateur in an assembly line type of environment. Frustration can set in very easily and quitting is imminent.

If you want to start small, you have to keep your day job. There is no shame in working for the Daily Planet and fighting crime at night and on the weekends.

More importantly you have to make photographs because you love it and need to do it. Do not get into this solely to make money. You will lose that creativity really soon and it will no longer become a passion but another stressful customer service job.

Take a cover band for example. Some people like playing other people’s music and like having a somewhat consistent playing schedule at venues, getting drinks tickets, a small fee, and having people cheer to the music everyone already knows and sings along with. Those musicians obviously know how to play their instruments well and have talent. However, they are not out touring the world and living off this music. Maybe only the lounge acts in Las Vegas may boast to have a living wage but look at the circumstances. I bet most cover bands still have their day jobs and play small venues or even weddings on the weekends. Hopefully they are creating personal original content as well.

The same happens with wedding photography. You get clients wishing for the type of photography they see on the internet but do not want to pay the original artist so they ask a second rate artist to “cover” the same images they see and never ask for an original artistic input from the photographer. It may be okay at first but it will cause creative burn out eventually unless there is a change to the business model and state that original work and vision from the hired photographer takes priority from the beginning without compromise.

You have to keep yourself in a position to charge your worth and say no to possible clients that do not want your vision but a cut rate for someone else’s. But that is another story…

Bottom line is that photography is not a real business, especially for those that do not already have access to certain doors for certain niches that can generate income. You need a stable income outside of photography that can keep your true passion going and can help you sustain your small side business when a world wide catastrophic event shuts down most businesses for an extended amount of time. Do not get greedy with whatever talent you have and think that because someone on social media posts what a great artistic life they have that you can just jump right in willy nilly. Those are people shill plants put there by big businesses trying to sell you something.

The last thing I want to mention is the actual quality and talent of the photographer starting a business.

As previously stated there are people who can use a camera and sell pictures to people who cannot tell the difference between quality and let’s say quantity. They may work at first but the people I used to assist a while ago are no longer doing business.

Chances are if you have never taken a class, workshop, purchased photography books, subscribed to photography magazines (including fashion), you may not know how to properly craft an image. You also do not have the qualifications to critique a photograph.

This sounds harsh and maybe even offensive to some but people seem to think that just because the phone takes photos or because pressing the shutter is so easy that anyone can be a photographer without any training. The camera is an instrument/tool.

Imagine buying the most expensive guitar and amp and not knowing how to set up the strings let alone play any song. How can you really learn the instrument without putting in the work then ask for payment when you cannot play Twinkle Little Star? Makes no sense, right?

It really is the same with photography yet people can easily tell when the guitar sounds like shit but cannot tell if the photograph is properly composed, lit, and color graded and therefore are willing to accept and pay for less than mediocre work just because the photographer has a fancy camera. And that’s another thing. When people see a great image, it must be the camera and not the work of the person holding it. The ignorance in photography is astounding!

I say this to point out that value, or better yet, the overvaluation amateur photographers put on their work is easily validated by people who know even less and it becomes a vicious circle.

Educate yourself. Know where you stand in the spectrum of quality and constantly keep working and learning. And stop asking the photography groups what they think about your work. That’s horseshit. People doing that rarely look for real critique and education but validation for the shitty work they are currently spewing out.

Build a passion not a business. If you stand out, the compensation and recognition will come. And if it doesn’t, who cares? Create content because it makes you happy.

But if you are a money hungry poser that wants to try and exploit the business, go ahead. I’ll find your gear for a cheap on eBay soon enough and add it to my collection.

Keep shooting!