the hobby is starting to get expensive

the black fox

the black fox

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just had my flickr PRO renewal through ,just under £60 not as yet done it in the hope they will offer me a discount . it seems now they only do monthly , yearly or bi annually .. no 3 months options .. add that to PS/LR and then topaz payments and then factor in fuel to get to a venue its fast becoming unaffordable especially on a pension .. .
cant see any way round it ,for me its taking the shine off the hobby ...need to cut back but where do you start ?
 
Well they do say if you don't want your kids to become drug addicts introduce them to photography and/or golf at a young age, Then they won't be able to afford drugs.

I gave up on Flickr Pro when they re-introduced the 1000 image cap and raised their prices at an exponential rate. I got round it by just keeping recent images on there and deleting after a certain amount of time (~1 year).
 
I'd say that if it's simply a hobby that gives you pleasure why bother with something like Flickr, unless you are an exhibitionist? I only say that because I couldn't think of anything more diplomatic.
 
I agree, I am also looking to trim costs, I have decided not to renew Flickr pro, and will see which of the theee (!) software editing programmes I have, offers the best upgrade for the money this year, and stick with that one, and semi-abandon the rest. I’m also looking to see if cycling to more local places and/or using my scooter would be a better option than using my car. Would love to get across to the IOW for some photos, but taking the car is prohibitively expensive and it’s only a few miles away!! My sympathie, it is a real connumdrum to have an expensive hobby on a limited income!!
 
Don't take your scooter to the IOW at this time of year. It coincides with the big scooter rally, and could get expensive.
 
I'm not paying for Flickr. There is little benefit.

Topaz will be same if you let it lapse for a little while and renew the sub for a fraction of cost this black Friday or even next year.

You may need to pay for Adobe and ideally you should have done so when the prices dip at the usual times... There are alternatives but not many great ones and giving up Photoshop may not be something you may wish to do

You say you are a hobbyist but perhaps it's time to let it earn at least £100 per month for you so you can pay for such things without a worry
 
Plain Nev said:
I'd say that if it's simply a hobby that gives you pleasure why bother with something like Flickr, unless you are an exhibitionist? I only say that because I couldn't think of anything more diplomatic.
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very condescending m8 .. I have over 8000 images on there and over 10 million views ,its like a reference library and useful if I need to compare gear I used previously to what I used now .
 
Olly B said:
Would love to get across to the IOW for some photos, but taking the car is prohibitively expensive and it’s only a few miles away!!
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Why not come as a foot passenger from Lymington to Yarmouth, plenty of walks locally and a bus service to other locations. Is there a particular subject matter ?
 
The Portsmouth to Fishbourne is close to me, so less driving on the mainland, but thanks for your suggestion, I do like that area of the Island. No particular subject matter, having cycled there quite a bit, I know how scenic it is, may well take my bike across on the Portsmouth to Ryde options.
 
I have to agree that photography can be expensive but it does give me a lot of pleasure.
I try to put it in perspective by thinking of how much it would have cost if I were buying and processing film. Certainly the trip I have just returned from would have been unthinkable, I have thousands of images to trawl through which haven't cost me any extra outlay.
 
Amazon Prime includes unlimited photo storage, I split mine between Amazon and a free Flickr account.

Guess I’m only a part time exhibitionist lol
 
Personally, I would ditch the subscriptions. I last spent money on my photography when I bought my M43 camera which must be two years ago. Since then the only cost has been the electricity to recharge the cameras' batteries.
 
The only subs I pay related to photography is for Photoshop and for my weekly copy of AP.
I only have the basic Flickr. I have only used one tank of fuel in two years.
A hidden cost is the power used to run my computer, which is now more than one might think. tablets are far cheaper to run.
the black fox said:
very condescending m8 .. I have over 8000 images on there and over 10 million views ,its like a reference library and useful if I need to compare gear I used previously to what I used now .
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I have only a few hundred on there and would not care if I had no views. The database in light room gives me all the data that I need.
 
i took a break for a while and now im back the prices of new and use gear has gone up sharply.

im probably going to quit in the next year or two
 
the black fox said:
very condescending m8 .. I have over 8000 images on there and over 10 million views ,its like a reference library and useful if I need to compare gear I used previously to what I used now .
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I'm sorry, but if it is simply for storage there are always alternatives.
 
I have not used flickr for well over 7-6 years and now intention of strting any time soon. The websites I used to display photos are VeiwBug.com https://www.viewbug.com/member/tysonator
and ePhotzine https://www.ephotozine.com/user/tornadotys-278410
and of course Instagram

My LR & PS are older stand alone versions and I see no need to update as the features are enough for what I do. What I would pay for is update for LR & PS to read new camera RAW files. As I would like to just purchase the files that allow me to use what ever new camera I buy, not all of the new cameras that have been released.
i have no control on Abode raising subscription prices and holding me ransom if I decide to stop my subs the programs stop working ! ( or do they stop working, not sure as I have never had Adobe subscription ! ! )
As an amateur my cost could runaway as I sign up to packages and buy new gear then my wife will ask for a new car ! ! ! lol
 
Going off at a slight tangent, is there an easy way of batch-deleting photos from Flickr, eg, those over a certain age?
 
I gave up Photoshop CC and bought into DXO & Affinity, no subscriptions and choose whether or not I upgrade to any future versions (unlikely).
Gave up all my expensive wildlife kit and went little M43 for street/candid/architecture etc ... it works and any changes now will be small/self-financing.
Still have the car but use my bike or Bus Pass to travel around to most places (local of course) so limited travel costs.
I do have Flickr Pro as I like to have an available viewing and sharing platform ... all my wildlife photos are in a 'closed' ordinary free Flickr account with around 30,000 photos.
May renew Pro or may start another account, yet to decide.
 
Never knew you could share photos from Amazon, I'd had a prime account for years with unlimited storage ?
 
LongLensPhotography said:
I'm not paying for Flickr. There is little benefit.

Topaz will be same if you let it lapse for a little while and renew the sub for a fraction of cost this black Friday or even next year.

You may need to pay for Adobe and ideally you should have done so when the prices dip at the usual times... There are alternatives but not many great ones and giving up Photoshop may not be something you may wish to do

You say you are a hobbyist but perhaps it's time to let it earn at least £100 per month for you so you can pay for such things without a worry
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I reckon you can ditch adobe - get DXO PhotoLab 5, Capture One Pro, On1 RAW and buy Affinity Pro.
 
As for the Flickr Pro payment I guess the obvious question is "Does it actually give you anything back?" like sales or something, if the answer is NO then maybe just keep your latest or best images on there but limit to 1000, however I appreciate that would be a hard thing to do with 8000 images on there.

Subscription to LS/PS and Topaz, they would be your biggest saving, however what to replace them with?

Not about LR as I have very little knowledge about it.
PS could be replace by a variety of free software like GIMP as an example or you could get something like Affinity Photo, it is as powerful as PS, one off payment and its your and they do provide updates as well. Downside is a whole new softwae to learn, but like PS there are loads of YouTube vidoes.

Topaz? did not know you could get a subscription for it, I just bought the Topaz Sharping AI, found a discount code online somewhere, they also update.

If you need RAW then as much as a pain using the free software that comes with the camera they do work suprisngly well.
 
Knikki said:
As for the Flickr Pro payment I guess the obvious question is "Does it actually give you anything back?" like sales or something, if the answer is NO then maybe just keep your latest or best images on there but limit to 1000, however I appreciate that would be a hard thing to do with 8000 images on there.

Subscription to LS/PS and Topaz, they would be your biggest saving, however what to replace them with?

Not about LR as I have very little knowledge about it.
PS could be replace by a variety of free software like GIMP as an example or you could get something like Affinity Photo, it is as powerful as PS, one off payment and its your and they do provide updates as well. Downside is a whole new softwae to learn, but like PS there are loads of YouTube vidoes.

Topaz? did not know you could get a subscription for it, I just bought the Topaz Sharping AI, found a discount code online somewhere, they also update.

If you need RAW then as much as a pain using the free software that comes with the camera they do work surprisingly well.
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Affinity does RAW very nicely.

I have used GIMP for years, changed to Affinity earlier this year, it has an easy learning curve.

My daughter has always used PS, at school then during her degree, and is now going to change to Affinity.

Not interested in subscription software, never will be, and the same goes for subscription storage.

My recent change to M43 was financed by disposal of other equipment (photographic and other), so ongoing costa are minimal.

We try to travel more locally now, so most of our costs are controlled, but with much more careful decisions than had to be made a couple of years ago.
 
Everything's getting like this now, it's a joke. I have adobe subscriptions, flickr, microsoft, Roland Cloud and a few others. I may have to trim back if the fuel prices keep on rising.
 
Tysonator said:
i have no control on Abode raising subscription prices and holding me ransom if I decide to stop my subs the programs stop working ! ( or do they stop working, not sure as I have never had Adobe subscription ! ! )
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They do not stop working according to their customer services.
 
What do you enjoy taking photos of? you mentioned access to a venue? If for example it's motorsport, then you're paying for two hobbies? not necessaly just photography. would ditching one of them help? heading out the door for a walk with a camera in hand isn't that expensive
 
There are various options. One option is to reduce costs by cutting back on things that you don't really need. The other is to make the hobby work for you - there are probably regular photo jobs (eg event photography) that would give you a modest income in return for a day or two per month, which would cover the cost of an Adobe subscription and Flickr.
 
andrewc said:
There are various options. One option is to reduce costs by cutting back on things that you don't really need. The other is to make the hobby work for you - there are probably regular photo jobs (eg event photography) that would give you a modest income in return for a day or two per month, which would cover the cost of an Adobe subscription and Flickr.
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If you want to do that, but to me it is purely a hobby now.

There are 5 or 6 others doing just that within a couple of miles from me, only one states they have insurance and DBS checks.

Double edged sword though. They are making less expensive services available to those who want a less expensive service, at the same time they are taking much needed business from those who make their living from it.
Not saying whether that is right or wrong, justified or not, but it is a point.
 
Depends on the service you offer. I shoot local athletics events for a small sports agency. That workload costs me a weekend day or a weekday evening a couple of times a month. One day will pay my Adobe subsciption for the year. Another day pays for the years PLI. Some of the bigger, more lucrative events will pay for new bits of kit. Leaves the rest of my spare time to shoot what I want. Not really depriving others of their work, and I'm working for market rates so not cheapening the industry - the going rate is the going rate.
 
fujilover said:
i took a break for a while and now im back the prices of new and use gear has gone up sharply.

im probably going to quit in the next year or two
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I've certainly noticed the costs going up as I've come back recently, it actually had me back looking at DSLR kit rather than mirrorless as there's just so much used kit available for Nikon and Canon!
 
usually public transport, bus or rail, is not going to take you near enough to somewhere interesting if wildlife is yourthing.

I am more interested in things nearer to towns villages so a bus pass works for me sometimes. maybe a rail pass.

I havent carried any large gear this way - always m43 or nikon 1 in an old rucksack so no difficulty in blending into the background.

On software, yes its a matter of capability and what you are used to I use affinity and dxo pl4 along with other free/ near free stuff. affinity is a bargain but as soon as you start totting up upgrade costs on eg dxo, adobe is maybe not looking that much more expensive. I gave up LR years ago - never use DAM stuff. I only upgrade in extremis ( and on hw, my macbooks are 8 years old now but still functional if slow )
 
You could always get rid of PS and LR ! I'm too much of a skinflint and as far as I know running Linux for 15 year plus couldn't anyway ( Windows baffles me !)
 
Knock off the editing subscriptions for sure. I've spent years on LR5 and CS6. Recently I bought Affinity (it was on offer at £24) and it knocks spots off of CS6 for sure. Even for the full price, I think it's worth every penny.

Travel I think is the biggest expense for a lot of people. Even lots of local trips soon mount the mileage up. I sometimes car share, I sometimes camp or car camp overnight.
 
LeeRatters said:
Knock off the editing subscriptions for sure. I've spent years on LR5 and CS6. Recently I bought Affinity (it was on offer at £24) and it knocks spots off of CS6 for sure. Even for the full price, I think it's worth every penny.
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That's interesting Lee. What happens as new cameras and lenses come out, do you get updates to handle new kit or is the version you buy frozen in time? I suppose raws may not be an issue if you convert to DNG but lens profiles could be a problem.
 
I
woof woof said:
That's interesting Lee. What happens as new cameras and lenses come out, do you get updates to handle new kit or is the version you buy frozen in time? I suppose raws may not be an issue if you convert to DNG but lens profiles could be a problem.
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I have had five or six updates of Affinity Photo in the five years that I have had the program, the most recent being quite recently (a month or so ago). I currently have the most uptodate version.
 
john.margetts said:
I

I have had five or six updates of Affinity Photo in the five years that I have had the program, the most recent being quite recently (a month or so ago). I currently have the most uptodate version.
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So just to be clear, if you buy it you get camera raw and lens profile updates?

If that's the case I'll trial it but looking at their website I can't see anywhere where it mentions this.
 
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