Wildlife

david1701

david1701

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David
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I keep seeing some outstanding wildlife stuff and I'm intrigued to have a play

Not looking to sit in a hide all day to shoot birds

tbh most of the shots I like are of big animals (horses and up kinda scale) lots of funky shots from warmer or cooler climes

How would you get going with this kinda thing?

I'd like to make some ****ing money and spend a while each year travelling/on personal work so long long term these will likely be shot abroad :D
 
david1701 said:
I'd like to make some ****ing money and spend a while each year travelling/on personal work so long long term these will likely be shot abroad :D
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Join the queue :LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
david1701 said:
I keep seeing some outstanding wildlife stuff and I'm intrigued to have a play

Not looking to sit in a hide all day to shoot birds

tbh most of the shots I like are of big animals (horses and up kinda scale) lots of funky shots from warmer or cooler climes

How would you get going with this kinda thing?

I'd like to make some ****ing money and spend a while each year travelling/on personal work so long long term these will likely be shot abroad :D
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Not sure if this is a serious question or not David :shrug: Imo for starters if you have to result in stating you need to make some ****ing money then you must be in a desperate situation :shrug: If you aint got the patience to sit in a hide all day to get an award winning shot, then perhaps slip on yer wellies and nip down to a farm for a day :D
 
If your not wanting to sit in a hide all day then really you should be looking at other things to photograph. You may well get lucky and get a great shot by chance or by stalking but sitting in hides is a big part of any wildlife photographers routine. Its a very difficult market to break through into and you should ask yourself what you can offer that differes from everyone else.
 
u8myufo said:
Not sure if this is a serious question or not David :shrug: Imo for starters if you have to result in stating you need to make some ****ing money then you must be in a desperate situation :shrug: If you aint got the patience to sit in a hide all day to get an award winning shot, then perhaps slip on yer wellies and nip down to a farm for a day :D
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the money is to be made to pay for (hopefully) a long trip a year in which I do a lot of shooting and recharge my batteries a little. And I need to make it as a few weeks not working is an awfully long time.

I hadn't intended any slander on you guys at all, but I don't really like the style of a lot of the wildlife I see, it seems to me to have more documentary evidence than art to it :s
 
Making money to pay for trips is challenging. I now have 2 cost neutral trips to Norway a year but its taken a lot of work and effort. The places where "big" stuff is are expensive and so you need to earn quite a lot. Things to consider are primarily income streams:

1. Stock - typically the "documentary" style you dismiss above to illustrate features, articles etc. Tough to monetise and long pay back
2. Fine art - framed prints to sell to individuals and companies - success down purely to your ability to interpret and sell to a selective market
3. Workshops and tours - take other photographers on trips. Not a rest but hard work. Need to be able to sell trips so reputation and strong images to sell the trips help (i.e. you need to have been before) and you need to have the right character to lead trips (including not getting drunk every night!)
 
I wasn't being clear, the trips are to be my personal chill out, sure I'll shoot some stuff to sell but it won't be the aim of the game at all

and getting drunk every night - now that is slander :p
 
Then you need to work out a route to market for the images. I've given you the two main options and I've never seen anything posted by you that would suit that market for nature stuff. If it was as easy as you want it to be, wouldn't there be loads of people on here getting free holidays?
 
I don't want a free holiday seriously.

I'll upload what I've shot to stock probably which just kinda pootles along but the aim of the game is to chillout, get my head right for the work when I come back and have some awesome images to blog
 
If you want arty shots, have a look at Vincent Munier's work; he takes some arty shots.
 
how would you get going with this kind of thing?

i would say get to your nearest deer park and get some practice in shooting those big kinds of animals. make sure you know what works with the light and what doesn't. it doesn't seem like you've done much wildlife photography before so make sure you know what you're doing before you head out abroad! :)
 
sparkoss I don't think david 1701 intends to "head out abroad" to take wildlife pictures or head groups. He wants to "chill out for a while" and "spend a while each year travelling" in short as, grumpybadger says, he wants someone to pay him enough to go on holiday!
I.E., to nip out, (not spend all day in a hide), grab a few snaps and flog them ASAP for hundreds of pounds to pay for his trip!

David 1701 with the greatest respect mate, your inexperience and lack of knowledge in this field is blindingly obvious and admitted in your post with your remark, "intrigued to have a play".
If you are serious about earning money from wildlife photography, (or any photography) you can't "have a play" and expect the cheques to come in. Certainly in the volume you will need to idle away a few months abroad.

Since digital photography came there has been a glut of wedding, portrait and wildlife photographers. The wedding and portrait guys are working for less than in the 80's and I bet only making the minimum wage, with most having a day job and everyone undercutting each other to the bone.
The experienced wildlife photographers out there who never actually wrote a book, flogged a "training day" or endorsed a product, but none the less made a good living, I suspect are also having a lean time. As now some are happy to give their work away just to see it in print.
My advice would be to wake up and smell the coffee! Do some research - not on the wildlife but on the market! If you can manage to find a niche (and there aren't many left!) then you may be in with a chnace. But that's only if you have the images to sell NOW. It's no good thinking you have a niche then taking two years to practice and get to the standard the buyer expects.
 
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