How to earn money from (non portraiture) photography

[imsorryiasked]

I'd like to "do" something with the photographs I take.

They are mostly of flora and fauna, and (I think!) are good enough to be used as wall art / gift cards / magazine illustrations.
I'm very hard on myself so am fairly confident that my standard is high.
Does anyone have suggestions for the best way to approach this?
I have no experience in getting work out there so all pointers very welcome.

I work in a gallery where we sell some cards which are produced by photographers themselves. They bring them in in batches and mark up the price so they make a bit of a profit.

They usually also have online stores for their work and Etsy stores.

It's hard to make money from this kind of thing I won't lie...these photographers also sell larger prints framed or unframed.

We stock a lot of cards and its the illustrative ones which are most popular. Photography on cards isn't as appealing.

I suggest you join some Facebook groups where you can learn about more platforms and gain tips about copyright etc.

The ones which go the best are of local scenes...so atmospheric images of well-known beauty spots in our area. These sell well at Christmas if taken with seasonal flora in the scene too.

You can upload your photos to photo stock libraries and then you get a small royalty when they are used

The problem with that Snog is that the "royalty" is laughable....and sites like Unsplash.com have snagged the market and offer the photos for free.

So the photographers are basically donating them just in the hope that a user will share their name and give them exposure.

Thanks for your comments. I did wonder about the stock image websites - has anyone got positive feedback on these or is it just a waste of time.
Re the greetings cards, it was something I'd looked into, but the outlay was quite high on not very much return.
Does anyone seem to magazines, or do they all use "staff" photographers / stock imagery?

Again OP, your best bet for up to the minute info would be to join one of the many facebook groups for pro photographers.

Like this one

www.facebook.com/groups/756050227827117/

And Reddit will have a sub which is dedicated to the subject too.

www.facebook.com/professionalphotographersclub/

This group seems good too.

Thanks Henny will have a look at those tonight.

I have done this OP and it was disheartening. Very much a hobby rather than any meaningful income. I have a (fairly) 'succesful' 10k+ Instagram photography page and regularly am contacted by brands, magazines and newspapers etc asking if they can use 'x' image in an article/issue/brochure for free. I said yes a number of times in the past thinking it would be good 'exposure' and have seen my photos in various magazines, online articles, on national trust brochures, a P&O ferry poster, and so on. For a bit of fun it's fine but just not profitable. I would make more money doing sponsored content to be honest but I don't do any. It's just for fun/a hobby.

So many people are willing to do this however that there is very little need for most companies to pay for an image or a stock image, why would they! With camera phone quality what it is and camera equipment being so affordable now, high quality amateur photography is a saturated market IMO. These companies are very active on social media and have staff on the look out for images they can use for free via this method, I get several weekly. If you agree they will send you a consent form re: right to use an image, then usually ask you to send them it in high res.

Stock image websites pay virtually nothing either and like you, I looked into the greeting card/print concept at the time but production costs are high so again it isn't ever going to be a big money maker. I would say I made a few hundred pounds in 6 months but it wasn't worth the hours put in. Photography greetings cards are far less popular than illustrative ones and you'd need to spend a lot of time canvassing local businesses to stock them too. I'd firmly agree with the advice given that when it does sell it is more likely to be iconic local imagery or landmark based, rather than flora/fauna, unfortunately.

I think you'll also find a lot of gardens/tourist locations use a combo of in house and the social media to procure their imagery. I have twice been approached about an in house role, one was voluntary, the other very part time (8 hours a week) and included sole use and right of photos taken on the premises.

It's really tough! Definitely check out Facebook groups for the up to date info though. Would love to see your pictures!

Thanks don'tgo, looks like it will have to be just for fun.