My first paid photography gig was shooting fake ID headshots in my dorm room in first-year university. What started as a way for beer money and paying for expensive photography gear has snowballed into the lifeblood of my creative passion.
I went to university for business studies and entrepreneurship. Everything I learned about the camera came from my high school photography teacher. I was fortunate to be in the catchment of a high school growing up that had one of the best photography programs in Canada. My teacher, Anil Sharma, taught us photo students by day – and was one of the top Vancouver concert photographers at night.
Sharma taught me the meaning of “shoot what you love until someone pays you money for it.” Have a full-time job in order to keep the lights on and focus on the photoshoots you’re passionate about (and you’ll never lose that passion).
For me, it’s working in sales at a software company here in Vancouver. A flexible work schedule and working from home has made it easier than every to stack my schedule – although I spent years with a portable shoot backpack I’d bring to the office with me and head out.
Today, I work three paid client shoots per week on top of my day job with this number doubling in the summer (with more daylight to shoot). Photography as a side hustle has allowed me to afford a home purchase here in Vancouver at age 25.
I’m fortunate that the clients I’m able to work with today trust my ability. They range from independent clients for portraits, fashion, and lifestyle alongside commercial work including headshots, fashion, and product shoots for brands like Gucci, Swatch, Absolut Vodka, Budweiser, and hundreds more.
In this article, I’ll share ten tips I’ve learned on making money from photography as a side hustle over the years while maintaining a full-time job. There are mistakes I’ve made over the years and others I’ve found essential to succeeding. Keep in mind, these tips may not work for everyone: these are my truths that I’ve learned over the years – and I am still learning more every single day.
A shot from one of my first paid fashion shoots, capturing photos for a local Vancouver streetwear startup. This shot has always remained in my portfolio since 2016 and has been one of my favourites, often returning to this same spot with clients.
1. Target your audience
Targetting your audience is number one on the list because it is the lesson I had wish I learned the earliest.
I began shooting anything that paid me money because it was validating: if someone wants to pay me money to shoot photography, I must be good at it. Seven years later I began to peel back the kinds of shoots that didn’t make me happy. I didn’t wake up on a Monday excited to shoot bridal portraits that weekend. What became the highlight of my portfolio were the fashion shoots I had done with friends for free. These were the shoots that excited me and made me look forward to shooting them after work.
If you try and appeal to everyone, say creating a site that offers product photography, weddings, maternity, night club photography, etc., you have to imagine how confusing it is for one of your potential customers. My party portfolio from shooting with Rockstar Energy Drink was NOT what a bride to be is hoping to see.
Craft your audience’s experience to exactly what they want to see. One day, I took a risk and hid everything on my homepage except my lifestyle, fashion, and street photography. When you came to my website, you found my fashion work first. I began to slowly peel back the shotgun approach I had for appealing to everyone versus now specializing.
What quickly followed were that people reached out for the stuff I loved to shoot the most. I began to get noticed by brands because I put myself in a position for brands to take notice. When it comes to SEO (more in #6), specializing is what ranks your site the highest in Google search results.
In the same way you wouldn’t go to a Japanese restaurant for Mexican food, be a photographer that caters to a particular “cuisine”. Just like menus and food, there will come a time where your niche is the best fit for what someone is looking for (because not everyone eats the same cuisine every night). Most importantly, if you have a full time job, why fill your time outside of that with gigs that don’t excite you. Don’t dread your shoots after work – make them the highlight of your day and people will pick up on your passion and energy.
2. Let your clients come to you
One of the areas I credit to maintaining a busy shoot schedule in my off-time from work is only working inbound leads, not outbound. Coming from a sales world in software, there are strategies and learnings I’ve gained from my dual career paths. I’m lucky to say that I’ve never used Facebook, Instagram, or Google ads in order to get photography clients (and I have no plans to).
A standard sales rule of thumb is that it’s only worth your effort on outbound sales if your contract value is more than $10,000. This applies to the world of software (and photography too) where most of your shoots as a side hustle will be well under this. Your efforts are best spent honing in on your portfolio, messaging, web design, and “searchability”, rather than cold emailing and cold calling. Put yourself in a position to have clients come to you; however, this can be easier said than done.
Classifieds
To share the hack that I found early in my career in booking my early shoots were local online classifieds; specifically, Craigslist, Kijiji, and more. Today I’m lucky to have my site rank in popular search terms for Google – but it took my website to exist for six years in order to make that happen (time is one of the biggest elements of search engine optimization). However, online classifieds give the ability for ANYONE to make their way to the top of a search.
For the longest time here in Vancouver, searching “Vancouver Photographer” would bring up “Craigslist: Creative Services” as the third result. Mondays were the day that I had the most reachouts, so every Monday, I’d make three separate Craigslist posts: each one targetted to a particular audience (weddings, fashion/lifestyle, and corporate/commercial/headshots). This took up more of everyone’s screen and led to me receiving four to five plus inbound leads every single week.
For the majority of my early photography career, these listings were how I found more than half of my clients and major brands like Uber, JLL, AirBnb, Turo, and many more. Take advantage of all the opportunities you can to be seen by potential clients!
Recurring Shoot Providers
The way I made the most consistent money early on were working with providers that offered recurring shoots booked right into my calendar. For me, I shot for UberEats for over three years capturing food photos since they launched here in Vancouver. I also shot cars for Turo when they launched in British Columbia which they’d provide photography sessions for new listees. I’ve taken a step back from these in recent times with more private bookings coming in, but this is how I added the most to my shooting schedule.
You can find other providers like Meero, Snappr, and Bark that make finding potential clients and listing yourself easy.
Google Business Profiles
Creating a Business Profile in Google is a core way to find local clients and kick-start your way to the top of Google search results. You don’t necessarily need to use your own home address – even a general building, your day-job’s office (which may be more central), or a friend’s place even who may be renting. What this means is that anyone searching “Photographer Near Me” will be directed to Google Maps results with your name and details popping up. This is also essential for the next tip on using Google My Business for collecting reviews.
A shot with Samantha, one of my favourite early clients who found me on classifieds. Samantha and I had shot together on three shoots total. She took a chance on my early in my career and I’m still excited to share her photos in my portfolio today. For clients that trust you and build a relationship, don’t be afraid to ask for their review!
3. Always ask for reviews
Asking for reviews is a tip that I learnt in one of my early software companies I worked at. We were an app on the Shopify App Store. In order to rank on the app store, the algorithm based it on the recency of five-star reviews.
Because of this, it was engrained in us to always ask every client for reviews. I’ve applied the same to the photography world. Below is my typical messaging (linking the ability to leave a review) which I share with clients when delivering their final photos:
If you did like the shots, it would mean the world if you took a moment to leave a kind review on my Google or Yelp! pages. These reviews go a long way with visibility and help me connect with more amazing people like yourself.
Moreover, if any of your colleagues or friends are in the market for a photographer, a recommendation in the photography world is the highest compliment.
Not only asking for reviews, but asking for referrals will quickly become one of your biggest client sources. Moreover, early on in your career it does take a lot of trust for clients to take the plunge and book with you. Ask for their reviews and share their experiences with others! Even friends you’ve shot for – although not paid, they’re great advocates for the work that you do
4. Offer packaged services
Make it easy for your client to say yes and buy from you. Offering clear packages are an easy way to build trust and transparency. Treat your pitch like the menu of a restaurant.
One of the biggest questions photographers have when starting out are: what pricing should I put on my website? Putting a “Starting at” rate is an easy way for your clients to align with their budget but flexible to scale to big, custom projects. When they reach out, offer a short menu of services that may go beyond the initial starting rate to give them the ability to choose, and illustrating more expensive shoots will make the lower-end packages appear more reasonable.
In my career, I had moved towards offering Mini Sessions, Standard Sessions, and Extended Sessions. Early on, I had always tied my value to time: how much time was a client getting from me. What I quickly found was that offering a finished product, versus time, leads for the best experience for you and your client.
You may be a photographer that can capture everything in 30 minutes – but if you’ve booked yourself an hour, your client will see your hesitation. Take time out of the equation and communicate to your clients: “the reason I don’t apply a fixed time to our sessions is because I don’t want you or I to be distracted by the clock.”
Charge enough that you won’t feel like you’re short-changing yourself if you shoot 15-20 minutes longer than anticipated. Find every way to delight your client and work that into your pricing: under promise and over deliver.
The same applies for commercial work. For food photography for instance or corporate headshots, never offer your services by time. You’ll quickly find business owners may ask “oh could you squeeze in a couple more people”. By offering a finished product (the number of individuals photographed), it becomes easy and transparent to scale up your services.
The last piece on packaged services is licensing. While not always necessary when shooting with individuals, when shooting with companies, factor digital and print licensing into your rates. This can come in a packaged rate or a separate add-on. This was something that I wished I understood earlier on my photo career.
For example, I had worked with a medical company who manufactured N95 masks. I had photographed my girlfriend as the model and offered a flat rate (although in retrospect, far too small) for the print licensing. This client used the image on the product box and has shipped hundreds of thousands of units across North America.
When working with corporate clients, understand what price you’d be comfortable with if your photos became the face of their brand. Moreover, don’t be afraid to ask their budget for a project! You don’t need to be the first to quote – ask what their budget is and say you’d love to work within it. Never shortchange yourself and understand your value as a professional photographer.
5. Have a client onboarding process
When someone says “Yes” to one of your packages, what comes next? Make it easy for them to say yes and build trust so when they say “let’s get started”, they know that they’ll be in good hands going through your process. By building a consistent onboarding process, you reduce the time spent getting clients booked and prepared in your calendar and focus on delivering your shoots.
When I get new reach outs on my Contact page, I have templated emails (using Polymail) for each of the typical reach outs I get. My template (customized to each prospect) shares my three different packages along with what’s included, keep it ultra-relevant to their reach out and the shoot they’re hoping for. What comes at the end is your “call to action”: that’s the “so what?” after you’ve illustrated all your information.
For me, I invite my clients – if all looks good – to schedule a time through my calendar link (using Calendly) for a 15-minute call. By the time they reach my calendar link, they’ll know if I’m in their budget or not and I avoid unqualified call schedulings in my calendar for clients who I may be too expensive for.
I make it my mission to speak to EVERY one of my clients over the phone before shooting. Especially if shooting portraits of lifestyle, shooting is intimate. People want to know they’re well taken care of, they can trust you, and chatting over the phone (with plenty of small talk) is the easiest way to build a sense of comfortability ahead of the shoot. I’ve also found that for every client I speak with on a call, next to none of them bail on the shoot when we set a date (they embrace their obligation to follow through; if only connecting over email, it is easy for them to drop off the map). To mitigate this, always accept a 50% deposit upfront.
All of my calls run quite similarly: chatting about small talk, thanking them for their time and explaining why I like to chat over the phone (mentioning to build comfortability above all), then diving into what they’re hoping to see. I always share to my clients that I often work with those whom have never been in front of the camera in the past; so where to look, where to stand, where to put your hands: these are all things I can direct them on during the shoot.
Lastly, the piece of homework I give all clients is to share any inspiration photos they love and want to emulate: whether from friends of theirs, magazines, Instagram, Pinterest – even from my own portfolio. Any kind of visual inclination of the style and look they like goes a long way in my pre-planning and recommending outdoor locations that fit what they’re looking for best. This is perfect to have in your back pocket when heading into the shoot and quickly reviewing.
Photoshoot for the rapper Scienze in Brooklyn, NY
6. Nail down your SEO for photographers
SEO (search engine optimization) is a mysterious beast that can have substantial effects on your business. My website began ranking on the first page of Google for “Vancouver fashion photographer”, “ Vancouver lifestyle photographer”, “Vancouver headshot photographer” and just “Vancouver photographer” (at least, while writing this – these rankings always change!). From that day in January 2021 my photography business changed. I could no longer keep up with leads from classifieds ads (as mentioned above) and solely shot for those who found me on search engines or social media.
What I found were that the clients who found me through Google were the most qualified, trusted my style (and me) the most, and rarely price shopped. People finally began paying and reaching out to me for the shoots and style that I loved to shoot. These were golden leads and clients that I cherished.
There are a handful of factors that have led to these results. The most important is the length of time a website is active. My website had been active for over six years by the time it hit the first page of Google. Google recognizes that sites that have been active for a long time are trustworthy. Start building your site and SEO now so you can reap the results in the long term.
Understanding your audience and target niche will let you hone in on the keywords you need to use on your site. If you’re specializing in wedding photography, using the terms <your city name here> wedding photography wherever possible on your site increases the likelihood your site will be the discovered. You can achieve this by captioning, titling, and adding a description for EVERY photo on your website (even update the filenames!).
Google also measures the amount of time people spend on your site, how many pages they view, how long, and do they convert on buttons like a Contact page. This means that your content is everything. Have a wide mix of content, properly titled and honed in on your target audience is how you tell Google that your business is the one people should see.
This is only a light list on what you can do “on-page” for SEO. On-page SEO refers to the content and copywriting that you add to your site – versus off-page which refers to the external factors that impact your site ranking (which we’ll explore in the last paragraph). Google sees sites as valuable when other valuable sites link to it. For example, if you’re lucky to have yourself published on a client’s blog or website, if they link your website where they give credit to you or your business name, this increases your Google ranking.
You can further your on-page photography SEO by creating a blog. This was something I ignored until recently because it can be so hard to start. By starting this blog you’re reading currently, my traffic had more than doubled to my site. Creating a goal to make a post every month (getting up to eight to ten plus posts total) is a surefire way to fill your website with relevant keywords that your target clients are shooting for.
Lastly, for off-page, much of this is outside of your control. You can increase your off-page SEO and have more linking sites by sharing the blog posts you write to other sites (who will then link to you). These links and relationships take time to build, whether it is from clients of yours, other sites you might run or encounter, and more. Creating your Google My Business page as mentioned before and filling it with genuine client reviews all contributes to a positive off-page SEO optimization and site ranking.
7. Build your social presence
Next to Google, my Instagram is the second most popular stream on how clients find me. Just like your website SEO, on Instagram, content and consistency is everything.
I spent years obsessing about building my account, brand, and following, only to burn myself out and spend months away from it at a time (which I still do – social media breaks are healthy and important). Although I try to spend my free time away from social media, as far as businesses are concerned, it is too powerful to ignore.
The same rules apply for web SEO as they do for social SEO. Keywording your profile is essential – a professional tip is ensuring you’re labelling yourself as <your city name> photographer so you appear in local searches.
Ensure you’re set up as a business profile to get all the business analytics, add your location, and business type for easy searchability.
Use your Instagram profile (what I’m most experienced in) as a second portfolio. Take time planning out your posts, using apps like Unum which plan your grid in advance. Using your analytics, find the right time of day to post and know when your followers are active.
Instagram hashtag research is one of the best ways to increase your following early on and have your work discovered. You’re allowed to use 30 hashtags on Instagram, although using less hashtags (10 or 15) can be more effective. I’ve found from trial and error that less hashtags means that you’ve narrowed down to specific tag niches, but your post has more “power” on those tags when using less hashtags overall. Imagine you have 30 marbles to each put into different tags and hope they gain traction. You could imagine that if you chose 15 tags versus 30, the tags you choose would have double the marbles. Experiement and try the number that works for you – there’s no cookie-cutter formula.
Create a notes app on your phone with typical hashtag blocks you use on post (to make posting more frequent easier). This could include for street photography, fashion photography, and portrait photography. Use a combination of hashtags with a wide reach (1M+ posts), a medium reach (100K to 1M+ posts), and a small reach (<100K posts). Using an effective combination of hashtags in these three buckets will allow for the most exposure.
If you’re targeting popular tags, sometimes adding a “5k” or “10k” to them (such as #agameoftones has #agameof10k or #gramslayers has #gs10k) can narrow down your audience, are great for starting out, build traction. You can find these by viewing popular tags and seeing the hashtags that the most popular posts have chosen to use. This is how I’ve discovered my most effective hashtags. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel! Find successful posts similar to yours and narrow down the hashtag choices they used to be successful.
As a final note, if you’re using your Instagram to find clients, understand what kinds of hashtags your client may be searching. City-specific ones are always great to find potential clients, as the majority you’ll otherwise find are tailored to other photographers (who are not likely to book photography sessions). For me in Vancouver, I choose to use #vancouverphotographer and #yvrphotographer on many of my posts like a listing in a visual local photographer database.
8. Hone in on your schedule (and know your boundaries)
If choosing to shoot photos as a side hustle to your day job, understand when you can and can’t book your shoots. If you’re lucky to work from home, this eliminates the gap when going from your day job to shooting mode (and avoid needing to carry all your gear everywhere you go).
Living on the West Coast, Vancouver has a start-early-end-early culture. I’ve worked with my employer to work from around 7:00am to 3:00pm each day. Which this does not work for everyone, this enables me to have shooting hours of daylight every day of the year (even in January when it gets dark at 4:30pm here…).
I’ve learnt from experience that I function best only having one shoot a day after work. When I used to charge less in an effort to stack my calendar and book more shoots, I’d sometimes book two to three shoots every day after work. This wasn’t sustainable and I wasn’t happy. I was burnt out, and I was not giving 120% to all my shoots.
Narrowing down my calendar, making myself a hot commodity and charging more has left me happier with more free time and more revenue than I had when stacking cheap shoots. Understand the time you’re spent on and off the shoot to hone in true availability.
Most importantly, make time for eating healthy and exercising. This is something that can fall to the wayside in the busy summer season but it is so important to build a consistent routine – whether eating right or running and going to the gym. A healthy body equals a healthy mind and more creativity (and energy) for your shoots. Be wary of burnout!
9. Sell more than just your time
Time is precious and you only have so many hours in the day. Time is the one thing you can’t create more of. Treat it like a precious resource and invest your time in building automated processes so you can scale your shoot bookings and focus on delivery – not admin.
The most typical way photographers make money is by selling their time through shoots. That said, you’ll only ever make as much as the time you have in a day. Ways that you can increase abilities to drive revenue for consumer clients is to offer prints – whether selling prints from your sessions or fine art prints from your travels (like my online print store). Partnering with a local print shop will let you craft rates to offer these prints as add-ons after your session.
What I also found through my Instagram following was that most were other photographers, rather than prospective clients. Creating tools and revenue for other photographers is a driver for photographers going full time. Whether that’s creating an online course, selling presets, or offering coaching.
The last helpful tip you can pursue is selling your images as stock photography. Because of the time dedicated to properly tagging and titling every image, it has always been on my to-do list (for when time becomes available) but is a strong opportunity for passive income: revenue coming in from photography that doesn’t require you to sell your time.
Photoshoot with my former roommate and rapper Prometheus. Early on in my photography career, shooting with Prometheus and others in our crew built my portfolio early and found my first fashion clients. Prometheus’ photos are still throughout my portfolio today.
10. Find time for passion projects
The last tip on this list is to make time for your passion projects. Many of my friends who have gone down the path of shooting full time have made it a job, rather than a passion. By the time their days are done, shooting to make them happy and creating art sits low on the priority list. Never forget what got you interested in this career path in the first place.
For me, this is something I continually struggle with. I’ve set a goal that on a bi-monthly basis, I shoot with a new model completely free to try new techniques and explore concepts that I feel won’t work for a client paying me to shoot. I also go on street photography walks with other photographers. While them (and me) are not models, talking shop with other photographers who feel the same challenges (and wins) that I do is a great way to unwind.
While traveling, this has been my greatest escape capturing street photos on the move with no one to please but myself. This is when I’ve grown the most in photography and found my state of flow.
For the majority of my photo career, I’ve worked in a vacuum as a lone wolf – socializing primarily with my university friends who have not taken art and photography as a career direction. Reaching out to others in the field, building relationships, and growing your skillsets keeps you hungry and your skills sharp. If I don’t do this, I find I don’t improve and continue to face the same problems over and over again.
Creative shoots are just as important as the paid and are worth making time for. If someone isn’t ready to pay you for the type of photography you like to do (like fashion photography), go out with models and friends and shoot the photos you wish someone would pay you for. By creating your website and social media’s experience to cater to this imaginary client, you will sure find these types of clients will find you.
Conclusion
If you’ve made it this far in my ten tips, I want to thank you for trusting in me and taking the time to read! I wanted to write all these learnings here to share with the world for free because these are solutions and strategies I’ve learned over ten years of trial and error. Photography is a powerful skill and I feel everyone should take it up. Most importantly, there’s never been a better time to be a photographer.
Since the pandemic, we’re in a digital world with everyone living online, working from home, and staying connected through screens. Because of this, impactful photography has never made a bigger difference.
If one photographer can apply these tips and grow a new photography side hustle with it, then writing this was worth it. If you’ve found any of these tips helpful, I invite you to follow me on Instagram for all my future shoots and inspiration to come.
I’m just a 26-year-old photographer with a full-time job who wants to create an impact on the world and help new photographers manifest their dreams in reality. I, for sure, went through blog posts and YouTube videos like these in my early university days. It’s been a long time since then but I’ll never forget those lessons learned and the early resources that changed everything for me.
If you have any feedback on this post or any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly (whether through my contact form or Instagram). I’m creating this blog post to ultimately develop an online course for building a photography side hustle. If this is something you’d take and would want to learn more, I’d love to chat with you and I welcome you to reach out to me here.
Lastly, I just launched my YouTube channel. I welcome you to subscribe for POV photography videos with many techniques in action. Your support is more than appreciated!
